New Serpintine Belt

I had some work done on the XJ at the dealer and had them install a new belt... well, at idle, I started hearing and feeling, through the steering wheel, a slight thumping. So, I opened the hood and while its running, the belt appears to have a flat spot on one side.

This flat spot is noticable looking from the top down toward the front edge... and it slightly moves side to side on the pulleys.

Its a Mopar belt.... is this normal or could it be a defective belt?

I wouldn't want this to introduce premature wear on the various pulley bearings.

Thanks

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what year XJ?
your instincts are good
take it back to the Dealer and pray they don't f-up your Jeep

1991 ...... the dealer I use normally does a pretty good job. I didn't feel this slight thump and faint sound before I took it in for a water pump. I'm kinda anal about this stuff, I can see how it could potentially cause some stress on the pulleys.

This is my third belt. The first two were fine. Mopar probably sourcing cheap components from China now....

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bchulett said:

1991 ...... the dealer I use normally does a pretty good job. I didn't feel this slight thump and faint sound before I took it in for a water pump. I'm kinda anal about this stuff, I can see how it could potentially cause some stress on the pulleys.

This is my third belt. The first two were fine. Mopar probably sourcing cheap components from China now....

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Click to expand...

Mine was at the Dealer for a WP too. Turned out to be the thermostat housing leaking. They told me they don't sell Mopar pumps anymore...everythings aftermarket even at the Dealer. Did they sell you an OEM pump?

sbxj said:

Mine was at the Dealer for a WP too. Turned out to be the thermostat housing leaking. They told me they don't sell Mopar pumps anymore...everythings aftermarket even at the Dealer. Did they sell you an OEM pump?

Click to expand...

I believe so.. it wasn't rebuilt, I told them to install a new pump. The belt has Mopar on it.

FP Number - Description
V9900083 - Pump Water 7042001
53010269 - Belt 6pk 2475 MM

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Well... this is long, but I'm here to report I finally got my XJ back to normal after a huge ordeal.

So I take it back to the dealer few Saturday's ago and tell the serv advisor its making noise. He runs it back to the serv tech. I'm sitting there in the lobby with two other customers waiting for their vehicles and the advisor walks over, sits down and starts to explain the tech can't hear anything. I tried to be patient, but I got pissed because I knew I would get push back.

I unloaded on this guy and explained I don't enjoy driving 20 miles and wasting half my day for nothing... the belt is defective and if they don't change it, I'm going to take it somewhere else and bill you for it. He immediately got up and went back to the service bays.

The customer sitting adjacent to me says "that was a nice conversation, what do you do for a living." Not sure exactly what he meant, I gave him the reasons I get impatient with this sort of stuff.

Ten minutes later the serv tech comes over and wants me to follow him back to the serv bay. As we are walking, he said... "the last thing I want to do is get into a pissing contest with a customer." He said there's nothing wrong with the belt and then tries to tell me about Mopar parts inspection processes. Then he proceeds to explain he's been working on Jeeps for 20 years and has all these certifications and is very meticulous. Then shows me a picture of the timing chain cover and points to part that typically goes bad on XJs.

So I engage this guy and asked how this noise started after installing the pump and the belt... I showed him the defective area on the belt and he wanted to argue the point with his 20 year experience mumbo jumbo. I finally said okay I'll drive it and see what happens.

The belt noise was random, but definitely still there ... one day I came home from work, the XJ had been sitting there a few days and I noticed a puddle of coolant under the jeep. So I peeked under the hood and found it leaking from the radiator fill tube area and down the hose near the transmission lines. I look at the radiator hose and trans lines and the sleeve around the hose that protects it from the trans lines wasn't in the proper place... the trans lines in full contact with the hose....

So much for the serv tech's meticulous workmanship...

I called the serv advisor and told him the situation was going to get worse and asked him for the RO disposition from the Saturday visit... he said I'll print it out and mail it in the morning... well, he never followed through so I contacted American Express and billed them back the total amount for the piss poor job.

I also left a message with the service manager... in the meantime calling the parts department and finding out they installed a remanufactured water pump without my authorization. There are new ones in stock that cost about $100 more than remans... but need to be ordered back east.

