My wife bought a 2001 Subaru Forester from All Motor Cars, and after ~50 miles the clutch went. Now, I am a mechanic by trade, and have owned Subarus for years, and I couldn t tell it was on its way out, so I understand how this one slipped past them. Also, they agreed to replace it under warranty, even though none was offered (Lemon Law specifically does NOT cover clutch assemblies), which was great. Then, the trouble started... They replaced the clutch, throwout bearing, and replaced SOME (yes, some) of the transmission gear oil with oil I provided (fail #1). They did NOT inspect and re-surface the flywheel (fail #2) as per OE instructions for clutch replacement, nor did they bleed the clutch hydraulic system (fail #3). Since the flywheel was apparently warped, the new clutch disc warped to fit, and started to chatter, and the throwout bearing (which may or may not have been installed properly) started to squeak. I replaced the slightly leaky clutch slave cylinder and loose master cylinder cap, and bled the clutch myself, but no luck. I also bought new oil to replace the partial fill they did for whatever reason, and did a PROPER job of changing the transmission oil. I called up All Motors, and they said bring it in. So, we brought it back... (*note- this time, I did not ask for the old parts back, as I had before, so I have no evidence of any actual work being performed.)This time, they replaced the throwout bearing and re-surfaced the flywheel, but apparently did not replace the already warped clutch disc (fail #4). Now, the clutch chatters as badly as ever, the throwout bearing still squeaks, the transmission is noisier than ever, and my wife hates the car. Not only that, but when she called Jim (the mechanic who did the work, who up until now had been pleasant to deal with) apparently told her the problem was with her obviously learning to drive stick (even though she s driven ONLY manual transmission cars for eight years), and that they had done the job right, and the problem was her making it up, and that we should be glad with them being so nice to us as to do the clutch job at all. Long and short, sales side got us a decent deal on the car we wanted. Service side couldn t have been much worse. They insulted my wife, did a poor job on EASY work (which I now have to re-do at my expense, thanks to their inability to do it right at any point), and put one heck of a sour taste in my mouth. This reminds me why I NEVER let anyone else touch my vehicles, but they offered to do it for free. If only I had known... Buy from them, but don t even THINK about letting them work on your car. The timing belt job they did on the car pre-purchase lead to a smell of coolant when the car is hot, so I have to re-do that (at least inspect the water pump/thermostat install), and they replaced the OE heated windshield with a non-heated one. Really sketchy. CAVEAT EMPTOR!
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