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iTrader: (4)

Summary:

I got a rebuild 5-speed open-diff transmission from these guys last fall. Their 12-month unlimited warranty looked too good to pass up. Well, two seasons and 14k miles (90% highway) have passed, the diff bearings are completely shot: I have wicked shaft play, my tranny fluid gets dark after 3k miles, and it's making some very scary noises while driving that quite literally get worse by the mile. Shifting is also notchy and pretty hard, even with fresh Amsoil gear oil. I have had two unrebuilt >100k mile trannies in my car before, both of which saw a lot more abuse than this one, and neither of them ever got this bad.

It took three business days and five urgent messages (2 written, 3 voicemail) to get in touch with the customer service guy (who is also the manager), only to have him grill me about axles and tell me that something about my story sounds fishy: I told him that I changed my axles recently, and he latched onto that as a possible cause of the problem -- never mind that I told him I have had shaft play for months, and that it only recently got this bad. He just kept repeating that it could very easily have been the axles and accusing me of telling a weird story.

If they're playing these games, there's nothing to say that they won't just use the "your axles broke it" line to charge me money to fix or replace this thing. Their warranty doesn't let you open up their transmissions (you only get half credit if it's opened), so I have no way to collect evidence and as such I am completely at their mercy here.

Hell, even if they do warranty it, I'm not even sure if they'd be able to fix it right anyway. I have no huge power adders, I've never been to a race track, and 90% of my miles are highway. Everything I know and everything I'm hearing says that there is no way the diff bearings would fail in 14k miles unless the rebuilder did a painfully slap-dash job with them. For anyone who doesn't know this, slap-dashing diff bearings on a Maxima transmission is like mixing whites and colors in the wash -- if you know ANYTHING about the task, you will NOT make that mistake.

Unless you're a sleazy company with no intention of honoring a warranty though, I suppose.

This company runs eBay operations with a good feedback record (191 positive, 2 negative). As of now they have two complaints against them on file with the BBB, one for credit/billing and one for warranty service, and both have been resolved to the satisfaction of the customers. It's very possible that they would have handled my case properly. So, in all fairness, I think it should be noted that I did not even give them a chance to try. Frankly, I don't have the time or energy to deal with this kind of company, and I cannot bring myself to trust them with my money. If they're more interested in covering their **** than having a satisfied customer, then so be it.

Here's the company's info, so you can tell everyone you know:

ManTrans LLC
Tallahassee, Fl. 32303
http://www.manual-transmission.com/
Toll free: 1-877-626-8726