Wally's Shop

Revdex.com4747 Viewridge ave. #200San Diego, CA. 92123-1688Re: ID# [redacted] In response to [redacted]’s letter it would be a reminder to our auto repair shop that we will go to great lengths to see all our customers receive what they came in for. They expect...

 quality service of their auto repairs at a fair price in a reasonable amount of time. What we did for [redacted] was give him his car ( 1987 BMW 325i) back to him with it  fixed and at very fair price for the parts needed to succeed in the repair. Where we failed was the amount of time to do the repair. This letter will most likely explain in detail why lengthy time. Back in May 2015, [redacted] brought his car in to us by referral  of his friend, being a first time customer I wanted immediately to see if this would be a “quick fix” if under the hood would be a vacuum leak or part disconnected. The complaint was the car would run fine for a little while then would run rough and stall the longer you drove it. When I realized we would need more time to diagnose this, he gave us his info to call him once we figured it out. So later that day as we were diagnosing the car I realized   the problem was deeper than expected and called [redacted] to advise him we need more time. His exact words were “take all the time to fix it right, money is more important than time”. I replied “if you allow us all the time to diagnose this right then we can keep the bill low in searching for parts at better deals”.  Within the next 2 days our diagnosis was the vehicle runs smooth when cold then once in closed loop would not lean the fuel mixture but remain “rich”. Enormous puffs of blue smoke would spew out of exhaust on acceleration. Bring back to idle the engine would “flood” with to much fuel and begin to stall. 26 -33 year old bmw’s have a vintage fuel injection system called “Motronic”. This is a very simple EFI system. What is not simple is the scarcity of the diagnosis of which part/s have failed. There is no diagnostic flow chart tree or pin out procedure to the DME to pin point failed circuit. Was not able to call the customer at the time to accurately give him estimate and exact diagnosis. Why ? because we want to get it fixed and then give the customer the call. Would rather find the solution first.  Our shop will not “experiment “on customer’s money but on the shops money.  One by one we began replacing “common “ parts that create rich conditions. We replaced the 6 fouled out spark plugs and the spark wire set. Distributor cap and rotor, 4 wire oxygen sensor, cold start injector, the temp sensor for emissions, and 6 fuel injectors. We found that cylinder #2 and #5 fuel injectors were leaking fuel with key on with fuel rail removed; this for sure must be the “rich “condition. After replacing all these parts the car still was not fixed. We are puzzled. Called customer and let him know up to date work completed and advised him he will pay only for the parts needed for repair, and we will take out parts not needed  and return them. This is not a problem for us, our mission is to keep the bill low. I asked for more time and [redacted] granted more time. Within the next 2 to 3 weeks and @45 hours of diagnosis to no prevail, I took time off the vehicle and submitted a diagnosis request of the cars problem to IATN. This is an internet site to post difficult problems that reaches over 66,000 BMW technicians worldwide. I would follow up every 2-3 days to see updates. Many feeds came back with advise which we followed up on and still no victory.     At this point we now have $785 of shops money and 45 + hours into this vehicle and still not running right. There are 3 more parts that can be possible repair, the only problem here is I cannot return these if they don’t fix the problem. One is the DME which is the cars computer, other is the mass air flow meter, and final is the air intake temp charge sensor.  This is where it gets expensive. This is when I discussed this with [redacted] that I will go to the wrecking yard on a convenient day off and search for an 87 BMW 325i with manual Trans and pull these parts. [redacted] is fully aware. All texts messages between him and I are saved relaying to him of the junk yard visits. Also my friend “[redacted] “ helped me locate [redacted]’s parts in the san Bernardino wrecking yards. All the BMW’s were stripped of the parts needed. I’m scouring through 2 junk yards here in Stanton and another in Anaheim determined to resolve this repair. After searching between July and September in the junk yards, a total of 4 days in 2 yards in a window of 90 days I called 2 European shops. Ronin auto werks in fullerton and BMW performance in costa mesa and spoke to their lead techs. Both techs told me you’re on your own, and said that diagnostic material is very limited on old school BMW’s.  