I had hired an ATRA certified (according to him) transmission repairman off of craigslist, who claims he has worked on over a thousand transmissions to do a clutch on my vehicle. I purchased the correct clutch and had him install it for $375. Total hours was about 3.
He wrote me a receipt which garunteed the job was done correctly; however he never actually drove the vehicle, only tested to make sure the car moved slightly in reverse and 1st in my garage.
First thing I noticed was that there was chatter when shifting in first. It was very mild chatter. Called the guy but he was out of town. Decided to jack the car up and have a look at the work he had done. Noticed that gear oil was leaking from the transmission because of a loose bolt! He said he replaced the fluid, and obviously did, but did not tighten the lower drain bolt. I pumped some more gear fluid in and noticed what came out was silvery and black in color.
After a few days, and another phone call, I get a call from the guy and I take my car back to him. He does a test drive in the parking lot and says that there is definitely chatter in the clutch, but not to worry about it.
I take it into a repairshop and they definitely notice a problem and this is what they tell me.
Whomever took the front end apart did a lousey job and destroyed the grease lubrication boots on the balljoints and that my transmission along with my clutch and flywheel need to be resurfaced. I had also mentioned to the repairshop about the gear oil bolt not being tightened and leaking fluid by the first guy..
I took pictures with my digital camera of the lower half of the transmission covered in the leaky gear oil, plus the repairshops statement about the poor quality of work done.
So far, I have spent...
$150 on the first clutch kit
$375 to have it installed by the first guy
$300 on the second clutch kit (higher quality, thinking the first was too cheap)
$450 to install it and resurface flywheel
$700 to replace or repair the transmission damaged by the leaky gear oil drain plug
$100 for new balljoints
Can I take this to small claims and what are my chances of winning, and what all can I claim in my defense?
He wrote me a receipt which garunteed the job was done correctly; however he never actually drove the vehicle, only tested to make sure the car moved slightly in reverse and 1st in my garage.
First thing I noticed was that there was chatter when shifting in first. It was very mild chatter. Called the guy but he was out of town. Decided to jack the car up and have a look at the work he had done. Noticed that gear oil was leaking from the transmission because of a loose bolt! He said he replaced the fluid, and obviously did, but did not tighten the lower drain bolt. I pumped some more gear fluid in and noticed what came out was silvery and black in color.
After a few days, and another phone call, I get a call from the guy and I take my car back to him. He does a test drive in the parking lot and says that there is definitely chatter in the clutch, but not to worry about it.
I take it into a repairshop and they definitely notice a problem and this is what they tell me.
Whomever took the front end apart did a lousey job and destroyed the grease lubrication boots on the balljoints and that my transmission along with my clutch and flywheel need to be resurfaced. I had also mentioned to the repairshop about the gear oil bolt not being tightened and leaking fluid by the first guy..
I took pictures with my digital camera of the lower half of the transmission covered in the leaky gear oil, plus the repairshops statement about the poor quality of work done.
So far, I have spent...
$150 on the first clutch kit
$375 to have it installed by the first guy
$300 on the second clutch kit (higher quality, thinking the first was too cheap)
$450 to install it and resurface flywheel
$700 to replace or repair the transmission damaged by the leaky gear oil drain plug
$100 for new balljoints
Can I take this to small claims and what are my chances of winning, and what all can I claim in my defense?
