Hello peoples,

My basic question is this: What "governing body" presides over repair shops? Is there someone I can talk to in order to find out "what the rules are"?

If a shop is given a non-defective part manufactured for use in my vehicle, are they committed to properly installing the part on my vehicle? Even if it is not a part that they carry, but was supplied by me?
-what am I, as a customer, entitled to from a repair shop? Are they not supposed to troubleshoot their own installation prior to ditching the installed part?
The shop in question is AAA and "Diamond Certified"
http://www.diamondcertified.or....html

Background:
I had an exedy (daikin) clutch installed on my 96 integra GSR 300 miles ago. During that time if the car was driven for 5-10 minutes it became very hard to get the car into gear, and a griding sound is heard when the clutch is diengaged and when I try to get it into gear. The TO bearing is new.
A previous post makes it sound like this problem may be a result of the TO bearing moving too far (whatever... the clutch travel was not adjusted properly).

I dropped off my car the the shop and asked them essentially to "figure it out". The mechanic looked at it and said that they would have to drop the tranny to examine the part. I was like "ok fine" - although I don't think those were my exact words. Here's where it gets messy:

1. Today I got a call from the shop. "Your car is done. We replaced the clutch with an OEM one. That'll be $900."
- snuh? I don't remember saying they could replace the clutch.
"There was something weird with the fingers [diaphram spring] the mechanic said. Works great now with the OEM part."
I signed an invoice for LABOR that I "made sure" would not apply if the install was not correct.

2. I called Daikin before I visited the shop. The tech on the phone seemed to confirm my suspicion based on the mechanics description of "worn fingers" that the release bearing was travelling too far. However my mechanic said "you have a self adjusting clutch so that could not be the problem" or something like that. May this be correct? What about adjusting some doohickey with a 12mm wrench - a previous poster here mentioned that.

3. The REAL problem is that the mechanic is insisting that the clutch I gave them is defective. "A piece of crap Daikin clutch" is what was repeated over and over by the mechanic "you should have used the one we would have given you." - which, I might add, is what they installed this time around.
I showed him the Daikin troubleshooting page which has a picture of a clutch housing with fingers worn in almost the same pattern as the wear pattern on my "Defective" clutch. It really didn't have much effect.

Soooo does anyone know "what I should do"?
- Obviously the shop is not responsible for a defective part.
-- However, I am pretty sure that if I RMA the part to Daikin, their engineers will take one look at it and say "no it's not defective. they didn't install it right" or whatever.

- So where does that leave me? The shop seems to want to refuse to take any responsibility for the part (duh I'm not asking them to do that) but they seem to want to take no responsibility for the install either! Is it their job to install *a* part, or ONLY the parts that they carry?

So, once again... Are they able to refuse to troubleshoot an install if they have no confidence in the installed part? WTF?!

Thanks in advance

 

There is a law in the state of California- I believe that the shop must call you and ask for your consent if the repair costs are over $500.

Second- Did they make the intial repair 300 miles ago? (this was unclear to me reading your write up) If that is the case then you need to take the tranny off yourself to make sure they changed the clutch. (Because you said that all they gave you was a piece of the old one) My educated guess would be that if they fixed the throw-out bearing and used your old clutch.

If this is what you find then go to the motherfuckin AB (Automotive Bureau) or BBB (Better Business Bureau) that way you can own their ***. The whole thing sounds kind of shaky to me.

Good Luck

 

sounds like shady, i would have refused to pay for it til i saw it on the car messed up, thats BS they just kinda did it without any contact to u, the owner of the car

 

I will be installing a Exedy clutch soon... as soon as it arrives. I'll report any difficulities I have installing.

The tech should have done a road test after the install.... sounds like he didn't. True it's self adjusting however when you replace certain components the clutch freeplay has to be checked and adjusted. When you first drove it, did it have the 1" freeplay at the top of travel?