slay2k

Yeah, you heard right. And yeah, a faulty FI installation was the problem. This is a very long post, with alotta fun details, so bear with me.

About a month ago I went to Acosta Motorsports (www.acostamotorsports.com) here in Wallington, NJ to install my Greddy TT kit. Why? Because another good shop was all tied-up with the Atco clients, and because the guy quoted me a good price of $1500. Now mind you this is no mom-and-pop shop... these guys were just on the cover of Modified magazine for building the first 950hp RX8... and they have dozens of years of FI experience. If you walk into their shop it's packed with all sorts of 1000hp beasts, including Supras, RX7s, Skylines, and so forth.

So how could they f*ck up a simple BOLT-ON install ? Observe:

On April 20th, 2004 I brought the car in, after being told by the owner Marcos that he can finish it by Atco weekend, on Sunday the 25th. Saturday came, and I was informed that he wouldn't be able to finish it on time. "Oh well, Monday?" I said. "We'll try," he replied.

Monday came and went. So did Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Daily phone conversations would go something like this:

Me: Hey, is the car done?
Marcos: No, we're working on it.
Me: Why so long man? It's ___INSERT DAY HERE___ already, is something wrong?
Marcos: No everything's alright, we're working on it.
Me: When do you think you'll finish?
Marcos: I don't know man, we're working on it.

Finally on Friday I went down there infuriated with the delay and ready to start bitching and moaning in person. I came down to see 2 of their mechanics working on my car. I calmed down some, and asked "Hey, how's it going?" and the reply was "Your car will be done in a few minutes". So about 2 hours later I was able to actually drive the car, and I didn't even mind waiting at that point.

My first drive... a piece of the PULLEY (tensioner) FELL OUT OF THE CAR. That's right, imagine driving your TT Z for the first time and hearing sh*t fall out on the ground... I freaked out, stopped the car, we looked and found the piece. Marcos's response to this was "Don't worry man, stuff like that always happens on the first drive". Fine, whatever. They put the piece back on and now the car is making like 30 different noises, including SQUEALING, LEAKING, and just general NOISE. When I ask about these noises I get told by the young mechanic who worked on it that "When you install a turbo man, things change. All sorts of different noises are normal."

Riiiight. That must be why I can't even tell my friend Mike's PE Z apart from a stock one. All that noise, yes. Anyway, they do one last-minute check before GIVING the car to me and realize there's an exhaust leak. So they suggest keeping the car overnight to fix the problem, and I say "absolutely."

Next morning, I pick the car up and drive off... noises driving me insane... I complain about the steering feeling different... and get told that it's normal for the fluid to be a little lower... "just keep refilling it." Okay? How about the squealing? "That's normal too." Okay...

I'm paranoid at this point when I hit something on the road and I *swore* some more sh*t fell outta the car... I pull over and almost cause an accident searching for pieces of I-dont-know-what. I'm pretty pissed at this point.. I take it back to Acosta and they say everything looks okay, but about the squealing finally I suggest that its driving me nuts and maybe its missing something from when it fell out. A few questions to the "head mechanic" later and we figure out that they forgot to put a washer into the equation, so the metal pieces were rubbing against each other. Neat! Did I also mention that half their shop can't even speak english ? Not alotta fun watching people speak a different language while discussing the problems in your car...

ANYWAY, I finally get my damn car outta the shop and decide that first thing tomorrow morning I'm going to take it down to ATX Motorsports here in Bergenfield to take a look and make sure nothing else is screwed.

Naturally, ATX put together a list of about 20-30 things that were either done incorrectly or simply MISSING from the install, including:

- Many pieces from the Greddy TT kit, including power steering pump fitting, clamps, TONS of bolts, brake check valve, and so forth...
- Turbos were on very loose and could have practically fallen out because they were being held in place by 2 bolts, one of which was STRIPPED.
- There were 3-4 MAJOR LEAKS. There was power steering leaking ALL OVER the car and would have been completely drained had I kept driving the car. There was AT LEAST ONE (I think more) air intake leak(s) which meant I was loosing boost. There was exhaust leaking out of SEVERAL places.

Finally, paid about $540 for ATX to fix all these problems and was even considering swallowing the cost and moving on. Then I found out from ATX that all the leaks were fixed except one - the exhaust leak. To fix that, they may have to take the engine outta the car because it might be impossible to get to otherwise. That's gonna be about 8 hours more labor. Nice!

At this point I call Acosta and have a VERY unfruitful conversation in which he tells me "Bring the car back, I'll take a look at it." and I reply with "I just paid over $500 to fix what your shop screwed up. You expect me to come back so you can undo all of that?" I suggest he chip in to fix the problems. His reply was "That's not gonna happen." I say "Ok, I'll think about that." and hang up the phone.

ATX was able to fix the exhaust leak (on both sides of the engine) without dropping the engine, so the labor was only 6 hours and about $500.

