Originally Posted by illusion

Now, I'm not one to write these kind of threads but I'm a bit disturbed. I just had a clutch and flywheel installed at Gruppe-S today, I couldn't pass up the $749 installed deal for an ACT clutch and gruppe-s flywheel, but boy oh boy should I have not cheaped out.

I haven't bothered to whine to gruppe-s because there's not much they can do, and the bridge is already burned, they will never touch my car again. I may still use them when I need parts, but there is no freaking way in hell I'll be taking my car to have it worked on.

I come in to pick up my car and only had to wait 15min or so before I heard its beautiful tone from the bays. I open the front door and listen to my car drive away as I love the sound and as usual it sounded great. I hang around outside to hear it come back, and oh boy do I hear it, there's a metal to metal sound(almost like when brakes are down to the tattle tale) as its coming down the street. Of course my heart starts racing so I head back to the bay to inspect. Some pudgy white guy tells me I can't be back in the bay. WTF my car comes back making a noise and I can't ask what the problem is? Blow me. I asked the mechanic what the problem is and he instantly belts out "exhaust" without even having it up on the lift yet. ok, I think I buy it. Mike had problems with it rubbing on the drive shaft when it was installed, but after we put on the long kartboy hangars in the back it was fine. I go out to the front so I don't upset Mr "you can't be back here". The mechanic comes out front and wants to show me whats going on. I go in the back and he shows me some scraping marks on the drive shaft, and goes on to talk about the exhaust pushing on the driveshaft so hard it made the seal leak, and what he had to do to get it out of the way. I notice a pretty nasty dent in the side of my exhaust and the floorpan, I guess if it doesn't fit grab a freaking pry bar eh? Oddly enough though, the oil I see everywhere just looked like sloppy work not a leak. I go back out front and after a few minutes hear it start up and start moving but guess what the sound is still there. The motor shuts off and I hear what sounds like a hammer on the back of a plastic handled screwdriver, no it couldn't be, I go back out to see what is wrong, and what do I see but the mechanic with a hammer and a plastic handled screwdriver banging the dust shield out of the way on the front drivers wheel looking at me like a kid with his hand in the candy jar. Now the dust shield has a crease in it from being pushed out of the way by force. Whatever, I'm getting grumpier by the second and don't like to be confrontational, so I go wait back out front. I hear my car start up, then see it parked out front.

I pay and leave getting in my car noting a pretty nasty smell inside, but attributed it to being my stock clutch and FW in the back that were slipping like hell. I start it up and let the clutch out, of course I killed it. I started it back up and and remember it wasn't the stock clutch and let it out. HOLY chattering batman, ok no freaking way I want them touching it any more, lets get to the gas station to inspect if need be I'll tow it home. I've used an ACT HD, ACT 6 puck, and ACT 4 puck, so I'm aware of what a heavy clutch should feel like, but the chattering felt like a shotty flywheel not the clutch(or possibly a dirty flywheel). I stop at the gas station and check everything. Oil level looks fine, I go to reach for the tranny dipstick and notice my intercooler it has bent fins all over the place, great there's a socket extension on the IC, so it was bouncing around bending fins because someone didn't check their tools. I also note oil on the plastic windshield cowl. How did oil get here? The smell that I noted when I got in the car was SUPER strong under here and of course theres oil burning off from the DP, so much so that I can taste it right now and I haven't been in my car for over an hour.

Cliff notes. They bent my $500 exhaust that I bought from them because "it was rubbing" even though the sound that I heard was the dragging dust shield which I'll be checking to see how much a new one is from the dealer. They ruined an STi IC because the backyard mechanic couldn't remember to pick up his tools. The inside of my car freaking stinks because of burnt oil(If you think burnt motor oil stinks, you haven't smelled burning gear lube) and it is still burning off. My clutch chatters like hell, I'll give it a week it to see if it calms down(it could be dirty, which after the rest of the work I wouldn't put it past em) if not I'll call my credit card company and complain(Chase doesn't BS with customer satisfaction), and have GST do all of the work over again like I should have done to begin with. To top it off my steering wheel had oil on it as well.

