2 Shady Mechanic Tricks Transmission repair shops do

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Transmission repair scams happen often. I am only going to talk about one of the many shady mechanic tricks that are already out there. This one that we will discuss today really take car repair scams to another level of evilness.

Whenever you decide to allow a transmission shop to rebuild your transmission you need to pay attention to details upon delivery of your vehicle back to you.

You may not know the auto repair vocabulary, but if you see that your transmission is not the same color that it was before it went into the transmission shop, it’s a good indication that you have just been scammed.

After your transmission is rebuilt it should look clean with its original aluminum finish as seen in the image below.

How do I know if my transmission was rebuilt?

Allow me to elaborate more. what I mean by making sure your transmission is the same color that it came in with simply means be sure your transmission was not spray painted completely.

I trust you enough to be able to identify if your transmission was spray painted it’s very noticeable.

Why did they do this to my transmission?

What happens is this, you go to the transmission shop because your transmission is acting up. They tell you we have to remove the transmission and take it apart to see what it needs to fix the issue.

You give them the go-ahead to remove it. They remove the transmission take it apart and find your transmission hard parts and electrical components are in awesome condition.

They keep this news to themselves and keep you out of the loop of what’s going on.

Since the problem is not inside of the transmission, the transmission shop begins to see if the problem is external. Meaning maybe the car’s wire harness, ECU or TCM which is the brain for the car engine and Transmission becomes defective.

So for example reasons let just say they found out that the car’s TCM was defective. Instead of letting the customer know that the problem was actually the TCM and allowing the customer to only pay for a TCM repair they say the transmission was worn charging you thousands of dollar in rebuild cost.

Before you pick up your vehicle do this

After receiving the call that your vehicle is ready for pickup you must prepare yourself to be in semi inspector mode.

Even though you have no idea what the heck you may be looking at peek at the transmission to see if it looks like its been spray painted.

What you can look out for is overspray on the sensors on the transmission and other areas of the transmission, this is usually a sign of a poor cover up.

When transmissions are taken apart and put back together again, transmission builders use a special adhesive called silicone which is used as the gasket to keep the transmission fluid from pouring out. Look for this fresh silicone adhesive at the transmission case separation points.

Transmission builders also use a grease called assembly goo. You can find this grease in areas of the transmission tail where the drive shaft is located and other areas of the transmission.

What you can do if this happens to you

As a customer, you are allowed to ask questions. when you suspect with evidence that your transmission was spray painted possibly not rebuilt just politely ask why your transmission was spray painted and is that a general practice to spray paint customers transmission.

For more confirmation, to know if your transmission was rebuilt get a second opinion from another repair shop 10 miles or so from the one that you got the repair done at.

Where to report bad businesses?

Bad business does not deserve to be in business taking hard working customers money. With evidence in hand report them to these companies and get the word out.