Now it gets better. I drive the car around for about 100 miles up and down the parkway, racing Supras and GS400s and whatnot, and decide that before I go on a 7-day cruise I will leave the car at ATX so they can install gauges, BOV, turbo timer, and other accessories onto the car.

I get an email while on the cruise about some "colorful news" from ATX and that I am a "lucky puppy." On Monday, I find out my car caught on fire. Yeah, one of the wires/harnesses was not installed correctly and got wedged between the battery and the starter, which caused an electrical fire. This quickly converted into a grease fire... which thankfully they were able to put out without any major damage. I just had to get a new harness for about $150 and pay for the labor to reinstall it.

Now the crux is, HAD THIS HAPPENED TO ME ON THE ROAD, MY CAR WOULD BE IN ASHES. Initially I didn't process this statement in my head, but I think it finally sank in. Had I driven another 2 miles before dropping the car at ATX, or had I decided to keep the car altogether when I went on my cruise, I would NOT HAVE A CAR right now... and my insurance wouldn't even cover the $12,000+ in mods... pretty nice huh?

Let's just say that I've been quite paranoid lately... ATX looked over everything 10 times, and I've been driving the car for 3-4 days with a fire extinguisher in the back, lol... they said they looked over everything but cannot make any promises unless they took everything apart and put it back together. And that would be another $3000 in labor... so at this point I've even considered dropping the Greddy outta the car and putting the PE in... but that would cost me an additional $5000 outta pocket, and I simply can't afford that. Even if I could afford it, I refuse to do that.

The Greddy kit is a great kit, but if not installed correctly, any kit can become a nightmare. I've disputed the charges on my credit card with Acosta, and if I have to I'll go to small claims court to recover any fees due to their gross negligence. The whole experience is simply ridiculous.

From a legal standpoint, I'm not sure what else I can do except drive my car around the way it is and keep my fingers crossed. Quite sad, yes... but I can't sue them for punitive damages in this case... maybe someone wants to chip in from a legal standpoint ? I'll take all the advice I can get. What do you do in my shoes?

-A saddened slay.

GurgenPB

iTrader: (2)

Wow, sorry to hear that. You truly had a bad day... Sorry that I can't offer any concrete legal advice... but you should my all means dispute the charge.

Gurgen

SKiDaZZLe

wow! good luck with getting everything straight. glad the car (and more importantly, you) are ok.

michael

SirMikel1

iTrader: (1)

Very Very lucky it didn't catch on fire while you were driving it.. good luck on the dispute.

narkotic

iTrader: (3)

I know this is maybe wrong to say, but I find it odd that it just so happened to catch on fire at that place while it was there and you were out of town.... AND while they were installing electrical devices (gauges, etc..) Thats a little strange? Sorry you had to go through that though..

SQUILL

Very tough legal battle on your hands!! Here is the problem the shop offered to "take a look at it" when you called and told them about the 30 odd things that were installed wrong or missing.

You refused to bring the car back to them.

Yes why would you bring the car back to the people that F*@#% it up i know iknow however the courts dont look at it like that unfortunately.

My experience in a similar siuation was with a stero install which i paid about 8 grand for that was horribly butchered.

Long story short i paid another shop to fix the problems and took the 1st shop to court and lost as even though they tried to fix the problems a bunch of times and never got it right.

I AM not a legal expert so if anyone that is may have better advice for you but i thought this was very similar to what i went through so i thought i might be able to help.

Sorry for the trouble on ur car im sure its nothing to do with the greddy kit itself just a bad install.

The best way to get a little revenge is to make sure anybody and everybody you can reach knows about this bad install and in turn you may be able to cost them some business .

MY two 100ths of a dollar

Enron Exec

Im very sorry to hear all the trouble you went through. When modding cars, its best to be patient and have everything planned and done right the first time, period. IMHO, that approach should be applied to anything of value or importance. Good luck with your future mods and remember to be patient and find the right ppl.

liljerk

wow, that's insane, sorry to hear about it... hope you get some resolution out of it, one way or another..

JonathanG35

at least your license plate is still cool.

N4Spd

ae... sad story but at least you and your car is ok.

I had a small taste of you troubles recently in what
seemed like a simple job. Your story was much worse
though and probably would have caused me to lose
sleep for weeks, or months...

best of luck,
rob

Sharif@Forged

iTrader: (92)

Wow...what a terrible story...i really feel for you.

I have to say...after observing my install by a professional mechanic, and observing another install (DIY in the garge by an experienced guy), the Greddy kit...in my honest opinion...isnt even close to a bolt-on.

The kit is very frustrating to install the first time. I am sure its easier the second time around, but who would ever install this kit twice!? Just ask the people that have self-installed. I bet all of them would recommend not installing it DIY...in retrospect. The problem is the kit is very tight..with no room for error. Also, the instructions are one small level above WORTHLESS. They tell you things like "install the injectors", and "install the turbos" without telling you exactly how to do it. There is a lot of guess work and experimenting involved...like a jigsaw puzzle.