I have spent thousands of dollars at this place, too much to have some shadetree mechanic screwing my car up. You guys just lost a customer, and the word of mouth I will give will surely sting a bit more than my paltry dollars.

Originally Posted by brucelee

Gary is a weasel and should be put into an insane asylum. He belongs behind bars, he isn't mentally stable. He can't hire good mechanics because anyone with a brain knows not work for Gary.

Gary, just give up... Sell Gruppe-S to someone else and go kill yourself and give the money from selling GS to your family. That is the only way you can redeem yourself.

Originally Posted by SubyN00by

I don't think gary read the entire thread cuz he kinda skipped over this one...

Originally Posted by gruppe-s

Hi Peter,

I'm very sorry that you are not satisfied with your installation. I'm not certain why you didn't bring up your concerns when you picked up your car, but I would be more than happy to address and resolve any issues you may have with your installation.

To me it sounds like there's the following issues:

1. Bent intercooler fins - We will replace your intercooler free of charge
2. Bent Exhaust system - The current service team did not bend your exhaust system, it was bent before, but I will be happy to discuss replacement options with you.
3. Smell of oil - The smell of oil (tranny fluid) is fairly common with a clutch installation, as we replaced your tranny and rear diff fluid. As you may know tranny fluid has a pungent smell.
4. Brake shield - I'm not sure what happened here, but if you would like to come back in , we will go over this issue with you.

Honestly you left and seemed pretty happy with your car. But if you have any issues please don't hesitate to give us a call so we can resolve them for you.

Furthermore, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that any installation prior to 11/1/06 was not done by our existing service team. Our current service team has over 25 years of experience working with performance vehicles. We've already done dozens of clutch installs without any issues - and I'm very sorry you've had some problems with yours.

Please give us a call so we can resolve any open issues that you may have.

Thanks,

Gary
Gruppe-S
510-783-5300
510-783-4300 fax

Originally Posted by slow04wrx

lol, also I just want to say for my own personal satsifaction **** you and suck my dick to all you little punk *****es who tried to hate on me when gruppe-s ****ed me , I was 0% in the wrong and you tried to hate and act like little forum ******, prank calling etc. where are you now??

Originally Posted by illusion

The intercooler isn't that bad, it was used as is, I can straighten out the fins with tweezers. It was the thought that counts.


Dust shield. If you don't know how to put it back together correctly, just bend it. That works for dust shields as well as exhausts.


The exhaust WAS bent by your team. Here are pictures with clear fresh scrape marks.



I figured out what the smell of oil is As a note, the fluid isn't touching the stick, so it's leaked down pretty far. So he probably forced the drive shaft back in ripping the seals.



The car will need to be flatbedded as I'm not willing to risk my transmission because it is leaking this bad. Are you willing to pay to have my car picked up, a rental car for me, and get this straight? I took the day off yesterday and paid $70 for a rental car, and took today off(I make roughly $50 and hour if you convert my salary) because my car is screwed up. Do you have another mechanic? The one that touched my car proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he should not touch subarus, or any car for that matter. Not only through the workmanship, or lack thereof, but for trying to hide it.

This is why I said I didn't think you were capable to resolve it, as you only have one mechanic, and there is NO WAY IN HELL he is touching my car again.

Also I never expressed I was unhappy with my car because your guys were more concerned with getting out of there than my happiness, also your tech seem generally unhappy and I'm not confrontational at all. Every single time Mike's staff worked on my car he'd tell me to take it for a spin and tell him if there was any problems. He made it clear my happiness was first. This guy made it clear getting out of there was priority, as even after he bent the shield and noted there was gear lube still dripping he didn't take it for another spin to make sure it was kosher, he instead dumped it out front and gave me a quick "if something is wrong call us" and rushed out back.