European Motorsport

The last time that this vehicle was brought into our shop was on October 24th, The vehicle has never been back to our shop since that timeThe owner's complaint was not brought to my attention until July 10th, - almost nine months after the last time that we saw this vehicleOn October 18th, our shop performed a compete major service, repaired an oil leak that was allowing oil to drip onto the exhaust manifold (fire hazard), repaired wiring for the "brake lining" warning system, replaced the a/c microfilter, pressure tested the cooling system, determined what was making the "Service Engine Soon" (aka: "Check Engine Light") stay on, and assessed some of the other critical repair concerns, all with the customer's full and explicit approvalBefore starting the other service work, we read out all of the fault codes contained in this vehicle with our [redacted] Service Interface SystemThe vehicle had fault codes in different control units at that timeFive of these fault codes were in the DME system (main engine control unit), and any one of them could make the "Service Engine Soon" light come onAt that point we knew that this vehicle had seen very little service during it's 169,mile lifetime (our first "red" flag)After completing these and some other minor repairs, we cleared the "Service Engine Soon" DME memory, and finally test drove the car miles - the "SES" light did not come back on after our final test driveWhen the customer returned on October 24th, he stated that his "SES" light came back on in the meantimeWhen we once again read out his fault codes, four of the five had returned which gave us enough information to create a test plan and "plan of action"One code was for the "A/C compressor Activation", one code for a "Misfire on cylinder number 5" (for the rear bank - cylinders 4, & 6) and the last two fault codes were for the engine running lean on both the front (cyl1,& 3) and the rear cylinder (cyl4,&6) banksAfter performing an extensive "smoke test" using an ultra-violet "smoke pressure test machine" we found leakage at a point common to both engine banks - the Air Mass Meter lower elbow hose, which we then replaced with the customer's approvalWe sent the customer on his way and did not hear from him again until almost nine months later when he told us that one of our repairs had failedHe demanded a full refund for that work at that timeMr [redacted] fails to mention that of his system faults, we were able to address most of them during our service work performed on October 18thWhen I had previously told him that we would gladly re-check our work and if any of our work was faulty, had failed or had been done "improperly" that we would repair it at no chargeThe customer stated that he would not bring his vehicle back in to us because he had "lost confidence"I explained that we needed to look at the failure before we could our work, he said that he had re-done the work himselfHe also told me in July, that he had taken his vehicle in to another repair shop and they recommended that he replace his Engine Control Unit (DME) and all six of his fuel injectorsThis was probably a very, very expensive repair that probably had little to no effect on this customer's problemsIf a DME goes bad the engine does not run on all cylinders, and why would six injectors all need to be replaced? The programming in a DME does not "go bad" and it's data cannot get "corrupted" - when one fails, it fails very obviously and the engine does not ever run on all six cylindersSo I would like to ask Mr [redacted] what was it that was "very helpful" after replacing these five expensive items after October 24th? When Mr [redacted] first contacted us in July, 2014, he was extremely rude and made what I felt to be personal attacks on my Service ManagerWhen I called him back the first time, he said that his "SES" light came back on right away after he was in on October 24thI then asked him why he didn't contact us when that happened, to which he stated that someone should never have to bring their car in a third time for any problem, and he had "lost all confidence in us"He then started to become very rude, threatening and basically called me a "crook", and said he would "tell thousands of people that he knew locally, how dishonest we were"I have never had a customer who was as angry, rude and unreasonable as Mr [redacted] Mr [redacted] also mentions that he showed me a photo of the problem, but I never saw a photoIn fact, I never even saw him in person after October 24th, and my only interaction with him has been over the phoneIn years of doing business as a ***-only, independent specialist in Chico, our shop has never had a complaint made to the Revdex.com before this timeI'd like to point out that their were different fault codes logged in his engine management system ("SES light system") when he had first brought the car in on October 18th! I also explained to him that both on his estimate sheet, and on his final invoice, we clearly state: "If you have a problem with ANY service or repair work that we have performed, or you were charged for the repair of a problem, and you feel that the problem was not fully resolved, you should notify us within days of completion of that workPlease verify the success of any repairs promptly after picking up your car"Mr [redacted] did not even give us another chance to attempt to satisfy him until he had taken the vehicle to other shops (who still obviously could not resolve his issues) and also replaced "eight other possible problems" that related to his "SES" light being onThese days it is not uncommon to have to bring a car in more than once to fully resolve complex system problems, and his vehicle did have five separate and discrete problems - any of which could make that light come on"Had Mr [redacted] been a little more reasonable on the phone and a lot less threatening, I would have tried to work with him a lot harderWe would have re-done any of the work that we may have unsuccessfully done - even months laterMr [redacted] has slandered us locally and even wrote up a very inflammatory and review on a popular websiteThat website threw out his complaint based on it's obviously falsified and slanderous statementsI feel that Mr [redacted] has passed up his chances with us to reach any kind of "good-will", out-of-warranty settlements just by his very undiplomatic behavior