What is your opinion of an independent
 

Mercedes shop that sends your car to AAMCO for transmission work? Should I be concerned? This shop is usually very well spoken of but this has me baffled. If I knew they were going to send it to AAMCO I could have saved the time and diagnosis charge and done it myself.

Comments??

Thanks!

I do not know exactly what others will say though I do believe that the general opinion of AAMCO is that it sucks.....

Though, you could look at it from the perspective that the independent maybe knew his limitations and decided that it would be best that someone else work the tranny instead of him trying to fix it and screw it up?

Iggy

I think you should tell him that you did not authorize work to be subbed out. I would not let anyone touch my tranny unless I did some background/research on their experience level with these trannys.

Thanks for the responses guys. What bothers me most though is that this supposedly "highly recommended" shop would sub out transmission work. If the highest recommended indi subs out their work to AAMCO who, besides the dealer, can I trust to do the work right?

I have a friend who owns a trans shop that I could have taken it to from the start. I thought I would be smart though and go with and "experienced" Mercedes indi.....So much for that. Guess I'm back to plan A which is just to take it to the origianal trans shop my friend owns. At least I know he'll shoot me straight.

Thanks!

I'd be concerned for two reasons. Aamco has a poor reputation. The independant will want his cut in the deal when you could have taken the car elsewhere yourself.

EXACTLY!! Why not just tell the customer up front "Hey, you might be better off just taking it to AAMCO" Let me make the call rather than telling me "We can fix it" and then pulling this.. This is pretty frustrating.

Id' worry about amocco,

They definately are known for just replacing the friction plates in an overhaul. No tolerance setup! Very low on diagnositic skills.

In addition, each store operates independantly and the warrentee nationally is only effective if it breaks far away from home. So if the local shop screws it up- you are stuck with them fixing it (or trying to).

I'm not sure of the size of your town, but I'd ask around a bit. If your transmission needs replacement, you'd be far better off buying a quality rebuild and having the local independant install it.



Michael

Farming out work is neither uncommon nor necessarily a bad thing. Many independents don't have facilities to do engine machine work and injection pump bench work. Lots of SF Bay Area independents farm out tranny rebuilds to the famed Peter Schmit (sp?). Aamco is a different story. I'd probably try rebuilding it myself before sending it to Aamco :)

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Interesting update
 

Well, I get a call back from the Indi telling me that they suspect the transmission module is bad. The car would not shift from first until the module codes were cleared but now the car shifts erratically. They tell me that they do not have the equipment to diagnose the problem further.

Ebay has a control module from a 1997 E320 ( same car ) for $80. Does anyone happen to know if the module has to be programmed to the trans or if it can just be plugged in?

Thanks again!!

Brian