What would u do? Tuner review
 

Hi all,
I'm a lurker on these boards and don't post much but I do love the information and reviews posted from all the members.

Sorry for the long story but i feel all the information is needed to get the full picture. This is about a tuner in the bay area. Absolutely no details will be given about his or her shop. I'm not here for that. Just need some advice and want to vent.

Here's my story:

Purchased my 04 sti in 07 with 60k miles. This is my first car I purchased completely by myself with my my earned cash, so I have a special relationship with her. Car was bone stock at the time. Fast forward 2 years and the mod bug bit me. I purchased a Cobb downpipe and accessport. Awesome product by the way. This kept me happy for quite a while.

Fast forward again to mid 2011. Car hits 100k miles, so i decide to do the major services. Timing belt, idlers, lala etc.. My brother botched the job and stipped one of the water pump bolts. At this point, I decide to go all out with my car and order up a host goodies (turbo, intercooler, etc...) planning on a fully built motor.

Keep in mind, I'm not one of those guys who blew a motor and was looking to replace it. I'm the guy who wanted to be reliable but fast, so that's why I decided to build the engine. I ordered a dom3xtr and from reading on these forums, felt I needed some fortification to the internals of my beast. The decision was made and the car delivered to the shop.

About a month later, my car was ready. I was estatic. I couldn't wait. I just dropped about 14k including motor and parts into my build and wanted to see how she turned out. Here is where my problems begin....

I took delivery of the cAr so I could break her in. No boost, etc.. I did this for about 200 miles until one dAy, the cel lights comes on. I'm like ok must be he breakin tune. I read the codes and they state all cylinder misfire. At this point, I'm confused. I never had any cel during the entire period I owned the car. I thought to myself. "must be a fluke, let's reset the ecu and see if it comes back"
I reset the ecu with the accessport but the car wouldn't start. Looks like the tuner put the breakin map under realtime flash instead of base map and thy didn't load up the breakin map into the accessport. The car will not start so I get her towed home and call my tuner. They send me a map and all is good. I tell them about the misfire and they state it should be ok, it's just the tune. I'm a little relieved at this point and figure everything should be good after my tune. I continue breaking her in up to 1000 miles. The cel came on a couple of times during this process. I wasn't too worried as my tuner told me it should be ok.

The time came for my protune. I dropped her off and picked her up. Tune came out good, car pulled fantastic, better than expected. A week later, boom cel comes on. Let's guess "all cylinder misfire". Yup I was pissed.

I give my tuner a call and they tell me to bring it in. Ok must be a couple of bugs. I call them about a week later and they state multiple vacuum leaks. Everything should be good, they just need to tune it again. Ok I thought. I gave them a couple of days and give them a call. Tuner states there is a problem loading the tune and they think it's the accessport. Sure enough it was, so I get it replaced. This was after about 2 1/2 months of troubleshooting and waiting. At this point I'm frustrated and just want my car back. Of course this wasn't the tuners fault, but almost 3 months to figure out the accessport was bad? I let it slide. I wanted my car so bad, I missed her. Tuner says everything is a ok. I pick her up.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I was driving her around enjoying her and getting reaquainted when bam.. CEL #3 misfire.. Dammit I thought. 3 months of waiting for this to get fixed and the bastard is still doing it. Add on top the BB metallic sound when I go WOT and I'm literally flying through the roof. I'm so mad right now it's not even funny.

What would u guys do if u were me?

Go back to the shop and have them fix it to what it should have been in the first place. If they cannot fix it, bring it to another shop and have them cover the charges.

Yes by all means get them to fix it whether it's them or taking it to someone else

It's the tuners job to get the customer what he or she wants. You pay for a service and the service should be done accordingly. That is the agreement. If the tuner cannot fix the problem, tell them they need to pay to have it fixed, because if you don't, they will continue to get away with it and you will continue to get screwed over. Good luck with the car, keep us updated

The tuning shop has to honor their work. You just dropped $14k into it, it should be flawless. I would go back to the tuner and make them fix it. I know it sucks and you will be without your car again, but it has to be fixed so that you can start enjoying what you paid for. If they will not work with you, which I imagine they will, you could always call the BBB, but hopefully it won't come to that. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I totally agree with giving the tuner another chance. That's what I intended but anger sometimes clouds judgement. I wasn't even going to post anything on here but I felt compelled to relieve some much needed stress.

