3 weeks ago I had the throw out bearings replaced on my '93 Dodge Dakota Sport pick-up. The mechanic gave me what I thought was a good deal, $550 parts and labor. A week after I find myself stranded unable to get the clutch to engage. upon calling the mechanic I am told it is unrelated and to tow the truck in. They tear it open again and tell me the pressure plate and clutch disk are bad and since they had to again open up the trany, I am looking at $800.
I have talked to several novices mechanics as well as searched the web and the general consensus it that they should have replaced the entire clutch assembly and that this comes as one complete kit.
Would you agree?
what kind of problem were you having before this? how many miles are on this clutch and throwout bearing? he should have replaced everything the first time if it had high mileage on it.
This is a 1993 with over 100,000 miles on it. Before taking it in, I had the typical noises associated with bad bearings.
with that milege I don’t know why the mechanic didn’t sell you the entire job in the first place???Not very professional of him
You CAN buy and replace the throw-out bearing…the question is “What mechanic would just do that.” Since well over 50% of the cost is labor…I don’t know a any mechanic who’ll just replace a throw-out bearing. That’s just stupid.
There is only one throw-out bearing,why do you write “bearings”?. It is not necessary to “open up the tranny” to replace this bearing. Am I correct in concluding that your automotive knowledge is very limited? Perhaps the mechanic senses this and it makes him feel confident that he can get you to pay for his error of not replacing clutch parts while he had the transmission out. Was there any discussion about clutch condition or the mechanics reasoning to not replace clutch parts while you were giving the OK to do the TO bearing? This is when replacing the clutch itself should have been discussed.