Dr. Evil Transmission failed, please sticky*
01-03-2007, 05:07 PM
#1
Dr. Evil Transmission failed, please sticky*
grab a cup of coffee and follow me on my journey.
i began by confirming an order with dr. evil / road master transmission in june 2006. i was told they could not do a core exchange with my because the transmission model number did not match anything they are familiar with, this meant sending my physical transmission to them. ok, we removed it and their courier picked it up. they received the transmission not because they told me, but because i had to call to make sure it was received. during their opening of it never ONCE did they mention anything was missing that they needed. he described the condition of the transmission, i asked for a full written analysis so that i could have a record, i received nothing. i would also like to note that the transmission sat around for a week at their facility because they were installing a new transmission dyno. i dont know why they couldnt just run mine on the old one. also i was worried they werent familiar enough with the new one yet. needless to say i got my transmission back after about 4 weeks.
it looked good, the torque converter was painted red and the bellhousing was painted silver. but it was painted with all the sensor on so the sensors were covered in silver paint.
upon installation the torque converter did not match the flywheel. the torque converter was far too small. i contacted dr. evil and he asked for me to send it back. i overnighted the torque converter and 2 CL-S flywheels (just to make sure on our part) at my expense. i once again had to call to make sure he received them, and he admitted it was the wrong torque converter. i had to wait an additional week because they could not find the right converter. he said they got a new torque converter and send it out to get rebuilt.
so now we had the right torque converter and our flywheels back. everything bolted up just fine, but we noticed something strange. the neutral safety switch was missing. i contacted dr. evil and asked if he knew anything about it. his reaction was simply, we sent back the transmission how we received it. BUT he claims EVERY sensor and solenoid was replaced. so where is my neutral safety switch? my shop had no reason to remove that single sensor. we ordered a new neutral safety switch. not to knit pick, but the dipstick was also not sent back. this had to be ordered as well per my expense.
finally we had the car up and running again. we had issues getting the neutral safety switch set up initially, but it was figured out. sometime early august 06 it was complete and the car ran fantastically. ALSO my motor was rebuilt at the same, so i did not even engage vtec for almost 1,000 miles. the brand new tranny was broken in properly. i did not beat on it because both the motor and tranny were brand new. they were not abused.
sometime at the end of october of 06, the car was acting up. ocassionally when i would come to a stop, the car would 'slip' out of gear as if in neutral, and it would just rev. it would not engage back into gear unless i put it into 2nd gear manually. i wanted to eliminate any other possible problems before i blamed dr. evil. i brought it to multiple places and we analyzed the car over and we fixed other things. NOTE at this time, we did not receive ANY codes for the transmission on both code readers and professional scanners. we pulled up a couple codes for the catalytic converter and o2 sensors, all of which were fixed. by december of 06 the problem was still there, but the car was free of any codes. i finally contacted dr. evil.
i described my problem and he said to check out the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor). Our cars have 2 on the transmission. So i brought the car in and we checked the wiring for the VSS. All was fine, so we replaced the 2 sensors. The problem was still very apparent. Saturday, December 30th, days after speaking to Dr. Evil and replacing the speed sensors, my car threw a code. P0740. Holidays made times tough to get into a shop. I pulled the code with my reader. January 2nd I contacted dr. evil. I did not get a reply until Jan 3rd. I had left my cell phone, but i had no missed calls or voice mails from him. I told him the code i pulled and he still insisted on electrical problems.
I brought it to a local transmission shop where they pulled 2 or 3 codes. I contacted Dr. Evil again informing this of him. He get infuriated that i didn't tell him i wasnt using a scanner initially. When in reality it had been LESS THAN ONE WEEK since the CEL had initially came on and the car was driven VERY little. He said i probably made things worse and that it wasn't his fault. I told him I could not wait 2-3 weeks for the whole warranty process, but that i thought it was reasonable that i get some reimbursement for simply the R&R and/or shipping & handling. He refused all of this and said that he only warranties the work on the transmission itself. That's where our conversation ended as he hung up on me. Needless to say i'm not dealing with them anymore, and i don't recommend anyone else to either.
i began by confirming an order with dr. evil / road master transmission in june 2006. i was told they could not do a core exchange with my because the transmission model number did not match anything they are familiar with, this meant sending my physical transmission to them. ok, we removed it and their courier picked it up. they received the transmission not because they told me, but because i had to call to make sure it was received. during their opening of it never ONCE did they mention anything was missing that they needed. he described the condition of the transmission, i asked for a full written analysis so that i could have a record, i received nothing. i would also like to note that the transmission sat around for a week at their facility because they were installing a new transmission dyno. i dont know why they couldnt just run mine on the old one. also i was worried they werent familiar enough with the new one yet. needless to say i got my transmission back after about 4 weeks.
it looked good, the torque converter was painted red and the bellhousing was painted silver. but it was painted with all the sensor on so the sensors were covered in silver paint.
upon installation the torque converter did not match the flywheel. the torque converter was far too small. i contacted dr. evil and he asked for me to send it back. i overnighted the torque converter and 2 CL-S flywheels (just to make sure on our part) at my expense. i once again had to call to make sure he received them, and he admitted it was the wrong torque converter. i had to wait an additional week because they could not find the right converter. he said they got a new torque converter and send it out to get rebuilt.
