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Dealer flushed tranny, ruined my vehicle.


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This story has a happy ending.

 

Basically I went in a week ago to the dealership to have my coolant reservoir replaced. It had a small leak (not sure how), and they suggested just replacing the entire tank. $189 for the labor and part, which I thought was fair. No biggie. They also suggested a transmission flush and said my fluid was burnt (70k miles). Now, if I was at some random jiffy lube in the ghetto, I would have declined, but this is a nice dealership. Professional guys. So I said sure, if it needs it, go ahead and do it. It was another $150. No biggie - that's why I keep an emergency fund. So I paid and got my car back a few hours later.

 

As soon as I start driving, I notice my transmission slipping. It's revving weird, and seems to have a hard time choosing what gear to be in. I don't think anything of it. Wasn't bad enough for me to turn around and go back to the dealership, but it was definitely noticeable. 

 

Well, Saturday was my birthday. My girlfriend and I were driving down the highway when it starts slipping bad. Shifting to gears at the wrong time, downshifting at the wrong time, etc. Very bumpy at this point. All of a sudden, the engine disengages from the tranny completely. Pushing my foot down on the pedal did not register at all. I assume the ECU was trying to prevent further damage to the transmission.

 

So I pull over and had a friend pick us up. We went out to dinner and I went on with my birthday, Came back later and luckily chevy roadside assistance towed it to the dealership for free. That was saturday.


Sunday I call the dealership and request to be connected to the service manager. Obviously nobody was there so I got his voicemail and basically left a message explaining what happened. This morning he called me at 7:30am on my way to work and asked me to come in ASAP so he could take a full account of what happened and make sure it got resolved. Both my transmission and engine are under warranty until 100k miles. He took a report of what happened and promised to have his transmission guy look at it ASAP.

 

A few hours later some other guy from the dealership called me and said "yeah, they looked at it and it looks like a valve issue so were gonna fix it. definitely wasn't the flush that caused it though" which I thought was total bullshit. I've never had an issue with the car until the day they flushed the transmission.

 

Wait a few hours and the service manager calls me. "Listen, I think the right thing to do here is going to be to replace the transmission completely. They have to ship a new one from the factory but I would rather do that for you to make sure the issue is taken care of. It's all under warranty and I'm gonna get you in a nice rental and we'll get it done as soon as possible, okay?"

 

Damn right. I knew they fucked up some how. Not sure how or what they did, but I could tell that the manager was trying to grease me over and keep me happy. And it worked. A new transmission at 70k miles will add value to my car and prolong it's life. And hopefully I never have another issue ever again. Love my spark.

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The CVT transmissions are non serviceable. The fluid is designed to last the life of the transmission. In fact, there isn't even a dipstick to check fluid levels. Its all sealed. The dealership sold you a service you did not need. If they did indeed do the service then they are the ones that caused the issue. You have to be really careful with dealerships. They make tons of money on upsells you do not need.

Edited by Ray Dockrey
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There's a special procedure to change fluid in many CVTs . The manufacturers have started sealing them to prevent incorrect fluid from being put in but they really are not sealed in the sense you can still change the fluid out like any transmission but it's more time consuming and technical  . The problem I see is flushing isn't recommend for a CVT by most manufacturers and the other issue is did they use CVT fluid or just put Dexron in . The Spark is the only CVT car they sell so I'm surprised they have that fluid on hand . My dealer didn't even stock the Aisin fluid required for my 13 Spark , it had to be ordered . 

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My coolant reservoir tank started with the top left intake getting brittle and breaking. So I fixed that. Now I am having it overheat/surge out due to what I imagine is high temperatures. But why? Then as I'm inspecting the tank it appears that now the bottom of the tank is changing color and becoming brittle. This seems to be a defect and I shouldn't have to pay for anything. I hope it doesn't cause damage to the a/c compressor, engine or anything else. I can change the tank myself but at $60-80 for the part and another $120 to have the dealer do it just seems ridiculous. 

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There's several of us that had the tank leak , and I agree it's a defect probably in design . I wouldn't pay a dealer when the part is dirt cheap and simple to install . Only issue I could see is if you lost so much fluid that the radiator got low . Then air could be introduced to the system and would need to bleed it . The dealers price might seem excessive because of that . They are supposed to follow protocol but you would need to ask if they plan on bleeding otherwise that's quite a high price for 10 minutes work 

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Ya..I agree with 'Sparkfanatic'...after your overheat you may want to have your NEW tank installed by a trusted mechanic, just so he can check for air and pressure and see if there are any cooling system issues that may require a bleed or drain, fill and pressure check..before tank instal ask him to spray coat the entire tank with this..I use it on the boat for all plastic exposed to hot sun or engine compartment plastic components..works well.>>>>

 
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