This is just a follow up to my recent decision of allowing my friend who is a "diesel" tech attempt to work on adjusting by bands on my 01 Durango last week. The first sign should have been him trying to torque the rear band to 72 foot pounds when it clearly stated 72 inch pounds. The second sign was that after he obtained an inch pound torque wrench he continued to try and tighten the front adjuster until it went all the into the bell housing. I guess the worse part of it was that I kept printing all the posts and replies from what others were saying and he... well lets just say...he did not comply. I was able to "limp" it the transmission shop and it went from "we can adjust it for $150.00", to later "we need to order a new rear band", to later "you need to come see this" (thats NEVER good!), to now... "it is now getting completely re-hauled!" As it turns out he broke the rear band in pieces, the spring was cracked, the front band was twisted and broke! To think this was an attempt of working off an invoice he owed me of $400.00 for a remote start install on his wifes car. Need I mention...his wifes car works GREAT! The grand total is $400.00 on his end and my bill is going to be $1800.00! Man..."thats what friends are for!"

 

This guy should not be considered a "friend" if he's going to mess your truck up like that after you took care of his wife's car! IMHO you should give him the bill for your tranny PLUS what he owes for his wife's car!

 

Sorry to hear that . ifin he is a ''diesel tech '' is he engine only or does he do transmissions?? ,,If i was you i`d be looking for lil $$$$$ to help yu in new trans ,though i don`t think yu`ll get any ,,DAMN not good ..It`s a lesson for all of us . unless we are 100% sure ''friend'' is absolute in able to do the work ,i`1d be going to the experts yu know

 

i agree with this 100%

 

I don't let anyone touch my rig but me and my ase certified mech...who just happens to drive Dodges too.

 

Agreed! It sounds to me like you just got ripped off, however I'd make him pay for the damage. Just give him a piece of your mind and ask for a receipt of what he did.

Him breaking the rear band into pieces should be enough for me not to pay him his $400 worth of work. He should be the one paying for this! Sheesh

I've learned from my 12 years in the mechanics field, there is a very strong, "You break it, You buy it" rule when working on a car. If the mechanic breaks it, it's all his fault not the car owners.

 

Well as far as getting money out of him... this is a dead issue. He has been laid off for 6 months hence the reason for trying to eliminate his invoice. My Durango had 195,000 on the tranny so if it was failing (considering the shifting issues it was already having), he may have just "helped" it fail quicker. Knowing the fact that it has been paid for for a LONG time, the motor is rebuilt, and now the tranny is getting the same. I am walking away with the fact that it is good for hopefully several years. Besides... how do you take someone to small claims court that has no employment, no money, and probably the attempt to garnish or get a judgement would be hard and the prolong period of time to collect would be a while. Just let it be a lesson to anyone that trust someone. I should be getting my Durango back tomorrow and getting rid of the already embarassing Caravan that they gave me for a rental so I look at it as... it will be the end of the week, my Durango is fixed, go pick up my speed boat, and crack a few beers.

 

Hey amen to that brother! Sounds to me like if you got anything out of this, is only trust a pro with the tranny and you got yourself a fresh new transmission to run on. Hope it serves you another 195,000 miles!

 

Wish my tranny lasted me 195k, motor did though, but mine is started to slip a little, I might have to break out the christmas lights again and string those things up under there for light to adjust my bands soon. When I work on my D it's far from professional work but saves me a ton of money, untill something really bad goes wrong then I take it to the dealer and hear them say "we never saw anything like that happen before"

But I had friends before that owed me money for work I did and I leanred (if you don't care about them anymore) just keep on their back about it and they will pay up eventually in small payments because it's really the last thing they want to hear. But hey, can't complain about getting 195k out of your tranny and having a rebuilt one to drive on now.