Needless Clutch Install - Dealer Negligence or Just the Way it goes?

[Jim1976]

Germantown, Maryland.

New clutch and a rebuilt transmission installed by a small friend of family shop. The car came back with what seemed like a vibration. Mechanic given the opportunity to fix it and/or tell us if the transmission was bad. He spent a few hours double checking and said it was fine, normal vibrations. My husband was sure it was vibrating so we took it to a Chevy dealer to get a second opinion. They said yes it has a bad vibration and it needed to be taken apart to diagnose. They took it apart and suggested replacing the new clutch that only had 40 miles on it. I said ok. After they were done my husband drove it and was convinced it was no better than before. The dealer swore they thought they had fixed it so we called consumer affairs. Funny thing was that the dealer didn't describe anything being defective on the invoice and said they could not after I questioned them.

A county consumer affairs inspector looked at the clutch Chevy took out and said it was fine.

Should I sue in small claims court to get my money back? $650 parts, $900 labor.

all comments welcome.

 

[justalayman]

Germantown, Maryland.

New clutch and a rebuilt transmission installed by a small friend of family shop. The car came back with what seemed like a vibration. Mechanic given the opportunity to fix it and/or tell us if the transmission was bad. He spent a few hours double checking and said it was fine, normal vibrations. My husband was sure it was vibrating so we took it to a Chevy dealer to get a second opinion. They said yes it has a bad vibration and it needed to be taken apart to diagnose. They took it apart and suggested replacing the new clutch that only had 40 miles on it. I said ok. After they were done my husband drove it and was convinced it was no better than before. The dealer swore they thought they had fixed it so we called consumer affairs. Funny thing was that the dealer didn't describe anything being defective on the invoice and said they could not after I questioned them.

A county consumer affairs inspector looked at the clutch Chevy took out and said it was fine.

Should I sue in small claims court to get my money back? $650 parts, $900 labor.

all comments welcome.

Did they say it was the clutch or they weren't sure it was the clutch. Did they tell you it might be something else?

Honestly you aren't going to be able to look at a clutch and say it is good or bad if it is a balance problem. If it didn't fix it, obviously it wasn't the clutch though. Have you since fixed the vibration. If so, what was the problem.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

When changing the clutch a second time did not fix it, did you give the dealer a chance to remedy the mistake before just going to complain? Lets approach the problem logically. A tight tranny will not perform like a loose tranny and there will be a break in period. The shop that installed it, may be correct and it just needs a break in period of a few thousand miles. You took it to a dealer, who, being experienced with factory new and rebuilt transmissions, not the specific rebuild you had, attempted to determine the problem. As the vehicle had several non GM parts in it, they approached it from a logical perspective that installing a GM approved part, with guaranteed spring resistance, might solve a vibration problem created by a potentially low quality part having unbalanced springs. You, having spent thousands of dollars and still unhappy, want to go sue happy on everyone, instead of being patient to see if the issue is a close tolerance rebuild, that will go away by itself, or break, revealing itself, if something has an incorrect tolerance.

 

[xylene]

Whatever other problem, the dealer was bilking you.

Take them to small claims.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Whatever other problem, the dealer was bilking you.

Take them to small claims.

Not necessarily. They likely changed the clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing to genuine GM parts. Labor rate would include testing, tear down, alignment and installation. This requires a removal of the transmission/bell housing. I just had an engine malfunction on my Toyota fixed. All it was, was a little rectangular relay about 3 x 6, with 2 plugs. It was relatively easy to get to. The relay was $150 and installation was over $300.

 

[justalayman]

Whatever other problem, the dealer was bilking you.

Take them to small claims.

there is a huge problem in this story. I think it starts with this:

New clutch and a rebuilt transmission installed by a small friend of family shop.

so, they quickly take the dealer to the consumer commission but refuse to file a complain on the friend of family shop. Makes no sense.