The action taken with American Express completely turned things around... after the bill back charges hit, all shit broke loose from the corporate office.

The service manager called and after a brief discussion he said to bring it in so he can look at it. He also commented about AMEX bill back and said something about lawyers... I ignored his comment since I'm not scared of lawyers and their $250 per hour fees. It's a cost benefit sort of thing...

Anyway, after all was said and done the belt was the problem.. they installed a new one and it runs quiet again. The serv advisor and serv tech with the 20 years experience could have stayed out of hot water if they had swallowed their pride with the attempt to cover up a customer return so it wouldn’t show on their record – hence the missing RO that wasn’t generated and the fact they didn’t get authorization to install a remanufactured water pump.

As a result, the service manager is giving me a lifetime warranty on the remanufactured pump…

The dealer is the best one around, I've been doing business with them almost 20 years and I want to maintain good relations... however, I won't tolerate this dishonest behavior on my dime. I've bought two SRTs over the past 18 months and expect transparency and top notch service.

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"squeaky wheel gets the grease" type of thing right there. im glad you stood up for yourself in that manner. so many wont. i had to do something similar a few yaers back with a 502 crate engine for my gmc truck. it had a bad knock. long story somewhat shorter. it sat at the dealer 2 weeks. i finally got corporate involved. i had 3 guys i suits laying under my truck in the parking lot as they started it to hear the knock. i gave each one a stethescope and they all agreead it was coming from inside the block. i had a new engine on order within minutes. glad it all worked out for you in the end, but sorry you had to deal with the poor customer service from the service tech. they need to remember they are low man on the totum pole when it comes to this type of thing.

I love american express. I had a big problem with Uhaul a while back claiming that I drove the truck about 10x the miles that I actually had. I'm not the arguing type or the one to make a scene, I calmly paid with my Amex after a lengthy conversation and their promise to make things right. I had a few phone calls back and forth for a week with the Uhaul people and then no results.

I called amex and explained things, suddenly first thing the next day I get a call from corp. Uhaul and everything is fixed. Amex wants my business and will fight to earn it and I'm happy to give it to them now.

/off topic, I am glad it all worked out though sounds like it was a mess.

iwannadie said:

I love american express. I had a big problem with Uhaul a while back claiming that I drove the truck about 10x the miles that I actually had. I'm not the arguing type or the one to make a scene, I calmly paid with my Amex after a lengthy conversation and their promise to make things right. I had a few phone calls back and forth for a week with the Uhaul people and then no results.

I called amex and explained things, suddenly first thing the next day I get a call from corp. Uhaul and everything is fixed. Amex wants my business and will fight to earn it and I'm happy to give it to them now.

/off topic, I am glad it all worked out though sounds like it was a mess.

Click to expand...

Yep ... this was the second time in 12 months I had to use AMEX as leverage against an auto dealer's mishandling of issues...

The time before this one was a Chevrolet dealer body shop that threw away a $300 part after I told the manager I wanted them to give me back this certain item. I was replacing the upper rear valance with a new one due to oxidation. He never told the techs to keep it and they either threw it away or it made its way to ebay... he screwed up, lied about it and then in an attempt to cover it up, when I came back to get it he had his employees throw a similar item in the back of my 2002 3500 Express Van.

When I got home I compared it to the one they installed and it was a completely different upper valance from another van.

I was so pissed I called the manager and confronted him... he confessed to the screw up and lying to me about it. Then he was bold enough to try and play games with me with the other parts I had on order through the body shop. So I called AMEX and kicked him in the balls with my charge back for the new part they installed...

I went straight to the parts department and intercepted the other items that were still on order. When the parts came in, the parts manager gave me a healthy discount to make up for this incompetent body shop manager blaming the parts department for everything due to his poor communication and organization skills.

I had the same issue with this new service advisor at my Jeep dealer. Right in front of his boss he blamed the parts department for ordering a remanufactured water pump when it was clearly his responsibility to communicate what I wanted...

The service manager was speechless when I drilled his employee and held him accountable for his actions or lack thereof....

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