First visit to the dealer service dept......

For all of you naysayers (Doc), I noticed the "B" service icon light up in the instrument cluster this week. So, having Good Friday off I called my dealer's service department at about 9:00AM this morning and asked them if they could take care of the "B" service and do a coolant flush today. Because they know me, they said "no problem" bring the car in about 12:30. I picked up 9 quarts of Mobil 1 0W-40 and a Fram Extended Life filter only because they are a small dealer and I wasn't certain they'd have this basically euro-spec oil in stock.

I showed up at 12:30 and as I got out of the car, a tech jumped in and drove it right into a service bay. I told the service manager what the car needed and that I brought my own oil & filter. He said they do have the 0W-40 & filter but they would use my oil & filter, no problem. I spent a few minutes talking about the SRT-6 and other SRT cars as well as some older Mopar muscle cars with a few of the guys there. One guy has an old 440 Cuda. Then I wandered off to the Italian restaurant next door for lunch.

The damage / raking over the coals? $25.74 for the oil change and $119.00 for the cooling system flush and fill for a total of $153.42 including $8.68 tax. Combine 9 quarts of oil for $75 plus $12 for the filter and the maintenance was about $240 altogether. Not bad.

The service manager said their charge for an oil change with their 0W-40 on the SRT-6 is $99. So, virtually the same as buying my own oil. In the future, I'll just use their oil and filter.

I talked through the coolant change and they did in fact drain both the radiator and the "charge cooler". They told me that although the original factory fill was blue colored, the current Chrysler HOAT coolant is Reddish which is consistent with my research.

I was on my way by 2:30, about two hours. The car was delivered back to me spotless inside and out including under the hood. Somehow, I'm not feeling screwed. I'm sticking with my dealer.