So it honestly doesnt surprise me, that even a reputable shop could have difficulty doing this. My mechanic charged me 16 hours labor, and it took him about 64hours to complete! Thank God my mechanic has patiences, and creativity, and would never rush things just to get rid of me and the car. Clearly, your first shop ran into problems and just said f-it.....here is your car. with lots of stuff loose...missing...etc.

I really feel your pain man. Dispute the charges, and hope for the best...i doubt you can recover anything in court. Becuase as mentioned, you didnt give the original shop a chance to fix their mistake. Hell...I wouldn't either!!

The good news is that the kit is very reliable once installed correctly, and none of us have had any problems, other than that annoying leak at the wastgates due to crappy paper gaskets. Once those are changed, we'll be all straight.

bobowah

iTrader: (5)

wow!!!!!!!

Slay2k
My deeps regards...

All I have to say is sometime waiting for good work is worth it rather than waiting for bad work to get done.

Best of luck for the future. hopefully after the fire the car is ok.

=Jeff

little_rod

Yeah, I am real sorry to hear about this. I wonder if the company will show its face here, cause we have had others do that when stuff like this happens. It has been pointed out in this trend that that the greddy kit is fine when installed correctly, but extra consideration has to be taken by the purchaser because of the difficulty of installing a TT, especially when you don't live in a place with a lot of good installers.

Slay, hopefully you can at least have a little fun now that the kit seems to be funtioning properly. Hopefully, the power of boost will make the bad memories fade. BTW, that joke thing in your sig is too funny.

Sharif@Forged

iTrader: (92)

slay, after rereading your post...something is very odd.

What harness is the shop refering to? First, there are no harnesses that come with the Greddy kit that are installed inside the engine bay. All the electrical harnesses are installed on the ECU. The only other "wiring" in the engine bay is the installation and splicing of the 440 injector harnesses. What harness is there between the battery and starter?? The battery and starter are very far apart.....and they are factory items...no items that are installed with the kit. The starter needs to be wrapped with heat-sheilding, since it sits really close to the exhuast housing of the turbo....but I am still confused as to what caused the fire?? The only thing I can think of is that the idiot that installed the turbo either didnt wrap or properly wrap the stock wiring harnesses on the starter or alternator.

And your new shop told you this just happened while the car was sitting in their shop? This doesnt make any sense to me....

j's350z

Sorry about all your probalems and I will vouch for ATX that they do great work.. One question though? How come you didn't call us .. You asked me about the install before but never got back to me. Anyway, Glad everything worked out and hopefully you can recover some of your money back from Acosta. Give me a call if their is anything I can do...
Jason
MRC Motorsports
jason@racemrc.com

PoWeRtRiP

did you put the work on your credit card? maxhax (12secz) had some luck a while back disputing charges on his cc then sueing the shop for damages caused by the install. you may want to shoot him a pm to see if he has any advise.

kudos

Sorry to hear that man, hope it all works out fine in the end.

Jeff@Performance

The C/C thing works pretty well. I had a trans custom built for one of my other cars that cost about $3K. It failed within 200 miles... Took it elsewhere disputed the charges and 2 months of paperwork back ond forth... I got a full refund! Glad to hear the car is up and running fine! Enjoy.

slay2k

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the kind regards. Here are some comments on your posts..

GQ: I guess I did give them a chance to fix at least one major leak when I left the car overnight before picking it up the next morning. They said they fixed it, and yet the problem was still there amongst 30 others.

Also, with regards to which "harness" it is... it was really a wire, an electrical one I believe and the outside rubbery part melted from the electricity.. I have a picture somewhere. Basically I had to REPLACE a certain harness (not sure which)... I will ask the shop as soon as I can about what that burnt whire was meant to do. And no, I don't think the starter is shielded at all, in terms of heat wrap, you think I should have that done ? Does that come as part of the Greddy install ?

Also, the new shop was installing gauges/turbo timer/etc, and the car was apparently idling after they took it around the block when this happened...

Little_Rod: Yeah, the boost is alotta fun, I just want peace of mind in addition to it, though.

Jay: Hey man, how come I didn't call you guys ? Hehe it was a tossup between the local installers and Acosta is 10 minutes away from me. Had I known this sh*t woulda happened I'd obviously never even consider them.

Powertrip: Yeah, thank god I put it on my CC. I should be able to provide sufficient evidence of wrong-doing to MBNA to help the dispute get resolved in my favor. And if not, I'll hire a f*king lawyer. Acosta has lawsuits pending against them anyway as I recently found out... their shop had like 20 cars boosted from it some time ago and of course they didn't feel responsible for it.

Thanks for all the kind words guys, I appreciate it.

slay.

derek_i

Yikes

-D