I hear your vehicle woes.
A few weeks ago, our son came for a visit. He mentioned that the car was driving poorly, but he had it serviced in April and they said he should be good to go for “quite a while”. He began to have problems on occasion right away, but he was working so much he just didn’t have free time to take it back in.
So anyway, he was here, but flew out a day later for a 9 day trip to Europe, a badly needed vacation that he had been saving up for.
On a hunch, we decided to take his car to our dealer and have them look at. Well, it turns out he had been driving without transmission fluid, and we don’t know how long. They couldn’t find a leak, so it was either a slow leak, OR the other mechanic never filled his fluid. It was BONE DRY.
At any rate, the car was safe again, so when he got back, he felt better about driving it again. He called the manager of the dealership where he had it serviced. We had been customers of theirs for over 20 years, probably longer. The manager said he couldn’t help him out with an explanation. So THAT formerly good relationship is now OVER.
Somebody screwed up and won’t fess up, but our mechanic here is aghast at the condition his car was in, and how he was treated. No one knows how long he was driving without TF, but it’s a concern. How much damage did that do to his car?
Good work Howard!
If the problem was a slow leak, YOUR dealer should have been able to find it. UV die and all... Plus there should have been trans fluid soiling things “down under”, and there would be signs of the fluid under the car wherever you son usually parks it. If there was no leak, that should be fairly easy to determine too...
This is reminding me I am due to check the trans fluid level of our ‘09 Outback. (It at least has a dipstick for trans fluid.) If the fluid is getting a little brownish, I’ll drain and refill, as I have lots of the fluid. With newer Outbacks (and many other vehicles) you have to get under the car and pull the fill plug and see if anything runs out. (What a dumb way to have to check a fluid level, IMO. It’s just asking for negligence!)