kilrb

I'm looking for any ideas here as to what has happened. I have a 2004 TL I handed off to a new salesman I hired at 85k miles. I drove it up to that point, and the original clutch gave out by 90k miles. It was replaced by a local Acura dealer, and he drove it another month, for around 1,500 miles. One day, on his way home, he had trouble getting it into 1st and 2nd gear. He managed to get it into 3rd, and limped it home for 2-3 miles. We had the car towed back to the dealer, and they said the clutch was absolutely fried. They are being reasonable, and are bringing in a factory technician to examine it. The guy who has been driving it is a fairly conservative 60 year old who knows how to drive manual, and I'm pretty darned sure he didn't attempt a 6th gear burnout that smoked the new clutch. The shop who installed the clutch on my 410whp Vette tells me that an improper install or faulty parts could lead to this problem. The Acura dealer claims to be befuddled, saying if it were a bad install, it wouldn't have been driveable. He also said the clutch shows obvious signs of tremendous heat. My clutch expert said that a bad install could lead to the clutch not disingaging or not fully engaging, leading to excessive wear. My thoughts are maybe the install was bad, and after 1,500 miles, it wasn't fully engaging, and was slipping, and perhaps those last 2-3 miles the clutch was slipping, which built up a lot of heat, which finnished off the clutch. They have a new clutch in, and the synchros in all gears are fine, except 4th. Can anyone help me out with some ideas as to who is responsible? Common sense tells me it must be a parts/install issue, as I don't think I hired a closet maniac (I hope).