UPDATE I went and picked up my car today. I brought my friend who is a mechanic along with me and had him research the all data on the transmission, etc. He basically did the talking and caught the mechanic who worked on my car. He asked the mech, which parts he replaced and if the transmission had welded itself to the motor, how did he get it off. He also asked to see the drive shaft. The mechanic then changed his story and said it was the counter shaft that got melted and he had to replace that. We asked him to see the old part and he said he threw it away already and my friend started talking to him about how it couldn't have been the counter shaft, etc. So the mechanic again, changes his story and says that it was the clutch that melted. By this time, he knew my friend was catching him and he proceeded to cuss myself and my friend out, name calling and everything. He even was trying to threaten to put a lien on my car and take it and I threatened to call the cops. After this he stormed out of the office back into the shop. I ended up biting the bullet and paying the rediculous price. The only part they had left, was the clutch. After examining the clutch I noticed it did get hot and has a lot of heat spots, but NO indication of melting or anything whatsoever. I will post pictures later.

Hi, so I have reason to believe a shop I had my car towed to is trying to scam me. I normally take my car out to a reputable Evo shop in the bay area, but since my car could not drive (clutch is done) I had it towed to a shop I found on craigslist.

Now for my reasons to believe I am being scammed. I will put the reasons that make me suspicious in bold, so it will be easier to notice. I was originally quoted $450 for labor.

After having my car towed there on friday, the next day I get a call from one of the mechanics, who I believe is the owner telling me to come in. I come over to the shop and he tells me that the transmission got so hot from the clutch slipping, that it pretty much welded itself to the motor. He says the only way, that he can get it off is if he takes the transmission apart, while it is still on the car. He also tells me I will need a new transmission and the cheapest one he can find is $2000. I tell him ok and to let me think about it and I will let him know on Monday. So over the weekend I managed to find someone selling a transmission on craigslist and tell them to meet me at the shop on Monday.

On Monday, I arrived at the shop before the person on craigslist and I look at my car and the transmission is off and all in one piece below the lift. I briefly look at the input/output shaft and don't notice anything standing out to indicate it is bad. But then again, I am not a mechanic (I just read these forums every chance I get). As I am waiting talking to the mechanic I tell him about the transmission I have on the way and he tells me, that the new transmission I am buying off the CL person won't work, unless they provide the transfer case as well, because the gears are different. I tell him that's not true and he even tries to call over another mechanic and asks him if it's true, to which the other mechanic replies, "I don't know." And he even tries to get smart and says "if you know so much, why don't you do it?" And I tell him it will work and just to put it on anyway.

The CL person finally arrives and as I am looking at their transmission, the mechanic calls me over and tells me to not buy the persons transmission and to let him open up my transmission and that it probably just needs new bearings. I asked him how much that would all cost and he said only $700 for all of the labor and parts. I agreed, since it would be cheaper than buying the transmission from the other person.

Fast forward to today. I receive a call that my car is ready and show up. I walk in and tell the person at the front desk I'm ready to pick up my car. He tells me it will be a few minutes (more like 6 or 7). And then I see him trying to make the repair sheet on the spot. He finally calls me up and the total bill is $1341. I look at the repair sheet and it had the bearings listed as $400 and the input/output shaft as $400. Plus the cost of labor and fluids, etc. I tried to argue with him and say he said $700 for everything, to which he denied. Also the shop has a credit card machine, but they said it was broken and i could pay in cash only. And then when I asked if he could just copy down my credit card info and I could pay partially in cash and the rest credit, he pointed at a sign on the wall that said "cash only." The mechanic also tried to get mouthy with me and *****ed about it being really hard to work on and that he gave me the original quote because he thought it was a regular lancer. (Even though I told him it was AWD) So by this time the banks were closed and I had to leave without my car and feeling salty.

I don't think those parts needed to be replaced, because my car shifted perfect/no weird noises/etc before I took it there. The only issue was it would not move because the clutch had gone out. I believe if I had taken it to a reputable shop, I would have left with just a clutch change.

So far I am going to ask to have the old parts and my friend who is a mechanic is printing out the diagram sheets from alldata and I am going to have the mechanic circle, which parts were replaced.

What do you guys think I should do?

