LarryES

History: Summer 2008, I had the knock sensors replaced. A week later, a very strange thing happened. When I shifted into gear, it was like I was in neutral. None of the gears would engage. I tried again the next day and I was able to move the car. I had it towed to the dealer who did a complete transmission check and found nothing.

The car was working fine all summer. Had the oil change in October, everything great. Car has 125,000KM

Then the first very cold day in November, the car acted exactly the same way as above. It took about 15 minutes until the transmission would engage. Again I took it into the dealer, left it over night, and still they found nothing.

A week ago, the engine check light came on. I took it right in and they said it was giving a code related to 'transmission solenoid". The service manager cleared the code and said it was safe to drive and to call if it comes back.

This past Friday, as I was driving into my garage, the car started to "buck". The next day, I took the car out of the garage (in reverse). After stopping, it wouldn't move anymore. I called the tow truck, and he found that even in neutral, the wheels were locked. It was towed to the dealer.

Today the service manager calls me and says that when they took the transmission dipstick out it was steaming!!! How could it be steaming - the car was sitting in below zero temperature for over 2 days. Then he said that it might have been condensation?? In any case, they say the transaxel? or something is shot and I need a whole new transmission - $6400. He is going to try and find a used one for less.

My question - what the hell happened? Never had a noise or anything. How could the transmission fluid be so hot - unless they did something to the car ?

The car is only worth around $6K (with a working transmission). What should I do? Do I have any case against the dealership who didn't find the problem earlier?

HYPERBOY

wow thats extremely weird!!!!

goodluck..

Parker Gen

Hmm, do you have a case against them for not finding the problem earlier... well, we can look at this in a multitude of ways. For one, the vehicle is a Lexus. I'm assuming for your benefit this was all done at a Lexus dealership (or certified Toyota).
You say that you had a transmission issue in the Summer, you took it to the dealership (same dealership all along I'm also assuming) and they checked it. Nothing. You take it back again in the Winter with apparently the same issue. They check it and nothing as well as they clear a code which indicated a transmission problem. (This is where you could have a case, because, if the transmission code was correct and needed attention, and the dealerships response to that was to clear it and say it is fine, even if they checked it; and the problem was fixable, but needed a thorough investigation of the transmission in order to find the problem, than you could get them for negligence in which it caused $6500 in damage after you followed their advise that it was fine to operate the vehicle). And the transmission needs to physically be pulled apart to find problems, not all are easily found from simply draining the transmission or checking for unwanted objects in the fluid.
All in all, it's probably not easy to have a case against them, as the transmission did not die because of their negligence (if any) alone. It died because you were driving the vehicle. But as I said prior, you were told it is fine to do so. Tricky tricky, find out what the cause of this damage was, and than think of what you'd like to do.

LarryES

Thanks for the reply. Yes - all my servicing since I purchased the vehicle new has been done at the same dealer. No one has ever touched the car (from a maintenance perspective). I am going to try and get the dealer to share the cost with me somehow. I feel that, as you said, they did not cause the tranny to fail, but they certainly didn't heed the warning signs.

We'll see what they say today

GEORGE_JET

I am amazed that the service manager would tell you that it was steaming, or condensation. Like they couldn't take the time to figure out which one it was? You are paying good money to have those jokers shotgun you problem. I would strongly recomend getting your car out of there. If they cannot tell the difference you do not want them working on your car.