Repair shop Scam... What to do

[slw240sx]

sounds like there were more hard parts that needed replaced then what he assumed, which is not uncommon. That is when you go down and ask to be shown the damaged parts that need replaced and to get a amended estimate. Then speak with a person who has some experience and see if this is what is needed. It is very common for a rebuild to get quoted at one price and end up much more expensive. trans shops are normally one of the most expensive ways to get trans problems fixed. We normally source lower mileage or remann units from reputable salvage yards and purchase warranties for them. This tends to be cheaper then rebuilding especially since we would have to outsource that labor to seasoned builders. That part doesn't sound all that fishy. could be him trying to explain stuff in laymens terms and not getting it across 100% correctly.

The coolant leak issue, that is not uncommon for most German cars. BMW, AUDI, VW all loved to use plastic on anything coolant related. That being said the type of plastic they used becomes super brittle after a few years. Almost every time i have worked on a VW or BMW i had to replace at least one or two plastic coolant junctions or housings. Its part of the game with them. I rarely eat that cost as it happens and its not fair for the business to lose money on crappy plastic. I normally give the customers a good deal on the parts and the labor it normally overlapped in the job some where. for this i am betting they broke a plastic thermo housing that feeds coolant to the trans or the lines from the rad and they will need replaced. Now can the tech be really careful to avoid this issue? yes and no, sometimes no matter what it happens even if you are being really gentle.
so it sucks to have to pay more for this stuff, but its the cost of owning a german car.



I did some more looking around it seems the avg repair cost is 1800-2K and thats with good shape transmissions that do not require more parts due to other damage inside the trans. so i would say any where from 1800-2500 is probably fair cost of this job. it can cost more depending on how much internal damage is in the trans.
A trans shop is not just going to fix the reverse issue if they see that the forward gears have worn parts. that would leave them open to warranty work that they would have to provide even though its not their fault the trans fails. Then when they deny the warranty due to that fact they leave them selves open to civil litigation by the customer for refusing to warranty a job that a customer was only wanting to half fix.
some times it sucks, but 2-4K is about average for this type of rebuild work. You know next time to shop around and get more info. check out respected performance shops too, most have a good amount of experience with service work and seeing common failures and cheaper ways to fix them.