No one has said it was the TC, have they?madi wrote:I find this strange i spoke to a couple of people on here and most were saying that my symptoms pointed to a failing or failed torque converter. However some are now saying that it could be the Fwd gear and possibly O rings etc.
Has anyone else had the problem where the revs would go high and the next gear wouldn't always engage straight away, however as the revs came down the gear would engage sometimes harshly with bang..
Can anybody define how to know or to check the symptoms of a failed box in terms of a TC?
Thanks
Do this.
Making a friend or enemy (frienemy) at the warranty co is a good start. The warranty co soon found out that I was a nightmare and deferred all correspondence to a particular 'engineer'. He sounded 12yrs old on the phone, but admittedly, he held the company line better than anyone I'd dealt with, the rest were just journeymen. Once it was clear that I'd been assigned this particular hardass 'engineer', I set about hounding him via phone, constantly, sometimes at 10min intervals and it was particularly painful due to the front-loaded account security every time I called. He could hear my voice, he knew it me< I knew it was him, but, we'd still dance the dance, with me being crushingly efficient at rattling off every detail required in a single breath and him slightly mixing it up every other call. I was the Pepé Le Pew of phone rapists.
My objective? To get his email address, of course! Like any good stalker/rapist... apparently it was company policy to not send/receive emails to/from clients. I'll admit, he was good at deflection and obfuscation, he'd always use the double-blind warranty co email system (I bet it was a biatch to use, too) but I caught him off-guard one day and I think it was late, close to home time, I said "yes, I have that invoice scanned, give me your email and I'll send it immediately, then I'll be out of your hair for the day". He gave it up like a true a beta, the only alpha trait he had left was now about to be torn asunder.
Before and after every phone call, I'd email him. I'd email him an up-to-date "state-of-play" timeline pre-phone call, then I'd call and he'd always deny receiving said email but I'd recite the sending time and email address, verbatim, as phone calls are recorded for blablabla purposes. Then, I'd recite the whole email (state-play emails are repetitive and time-consuming), then, after I'd hung up, I'd forward him the post-phone call email with a blow-by-blow of what was just discussed on the phone. Let's just say, his phone persona was of a broken man after I acquired his email address and his little trick of saying he'd not received any of my emails was soon abandoned when he had to endure a complete recital of all emails I'd sent.
However, the warranty co fought to the very end with some very iffy tactics along the way, you need to be patient and considered.
bam_bam's loosely compiled process when dealing with a big-ticket gearbox warrant claim:
- 0.9a. Ensure the ATF fluid level is spot on.
0.9b. Be very sure you've got a failure that is within the warranty co's agreed policy.
0.9c. Make sure you have the funds to cover all the work that's about to happen, the warranty co won't reimburse you until payment confirmation from your garage. It's a money laundering front but it makes sense, kinda. Also, be prepared to allow plenty of time to be without that money, the warranty cos are hardly quick with reimbursement, c-unts.
1. Tell the Warranty co you want to have it stripped down to investigate/define the fault (there is a fault, it doesn't work as it should).
2. Warranty co will (try to) scare you by saying "if there's no fault, you pay".
3. Agree and get them to confirm that a strip down to investigate the fault is the next step. Get this approval in writing and have them send this approval to the repairing garage. Issue the garage with strict instruction to not perform any works unless written approval is issued by the warranty co.
4. The warranty co will want a particular vendor perform this task, depending on your policy THIS IS NOT ENFORCEABLE. If your policy states that you can use any garage as long as the labour rate is within their agreed bracket, then choose whomever you want. You could chose a garage with a higher reputation and labour rates but that's your prerogative and you'll have to pay the difference (this is not to be confused with betterment).
5. Get the 'box ripped out and stripped down, then have the sprippee tell you what's wrong with it, then have the warranty co 'engineer' go and inspect the inside-out 'box.
6. Now wait. Do not lose patience. Be methodical. Call the warranty co everyday and get them to commit to a timeline and then get angry when they do not adhere to that timeline, after you rage out, get them to commit to a new timeline, then if they break that timeline, rage on again my brother, because this time you're going to preface a new timeline with an ultimatum. That ultimatum is to escalation the issue to the regulator.
7. Harass them and keep them honest on exactly what they said was to happen next and take loads of notes, including; times/dates/names/ref numbers. I guarantee they'll never call you, it'll be you doing the calling but that doesn't make you a beta dog, turn it around, you be the Pepé Le Pew, you be the rapist, make them the rapee. It'll keep you sane... or insane, if that's the way you work.
8. Unless you've got it very very wrong, the 'box will be confirmed broken but await written confirmation for proceeding works. Now, the warranty co I used outsourced the assessments, as a part of their process, the contractors are meant to issue photographic proof to the warranty co. On three (3) occasions I was told that the engineer had confirmed the 'box had failed (good news) but written confirmation for works to proceed did not materialise at my chosen garage, [IMPORTANT] if I'd taken their word and told the garage to commence work, I would've been left holding the bill. When chasing the warranty co, I'd eventually be told the photos were too (1)blurred/(2)corrupted/(3)blurred (in that order). Even though, I knew for a fact, the initial contracted engineer arrived on-site without a camera and at no time during the 'assessment' did he take a photo. It was the 3rd time that I was told the photos were blurred that I threatened action on my ultimatum. Hours later, approval was sent to the garage, seemingly, without valid photographic proof, meaning the warranty co either broke protocol or... you take a guess.
9. You now need to chase the warranty co for your reimbursement, even this task was difficult but I employed the above strategy and the final ultimatum was again threatened, after I was told that "I can't help you, the only person that can sign off a cheque that large is the CEO and he's on holidays", my answer "Firstly, you said the cheque had been cut and was in the mail at x:xxpm xxth Oct 20xx. Secondly, how is the CEO being on holiday my problem? Call him right now and get this approved or I WILL call you EVERY 10mins and ask you where my cheque is, OK?, "Yes sir". After the 9th call, I was told the CFO was able to sign a cheque and it was sent 1st class, I should receive it tomorrow. It arrived the next day, as promised and it was only 6 weeks late.
10. It's worth noting that you're within your legal right (depending on your policy) to better your position. In this case, I asked for my engine to be stage 3'd and an A.C.E TC built while the car was apart. Obviously I had to pay for the stage three'ing bit but I only had to make up the difference for the A.C.E TC over the regular item. I did this by first getting a written SOW cost breakdown, so I could see how much they allocated to the TC rebuild and instructed the garage to not perform that task, then I informed the warranty co of my intention for betterment.
11. ?????
12. Profit.
For the record, according to my notes, I made 165 phone calls to get this sorted with the warranty co and the gearbox outfit, that doesn't include calls to MRC or Andre at A.C.E TC.