so now we had the right torque converter and our flywheels back. everything bolted up just fine, but we noticed something strange. the neutral safety switch was missing. i contacted dr. evil and asked if he knew anything about it. his reaction was simply, we sent back the transmission how we received it. BUT he claims EVERY sensor and solenoid was replaced. so where is my neutral safety switch? my shop had no reason to remove that single sensor. we ordered a new neutral safety switch. not to knit pick, but the dipstick was also not sent back. this had to be ordered as well per my expense.
finally we had the car up and running again. we had issues getting the neutral safety switch set up initially, but it was figured out. sometime early august 06 it was complete and the car ran fantastically. ALSO my motor was rebuilt at the same, so i did not even engage vtec for almost 1,000 miles. the brand new tranny was broken in properly. i did not beat on it because both the motor and tranny were brand new. they were not abused.
sometime at the end of october of 06, the car was acting up. ocassionally when i would come to a stop, the car would 'slip' out of gear as if in neutral, and it would just rev. it would not engage back into gear unless i put it into 2nd gear manually. i wanted to eliminate any other possible problems before i blamed dr. evil. i brought it to multiple places and we analyzed the car over and we fixed other things. NOTE at this time, we did not receive ANY codes for the transmission on both code readers and professional scanners. we pulled up a couple codes for the catalytic converter and o2 sensors, all of which were fixed. by december of 06 the problem was still there, but the car was free of any codes. i finally contacted dr. evil.
i described my problem and he said to check out the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor). Our cars have 2 on the transmission. So i brought the car in and we checked the wiring for the VSS. All was fine, so we replaced the 2 sensors. The problem was still very apparent. Saturday, December 30th, days after speaking to Dr. Evil and replacing the speed sensors, my car threw a code. P0740. Holidays made times tough to get into a shop. I pulled the code with my reader. January 2nd I contacted dr. evil. I did not get a reply until Jan 3rd. I had left my cell phone, but i had no missed calls or voice mails from him. I told him the code i pulled and he still insisted on electrical problems.
I brought it to a local transmission shop where they pulled 2 or 3 codes. I contacted Dr. Evil again informing this of him. He get infuriated that i didn't tell him i wasnt using a scanner initially. When in reality it had been LESS THAN ONE WEEK since the CEL had initially came on and the car was driven VERY little. He said i probably made things worse and that it wasn't his fault. I told him I could not wait 2-3 weeks for the whole warranty process, but that i thought it was reasonable that i get some reimbursement for simply the R&R and/or shipping & handling. He refused all of this and said that he only warranties the work on the transmission itself. That's where our conversation ended as he hung up on me. Needless to say i'm not dealing with them anymore, and i don't recommend anyone else to either.
01-03-2007, 08:37 PM
#2
Damn, this sucks big time, I feel for you buddy, this is no way to do business and I'm glad that you are spreading the word. So many problems in such a short period of time and you'd think you'd get a great product and service for the kind of money you paid and the hassle you've had with them. By the way who exactly did you deal with?
My only advice is despite of everything to try and deal with them nicely a couple more times, get in contact with their supervisor,manager or owner and try works things out. You should have written proof that the car is acting up and throwing codes. If that doesn't work go legal on them, Better Business Bureau and other consumer agencies can help you sort things out with them, there is a lot at stakes here, your effort, time and money.
Keep us posted! To be honest I didn't not expect this kind of service from them they seemed pretty reputable to me but I guess you never know until you start dealing with them.
My only advice is despite of everything to try and deal with them nicely a couple more times, get in contact with their supervisor,manager or owner and try works things out. You should have written proof that the car is acting up and throwing codes. If that doesn't work go legal on them, Better Business Bureau and other consumer agencies can help you sort things out with them, there is a lot at stakes here, your effort, time and money.
Keep us posted! To be honest I didn't not expect this kind of service from them they seemed pretty reputable to me but I guess you never know until you start dealing with them.
01-04-2007, 02:56 PM
#5
Instructor
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BBB this ass-clown and flood the forums, I remember a few years ago i had gotten cheated by a company for like 300$, and they where not cooperating with me so i took the law into my own hands and came up with a scheme to cost that company 3 times what i lost... needles to say i feel satesfied now,lol
01-04-2007, 03:16 PM
#6
The Boss
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This reminds me of a BMW owner who took his car in for a simple oil change and had his car taken for a joyride by a tech and was totalled. He spent about 4 months fighting against the shop with a lawyer and finally got some money back but still shafted.
The only way to really get the word out is flood the forum of your story (stay legit and don't exaggerate), keep BBB in formed and stay on them.
Best of luck
The only way to really get the word out is flood the forum of your story (stay legit and don't exaggerate), keep BBB in formed and stay on them.
