18 August 08 - 19:35
Fixed!
Our RV's power steering is fixed. It's been quite the adventure getting to this point. For those of you who have not been following this saga, here's the whole story.On July 8th we took our RV into Dodge Town in Rapid City, South Dakota, with a whining engine. They said the right inner tie rod was leaking so we need a steering gear. The told us the part is on back order and they didn't want to order it for us since they thought we would want to leave town before it arrived and they didn't want to pay a restocking fee if we didn't wait. They filled up our power steering fluid and sent us on our way.
Next we went to Peterson's Stampede in Nampa, Idaho, on July 22nd. This is close to Dave's brothers so we thought we could have Peterson's order the part and we would go to a family reunion while waiting for the part to arrive then return for the actual repair. They said the right side tie rod was seeping but not leaking and Chrysler requires them to take a picture of the puddle before they will authorize the repair so they couldn't do the work. So they sent us off to drive the mountains of Idaho and Montana not knowing when our power steering would give out.
Next we went to Minot Chrysler in Minot, North Dakota, on August 8th. They said the power steering fluid is low, the inner tie rod boots are wet, the outer rack seals are leaking, and the power steering rack needs to be replaced but is on back order. They added fluid and offered to order the part--from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since we have friends and family in Minneapolis, we decided we'd rather wait there. So Minot's parts guy, Randy, called the parts guy, Roger, at Dodge of Burnsville and got him to agree to order the part.
So, when we were getting close enough to Minneapolis to be sure when we would be there, we called and made an appointment for this repair to be done. We scheduled it for Friday Morning, August 15th. They said it would take 4-5 hours and recommended we not wait there while they did the repair. So, we rented a car for the weekend and moved into a motel. We dropped off the RV late Thursday afternoon so I wouldn't have to get up early enough to deliver it before our repair appointment on Friday morning.
Friday afternoon we were trying to decide how to pick up the RV way south of Minneapolis in Burnsville, take it to the motel northwest of town in Maple Grove then make it to an operating session way north east of town in Scandia. Finally we decided not to try. We could pick up the RV Saturday morning, instead.
[!-- error: could not popup mpls_area.jpg. File does not exist --]Good thing we didn't try. We were in Forest Lake, nearly to Scandia, when they called us to say our RV should be ready Saturday morning between 10 and 10:30.
Saturday morning we were trying to decide how to pick up the RV in Burnsville on our way to an operating session even further south in Lakeville without having to take both vehicles to Lakeville. We couldn't pick up the RV on the way back because the dealer closed at noon on Saturday. Finally we decide that wouldn't work well either so we should just wait until Monday to pick up the RV just before the rental car was due to be returned.
So, today we drove to Burnsville and picked up the RV. The receipt says they replaced the power steering gear and the line, refilled the power steering fluid, and, while they had it did a 16 point check which led them to fill the windshield washer fluid. This would have cost $2635.42 in parts, not including labor, if it hadn't all been warranty work. Instead it just cost us miles and hours of aggravation. But, it is fixed now so we can, once more, be comfortable driving our RV.
TTYL,
Linda
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