Complain about a product or service

Drive Line Services

Wenatchee

Mats of Wenatchee, WA October 12, 2009

This complaint is against Driveline Services and Dave the owner of that business. First I would like to state that I was a mechanic for more than 20 years so I am familiar with all aspects of this particular repair. In December 2008 I brought my 1995 Chevrolet pickup to Driveline Services for replacements of u-joints in the driveshaft. I had experienced a slight ticking sound coming from the rear of my truck. After replacing my u-joints Dave called and said that it didn't solve the ticking noise problem. He suggested that he disassemble and check the rear differential.

The next day he called and said he found a broken tooth on the ring and pinion gear set. I gave him the go ahead to continue with the repair and replace the broken parts. I wrote Dave a check for $109.67 for the u-joint replacement (although he had quoted me it would be less than $100). I wrote him a second check for $684.72. The second check was for a new ring and pinion gear set, new bearing set for the differential and the labor to set it up.

After driving it for a couple of days I felt a big "clunk" coming from the rear end while backing up in my driveway. I also now experienced a fairly loud "howl" from the rear differential when driving down the road. I immediately called Dave who suggested I bring the truck so he could check it out. Dave called a few hours later and said he must not have seated the pinion bearing race when he first assembled the rear end. He said he just tightened the pinion nut back up and that it was fine now. I asked him if he had replaced the "crush sleeve" when he did this. He said "no, that is not necessary". The crush sleeve comes with the new parts and is required so the right amount of pre-load is applied to the pinion bearings.

The truck is mostly used for driving back and forth to work about two miles a day in town. But during a weekend I got the truck up to highway speed. At 50-60 miles per hour there was a vibration coming from the rear end that had never been there before. I could feel the vibration in the floor board, the rear view mirrors would shake so you could not see backwards and I could hear a low frequency rumble. I brought the truck back to Dave and left it with him to work on.

Shortly thereafter he called back and said he had checked it out and there was nothing wrong with it. I asked if he test drove it and he said "no, it wouldn't do much good since he couldn't hear very well anyways. Dave made the comment that my front end needed some work so there was no use trouble shooting anything else until that was taken care of. That statement made no sense but I decided to take the truck to Les Schwab to have my front end rotors turned with their on the vehicle lathe. I also had them replace some front end parts that was getting worn.

While at les Schwab I asked them to look at the rear end vibration to see if they could pin point what the problem was. While I was watching they ran the truck up to 50-60 mph on their rack with the wheels jacked up. The mechanics showed me how the entire rack started to shake and vibrate at that speed. They pointed out that you could see how the driveline was moving up and down during the event. Les Schwab concluded the problem was either a driveline problem or it was in the rear differential, both items that Dave had just worked on.

Before I brought the truck to Dave again I decided to take it JT differentials in Cashmere for a third opinion. JT's specialize in differentials and rear end related problems. After going for a test drive with one of their techs he also could feel the rear end vibration and agreed the problem was either driveline or differential. Both Les Schwab and JT's also strongly rejected the procedure Dave had done when he re-tightened the pinion nut without replacing the "crush sleeve" at that time.

Dave had told me to bring the truck back to him after the front end work so we both could go for a test drive together. I brought the truck back to Dave again and asked if we should go on that test drive now. He said "no, I am tired of that truck". When I pointed out that he was the one who suggested I bring it back for the test drive he responded "that was then this is now and I am tired of that truck". After some arguing Dave agreed to take the drive line back off and re-balance it.

Later that day Dave called and said that I could pick up the truck, and that there was nothing wrong with it. When asked if he had test drove it, the answer again was "no, wouldn't be able to hear anything anyways". I asked Dave to lock the keys in the truck and leave it outside so I could pick it up after work. Dave then asked how I intended to pay the bill. He now wanted me to pay him more money for the re-balancing of the drive line. When I asked Dave why I should pay him for a problem that he created and never solved, he just kept saying "why should I work for you for free". He denied there was a problem with the truck, although he never even test drove it and kept going in a circle repeating "why should I work for you for free".

After some time of this repeated nonsense I asked Dave if I would have to take him to court to get this resolved. I also asked him if I should send the driveline to a different driveline shop for balancing. His answer was "I am writing down all these threats you are making". After work I went and got my truck with no resolution from Dave. After driving it for a few more months with the vibrations still present I noticed oil was starting to come out around the pinion seal in the rear end. Since Dave had made it very clear he would spend any more time on my truck I decided to take it to JT's in cashmere for evaluation and repair. They almost immediately found the problem that caused the vibration: the pinion yoke was bent and out .060 from center. They also found the newly installed pinion bearings worn and in need of replacement. Since the bearings needed to be replaced it also required a complete new setup of the ring & pinion.

In addition they found the posi trac in the differential worn to a point where it could fail any time. This is the part of the differential that you bolt up a new ring gear to. Notice that Dave never said a word about it being worn. I had to pay JT's $1198.98 for the repair to get everything fixed. According to them $600+ could have been avoided if the original repair had been done correctly. I am going to be very fair and give Dave a chance to make things right. The vibration and the bent pinion yoke was absolutely not there when I brought my truck to Dave. Cost for the new yoke: $99.00. The cost to set the ring & pinion up again since he did not install a new crush sleeve and the pinion bearings wore our prematurely: $360.00. Cost for new pinion bearing kit: 52.00. This all adds up to $511.00 plus tax for a total of $551.88.

JT's presented three choices to me: 1.Bare bones repair to fix the vibration and the prematurely worn out bearings. $592.08 2.Same as option 1 but replace the posi trac with an open member. $7-800 3. Same as option 1 but replace posi trac with new unit. $1193.98. I decided to go with option 3 but am only asking Driveline Services to refund parts and labor necessary to repair damage caused by their mistake. I filed a complaint with BBB and asked for mediation but the business refused. There is now a negative against the business in BBB's record.

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