MaxRocZ
12-06-2005, 02:57 PM
I've refrain for a while from posting anything public about my experience with AutoWorx this past summer...but it looks like it's time to join everyone else in the little ARE biatch-fest. And let me say first off, I feel really bad for the others that have waited for months and months and spent considerably more than I, only to be disappointed and disgruntled. My experience may seem to pale in comparison to everyone else, but I feel it's post worthy anyway.
*********************
The work that I had requested be done to my car was as follows:
- Install headers and y-pipe (parts provided by myself)
- Install new platinum plugs and wires with boot protectors (parts provided by myself)
- Install front and rear sway bars, and panhard rod (all parts, including the bushings, bolts, etc were provided by myself)
- Change the rear differential fluid with sythetic (fluid and gasket provided by myself)
- Dyno tuning
Issues while car was at the shop:
- Car was dropped off on May 23rd, with work to begin on May 24th and completion of the installation was promised for May 26th. Dyno tuning was scheduled for first thing in the morning on May 27th.
- I called Autoworx on Thursday (May 26th) afternoon to find out if everything was completed, only to find out the installation work had not even begun.
- Friday (May 27th), I spoke with Autoworx several times through out the day, expecting the car to be completed. The car did not get finished and I was told it would be finished up Monday.
- I spoke with Autoworx Monday (May 30th) afternoon and I had a hard time getting a status of my vehicle. I had to phone back several times to get an answer.
- On Tuesday, had Autoworx pick me up at the International Centre because I was told the installation work for my car was completed. Only the dyno tuning had to be done and they said it would be done that night. When I arrived, a Vette was still on the dyno being tuned, so I waited my turn. Due to family problems, Pete had to leave the shop and they were not able to dyno tune my car that night. I was told my car was safe to drive home however and that I could bring it back the next day for the tuning.
- I started the car and proceeded to go home. By the time I got on the 401 highway, within 5-10 minutes of driving, the car started backfiring and showed a definate lack of power. I was unable to turn around at this point since I was on the highway, so I brought the car home. I called the next day, first thing in the morning, and asked that Autoworx tow my car back because it was not driveable at this point. I called later in the morning and was told the car had still not arrived, but someone would call me when they got it. Nobody called back so I called back about 5 hours later and was then told the car arrived 4 hours ago, but nobody had looked at it yet.
- I called back later in the morning (Thursday June 2nd) and was unable to get a status after calling back several times.
- I called back Friday morning (June 3rd) and was told they the plugs were pulled, but still no status or ETA. Pete called Friday night at 9:30pm to say that he was looking at it, but was still not able to diagnose it. I was also told the plugs were replaced, but I was never had the expensive platinum plugs returned to my possession, nor do I know what they installed in it's place?
- Late Monday (June 6th) morning I was told they were having issues with one of the hoists so they had not looked at my car again. I was told the plan was to replace the wires now and if the hoist wasn't fixed by early afternoon then they were going to put it on jackstands and get the work done.
- I called Tuesday (June 7th) early morning and was told that the car still hadn't been worked on. So it obviously was never put up on the hoist or jackstands as told to me the day before. I called back later in the morning and I was told they were just going to start on replacing the plug wires. I called back later in the afternoon and was told they were just going to start on replacing the wires. I called back before leaving work and was told they had just finished one side of the wires. It takes over 3 hours to replace plugs wires?!?
- I called early Wednesday morning and was told they think they fixed the problem. I had originally stated that I wanted to be there in person for the dyno tuning, but they went and did the dyno without me being present. When I arrived to pick up the car, I was presented with the dyno sheet. The numbers were much lower than expected and I stated that. I was told that due to humidity that day, the numbers were understated.
Issues uncovered after the car left the shop:
- Discovered that one of the boot protectors (for the number one spark plug) is missing. Why was this not replaced? So, $10 part goes missing and no mentioned of it missing either? Sloppy workmanship?!? Yes.
- My coolant gauge has not worked properly ever since it left the shop. It worked when I brought the car there before the work was done.
- After about 2-3 weeks of driving, the new polyurethane bushing that were provided with the sway bars started severely squeaking. I removed the rear bushings to inspect them and I was unable to remove the front bushings because they had been over-torqued (proper torque spec is aproximately 20 ft-lbs, so these should be extremely easy to remove). My inspection revealed that the U-shaped bushings for both the front and rear sway bars were NOT greased when they were installed. They were supposed to be and that's why the kit came supplied with special synthetic grease. The full unused grease packets were not returned so I would like to know why they weren't used and where they are now. The u-shaped bushings for the front also came with new bolts. These bolts were not installed, so I would like to know why the old ones were reused and where the new ones are.
