me2dumb4college's drama (now with DYNO results)
I want to provide my whole story and get your input. Really thinking of taking this to small claims court.
I have a 2001 Mustang GT. The vehicle was procharged in 2010 with a P1SC. The vehicle had bypass and lifted a piston and the motor needed to be completely rebuilt, so I took it to a performance shop (Shop A) in Manassas, VA. Shop A disassembled and diagnosed the problem. At the recommendation of Shop A, we decided to replace the rotating assembly with Eagle forged and stroked assembly (piston, rod and crank, 5.0 stroker). While they had the vehicle, I also decided to upgrade the heads to aftermarket cams (Comp stage 2), beehive springs, new SS valves/guides and have them do a full racing port job on all the heads. In addition, the plastic lower intake manifold was cracked and so we went with an aluminum replacement they had sitting around. We agreed to a price on the labor and I paid for all the parts up front.
Shop A had all parts delivered within a month or two. It took the shop approximately 10 months to finish my vehicle. I was continually told that the car was almost done and would be finished “next week” for about 10 weeks straight. I finally got the vehicle back, the vehicle dyno’d really low for the amount of work done to it. They blamed the low numbers on the 42 lb injectors.
Anyhow within a day, horrible screeching noises came from under the hood, so I had it towed back. Shop A diagnosed the problem as a bad A/C compressor. When asked if this is resultant of the vehicle sitting outside uncovered for 10 months, they assured me no. So they went ahead and replaced it. It took them another month and half to order and replace everything.
I go to pick up the vehicle, and the check engine light (CEL) is now on. Shop A runs a diagnostic, and it says it’s the AIT sensor, (air intake sensor). The mechanic says that the sensor is reading just fine and just clears the code. So I leave and 30 minutes later, as I get back to work, it comes back on. I pop the hood and the IAT sensor is just dangling in the engine bay so I take it back. They plug it all back in and the CEL goes away.
I have the car for about a month, put less than 1k miles on it and the motor completely seizes on me. I no longer live in northern VA, so I have the car towed to a local performance shop (Shop B). Shop B inspects and says there’s def some issues with cylinder 1, they can’t be certain without opening it up. In addition to the issues with the motor, Shop B informs me of a host of other issues from the motor just not being cleaned properly to issues with the belt and tensioner. Shop B advises me to call shop A to inquire about them warrantying their motor. Shop A slanders Shop B and says they 100% stand behind all their builds and that it is most likely the supercharger noise and not a motor issue. So I front the $300 towing bill to have it towed back to Shop A. Shop A diagnoses the problem as a bad bearing in my P1SC and gets me quote. It wasn’t a whole lot more to upgrade the internals in the procharger to a D1, than to repair the P1, so I opted for the upgraded supercharger. With the upgraded D1, I was adviced I'd need more fuel, so I had them install the Alky control methanol kit and a return style fuel system. They were instructed to do two tunes, one @ 100% methonal and another at 50/50. They couldn't tune obviously until everything was running right so we waited. Another 3 months go by and Shop A finally gets my supercharger back and they put it on and there's still major issues. It’s pretty clear that the supercharger wasn’t the issue. They tell me that the issue is a blown head gasket, so after another 2 weeks go by and after replacing blown head gaskets, it’s pretty clear that’s not the issue either, so they send the head off to a machine shop. Another couple months go by, machine shop finally gets back and says it’s a valve seat issue. They replace the valve seat, and supposedly all new valves, guides and seats.
Shop A gets everything back together and I go to pickup the car. They tell me car is perfect now, but it put down low numbers because of my 2 core intercooler and exhaust setup (still stock mid and headers). Anyhow, I'm talking to the guy and told him I wanted the 50/50 for street driving, and find out that they only did a 100% meth tune and a no-meth at all tune. So I don't find out until later that this retard instructed his technician to pour 50/50 mixture in the meth tank. They tell me it's fine and not to worry that you can add water to meth. Anyways, the car drove ok for about an hour or so back to Richmond, then I got a bunch of CEL codes popping up. I read the codes and I can't rememb them all but some were fuel module issues and EGR issues, which I know we had to do EGR delete so I wasn't too concerned about that. So after arriving, I notice there is substantial leakage under the car. I take the car to get the summer tires off, first, because cold front was going to come through. Then I have it towed back to Shop B, so they can do a thorough inspection. I got about a page and half of issues they came back with.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I called procharger after learning Shop A still had issues with my car and they said the P1 had no major issues, other than an aging seal that could stand to be replaced... so basically I spent 1300 bucks that wasnt required
Cliffnotes: Shop A rebuilt my motor, it siezed within a few hundred miles, towed it back, they supposedly repaired, but it still has lots of issues
I want to provide my whole story and get your input. Really thinking of taking this to small claims court.