Best of luck
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01-04-2007, 09:06 PM
#9
this was for my 5AT for my 01 CL-S
update: my tranny shop now says this was put together terribly, there are 2 filters on the transmission and he said it doesnt look like they were ever changed, they were clogged up and looked original. he said the oil system was being starved. he said the torque converter looks like something out of a junkyard. he mentioned a lot of other things, but i plan to have a full description by tomorrow or saturday.
update: my tranny shop now says this was put together terribly, there are 2 filters on the transmission and he said it doesnt look like they were ever changed, they were clogged up and looked original. he said the oil system was being starved. he said the torque converter looks like something out of a junkyard. he mentioned a lot of other things, but i plan to have a full description by tomorrow or saturday.
01-04-2007, 09:26 PM
#10
'06 750Li Sapphire/Creme
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OK, I understand but since the 3G's have VERY few tranny issues, why post it in here? Shouldn't this be in the CL section? Or is this just a customer trying to make certain he exposes the poor service to every avenue he can reach (You know the modo of Bad service repeated 10 times whereas good service never gets a mention?). Either way, I guess it's OK but when I first started reading this I was like WTF? NOW the 3G's have tranny issues TOO? Maybe we are thread #10 in the path of enlightenment?
01-04-2007, 10:44 PM
#12
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Originally Posted by CleanCL
haha, well, the reason i posted here was because a few 3G TL guys mentioned going to them for upgrade torque converters. this is posted in all the forums. i'm just trying to make everyone aware.
Geez... CleanCL whers Chuck Norris when you need him?
Funny i used to think that this was a great idea and that if i kept mt TL for long enough i would do this to the tranny, sorry to hear you had to learn the hard way and for all of us to benefit from it.
Who would have thaught a guy named Dr. Evil was a bad guy?
Where do you think he went to learn how to fix cars? "evil mechancs school"
01-05-2007, 09:44 AM
#13
The Boss
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Originally Posted by CleanCL
this was for my 5AT for my 01 CL-S
update: my tranny shop now says this was put together terribly, there are 2 filters on the transmission and he said it doesnt look like they were ever changed, they were clogged up and looked original. he said the oil system was being starved. he said the torque converter looks like something out of a junkyard. he mentioned a lot of other things, but i plan to have a full description by tomorrow or saturday.
update: my tranny shop now says this was put together terribly, there are 2 filters on the transmission and he said it doesnt look like they were ever changed, they were clogged up and looked original. he said the oil system was being starved. he said the torque converter looks like something out of a junkyard. he mentioned a lot of other things, but i plan to have a full description by tomorrow or saturday.
filters were never changed and junkyard torque converter? It sounds like they just wanted your money. Let the tranny sit there for 2 weeks and quickly assemble everything together and ship it out in a month to make it look like they really worked on it for the entire 4 weeks lol.........
01-07-2007, 02:33 AM
#14
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Protorque and IPT are the best in the market for aftermarket automatic trans builds. i'm currently running IPT high-stall, and complete IPT race transmission in my RSX auto.
Both have huge reputations, esp in the WRX/DSM/domestic communties.
Both have huge reputations, esp in the WRX/DSM/domestic communties.
01-07-2007, 04:09 PM
#15
Suzuka Master
Originally Posted by 06WDP-TL
Protorque and IPT are the best in the market for aftermarket automatic trans builds. i'm currently running IPT high-stall, and complete IPT race transmission in my RSX auto.
Both have huge reputations, esp in the WRX/DSM/domestic communties.
Both have huge reputations, esp in the WRX/DSM/domestic communties.
01-11-2007, 04:29 PM
#16
Originally Posted by AcuraDriver2006
if all the above is true my friend. You just got owned by Dr. Evil...................
Owned? Dr. Evil?
Funny..I called after I read this the first time for a "price quote" and they dodged my question, told me they would have DAD call me back...and that is the last I have heard. She ran back and he said to get my number and he would look into it and call me back....still waiting today...
01-12-2007, 12:00 PM
#17
Hondata > *
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Originally Posted by pohljm
Do they market any products for the 3rd gen 5AT TL?
took them about a week for the TC, and another 2 weeks for complete trans overhaul and build. they do their work pretty fast. but i would've appreciated if they had taken pics of the parts they replaced, metalax/cryo treated, etc. to show me exactly what they did.
01-12-2007, 12:22 PM
#18
Originally Posted by 06WDP-TL
they should be able to. They dont carry core parts. You have to send it in, they build it to your setup specs and needs. They didnt carry any RSX "products" either per say. i bought a spare trans for cheap from a junk yard. (300 for 19k miles trans) shipped it directly to them.
took them about a week for the TC, and another 2 weeks for complete trans overhaul and build. they do their work pretty fast. but i would've appreciated if they had taken pics of the parts they replaced, metalax/cryo treated, etc. to show me exactly what they did.
took them about a week for the TC, and another 2 weeks for complete trans overhaul and build. they do their work pretty fast. but i would've appreciated if they had taken pics of the parts they replaced, metalax/cryo treated, etc. to show me exactly what they did.
01-12-2007, 03:00 PM
#19
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06WDP-TL - How much did it cost for your rebuilt TC and transmission. I might consider it since I have my tranny out already. How do you like your rebuilt tranny. Does it perform exactly like how they advertise it?
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