Back in april, I was having trans issues in my 99 durango. Took it to a national chain. They said it needed a new tranny. 1800 bucks an 7 days After thier quoted time frame, It was running again...

Fast forward.... Filled the durango up with gas today (about 1.5 miles from my house) put it in reverse, and got a high pitched mettallic spinning sound and no movement... (sounded kinda like a baseball card in a bike tire) put it in drive and it moved forward, Figured I'd drive it to the tranny shop on monday, on the way home, its clunking real bad, also clunked horribly when I stopped at a light. it sounded like the thing was going to literally fall out. get to my subdivision, and drive now does the same thing as reverse.... get out walk home, get my F250 FORD and push this thing to my house....

Now... I know in order to get anywhere with the tranny shop I have to keep a level head (that might be hard depeneding on what the service writer says)... I have a 12 mo 12k warrenty on it. BUT the durango is at my house and does not move, is it unreasonable to expect them to foot the tow bill? I really am not sure if the tranny is damaged, Should I ask for a new one, Should I trust them doing the work?

What would you do?

 

your trans is junked, or they screwed something up on the install... Avoid national chain stores, find an indy next time.

I'd be mad, and I have no other advise for you

Good luck
~Nate

 

A good friend had the tranny rebuilt in a full size Che*y van, and came with the same warrenty as your tranny shop gave you. This wasnt a national chain, a privately owned transmission shop. 2 Weeks after rebuild, they stop at a redlight and tranny picked right then to give up the ghost, no warning, just wouldnt move. They called a towtruck to come and get van and called transmission shop to let them know that the van would be arriving and when tow truck dropped the van off the shop took care of the tow bill. I dont think it would be unreasonable to ask for at least a percentage of the tow. More importantly, dont go in there with an attitude, or acting upset, that will get you no where cause they will get defensive right fast, and forget about anything they may have been able to help you with. Just cause the transmission went out again dosent always mean that they did crappy work, Dodge transmissions are crappy anyway (my brother in law is a Dodge mechanic, they are plastic). All in all, a machine will do weird stuff for no good reason. In any case, good luck to you.

 

An engineere *might* take offence to that
But in reality, yeah

 

I would think that they should foot the bill for the tow since it was their mistake that caused it. I can also see how they shouldn't have to foot the bill.

Go in there and talk to them nicely and see what they can do for you.

 

This might get you more help in the General Automotive forum. Moved...

-Matt

 

Read your warrenty to see if it addresses towing.The small shop I use has their own tow truck.

 

Called the place at 8 am today. I explained the situation, and the guy offered to tow it, He seemed very empathetic, Maybe this happens alot? I'll give ya'll an update. but so far, theyre treating me good.

 

Glad to hear they are taking care of you.

 

Your insurance should cover towing charges if the shop didn't.

 

Cool.

In my experience, one thing a major national chain (of any type) has going for it, is MONEY. They will tend to repair, re-repair, re-re-repair, until the dang thing is finally fixed. The smaller outfits may re-repair, but unfortunately, economics sometimes dictates that it's better to ****-off a customer, than continue to take a loss on a service gone bad.

 

A guy from work with a suburban had his rebuilt at a national chainco like four times. Their rebuild was good.. his tailshaft housing kept cracking. Turns out he had universals from one of the discount parts stores they were out of specs.001. He found this out by taking the driveshaft out and to a crank andspeed shop. They put it on the lathe to check it, he seen it from twenty feet away how out it was.

Oh yeah my point was that AAMCO stood by their warranty and my buddy pushes them for this.

 

THey called today saying its the Tcase....YIPPPY

 

So, was it originally the transfer case the first go-round?.....and they just fixed the tranny by mistake???....or is it just coincidence that both failed within a couple weeks of each other?......yikes!!

 

Kind of wierd it being the transfer case. It is one of the parts that usually does not fail in a Dodge, I have never seen one fail. What I do think could happen is the bolts were not tightened (tranny to transfer case) and it wobbled around and broke the casing (hence still driveable). Or worse, the bolts were never put in!

What you want to do is see the old one! The case and splines will tell the tale if one is to be told. Especially around the bolting holes.