bob82pigdog

This is serious stuff. Love it. Can't wait to see this come together in the Spring.

Some people push cocaine, I push custom made Volvo electronics.

That's fine with me.

Nooo! Bummer about the cracks. Awesome write up, though. Thanks for sharing.

The black ones give you more powah!

Definitely digging the 93 lights.

It's overdue, (sorry) but I do have an update on this situation. I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats. The short story is I got my money back! The long story is the shop replied to the credit card company with a letter stating their case and why the charge back should be cancelled. At which point the credit card company did cancel the charge back. I was given a chance to respond to that letter and eventually I did get the money back. It was scary because I had to wait 90 days for the case to close. At any time they could have changed their mind had the shop responded again in a way that would convince the card company to do so. The shop's letter to the card company was really generic and in order to convince the card company they did their job correctly and everything was all my fault they tried to use stupid buzzwords that nontechnical people who don't know anything about cars would use. They said things like, "The customer provided heavy duty custom parts" and that the parts I provided required them to "modify the hydraulics, which was labor intensive." They also said the transmission and parts I provided were for a completely different chassis. I see where they were trying to go with that but we know better. Lastly they said the "Frankenstein approach" of mixed parts was at fault. Basically a load of crap and it absolutely had my blood boiling when I had the chance to read it. All my language arts assignments and technical writing classes came together for me in this one event. I understand why I had to go through all those classes now. I put together 3 pages of what I would consider my finest piece of literary technical persuasion smackdown! With my letter I included screenshots and descriptions of all the parts I supplied the shop. I used the same card so they could verify my purchases. The clutch line and slave/ throwout bearing were OEM Volvo, so I believe that helped to make it clear that no "custom" parts by any definition were used. I tried to prove that the shop was grasping for an excuse by saying things that were inaccurate and plain untrue about the parts I brought them. I went through my best explanation of the technical aspects of the parts involved and made it clear there were some differences but nothing that was incompatible like the shop was alleging. The icing on the cake was the receipt and report from the second shop saying they found, "loose pressure plate bolts. No additional parts were required to complete this repair." I think I was able to make my case that the first shop was negligent and refused to own up to their mistake. A long frustrating process but I believe justice was served. I didn't charge back the full amount of the work, just the extra I had to pay the second shop to diagnose and fix. Update part 2: The pink anaerobic sealant I used to seal up the transmission case is still holding up fine. No gear oil is leaking out.

You guys have all been great at helping me work this out physically and mentally. For that, I'm very thankful.

Yesterday morning I walked into the first shop with a receipt and write up of the work performed by the second shop and asked for them to refund me the labor that the second shop charged. It was a decent bit less than the total I paid for their original labor. I feel that that's fair as others have said above. The technician didn't believe the diagnosis. He said he remembered tightening the PP bolts. Haha. The shop manager blew up pretty quickly. I don't think I've been yelled at like that by a person who wasn't my father. It wasn't fun. He said, angrily, things like, "You don't think we'd have warrantied our labor?", "I told you we wouldn't pay for someone else's work.", "You trusted us to do this job in the first place, why didn't you trust us to fix it?", "I told you we'd take it apart and not charge you if it was our fault." He made it sound like I didn't give them the chance to make things right, and that I had been unreasonable in pulling the car and taking it somewhere else. The thing is though, last Friday when I was trying to figure out what to do, the manager displayed no confidence that they could figure it out. I knew how the technician felt; that either the old trans had to go back in factory configuration or I had to bring them the parts to create factory dual mass configuration. Both bogus options! The manager did not take a clear and confident stance that I should let them take it apart and figure out what was wrong. They had made their minds up that the newer transmission wasn’t working with a SMF and I knew they were wrong! So the fact was, yes I did not have confidence they could fix it at that point and I was ready to take it to someone that could. The tech was blinded by the mix of parts and wasn't able to imagine that he might have screwed up. When I talked with the guy it was clear that he thought any further work would be pointless since he was convinced the parts were wrong. I'm not the type of person to puff my chest up even when I KNOW I am right. There is always that small chance I'm wrong. The way I saw it was, if I screwed something up with the wrong parts, or I re-assembled the transmission incorrectly, I was gonna have to pay double labor anyway. So I had to make a choice: leave it with the same guys who insisted the parts wouldn't work and I knew they were wrong or take it to a place that I deemed competent via a phone conversation explaining the situation. Especially knowing what we know now, isn't it reasonable to assume that the first shop could have taken it apart and made the same error again? Taking it apart, putting it back together, charging me twice, and still having a car that won't go into gear and nobody knows why! I thought my best bet was to go with the new shop that I trusted to fix things. I filed a claim with the credit card company to refund the amount of the second shop’s labor. I still didn’t think it would be right to go for the whole amount. They have 11 days to respond with their side of the story at which point the card company may ask for more details like a copy of the report from the second shop, etc. I think I have a pretty good case, but who knows what defense the shop will come up with. We’ll see what happens. The whole situation has me feeling really bad. I’ve had some small things done at the first shop and I liked the people there. The manager told me to never come back, BTW. The shop put in the time, they probably need the money, and I don’t wanna be the reason they don’t make payroll or a shop owner comes crashing down on somebody. If the same thing happened with all OEM parts and I hadn't performed operation on the trans case, I would have been confident the only option was that they screwed something up. And they probably would have been confident in that, too. I would have let them take it apart, discover the loose PP bolts, put it back together and pay in full. Everyone's happy. But, that’s not the way the cookie crumbles.

I see. Good thoughts, Hussein! That all makes logical sense. No funky noises that I can hear. A slight whine at lower speed tight turning. I've been assuming that is LSD related. If the backlash is decreased due to the case halves being slightly closer together due to the thinner sealant, I guess that means the internals are all being pushed in on both sides by the case a bit more. Does that just mean the bearings wear out a bit faster? Or does it put additional stress on the clusters and hinder gear changing? Just trying to think about what harm it could do and how to keep on the lookout for it. Still no leaks. I'm gonna clean it all up and keep my eyes on it for fresh oil. Then try to stop worrying. I've had Volvo transmissions keeping me up at night for a long time.

Yes, good solid info that should be stickied. Hussein, do you know why it isn't the right stuff? As in chemical properties, not strong enough, not compatible with gear oil, etc.? I dug up a thread from 2012 and it sounds like a few people have had success with the pink anaerobic. Not saying it's the proper stuff but here's to hoping it holds up anyway. I still don't see any seapage on the tranny and no oil on the driveway.

Got the car back and it feels great! One last problem. The tech that did the work said the tranny case is already leaking at the parting line. He said the pink Volvo sealant is the wrong stuff and gear oil will eat through it. And that some type of RTV should have been used. I asked about this in an older post and 2 or 3 people said the pink stuff is what to use! Who's wrong about the sealant? I looked up under the car and it still seemed dry. I'll watch for a puddle in the morning. I think I'll die if I have to pull that gearbox again. No more money to pay for someone else to do it this time but still no good place for me to do the work.

Thanks for all the replies and help! Yes, I paid with a card so hopefully I'm covered there. I'll give them the chance to refund me just the cost of shop 2's work. Otherwise I'm going full amount with a charge back. Can't wait to roll up in my wagon with parts that don't work together.