 

LMAO at transmission bearings (unless hes talking pilot and TOB which i think is clutch related), and tranny being too hot and melting to the block. totally ****ing you over man lol. the only thing a bad clutch will do is destroy your flywheel. I hope you learned two things from this. 1: when your clutch is starting to slip pretty bad take it to a shop while it can still get there on its own power. 2: Dont take it to a shop thats posting an ad on craigslist lol

 

Wow that really sucks man. I am not sure that there is anything that you can do. The minute that the first flag came up ( the part where he said that the tranny was welded onto the engine WTF!!!!!!!) you should have said, "Sounds great, please don't touch it. I will have a tow truck over to pick it up." Qickly followed by taking your car out of their hands ASAP. Since you agreed to the work, and they did something (not saying that they actually did what you wanted them to) I am not sure that taking them to small claims court would get you anything. You could report them to the Better Business Bureau, but I am not sure that will accomplish anything. It for sure will not pay your bill and get your car back in your hands. If you wanted, I guess you could have it towed to a real shop and ask them to investigate as to whether the work in the invoice was actually performed or not. You would have to pay for this..and subpena them to testify as much in court... I would definitely have them give you all of the parts that they claim to have replaced. I would then ship them to Shep or TRE or another shop that deals with EVO trannys A LOT and have them take a look at the parts and tell you if they think that they needed to be replaced. Of course this just verifies whether they took you with no vaseline again...and does not get your car back...

Sorry, but I think you are going to end up paying for this live lesson. Good Luck man.

 

Yea, I don't get why people agree to let shops do work when it sounds fishy, and then ***** about it after.

You had the chance to say no, you didn't, and so you're stuck with what they do.

If something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't, and you should GTFO ASAP

 

Thats sounds like a scam...sorry u had to go through that...i say call the Cops n take him to court find out if he has a business license n take down the number then call up better business bereau n file a complain n have his license for that!!!!! Our evos are lean mean top of the line performance machines and what they forgot is "expensive to maintain" lolz

 

With the cops...they policy is " the customer is always right"

 

I had my whole clutch replaced with an exedy twin disc kit, flywheel and TOB included. I know I shouldn't have driven on my clutch, but I didn't expect it to go out that fast. It only started slipping 3 or 4 days before it went out completely. And after it started slipping I would drive very easy on it.

I took it to this shop because of a bad situation I was in. Long story short, I tried to work my way around AAA with free tows and get the car towed twice in a 24 hour period. Since they only tow up to 100 miles and I wanted to take my car to Full Function Technology in the bay area (I never let anyone, but them touch my car until now), which is 124 miles away. I had the car towed the Thursday night to an area south of me within 90 miles of FFTEC. I woke up early in the morning, had a friend drive me 20 somethin miles south of where I live and called for a tow again. The tow truck driver arrived and told me he wouldn't tow my car because it has been modified (lowered on tein springs). After arguing with him for about 15 minutes he got in his truck and left.

Turns out the area I had it towed to was super shady and so I was desperate to get it out of there ASAP and found this place on craigslist that said they do transmissions and have free towing. After talking to one of the guys on the phone, he said he used to own an evo (which I know longer believe), so I chose to go with them.

 

The work has already been done and by the time I grew suspicious, they already had the car apart. I normally never let anyone but certain evo performance shops work on my car, but the car could no longer move under its own power.

 

he prob just didnt know how to seperate a dsm trans. so he was just making stuff up. they kinda got u by the *****

 

Better Business Bureau

 

I'd consult a lawyer. Everything they told you is a joke. If they knew your car had a transfer case then they knew it was awd. Your clutch would NOT destroy the "bearings" in your trans or anywhere else unless it blew apart and rip holes in everything. You should also be able to tell if they disassembled the trans or anything else by looking at it. I would ask to see receipts of everything they purchased for your car and possibly have someone knowledgeable go in there with you, pay them if need be.

 

If there's anyone I want to be able to trust it's my Mechanic. Did you at least pay the second person from craigslist some $$$ for attempting to deliver a second transmission that you declined? Otherwise he may be posting on transmission-forum.com asking people if he was just involved in a scam. : P

 

Tell them not to do anything else until you decide on what to do. Take a day or two and learn as much as you can about clutch failure, transmission damage, what to look for, etc.. You would be surprised what you can teach yourself in a day or 2 on the internet.

Then go and look at your parts, have the mechanic talk you through his reasoning. Ask informed questions that he should know the answers to. If he 'doesn't know' at least the basic stuff you have learned off the internet then tell him to put the car back together the way it was when you brought it to him. Pay him for his time. Then take your car to a reputable shop you can trust.

Just my .02

 

I am sorry but basic physics will tell you that if the system were even able to get hot enough to "weld" the trans to the block, the entire trans case would have suffered the same fate. On another note the the melting point of aluminum is much lower than cast iron, therefore, the second he said something about the two of them being "welded" together you should have punched him the face for being a a-hole and pulled your car out of the shop on the spot.

Just my .02

 

hahahaha,rip off