bad repair shop or dealer?

[ronj75]

Hey everyone. I'm the semi-proud owner of a second hand 2002 liberty.
Bought from a jeep dealership just 3months ago.
When we bought this jeep the dealer showed us the carfax report showing the original owner was pretty **** about regular maintenance on the thing.
The vehicle ran fine for about 7weeks when suddenly the engine light came on. immediately i took it into a local shop that was very highly rated and referred by coworkers of mine.
They said that there was a rust spot on the transmission pan and was very obvious that it was like that when the dealer sold us the vehicle.
I told the shop to fix it as we got the vehicle with no warranty due to the mileage and they said it was a "SIMPLE" job.. 360 bucks later *transmission pan/flush/filters*. they say "oh umm its not working.. we dont do transmission repairs and the pump isnt running.. we tried to prime it but it wont work you have to take it down the street"
Now yes i am pretty pissed that they even offered to do the pan and filters seeing as they "Dont do transmission work".. so i took it to a transmission specialty shop. apparently the transmission was RAN with the pump blown and caused damage inside the transmission.. the trans shop refused to write anything down that the other shop damaged it so i was out the 360. another 3grand later for a FULL transmission rebuild and all is well..
that is untill a week later my oil light comes on. WTF??
i take it BACK to the transmission shop and they tell me "your sensor is bad and you have a small oil leak on the oil pan" ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG
i just brought it home without being repaired because they wanted another 700 to replace the pan.
Figuring its just an oil pan *seriousely its on the bottom of the engine how difficult could it be to swap a PAN!"??
untill i look at the dealer repair manual and HOLY CRAP!! why is it you have to pull the engine and half the differential to replace a freaking pan??
now i seriousely dont have the money to spend 700 on a repair is there ANYTHING i can do to fix this myself without pulling the engine?
i love the jeep and everything but this whole thing has started to realy sour me on owning another one after this.

 

[tjkj2002]

Yeah sadly you either have to pull the engine or drop the cradle while supporting the engine from above.Not a easy job by any means if you do not have the right tools.I did a 4.7 V8 oil pan gasket in a WK a few weeks ago,opted to support the engine and drop the cradle.With the correct tools(transverse engine support,$250) and a lift made it a easy job but still took over 4 hours.


Oh and higher mileage vehicles,regardles of make or model will have issues just due to being older in which seals and gaskets just wearout and nothing you can do but replace them.

 

[J-Thompson]

change the sensor so the low oil light goes off
look and see just how bad it is leaking
if it is not leaving more then a quarter size drop I would not worry

 

[moparman]

The shop DID have the opportunity to replace the pan when it was out for rebuild. A guy I knew years ago used to always install a pan with a drain plug at rebuild time but that was before there was 100 different types of transmissions.

I wonder if another unit was swapped in your Jeep at rebuild time?