- The car was dynoed last year at TAG Racecraft in Oakville at 265RWHP, at the beginning of September. Talking to several shops and owners with MAC headers (the ones I had installed), I should expect between 10-15RWHP. And many people said that a good dyno tuning can gain approximately another 10RWHP. So after the dyno tuning session at Autoworx, I was expecting the car to dyno at approximately 285RWHP. Instead it dynoed at 273. I was only provided with the "after" dyno numbers, so I have no way of knowing if the tune even made a difference, or if the numbers went down. I redynoed at TAG Racecraft this past Saturday (July 23rd) to confirm the numbers. The humidity was down considerbly from when it was dynoed at Autoworx in June and the car only managed to dyno 270RWHP. SO, I would like to know why the headers and tuning from Autoworx only provide me with a 5-8RWHP gain when the experts say I should have gained about 20? This is too significant of a difference in my opinion. Since I was never provided with the "before" numbers for the Autoworx tuning session, and it was done in my absense, I have no way of knowing what was supposedly "tuned". I believe this needs to be addressed.
ARE's Attempt to Resolve the Issue:
After over a month of promises to call me back to arrange an appointment to bring the car back in to fix the problems, they finally came through and booked it. I had to book another day off work and brought the car out to them. There was noooo way I was leaving my car there without me being present. My worry was I wouldn't see the car for several days if I did.
Well, they grease all the sway bar bushings...one problem fixed.
They redyno tuned the car...it was running at an A/F ratio of 10:1 and had some reason slipped from what they had programmed it at the first time. I now dynoed at 286RWHP. However, within 2 weeks of the retuning, the programming had slipped back again. I found the reason out myself...took a non-expert to figure it out. HUGE header leak on the driver's side. So it appears the ECM after getting tuned, was slowing recalibrating itself due to the leak. So once again, I'm down on power and have to pay someone else to fix the header leak.
All the other problems, they were unanswered/unresolved.
An originally promised 3 day job turned into 2 weeks, and I still didn't get a good quality job out of it. After a revisit, I STILL did not get any satisfaction. I can not in a clear conscience recommend that anyone bring their car to this shop.
- chris
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/841155
*********************
The work that I had requested be done to my car was as follows:
- Install headers and y-pipe (parts provided by myself)
- Install new platinum plugs and wires with boot protectors (parts provided by myself)
- Install front and rear sway bars, and panhard rod (all parts, including the bushings, bolts, etc were provided by myself)
- Change the rear differential fluid with sythetic (fluid and gasket provided by myself)
- Dyno tuning
Issues while car was at the shop:
- Car was dropped off on May 23rd, with work to begin on May 24th and completion of the installation was promised for May 26th. Dyno tuning was scheduled for first thing in the morning on May 27th.
- I called Autoworx on Thursday (May 26th) afternoon to find out if everything was completed, only to find out the installation work had not even begun.
- Friday (May 27th), I spoke with Autoworx several times through out the day, expecting the car to be completed. The car did not get finished and I was told it would be finished up Monday.
- I spoke with Autoworx Monday (May 30th) afternoon and I had a hard time getting a status of my vehicle. I had to phone back several times to get an answer.
- On Tuesday, had Autoworx pick me up at the International Centre because I was told the installation work for my car was completed. Only the dyno tuning had to be done and they said it would be done that night. When I arrived, a Vette was still on the dyno being tuned, so I waited my turn. Due to family problems, Pete had to leave the shop and they were not able to dyno tune my car that night. I was told my car was safe to drive home however and that I could bring it back the next day for the tuning.
- I started the car and proceeded to go home. By the time I got on the 401 highway, within 5-10 minutes of driving, the car started backfiring and showed a definate lack of power. I was unable to turn around at this point since I was on the highway, so I brought the car home. I called the next day, first thing in the morning, and asked that Autoworx tow my car back because it was not driveable at this point. I called later in the morning and was told the car had still not arrived, but someone would call me when they got it. Nobody called back so I called back about 5 hours later and was then told the car arrived 4 hours ago, but nobody had looked at it yet.
- I called back later in the morning (Thursday June 2nd) and was unable to get a status after calling back several times.
