Is this the mechanics fault???

I recently brought my car to the shop to have a transmission leak fixed. It is on a 64 olds dynamic, and its a slim jim which I dont know anything about it so I paid to have it fixed. Turns out the pump seal on the tranny was garbage, so the mechanic pulled the trans and fixed it. NOW the messed up part....I get the car back to my house and realize that there is motor oil leaking like crazy. I believe its the rear main thats leaking now. My car has NEVER leaked motor oil until I brought it to the trans man. I call him and tell him the situation, and of course he accepts no responsibility for the new leak.

My question to you guys is what should/can I do???

 

Fix your car yourself, so you won't have to be pissed off at anyone other than yourself, and you won't feel bad for having spent money to have someone else screw up your junk.

I started messing up automatic transmissions when I was 16, I've learned a lot, and saved a ton of money.

 

Looks like you will be replacing a rear seal.

 

When a weak link is eliminated, something else has to become the weak link. In a 45 year old car, there are plenty of candidates ready to step up. Accept it....fix it...move on.

 

This is the reason most regular repair shops won't even touch old stuff. Fix one thing and something else breaks. Did pulling the tranny damage the rear main, probably but in a 45 year old car shit happens.

 

That's why a lot of mechanics don't want to mess with old cars. They get blamed if something else fails.

 

I don't see anything that he could have done that would have caused the main to leak. It may have been disturbed a bit when the trans was pulled/installed but that is just the general makeup of things.
The car is 45 years old and the seal may well be that old. Chalk it up to stuff happens.

A story on me.
In the early 70's I worked as a front alignment mechanic at Frank Weaver Pontidac in Waco, tx. I had an older gent bring in his mid 60's Pontiac for a wheel alignment one day and when I was done and went to back it off the rack it wouldn't start and it was somewhat obvious that the timing chain had gone out. It took the boss some serious talking to get the man convinced that I couldn't have done anything to damage the timing chain myself.

 

sounds like the seal was on it's way to a leak and removing the trans jostled it a bit.

on an old car any time you open the hood something that is about to let go could go. then you fix it. eventually the whole car will be rebuilt one part at a time.

 

If he cleaned up the crap and used some compressed air it may have started the leak that was coming anyway.I hate working on old cars/junk because of the fact that shit always happens and you get blamed for it. That and the fact that most customers are cheap,untruthful,coniving morons out for anything they can get for nothing.....

 

As a former shop owner we used to get this sort of thing all the time. "You changed my oil and now my tire is flat" (true story)

Pulling the trans to fix it had nothing to do with your oil leak. Think about it, the rear main seal is behind the flexplate and only rides on the crank. Removing the trans would not upset the seal in any way, it can't get "Jostled" a bit (the crank can't move that easy nor can the bits that hold the seal move.) It also has nothing to do with fixing the other leak - motor and trans fluids are in no way connected.
Unless he pulled the flexplate (which shouldn't have been necessary) and intentionally damaged the rear main seal, or was completely incompetent and did something really stupid, I think it is just a coincidence that it decided to leak now.

 

A leaky pump seal would drip out of the same area as the rear main. Quite possibly this could have been leaking for a long time and you would never know because the fluids would mix and the fluid would be red on the ground. I dont see how they could damage the rear main by removing the trans. Verify the fluid is not coming from the rear of the valve covers and/or intake mainfold or oil pressure sender. On a vehicle that old the tech may be leary about looking for other leaks to "upsell" because one thing leads to another. There are a lot of reasons techs dont like to work on older cars, they generally see them and dirty, greasy and everything you touch breaks, hard to find parts for etc....
I'm a retired tech. I worked on electronics, drivability, computer related systems for Linc/Merc but personally I prefer the old stuff. My jobs were much cleaner work than pulling a trans.

 

The crank probably has not moved front-back in a long time, and there is some end play, and jostling the flywheel to get the converter disconnected could have moved it enough to make it lose it's seal...since the seal is really old and brittle, the crank is grooved and covered with varnish, etc.

I like the mixing oils hypothesis too.

 

Car karma.
Fix it.
Move on.

 

I have this very same issue on one of my O/T rides..when i checked the fluid..i noticed its both..Trans and Engine oil..but quick glance at it on the garage floor it looks like just trans fluid...but its not

 

The leak probably is due to pulling the transimission, but that does'nt make it the mechanics fault. Your could either pull the engine, or tranny and change the rear main seal, or pay the mechanic to do it... the worst part of working in any service industry is trying to explain to customers why it's not your fault that something broke immediatly after a different repair was made.