I just feel that the customer service was excellent until I came back with a problem. Now phone calls and messages do not get returned. I have to catch them on a good day to actually talk to someone. Sometimes I call multiple times a day to try and find out what the deal is. Have you ever felt like someone put you on the backburner? That's how I feel and felt. It's like walking into a Subaru dealership when your 16. They talk to you last....

Damn thats a bummer, sorry to hear all this garbage you have to go through. Keeping in mind you just basically bought and paid for a brand new motor, and paid to have it professionally installed, and also keeping in mind that there were obviously no other "internal" probelems with your engine since the mechanics never called you during the build to inform you of anyting. Since they said the build went off without a hitch, the motor should run and operate flawlessly. You paid for the shop/tuners "services". That said, their service should be perfect when you get the car back. If its not, like it has''nt been, they should do anything and everything they can to make it perfect. and you should NOT pay a cent more untill it is. Thats said, I really hope you have not paid them a dime since you originally got you car back!

You now say they are not returning calls ect. Thats because they have other cars to work on and make money on, Your car now is a loss for their show and their employees everytime they touch it since they are not getting paid anyting more. Also, they mayjust not know where they ****ed up on your build, so they just dont even want to bother attempting to diagnose what hapened. You NEED to keep on them and tell them "you have to fix my car and do the job I paid you for. Period."

Keep us updated on how things go, Im interested to find out hat they saym and what happens.

Also, PM me what shop this happened with, im curious.


Good Luck
-Ryan

You should definitely stay on top of the shop/tuner and make sure they resolve the problem for you. It sounds like you went in with stock car for them start with which is the ideal situation for any mechanic and tuner. There's just no good reason for issues like this and especially for not getting them resolved.

Quick question... do you have a lightened flywheel? Sometimes those can throw random miss fire codes.

If you'd like, send me a complete list of your mods and I'll be happy to take a look and let you know if anything could be causing your issues.

Thanks
-- Ed

Yea I do have a exedy clutch and gruppe s lightened flywheel but these misfires you can definitely feel. Thanks anyways Ed

Like I said, no pms or any of that. It's something I have to deal with on my own and I'm not here to talk down on anybody.. Ryan - probably not the shop your talking about.

[QUOTE=WRBluWaffle;3207953]Yea I do have a exedy clutch and gruppe s lightened flywheel but these misfires you can definitely feel. Thanks anyways Ed

Like I said, no pms or any of that. It's something I have to deal with on my own and I'm not here to talk down on anybody.. Ryan - probably not the shop your talking about.[/QUOTE]

If you can feel the misfires, something is definitely wrong and should be addressed.

It seems like you're handling this very well and I respect you for not dragging shop names into this. Hopefully you get this resolved soon.

Thanks
-- Ed

Thanks Ed for your input on this.. I do appreciate it..

[QUOTE=EQ Tuning;3208111]If you can feel the misfires, something is definitely wrong and should be addressed.

[B][U]It seems like you're handling this very well and I respect you for not dragging shop names into this. Hopefully you get this resolved soon[/U][/B].

Thanks
-- Ed[/QUOTE]

This!! Your handling this situation with major class. Do keep us informed as to the outcome please. Hope it gets fixed soon and fixed correctly for ya.
This is one of my Main concerns with having a shop do my motor/install. You spend X amt of money and expect things to be "done right and Working correctly" and if stuff happens and you have problems, you want to shop to step up and resolve the issue/s. the way a shop handles a situation like this means a crap load to myself and I bet many others.

best of luck.

Skizz

[QUOTE=SkizzDawg;3208140]This!! Your handling this situation with major class. Do keep us informed as to the outcome please. Hope it gets fixed soon and fixed correctly for ya.
This is one of my Main concerns with having a shop do my motor/install. You spend X amt of money and expect things to be "done right and Working correctly" and if stuff happens and you have problems, you want to shop to step up and resolve the issue/s. the way a shop handles a situation like this means a crap load to myself and I bet many others.

best of luck.

Skizz[/QUOTE]

agreed

[QUOTE=EQ Tuning;3208111]If you can feel the misfires, something is definitely wrong and should be addressed.

[U][B]It seems like you're handling this very well and I respect you for not dragging shop names into this. Hopefully you get this resolved soon.[/B][/U]

Thanks
-- Ed[/QUOTE]

+1

I'm going to keep tabs on this thread to see how this situation plays out with the tuner in question.

Talked to my tuner and setup a retune for Tuesday. I'll make sure to update this thread with my results. I'm feeling confident and nervous at the same time. Ill try to post a datalog after too.