I have a Ford Ranger which is getting up there in miles. ~2 weeks ago I gave it to an auto shop owned by a friend of a friend, to change the timing belt and do a major tuneup. I got the truck back and it seemed to run good at first. The total cost was in the ballpark of $650.
The next day it began to stall at red lights, the transmission started to make a whining sound and smelled of gear oil. I returned the truck to them. At first they blew off the whining sound as normal power steering sound. After I insisted it wasn't and it was new they changed the fluid. - $no cost
After i got the truck back the idling problem was fixed, but less than a week later the tranny froze up while at a traffic light. It was towed back to them and they said it was no fault of theirs. They quoted a repair of $1000 to replace it with another used tranny, but they gave me the option to source my own used tranny which brought the total down to just over $800.
I got the truck back tuesday night and it was working fine, by Wed(yesterday) morning it was starting to make a whining sound again and I was smelling gear oil. i figured today I'd bring it back in, but it didn't make it. Late last night while driving ~65mph the tranny sounded like a daisey cutter and exploded, locking the rear wheels completely and sending me skidding/sliding almost completely out of control. Luckily I did handle the skid onto the sholder.
Here's the deal. The first reaction out of the shop was basically "You supplied the part, it failed. No fault of ours". However it isn't that easy. I have been getting suspicious of incompetance of the shop since day one, and I confirmed it this morning. After a little research it turns out this 92 Ford Ranger's Mazda manual transmission actually uses MERCON ATF, not gear oil. Mercon is red, gear oil is black. They didn't put the right fluid in the transmission.
So to sum things up, it is now my belief this shop is the cause of both transmission failures. I have spent a total of over $1500 at this shop in the last couple weeks on a truck that probably isn't worth $1500. $800+ of was on a transmission that probably was killed by them in the first place. I am calling again here shortly to speak with the owner. If he doesn't respond properly I will probably persue a lawsuit. Has any US folk here brought an auto shop to small claims court? What was your experience? I have a hard time just cutting my losses on this, adding up all the money and lost time etc it is getting very clostly.
