having problems. Options

[AWD DSM 1]

Last Saturday I put a clutch in for a realatively new member of the board, and someone who admitted to me that they were not mechanicaly savy. I charged a very resonable fee and installed the clutch in a day. Car is a 98 GSX, clutch was a ACT 2100 with a fidenza flywheel and ACT throwout bearing. Tranny was filled with Penzoil syncromesh. I discoverd a leaky clutch master cylinder when the clutch pedal stuck to the floor. Resivoir was found to be empty when I opened it, so the system was filled and bled.

Those of you that know me I hope will vouch for my abilities at being qualified to put these items into this car. Problems have now arrisen that I belive are unrelated to the clutch, and I am being blamed for them. I don't take lightly to this sort of thing. I think my record is pretty spotless, I'd like to keep it that way.

Customer is now complaining of a vibration that seems to come from the rear of the car. Also is making a noise such that he can't hear the radio over it. Also complains of leaking fluid, pretty sure it's tranny fluid.

I attributed the vibration and noise to the light flywheel and the ACT throwout bearing. I don't understand why the noise would be this loud, but I haven't heard it myself either. Bearing was lubed prior to installation. Customer has replaced the master and slave cylinders. I attributed the leak at first to possibly some fluid I forgot to wipe up, but after stating that it has continued, I suggest that it's possibly a axle seal that went bad after pulling the axles. They have stated that they are going to have to take the car to the dealer to have this fixed now for $600+, which I think is a total rip-off.

Am I totally off base here? I'm afraid that this person is, in part, having too high of expectations for a 9 year old modified car. I'd like to see him save the $600 for something more usefull. I'd invite this person to let me take a look at the car, possibly with another qualified member of the board, so we can get this worked out so that everyone is happy. I don't expect this person to reply, but I hope that they read to understand that I'm not out to get anyone.

[akamiami]

I can't imagine anybody having a problem with Rob as he's always been a go-to guy for needs with parts and assistance for many of us.

Bottom line here is that parts fail on DSM's, particularly when they're modified, and particularly when you're getting in there and replacing other parts. Similar situation would be replacing ball joints and the tie rod ends go out. Happens all the time.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy to see now that the seals would have been a good idea but a trans job is no small task and it's often difficult enough to ensure that all the parts that are _directly_ relevant are sure to be included when the car is dropped off at the shop for work. And as we all know, there are a million 'while you're at it' type things that can come into play. Who is to say that he shouldn't have suggested popping off the oil pan and inspecting the bearings since he already had the t-case and possibly the downpipe off the car? Or performing the t-case yolk seal fix and filling the carrier bushings with window weld while the car saw some downtime.

The buck has to stop at some point and I think AWD already demonstrated that he went beyond the scope of the original work by handling the clutch hydraulics issue when it arose.