DrNorm

iTrader: (1)

First, it may not "just" be Nate.
I really liked Nate when I first met him. I had heard good things about him and the shop. I trusted Nate and Joe for good advice and honest, competent service

Now I fell like either of the 2 options above might be realistic.
I drove from Redding to SAC multiple times to get my car worked on over a 10 month period that I was working in Redding.

Motor: I had Joe install UP/DP/TBE and after a Vishnu reflash, Nate did a dyno-tune last June.
Susp: Joe did rear sway, Perrin PSRS, Tein x4, STi Brembos up front.

3 weeks ago I shipped the car from CA to Kona, HI where I live.

Although the car has been running great, I now learn that I should prob get it re-dyno'd to check the tune. Of course, there IS NO dyno here. Only option would be $500 boat ride to Oahu and ($140 plane ticket to get me there).

There has been a terrible squeak since install of PSRS. Perrin tech says that only possible cause would be "not greasing PSRS when installed". I took it back and mechanic said he greased it and Joe said it was "fine" though it still squeeked.

After brake install, there has been an awful "clanking and rubbing" from front left tire well. Joe's mechanic said the "Goodridge brake lines were 'too long' " so he "fixed" them w/ some zip ties. Last visit to try and resolve "noise" was a stop at s-squared on my way TO the dock to drop off car to ship to HI.

I just p/u the car at dock and sound is REALLY bad. I pulled off left front wheel and found rubbing/kinked brake line. Rt side is kinked, too. I'm working w/ Goodridge to determine whether brake lines really were "too long" (i.e., wrong set in right box) or if there was an install problem. I was under the impression that these guys installed Goodridge SS lines all the time and knew what they were doing. Front rotor is also deeply scored. Perhaps I warped brake pads at track day? I need to get that looked at, too, now.

Of course, I have no shop here that I can bring it to (that I know of, yet) and no way to get it back to Joe.

I hadn't logged into the forum in 3 weeks b/c of move/traveling and was pretty pissed-off to see what had happened- though not really shocled or surprised.

The worst part of all of this is that my wife was REALLY against me modding the car. Now that it is having these "problems" I get a big plateful of "I told you so..." and she gets a permanent veto to hold over anything "fun" I decide to do to my cars in the future. (I was hoping to supercharge my Miata- not now, since performance mods would obviously ***-up the car like they did to the Suby).

I'm just really pissed that I trusted them to do it right. It may be just a car, but now I'm stuck in the middle of the ***ing Pacific trying to figure out how to salvage the situation and angry that I spent a lot of money and potentially messed up my car.

I really don't know if Nate actually messed anything up or did it maliciously b/c the car has run great and I've been really happy with it, til now.
I don't know if Joe's mechanic did anything wrong either or if he made an honest mistake or if he or Joe lied about "knowing what he was doing". It's just upsetting to "now" learn all this negative stuff having having heard so much praise in the past and having such confidence and trust in them.

Max Xevious

iTrader: (8)

This looks to be an issue with Subaru Specialists, and not S-Squared

you might want to give Joe a call and let him know of the issue

DrNorm

iTrader: (1)

yes.
I guess part of the problem was that it was never really clear to me where one stopped and the other began.

The only work that I know was Nate was the dyno and that seems to be great- although there are posts warning that it could "seem" great and still be a very poor tune (206hp from an '05 WRX wagon w/o any apparent engine performance issues except occ. fluctuating idle speed which I think is related to AC and electrical load).

The suspension work I am very concerned about- losing a wheel or suspension failure @ 60mph prob isn't much fun. Whatever the problem is, it is certainly getting worse with time.

dz

iTrader: (9)

It would be a very good idea for you to have the car checked out no matter what. Even if you had a good tune in CA, the move to HI could be enough to cause problems.

