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%$&?%#% Parts Twits!

Eagle

Lifetime NAXJA Member
NAXJA Member
Location
Terra Firma
No, not the guys at the dealership. My dealership is blessed to have good parts guys who know their stuff and who work with the customers. It's the idiots at DaimlerChrysler who deserve this rant.

Got an MJ on which the original fasteners for the axle and of the track bar were missing when I bought it. I've been running it with a standard nut on the back, but the nut is difficult to get a wrench on. When the parts crew looked up the bolt for me, the book (computer) says it is no longer available, and it cross-references to the same torx-head bolt used for the upper control arms.

So that's what I'm using, but the torx head is a nuisance and the nut is worse. I happened to look under the 2000 the other day and saw that it has a tab hanging down, just like the 88 should have. Hmmm. Quick call to the shop, have them look up the 2000, and sure enough ... the computer lists the nut plate and bolt. Different part numbers than for 88, but available. I ordered them and just picked them up. The bolt is different ... has a conventional head and separate washer as opposed to the flange head style on the 88, but the nut plate appears to be identical.

So why does the computer tell us that for the older models we should use parts clearly NOT designed for that application, when they are still selling parts that ARE designed for that application?

Arrrggghhh!

If anyone else needs these parts for an older XJ, if it comes back as unavailable or the same as the control arm bolt, have your dealer look up the nut plate and bolt for a 2000 and order those.
 
I often have to do that at the parts store. I'll ask for a trackbar bushing for a 2001 XJ and they say it's not available, so I ask for one for a '99 and it comes right up. Same damn bushing. It doesn't make any sense to me either, but you learn to adapt.

Ary
 
Had that problem with my Lebaron, but to make matters worse, there were about half dozen platforms with the Lebaron name. Napa was the worst offender of the bunch, I started telling the counter workers to look it up under Lancer ES shortly after that happened the first time. The one I love is when Dad has gone to Napa to get replacement exhaust parts for Mom's van and is told that the single in/out muffler, y pipe, and twin tailpipes was never offered, yet both the '78 AND '87 Beauville's we've owned had them from the factory and we were able to get them from the dealer we bought the '87 at and still can get them at CarQuest!
 
I´ve had the wrong part (in certain instances) come up (on the computer or micro fitch) for years, think you guys have it bad, try telling a German his book (computer/micro fitch) is wrong. Darned part didn´t fit the first time I ordered it, nor the second, nor the third, how about we check the number. Well show me your PHD in Jeep and we will try and look at it. Sorry don´t have a PHD in Jeep, OK here is your wrong part for the fourth time. I´ve got three air filters, that fit no known vehicle in the universe, front brake pads that require a little grinder work, everytime I order, at least three brake spring sets that arn´t even close. The beech is, the drive to the dealer costs more than the parts are worth and when you get there, the guy tells you, they are the right parts, because the book says so. :twak:
German customer relations are often on a par with the French, in some ways worse. Daimler is still probably in transition, assimilating Jeep. Parts are probably gonna be hard to find and expensive. Artificial scarcity and monopoly are the German way. They don´t beleive in volumn sales, they beleive in milking the most from each sale. The customer wants it, we have it, make him pay through the nose and treat him bad. Next time he will give the Jeep up to the service department and we can make more money.
 
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