April 23rd I took my wife's 2007 Ford Explorer to AAmco in Plano, TX. I asked for them to change the transmission fluid & informed them that the truck was losing power & revving high intermittently especially when it's warmed up. The service person said his people would run full diagnostics & a road test before doing any fluid service & if there was a problem with the transmission the tests would find it.
A couple hours later he said it passed all the tests no problems detected & they were going to service the transmission. After servicing the transmission I was told the technician experienced the revving & hesitation I had informed them about & that the transmission would be in need of repair.
They said it would likely be a sticking transmission valve & they could fix/replace it for about $600.00 so with that assessment I then gave authorization for them to fix the problem of the hesitating & high revving. After them having the truck a couple days I get a call & they tell me the valve replacement won't fix the problem & that the transmission will have to be rebuilt with new parts.
I then called Ford to see if there was anything they could do so far as warranty but unfortunately for me it was too late. There opening up the transmission to replace the valve had voided the 5yr 60,000 mile Power/Tran warranty we apparently still had for another couple thousand miles I dropped the ball in not knowing that.
I asked if they could just put it back together with the original parts & he said it would cost $1,200.00 just to do that for us. They take it apart to do what was supposed to be a 6-$700.00 repair & now say they won't put it back together with original parts unless I pay them $1,200.00.
I was in a tough spot so I hesitatingly told them to go ahead & do the $3,000.00 transmission rebuild. After that there were several delays with wrong parts being ordered or delivered. My wife a mother of three children was without her vehicle for ten days & had to depend on her elderly parents for transportation from work & getting kids from school.
We finally get the truck back on May5th & it still wasn't running right. I called AAMCO the next day & was told there's a 200mile break in period & to not bring it back for another week unless we notice leaks or an engine light. We don't make it a week before going back because we know it's not supposed to run so poorly even during a break in period.
Morning of May11th we return to AAMCO the technician drives the truck around & says the revving & hesitation is due to a malfunctioning fan clutch that's robbing the motors power & subsequently causes vehicle functions including shifting to not work properly. That same AAMCO technician said he had made note while they had the truck during one of there test drives of that same problem but I wasn't informedbabout it.
AAMCOs Manager said they were going to stand by the transmission work they had done & that I hadn't described the symptoms sounds the truck was making to him well enough in the very beginning. The transmission originally passed all the diagnostic tests & the road test but they still found ways to do the most expensive service.
Last but not least they offered to replace the fan clutch for an additional $400.00. There offering to fix the fan clutch would have needlessly taken even more of my money. I got another opinion and replacing the thermostat finally fixed the issue. For a few hundred dollars the performance problem was fixed. The transmission was not broken they did not fix our problem by rebuilding the transmission.
The loss of power & revving especially when hot was caused by an over active fan resulting from a malfunctioning thermostat. They would have replaced the wrong thing again apparently. I'm disappointed that a well known long established business such as AMCO would place profit overbcustomer service and satisfaction.
The problem was not corrected until the thermostat was replaced by a different repair shop. The work they did on my Wifes Ford Explorer did not fix the problem. I think that is poor business at least from the customer service stand point which does not seem to matter to them.
The AAMCO franchise in Plano, TX took full advantage of my trust & ignorance. All I wanted was for my wifes Explorer to run properly & safely. I didn't even get that for $3,334.63.
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