I have a 2001 Mustang GT. The vehicle was procharged in 2010 with a P1SC. The vehicle had bypass and lifted a piston and the motor needed to be completely rebuilt, so I took it to a performance shop (Shop A) in Manassas, VA. Shop A disassembled and diagnosed the problem. At the recommendation of Shop A, we decided to replace the rotating assembly with Eagle forged and stroked assembly (piston, rod and crank, 5.0 stroker). While they had the vehicle, I also decided to upgrade the heads to aftermarket cams (Comp stage 2), beehive springs, new SS valves/guides and have them do a full racing port job on all the heads. In addition, the plastic lower intake manifold was cracked and so we went with an aluminum replacement they had sitting around. We agreed to a price on the labor and I paid for all the parts up front.
Shop A had all parts delivered within a month or two. It took the shop approximately 10 months to finish my vehicle. I was continually told that the car was almost done and would be finished “next week” for about 10 weeks straight. I finally got the vehicle back, the vehicle dyno’d really low for the amount of work done to it. They blamed the low numbers on the 42 lb injectors.
Anyhow within a day, horrible screeching noises came from under the hood, so I had it towed back. Shop A diagnosed the problem as a bad A/C compressor. When asked if this is resultant of the vehicle sitting outside uncovered for 10 months, they assured me no. So they went ahead and replaced it. It took them another month and half to order and replace everything.
I go to pick up the vehicle, and the check engine light (CEL) is now on. Shop A runs a diagnostic, and it says it’s the AIT sensor, (air intake sensor). The mechanic says that the sensor is reading just fine and just clears the code. So I leave and 30 minutes later, as I get back to work, it comes back on. I pop the hood and the IAT sensor is just dangling in the engine bay so I take it back. They plug it all back in and the CEL goes away.
I have the car for about a month, put less than 1k miles on it and the motor completely seizes on me. I no longer live in northern VA, so I have the car towed to a local performance shop (Shop B). Shop B inspects and says there’s def some issues with cylinder 1, they can’t be certain without opening it up. In addition to the issues with the motor, Shop B informs me of a host of other issues from the motor just not being cleaned properly to issues with the belt and tensioner. Shop B advises me to call shop A to inquire about them warrantying their motor. Shop A slanders Shop B and says they 100% stand behind all their builds and that it is most likely the supercharger noise and not a motor issue. So I front the $300 towing bill to have it towed back to Shop A. Shop A diagnoses the problem as a bad bearing in my P1SC and gets me quote. It wasn’t a whole lot more to upgrade the internals in the procharger to a D1, than to repair the P1, so I opted for the upgraded supercharger. With the upgraded D1, I was adviced I'd need more fuel, so I had them install the Alky control methanol kit and a return style fuel system. They were instructed to do two tunes, one @ 100% methonal and another at 50/50. They couldn't tune obviously until everything was running right so we waited. Another 3 months go by and Shop A finally gets my supercharger back and they put it on and there's still major issues. It’s pretty clear that the supercharger wasn’t the issue. They tell me that the issue is a blown head gasket, so after another 2 weeks go by and after replacing blown head gaskets, it’s pretty clear that’s not the issue either, so they send the head off to a machine shop. Another couple months go by, machine shop finally gets back and says it’s a valve seat issue. They replace the valve seat, and supposedly all new valves, guides and seats.
Shop A gets everything back together and I go to pickup the car. They tell me car is perfect now, but it put down low numbers because of my 2 core intercooler and exhaust setup (still stock mid and headers). Anyhow, I'm talking to the guy and told him I wanted the 50/50 for street driving, and find out that they only did a 100% meth tune and a no-meth at all tune. So I don't find out until later that this retard instructed his technician to pour 50/50 mixture in the meth tank. They tell me it's fine and not to worry that you can add water to meth. Anyways, the car drove ok for about an hour or so back to Richmond, then I got a bunch of CEL codes popping up. I read the codes and I can't rememb them all but some were fuel module issues and EGR issues, which I know we had to do EGR delete so I wasn't too concerned about that. So after arriving, I notice there is substantial leakage under the car. I take the car to get the summer tires off, first, because cold front was going to come through. Then I have it towed back to Shop B, so they can do a thorough inspection. I got about a page and half of issues they came back with.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I called procharger after learning Shop A still had issues with my car and they said the P1 had no major issues, other than an aging seal that could stand to be replaced... so basically I spent 1300 bucks that wasnt required
Cliffnotes: Shop A rebuilt my motor, it siezed within a few hundred miles, towed it back, they supposedly repaired, but it still has lots of issues
sucks bro. It blows that you spent your hard earned money having a shop do a good shop, and they basically screw you over. Next time, spend what labor would cost you in tools and a Haynes manual, and do the work your self. Im sure that it would take you less than 10 months.
