Last Saturday night I was on my home and got 50 miles from home and was coming up to a stop sign and truck started chugging and I looked and it wasn't downshifting. (Freedomline Autoshift) Truck died at the stop sign and went into neutral. I started it back up and it wouldn't shift into any gear.

I had it towed to the Peterbilt dealer. I was at the dealer when they opened on Monday. They ran the codes and called Meritor and they said it was the throwout bearing so they pulled the transmission and ordered parts. I went back up on Wednesday and they said not all the parts were there yet but would be on Thursday. The parts they had ordered totaled $2800. Cutch and pressue plate $1427, Throwout bearing $536. throwout bearing fork $300, etc They put a new rear main seal in while tranny was out.

I called Thursday afternoon and the parts had come in and they were in the process of putting the transmission back in.

They called me 3 hours later and said everything was back together and they had bad news. They said they were back to square one because the transmission had the same problem, it wouldn't shift into any gear. They said they would have to wait till Monday and call Meritor for direction.

I don't feel i should be responsible for paying for all their guesswork that didn't work. I feel if you go to a dealer you should get a accurate diagnosis and a timely repair.

Am i wrong? Thoughts?

 

Of course you are correct! But....It's not gonna be easy.
You have to prove they were wrong, and that was not necessarily, and in a mean time, your truck is gonna sit in their yard....
Try to negotiate, the best you can, before confrontation, and go from there!
Good luck!

 

you may have to pay for the parts if you keep them, but you shouldnt have to pay for labor that wasnt needed, have they asked you to pay? maybe you are worried for nothing..

 

As I said in an earlier post in that other thread about this:

Just get a truck with a manual trans, those autoshifts and automatics are a POS.

And before anyone says "well, manuals have a clutch just like this autoshift", well it turns out that wasn't the real problem was it?

Probably an electrical or computer f- up, which wouldn't occur with a manual.

 

Sounds more like the control module. I don't know about Meritor but with Eaton SOP is to replace the module in these cases. It's not a cheap part. Do you still have any warranty on the trans? If the Pete shop really got the diagnosis from Meritor, then any haggling to be done is with them. The shop would be released from any culpability and your best bet is to make friends there...fast. Hopefully they kept the parts they replaced. They should be able to tell you if those parts were indeed bad and needed replacing. Assuming they weren't bad, you may have some bargaining power. If you could get Meritor to agree to absorb the cost of the ECM (assuming that's the problem), I'd take it. If the clutch was indeed bad, it's just an expensive repair.

Talk to the shop, make sure you have the straight story on who told who to do what and when. Try to get the parts that were removed. Then take it from there. Don't get upset until you have all the info you can get.

 

When I talked to the service mgr yesterday he kept telling me over and over that the throwout bearing fork was cracked. I would guess he was trying to cover for putting in all the new parts.

I just bought the truck a month ago and was on my first trip with it. The Peterbilt dealer where it is had put the truck in a auction where I bought it, so no warranty.

I was talking to the general mgr monday morning and I told him I now see why he took the junk truck to the auction. He said I swear there is nothing wrong with the truck. He said quit worrying it is probably just a bad connection or something simple. I plan to talk to him first thing Monday morning

 

personal opinion, not fact
what about the 15 automatics we have that have never had a single problem? did we get the only good ones?
manual shift trucks have problems just like any other truck..

 

You're right, it is my personal opinion. And it will never change.

 

shouldnt have to, that's why it's called personal..

 

It's possible it could be something as simple as a bad ground. One would like to think that they would rule out the simple stuff first. Unfortunately, it seldom happens that way. From the way you're talking, I assume they didn't keep the fork so you could see the damage. In the future, anytime they tell you a part needs to be replaced, it's a good idea to ask them to keep those parts for you. Might just save yourself from a needless repair. My money's still on the ECM. It's all fun and games from here on out...good luck.