What should I do with my old, undrivable car so I may recapture some money?

subaru17

I have a pretty 2000 Subaru outback LTD with 156,000 miles on it. had to replace original motor with a used motor with 114,000 miles. during the process of removing the original motor and replacing it with the new/used motor, something is out of sync with the transmission where the car jerks and slams into gear. the car shop can't seem to fix it. they said I needed new axles to fix the problem. so I replaced the axles to the tune of $800 more dollars, and the problem is still there. now they don't want to even talk to me even tho there's a one year warranty on parts and labor! Does anyone know the reason why during the performance of this work, there may have been something that affected the shifting and what it could possibly be? If it can't be fixed, does anyone know what I should do with the car to best recoup some of my losses? At this stage, I have $5,000.00 into a repair of a car that can't be driven. If I call a salvage company, will they pay me for the car or will I have to pay them to pick it up? what about selling it on craigslist to someone who wants to tinker or sell it off as parts? any advice would be appreciated! thanks

xwesx

I pulled the engine out of my '96 Outback twice, and the first time I didn't get the engine/tranny aligned properly. In my case, I couldn't get the transmission to engage at all. After pulling it apart, I found that the torque converter was not seated correctly. After several attempts to realign it, I finally removed the converter from the flex plate, installed it in to the transmission, then aligned and attached the flex plate and engine to it separately. It was a PITA to get the nuts on the flex plate bolts for the converter, but ultimately much easier than the other method.

If your car's isue was not a problem before, then I suspect that something is either not aligned properly or not connected properly (electrical connections). Are you getting any dash lights? I know that these guys like to say that problems like this must have been pre-existing, but, in my experience, when something doesn't work right after repairs that did work right beforehand, the issue is causality, not coincidence.

Michaell

subaru17 said:

I have a pretty 2000 Subaru outback LTD with 156,000 miles on it. had to replace original motor with a used motor with 114,000 miles. during the process of removing the original motor and replacing it with the new/used motor, something is out of sync with the transmission where the car jerks and slams into gear. the car shop can't seem to fix it. they said I needed new axles to fix the problem. so I replaced the axles to the tune of $800 more dollars, and the problem is still there. now they don't want to even talk to me even tho there's a one year warranty on parts and labor! Does anyone know the reason why during the performance of this work, there may have been something that affected the shifting and what it could possibly be? If it can't be fixed, does anyone know what I should do with the car to best recoup some of my losses? At this stage, I have $5,000.00 into a repair of a car that can't be driven. If I call a salvage company, will they pay me for the car or will I have to pay them to pick it up? what about selling it on craigslist to someone who wants to tinker or sell it off as parts? any advice would be appreciated! thanks

While I don't have any specific advise here, I've sent out a call to arms to some of our more knowledgeable posters to get them to weigh in with their opinions.

You should have some recourse if the warranty was in writing ...

stever

Yeah, I was thinking small claims court.

Mr_Shiftright

Definitely small claims court. Something has gone terribly wrong here and, at least from your side of the story, the repair shop has not made good on it. If you have warranties in writing, you have a case, at least for partial re-imbursement.

fibber2

We don't know the time period involved here, but 42,000 miles has elapsed from the motor install to now. I think you'll have a tough time substantiating your claim.

kyfdx

fibber2 said:

We don't know the time period involved here, but 42,000 miles has elapsed from the motor install to now. I think you'll have a tough time substantiating your claim.

I read that as the mileage on the replacement engine.. The rest of the post leads me to believe that he just had the work done.

qbrozen

I find it hard to believe they gave a 1-year warranty on a used engine with 114k on it.