DrNorm

iTrader: (1)

it's certainly more humid!
I'll have to contact the Hawaii forum guys and see if there's someone on my island. There are a LOT of ricers here (mostly Honda) so somebody must be doing the tuning? (though finding a 4wd dyno may a problem)

UPDATE: I just got an email back from Goodridge tech support re the brake lines. He says that from looking at the photos, they appear to be quite fk'd up. He says it appears that they were installed backwards (i.e., reverse order- they should be connected at caliper, then mid/strut then chassis) which created a twist. We also can't figure out why there are zip ties around the strut.

This is definately an issue I will have to take up with Joe. The Goodridge tech has offered to send me a new set of lines. I'll have to either pay for another install and flush or do it myself. It may very well be that Joe's mechanic had his head up his ***, b/c there were a number of other items that were just wrong. Now I'm really concerned about the PSRS squeak b/c the only fix (per Perrin tech) is to essentially remove it and reinstall from scratch (this time putting in the grease). That will also be expensive and/or a major PITA.

soggynoodles

iTrader: (50)

glad that goodridge was cool enough to send you out new set of brake lines. Yea, Those look pretty bad.

Good luck with the rest. Hope everything works out for you.

DrNorm

iTrader: (1)

yes- the front Goodridge lines were installed bass-akwards. They are totally torqued and tweaked and ruined. Fortunately Goodridge offered to replace w/o charge. As you can see in photo, line was installed under tension (or rotated during use due to improper install?) but result is that instead of arching over smoothly from strut to body mount, it is twisted and torqued- rubbing on body!

When I spoke w/ Joe at Subaru Specialists he said that he's not responsible b/c "Nate did all the installs". I said it was never really clear what the relationship was btwn S-Squared and Subaru Specialists. Joe certainly "implied" that the work was done in his shop (and that Nate either worked with or for him) and he had HIS mechanics doing the work. I CAN tell you that all the invoives I received and all the credit card charges were to "Joe's Alfa and Subaru." My understanding is that this means that "Joe's alpha and Subaru" is the "responsible party". Yeah, right.

I still have not figured out what is wrong with the car and if it is brake issue or suspension issue. When I brought it in the last time, I tried to tell Joe that the squeaking problem had been there since the Perrin PSRS install (which was seperate and before the TEINs and the Brembos) but he keeps saying that his guys (err, "Nate") couldn't have forgotten to grease the bearings during the install (this is the diagnosis made by Perrin tech after describing problem- he said there's no other explaination for it).

As far as brakes, the SS lines a clearly screwed up. Also, the rotor is terribly scored and I can't figure out why that would be. Could the kinked brake line have caused the pads to rub? I'm going to pull the rotors (when I replace the brake lines and rebuild the brake caliper and check the pad) and have it turned, anyway.

I'm hoping that by re-installing the left PSRS and rebuilding the left brake, the problem (or problems) will resolve.

Bottom line is I now have very little faith in Joe or his mechanics. He also adjusted my coilovers ONE INCH higher than the max specs!!! I specifically gave him a copy of the spec sheet and told him the height to set them. Good thing I didn't have suspension failure or destroy a shock tower.

As far as Nate: he's an ******* in my book. If he didn't know what he was doing (as some have suggested) or wasn't in the right "mindset" he shouldn't have been doing it (and Joe shouldn't have let him be doing it). I now have the car in Hawaii with a potentially bad tune and there are no 4-wheel dynos even in the State. I could ship the car back to mainland, have it re-tuned and then shipped back and ask Nate to pay (figure $1800 for shipping, and $700 for plane tickets or having someone p/u and deliver car, dyno) or I could send my ECU to someone else for an "out of the box" reflash (? cost), which of course would be the safest, easiest but "not custom" tune. (it certainly ran better after Nate's dyno and gained 8 hp- I just don't know if I can trust it).

No matter how you look at it, I feel like I got pretty screwed or taken advantage of here and it's cost me a lot of time, aggravation and potentially $$.

TIP: just stay away from S-S. I don't think they can be trusted to do good work They may be trustworthy and not "liars" or crooks, I just don't think I could have a lot of confidence in any work they might do in the future.

FW Motorsports