Repair shop owner's

I took my wife's van in the otherday to get the alignment checked. In doing that they found a ba tie rod. They called me and I told them to fix it. Everything was fine there. I went to pick it up, paid, and left as I was driving away I noticed a shudder in the steering when turning. So I took it back and told them, they looked at it and ended up keeping it overnight. I went back yesterday afternoon and they were just finshing it up. Turned out there was a recall on the powersteering cooler back in 2002. They did the necessary repairs and that fixed it. I expected to not have to pay anything since it was a recall. However he said I will have to pay a little although he had not figured it up yet. (It was after closing time when they got it done.) He told me that Chrysler was not paying for this recall work because it was so old. I didn't think much of it at the time, as I was in a hurry) but got to wondering last night if they can even get reimbursed, since they are not a dealer. I bought the van in 2007 so I did not know about the recall. Is it right that they can't get reimbursed? If so should they have told me to take it to a dealer for the repair. It won't be a huge amount of money for the repair, but it is the principle of the thing. Just looking for some thoughts

That was my thought also, but according to him it was fine when he test drove it. Also when the shop owner came in the next morning he drove it and for the first 5-10 minutes it was fine then it started to act up. So if they are telling the truth it jives with what I experienced the night before.

I don't know if it matters but it's a Town and Country not a Caravan. And I have a copy of the service bulletin explaining the exact thing that was happening.

They talked to there tech support who found this service bulletin. And he said that replacing should have had no effect on this problem. Just coincidence. At least that's what they say.

It required replacing the outflow hose from the cooler,which was about 6 inches long, with one that is 14 -18 inches long. It did fix the problem. I just don't know if it is worth causing a big stink over. I only go to this shop for alignment as there are few places in town that do alignment.

I'm probably not going to make a fuss as long as it isn't too much. Just don't like that they didn't ask me first if I could have gotten it done for free at a dealership.