- I called back Friday morning (June 3rd) and was told they the plugs were pulled, but still no status or ETA. Pete called Friday night at 9:30pm to say that he was looking at it, but was still not able to diagnose it. I was also told the plugs were replaced, but I was never had the expensive platinum plugs returned to my possession, nor do I know what they installed in it's place?
- Late Monday (June 6th) morning I was told they were having issues with one of the hoists so they had not looked at my car again. I was told the plan was to replace the wires now and if the hoist wasn't fixed by early afternoon then they were going to put it on jackstands and get the work done.
- I called Tuesday (June 7th) early morning and was told that the car still hadn't been worked on. So it obviously was never put up on the hoist or jackstands as told to me the day before. I called back later in the morning and I was told they were just going to start on replacing the plug wires. I called back later in the afternoon and was told they were just going to start on replacing the wires. I called back before leaving work and was told they had just finished one side of the wires. It takes over 3 hours to replace plugs wires?!?
- I called early Wednesday morning and was told they think they fixed the problem. I had originally stated that I wanted to be there in person for the dyno tuning, but they went and did the dyno without me being present. When I arrived to pick up the car, I was presented with the dyno sheet. The numbers were much lower than expected and I stated that. I was told that due to humidity that day, the numbers were understated.
Issues uncovered after the car left the shop:
- Discovered that one of the boot protectors (for the number one spark plug) is missing. Why was this not replaced? So, $10 part goes missing and no mentioned of it missing either? Sloppy workmanship?!? Yes.
- My coolant gauge has not worked properly ever since it left the shop. It worked when I brought the car there before the work was done.
- After about 2-3 weeks of driving, the new polyurethane bushing that were provided with the sway bars started severely squeaking. I removed the rear bushings to inspect them and I was unable to remove the front bushings because they had been over-torqued (proper torque spec is aproximately 20 ft-lbs, so these should be extremely easy to remove). My inspection revealed that the U-shaped bushings for both the front and rear sway bars were NOT greased when they were installed. They were supposed to be and that's why the kit came supplied with special synthetic grease. The full unused grease packets were not returned so I would like to know why they weren't used and where they are now. The u-shaped bushings for the front also came with new bolts. These bolts were not installed, so I would like to know why the old ones were reused and where the new ones are.
- The car was dynoed last year at TAG Racecraft in Oakville at 265RWHP, at the beginning of September. Talking to several shops and owners with MAC headers (the ones I had installed), I should expect between 10-15RWHP. And many people said that a good dyno tuning can gain approximately another 10RWHP. So after the dyno tuning session at Autoworx, I was expecting the car to dyno at approximately 285RWHP. Instead it dynoed at 273. I was only provided with the "after" dyno numbers, so I have no way of knowing if the tune even made a difference, or if the numbers went down. I redynoed at TAG Racecraft this past Saturday (July 23rd) to confirm the numbers. The humidity was down considerbly from when it was dynoed at Autoworx in June and the car only managed to dyno 270RWHP. SO, I would like to know why the headers and tuning from Autoworx only provide me with a 5-8RWHP gain when the experts say I should have gained about 20? This is too significant of a difference in my opinion. Since I was never provided with the "before" numbers for the Autoworx tuning session, and it was done in my absense, I have no way of knowing what was supposedly "tuned". I believe this needs to be addressed.
ARE's Attempt to Resolve the Issue:
After over a month of promises to call me back to arrange an appointment to bring the car back in to fix the problems, they finally came through and booked it. I had to book another day off work and brought the car out to them. There was noooo way I was leaving my car there without me being present. My worry was I wouldn't see the car for several days if I did.
Well, they grease all the sway bar bushings...one problem fixed.
They redyno tuned the car...it was running at an A/F ratio of 10:1 and had some reason slipped from what they had programmed it at the first time. I now dynoed at 286RWHP. However, within 2 weeks of the retuning, the programming had slipped back again. I found the reason out myself...took a non-expert to figure it out. HUGE header leak on the driver's side. So it appears the ECM after getting tuned, was slowing recalibrating itself due to the leak. So once again, I'm down on power and have to pay someone else to fix the header leak.
All the other problems, they were unanswered/unresolved.
An originally promised 3 day job turned into 2 weeks, and I still didn't get a good quality job out of it. After a revisit, I STILL did not get any satisfaction. I can not in a clear conscience recommend that anyone bring their car to this shop.
- chris
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/841155