berkeley Me

First my Jeep pops a break line, now my Durango pops its radiator. Luckily it didn't overheat.

The worst part of it all is that my FIL and BIL have it and it's in downtown Chicago and I'm 40 miles south.

berkeley.

Man you have got to stop running over all those puppies. Karma's a bitch ya know.

Hopefully thing get better soon.

They come in threes.

Good luck!

Look at it this way... All of these repairs aren't like having a motor or trans lockup at speed.....

Aren't those both Chrysler products?

...how would you like it?

Dr. Hess wrote: Aren't those both Chrysler products?

Hey now... actually, despite my love of "new dodge" era cars, I don't have much to retort with.

Now if we want to bust on another brand I like, I have had fords blow out brake lines on me 4 times in 2 years.

Dr. Hess wrote: Aren't those both Chrysler products?

No, they're Kaiser and Dodge Brothers products.

The brake line is due to rust and the radiator is not a typical Dodge Truck issue.

Just think of it as a "cooling system fuseable link" and it dont seem so bad.

if you pop on line bite the bullett do the whole rig at one time its cheaper in the long run. and safer too

Just got a call from the shop. Looks like the Durango blew a head gasket. The cost to repair is going to be $1300+ and that's without machine shop charges for getting the heads tested.

My FIL said he'd pay for it and I know he's tight on money. I have yet to tell him and I can only imagine what he'll say.

Argh

4.7 Durango?

5.9L

Those heads like to crack between the seats. But it would be nice to know why they think it's a HG first.

There was no coolant when they pulled it in this morning. They filled it up and said they did a pressure test on the coolant system and they found no external leaks. Then they "Pressure Tested the heads" which makes me think they ran a compression test, and they said it failed. So they are assuming a head gasket until the heads are removed.

Knowing my luck it will be a berkeleyed up and will cost a fortune.

I'm not doubting them, but it smells fishy.

A leak down test would show a combustion chamber coolant leak. Head gasket or cracked head is the question.

Well my FIL isn't happy about the quote, but he has used this shop for years and he trusts them. He's got a lot on his plate right now and I understand that, but he got testy with me on the phone when I was trying to explain to him what the shop told me. If he flies off the handle on me again, I'm going to tell him that he can deal with the shop and to let me know when it's fixed and paid for so I can pick it up.

What the hell does pressure testing the heads mean?

I would call back and find out. If they did a leakdown test or just hooked air to a cylinder and saw bubbles in the cooling system, or had the cooling system pressure tester hooked up and saw pressure, then sure, they're probably right.

But since pressure testing the heads is not really something you can do on the car, i would question them enough to make sure theyve done ANYTHING and not just made something up.

If you got a full cooling system, cap off, and you start the engine and it blows coolant out the radiator right away, you got major head seal problems.

If you hook a coolant system pressure tester up to a cold motor, start it, and see pressure build up before the motor even gets warm, head seal problems.

If you pressurize a cylinder with a compression tester hose or leakdown tester and get bubbles or pressure in the cooling system, head seal.

If you use a chemical tester on the rad neck and the fluid changes colors, head seal.

If they didnt do any of those things or a combination of those things, they are probably lying. Dont feed them any hints, just ask them to clarify what they did to diagnose it..

Got a call from the shop, they got a call from the machine shop and both the heads are cracked.

They said they could do junkyard heads, but they would have to send those off to the machine shop too and it may be the same result.

So they are going to call me with a new quote this afternoon with the cost of new heads.

Since my FIL is paying for this, he asked me if I think that its worth paying the money to fix it or try to buy a "new" vehicle. He said if we get another year or two out of it, it will be worth it. Honestly I'm not sure and I don't know what to tell him.