What would you do? (Dealership service issue with leafspring recall)

So I got the recall done on my rear leaf springs, When they did the alignment, they called me and said they could not get it within spec because of my aftermarket suspension. I have a 6'' procomp lift and bought the light racing UCAs that were supposed to make alignment possible.
I explained they should be able to adjust the upper control arms and get it within spec, and he told me they did everything they could, and that they even did something with the steering box or rack and pinion to get some extra adjustment.

The day after I got my truck I took a ~600 mile round trip drive and power steering fluid was leaking all over.

Took truck back in and they say that it was "not related to the repairs"

There was 0 leaking issues before, they give my truck back and its leaking, but they won't fix it. I'm just not sure how I can prove it was them that caused the leak? It is the pinion seal on the steering rack that is leaking.

What would they have tried messing with to get the extra adjustment?

 

I would call them and ask what they tried to do with the rack to get the extra adjustments. All I can think of is they might loosen the bolts and try to slide it to one side or the other. I wouldn't think that they would do anything that would cause that seal to leak. It is kind of suspicious that that would happen right after they worked on it though. Working for a dealership as and advisor I do see stuff like this happen all the time..

 

I wouldnt want to fix it for the sake of argument just to have more components fail. Get it repaired by a good mechanic and find out what the culprit is. Then I would go back to the dealer with info in hand and demand compensation.

 

just curious....did you request the alignment? b/c its not something typically done with a leaf spring recall.

 

Yes I requested the alignment because it is part of the recall, directly from the technical instructions for the recall.

I have never worked on a rack and pinion before, but my thought is that they messed the seal up when "trying to get extra adjustment" Obviously the tech was having a hard time, and Im sure was frustrated, I can just imagine him being rough with it and trying to force something that shouldn't have been. And now it looks like I will have to pay the price for his mistake, hence why I HATE letting others work on my cars / trucks / motorcycles.

 

Ask the dealership to send you something in writing stating exactly what the tech did when he adjusted steering box and pinion. Then do some research to see if any of those adjustments can cause the seal to leak.

 

Just an FYI... the alignment is adjusted on the lower control arms.. There are two adjustment cams. A 6" lift might be too much to get the alignment readings to the stock settings. The upper control arms just fix geometry.

 

What were the specs that they were trying to adjust to? With a lift, your caster shouldn't be within stock specs. From my experience, most techs don't know how to adjust the LR UCA's or the eccentric bolts on our trucks for that matter.

 

I had brought in a sheet with instructions for the upper control arm adjustment, as well as a bunch of numbers that others were running with their 6'' lift.

Also correct about the caster, from all the research I did right around 3 on caster was about good for the 6'' lift.