TougeSR20Kid
05-20-2012, 04:38 AM
So I got my clutch done like a few months back and have had no issues up until today (530 miles later)...
Took my car to a local mechanic because I haven't had a place to work on my car living up here to get the clutch replaced. They said they swapped everything out and resurfaced the flywheel. Everything was driving fine for the past 500 miles or so because I was doing the break in and not driving the car hard at all. Finally got the car temp reg'd and the clutch broken in and so I started driving it a little rougher. Then today happened...
I wound out first gear around a turn and heard a clunk come from the tranny and the next thing I know is it was grinding while driving in second gear and then again in third. Got to the gas station to check it out and it seemed like it was fine. A few hours later I'm leaving the track (didn't run my car) and the tranny makes a thud noise and the car seems as though its getting less power. But it's still driving fine enough to get home. Close to home I was shifting into fifth gear and it wouldn't go. The engine would free rev while I was in fifth gear. So I immediately pull off the highway and pull into a gas station, it had a horrible grinding noise in first gear limping into the station. When we were getting it off the flatbed I tried to drive it into a parking spot and noticed it didn't go into reverse and it grinded like hell in first and when the clutch was out it had a whiny grinding noise coming from the bell housing.... So long story short we concluded my transmission is completely shot and I probably blew some synchros and the clutch is also done
Question #1 what do you think could be the issue? Any ideas or questions? I'm trying to narrow this down.
The next issue is that of the tranny being fine pre clutch swap and the fifth time of me driving it harder than before and first time even getting on it a little bit after break in this happens. Makes me kinda think that the shop fucked up somehow. We're gonna take it down there on Monday and talk to them but i wanna get some opinions and ideas before hand. When I got it back everything was fine it started chattering just a little bit at around 300 miles and then it got worse and I just assumed it was the shit throw out bearings that come in clutch kits. And when we were looking at it today and listening to it it kinda sounds like they didn't put enough gear oil in it, prob didn't resurface the fly and this leads me to think they may have skipped some other steps like pilot bearing.
I have my own reservations about the shop, they seemed shady when i got the car back. I asked them to resurface the flywheel and then it wasnt on the invoice and when I asked about it they said it was done. The clutch chatter I started hearing later makes me think for whatever reason they didn't do it.
Question #2 has anyone dealt with this kinda shit before? how hard will it be to prove after the fact that it was their fault? Being SR will this affect any claim I could potentially make? do I even have a claim here or am I just going to have to eat the cost of a new tranny, clutch and flywheel... If I can prove it was them what kinda reimbursement am I looking at, cost of their labor? Cost of clutch? Cost of new tranny?
Sorry if this is really confusing and drawn out, it's late and I literally just got home from dealing with this shit. Thanks ahead of time for any input
Took my car to a local mechanic because I haven't had a place to work on my car living up here to get the clutch replaced. They said they swapped everything out and resurfaced the flywheel. Everything was driving fine for the past 500 miles or so because I was doing the break in and not driving the car hard at all. Finally got the car temp reg'd and the clutch broken in and so I started driving it a little rougher. Then today happened...
I wound out first gear around a turn and heard a clunk come from the tranny and the next thing I know is it was grinding while driving in second gear and then again in third. Got to the gas station to check it out and it seemed like it was fine. A few hours later I'm leaving the track (didn't run my car) and the tranny makes a thud noise and the car seems as though its getting less power. But it's still driving fine enough to get home. Close to home I was shifting into fifth gear and it wouldn't go. The engine would free rev while I was in fifth gear. So I immediately pull off the highway and pull into a gas station, it had a horrible grinding noise in first gear limping into the station. When we were getting it off the flatbed I tried to drive it into a parking spot and noticed it didn't go into reverse and it grinded like hell in first and when the clutch was out it had a whiny grinding noise coming from the bell housing.... So long story short we concluded my transmission is completely shot and I probably blew some synchros and the clutch is also done
Question #1 what do you think could be the issue? Any ideas or questions? I'm trying to narrow this down.
The next issue is that of the tranny being fine pre clutch swap and the fifth time of me driving it harder than before and first time even getting on it a little bit after break in this happens. Makes me kinda think that the shop fucked up somehow. We're gonna take it down there on Monday and talk to them but i wanna get some opinions and ideas before hand. When I got it back everything was fine it started chattering just a little bit at around 300 miles and then it got worse and I just assumed it was the shit throw out bearings that come in clutch kits. And when we were looking at it today and listening to it it kinda sounds like they didn't put enough gear oil in it, prob didn't resurface the fly and this leads me to think they may have skipped some other steps like pilot bearing.
I have my own reservations about the shop, they seemed shady when i got the car back. I asked them to resurface the flywheel and then it wasnt on the invoice and when I asked about it they said it was done. The clutch chatter I started hearing later makes me think for whatever reason they didn't do it.
Question #2 has anyone dealt with this kinda shit before? how hard will it be to prove after the fact that it was their fault? Being SR will this affect any claim I could potentially make? do I even have a claim here or am I just going to have to eat the cost of a new tranny, clutch and flywheel... If I can prove it was them what kinda reimbursement am I looking at, cost of their labor? Cost of clutch? Cost of new tranny?
Sorry if this is really confusing and drawn out, it's late and I literally just got home from dealing with this shit. Thanks ahead of time for any input