 

Well, I appreciate everyones feedback...I guess I cant put blame on anyone. I took it to him for the trans, and the trans is what he fixed. Similar to what was mentioned, when 1 thing is fixed, 2 more problems occour. NEXT QUESTION-

Anyone know where to get a rear main seal for a 394

 

Be happy he fixed your tranny leak,,,
like the guys have stated ALOT of shops won't work on older cars that already have problems because they don't want to get into pissing matches when something "NEW" starts going wrong after they fix the problem that the car was brought in for.
I have figured out how to fix more problems on my own for the SOLE reason that , then I can't blame anyone else when something goes wrong,,,
sit down, figure out how to fix it, and DO IT,,,
it's the only way you will ever learn how to take care of YOUR CAR,,,
otherwise you're like every other GOLD CHAINER that may drive it all over,,, but doesn't know shit about fixing it,,, better yet,, buy some beers and pizza and have some friends over to help if you aren't sure of your skills,,,

xoxo
miss hootch

 

I would check with www.egge.com first, www.kanter.com second, and www.speedway.com third...unless you olds guys know of better places...do a search on the forum for previous threads, there's bound to be some good Olds engine tech...

 

That seal may be available at your local Ma and Pa autoparts store, or even Napa may have it.

 

did you by chance just change the oil? and use a different kind of oil this time? my friend has always used valvoline in his 57 chevrolet, changed the oil using something on sale , and the rear main flows like a dike with a hole in it. changed back to valvoline and after 1,000 miles the leak stopped !!!!!. we were ready to pull the engine and change the seal, thinking since it has been 14 years since we built the engine, that it let go. but putting the same oil back in cured it. cadillac dave

 

It never fails , blame it on someone.

 

EVERYTHING is the mechanics fault. How would I know? I "are" one. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff we get blamed for.
Larry T

 

When I was about 17 I agreed to help out a buddy and replaced his trans for $50. I had done several trans by this time, but mainly just ford stuff, this was my first SBC. So just like the Fords I had done, I slowly let the trans and rear of the engine drop until I hear this horrible crunch on the top end. Smashed the dizzy cap on the firewall! I spent a big chunk of my $50 on a new cap for him.

Just thought you would like a story where the mechanic did actually screw up something else -- working on the trans he f'ed up the dizzy

 

HAHA.....I've gotten the "you changed my oil and now my radio doesn't work"(true story)

 

"you put a clutch in my car yesterday. When I got home, my house's waterheater was leaking. I never had any trouble with it until you fixed my clutch. Whadda ya goin ta do about it?"

 

Funny shit..I get this all the time being in the service industy..(not car related)
We joke about it here..that if the train jumps off the tracks down at the steel mill its going to be blamed on us

 

I know what you mean... I fix appliances for money, and it's the same thing... "you fixed the leak on my washer and now it's making a funny noise that it wasn't making before, you have to come back and fix it for free, and you have to do it today! I have fifteen kids and a convelescent great uncle and my washer can't be blah blah blah blah blah".

 

It's a rope seal, try to find a neaoprine (spelling?). They will work a TON better.
You can do it in the car, but it's a bitch. May be easier to pull the engine, you can clean it up as well as the engine bay if needed, re seal the pan and fix any other leaks that you notice. Not that hard to pull the engine, you could probably pull it, clean it, fix it and have it in and running on a saturday if you had all the parts there ready to go.

 

Not always the mechanics' fault...sometimes it's the body man's

I fixed a 77 Impala for an old guy years ago---hit in the back---new bumper, fixed both quarters, rear body panel, lamps etc. He comes back in two weeks and the headliner's falling down....if any of you know about GM headliners, you know exactly what and why---anyway, he says "HEY! YOU didn't FIX my headliner!!" I said "It's a common problem--it's old, and they all fall down eventually"
He yells back at me "I'M old TOO, but I DON'T JUST FALL DOWN!!!! The WRECK caused it to fall!!!!"

I told him if his insurance would agree to pay for it, I'd fix it.
Never saw him again....but did see his car parked at the store one day....noticed it had a bunch of thumbtacks holding the headliner up

 

This pasted Friday , we serviced this guy's automatic transmission and when he came to get it he claimed the CD player was broken. I sware he came back in the shop raising hell. One of the Techs went out to see what was wrong.....there wasn't a CD in the damn player!!! The guy just drove off...