Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 16:07:48 -0700
Reply-To: Tom Young <tomyoung1@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Young <tomyoung1@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Help needed - time to sue my mechanic ...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
First, I'd suggest you tell everybody what kind of vehicle we're talking
about here - air-cooled or water-cooled - as I'd think the answers depend
significantly on that. I have a reasonable understanding of time involved
with removing and replacing air-cooled engines, but I'm sure the times for
the same R&R on water-cooled engines is different.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549 '82 Westfalia
---------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Julian Burden" <julian.burden@VIDEOTRON.CA>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 6:38 AM
Subject: Help needed - time to sue my mechanic ...
> Full story below, but first, here are the questions I want answered:
>
> 1. If a Vanagon was taken to a competent mechanic to have the clutch
replaced, and the mechanic found that both the engine and transaxle needed
to be replaced/rebuilt, how many hours should it have taken to get the two
separated and determine that major work was required? (The problem being
that the input shaft of the transaxle had worn the hole in the crankshaft)
>
> 2. How many hours would it take a competent mechanic to fit a rebuilt
engine and transaxle (given that the transaxle, at least, would already be
out of the car)?
>
> 3. How many days should all of the above have taken (allowing time to
source and transport the engine and transaxle)?
>
> Reply to me rather than the list - I will compile the results and post to
the list.
>
>
>
> Now for the full story ...
>
> In June 2002 I took my Westy in to have the clutch replaced. I pointed out
that it was my only car and that what was a 20 minute drive to work was
50-60 minutes by public transport. After about a week I called to find out
what was going on: "Ah, I'm glad you called - I needed to talk to you but
could not find your number"... now that's not a good sign.
>
> It turned out that the hole in the crankshaft for the pilot bearing had
been worn: "The crankshaft needs to be replaced".
>
> As the engine had about 300,000Km on it (although it was still running
quite well) I suggested that, given such major work was required, perhaps it
was time to replace the engine with a rebuilt one: "That is a good idea, but
it would be faster and cheaper to rebuild yours".
>
> I'll skip ahead here ...
>
> I got the Westy back on September 20, 2002 (although at no point during
the three months was the car ever more than one week away from being ready)
after handing over C$4,223. How's that for "faster and less expensive"?
>
> I decided not to use that mechanic again, but ...
>
> I drove the car for about two weeks and the clutch died a horrible death.
I took the car back, expecting not to see it for a while, but expecting the
work to be done under warranty.
>
> "The input shaft of your transaxle is wobbling around a lot - I guess
that's why the hole was worn in your crankshaft - you'll need to replace the
transaxle". He was pretty quiet when I asked why this wasn't detected when
the worn hole was noticed initially.
>
> This time the car was gone for about a month. I arranged for a rebuilt
transaxle to be shipped to him (he wanted to put a second hand one in - he
could find one for "about C$1,200"). Not including the cost of the transaxle
or shipping, the bill came to C$717 (part of this was a new clutch - the
earlier new clutch had, apparently, been destroyed by the transaxle).
>
> At this point I had lost the vehicle for about 120 days, and had spent
about C$6,000 on it for this "clutch job".
>
> Was definitely not going to use that mechanic again!
>
> Skip ahead again ...
>
> July 2003, while driving around eastern Canada, engine develops lifter
noise. Once back in Montreal I took the car to another garage. They asked
lots of questions and checked the car out. They confirmed that it was lifter
noise and told me that I should take it back to the original mechanic as it
should be covered under warranty.
>
> I took it back. He had it for two days before he even looked at it - but
at least did agree that the work should be covered by warranty.
>
> He told me to pick the car up so that I could use it while he sourced the
parts "I'll have everything by Monday, and the work should be done in a
day". So I took the car and returned it the next week as arranged.
>
> Response to Monday evenings call "Oh, haven't done anything yet, the parts
haven't arrived" (well, why didn't you tell me that on Friday, or at least
on Monday morning when I dropped the car off?).
>
> Response to Tuesday evenings call "Oh, the parts only came in at midday,
have been working on it, but not yet complete - will be ready tomorrow."
>
> Response to Wednesday evenings call "Bad news, we'll have to take the
engine out to replace the lifter - I can't get the lifter out" ... that
wasn't the only bad news ... "and, while the part is covered by warranty, I
doubt the supplier of the lifter will pay for my labour ... ". I went
ballistic - the other mechanic had confirmed that all of the parts that
could be responsible for the lifter going bad had been replaced or rebuilt
according to the receipt I had. He said he would do what he could, but other
parts would be needed. He also said that this could take a while - he might
be able to put the car back together so that I could drive it in the
meantime: "call me in half an hour". I called an hour later "well, if it
wasn't for all the phone calls I might actually have the time to do some
work". We agreed that I'd pick the car up the next day.
>
> Response to Thursdays many calls: "He's not in, no, I don't know when
he'll be back". On my last call I asked if my car was ready "Oh, you're not
going to be getting that back for a while" "But, yesterday he said there was
only about half an hour to get the car back together" "Yeah, well, its got a
broken camshaft now ...".
>
> Response to Fridays call: "He wont be back until next Tuesday"
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