They also told me that is why the junk yards are full of 3 series BMW’s, people and techs throw in the towel because it is now a money situation and the repair will exceed the value of the vehicle.By September I spoke with [redacted] and said please come pick up your car, no charge because I did not fix it and its now 4 months. I’m exhausted with now over $ 800 of shop money invested, over 50 hours of labor and time invested and 4 days of walking miles up and down countless rows of searching for his car parts that’s when  I decided to surrender and have him please take the car to some other shop and they can deal with this. [redacted] decided to leave the car with me, at that point I recognized he has faith that we will fix it so I persisted to finish this now 4 month battle.During a 4 day thanksgiving vacation in Idaho my wife asks me why you are down and look miserable. I told her about [redacted]’s car and I’m troubled. I called my friend Robert, a tech at sterling bmw to come back to the shop to go over this with me one more time and that [redacted] would like to speak with him personally about his car. Robert said to me you have all this money and time in this car just drop $560 on a DME and be done with this. Every part on this car is 28 years old so I agreed and called a private BMW parts house. I was able to buy it for $380, installed it and finally fixed. We shouted and did victory laps around the car shouting hallelujah!!!!! We took out all our old parts and put his back in to keep bill low (this our main concern not time).David paid $380 for the DME, $80 for the coolant temp sender  and engine temp sender, and $40 for the 6 spark plugs, $30 for gas and $0 for labor and time. Total $530. The shop profited $0. I kept my word with the customer that it will be fixed and bill low. This is why it took 6 unbearable months. One hour after he picked up the vehicle his clutch slave cylinder leaks fluid on the ground. Another 28 year old part gives up the ghost, and I’m shocked. My wife and I picked [redacted] up at 10 pm within 20 minutes down in garden grove  and drove him home and we took his car back to the shop. By 10:30 the next morning the car had clutch pedal and charged him $160. After reading his desired settlement with Revdex.com, I found a HUGE misunderstanding [redacted] believes we drove his car “around” for 6 months. To be very clear we only drove the car within the shop property lines to move/work/and diagnose the car. The vehicle is un drivable. Once warmed up, it would stall and not run right, the vehicle never left the shop until day of pickup to fill his fuel tank with gas. Even then less than once mile was registered on his odometer. In may was 170,000. Miles on odometer and in November was still 170,000 miles on odometer. He can check his records to confirm this.In conclusion to the resolve of [redacted]’s car. The sacrifices, effort, stress and dedication it took to repair this vehicle are monumental. Wally’s shop saved [redacted]’s car from a junkyard or a very high repair bill from another shop where he would have paid for their diagnostic time and list prices on parts, not cost. We achieved again what the customer wanted. Please keep in mind he had every right & option to take his car elsewhere at any time. He signed no contract bounding him to my shop. Even now after all this, I am willing to refund his $690.00 providing I get all my parts back. All his old part are saved here at my shop and he can take it elsewhere. Sincerely,  Wally   Wally’s Shop532 S. Central park Ave. EastAnaheim, CA. 92802 (714)[redacted]                                                                                                                                                                         
Revdex.com
4747 Viewridge ave. #200
San Diego, CA. 92123-1688
 
Re: ID# 10975824
 
In response to [redacted]’s letter it would be a reminder to our auto repair shop that we will go to great lengths to see all our customers receive what they came in for. They expect quality service of their auto repairs at a fair price in a reasonable amount of time. What we did for [redacted] was give him his car ( 1987 BMW 325i) back to him with it fixed and at very fair price for the parts needed to succeed in the repair. Where we failed was the amount of time to do the repair. This letter will most likely explain in detail why lengthy time.
Back in May 2015, [redacted] brought his car in to us by referral of his friend, being a first time customer I wanted immediately to see if this would be a “quick fix” if under the hood would be a vacuum leak or part disconnected. The complaint was the car would run fine for a little while then would run rough and stall the longer you drove it. When I realized we would need more time to diagnose this, he gave us his info to call him once we figured it out. So later that day as we were diagnosing the car I realized the problem was deeper than expected and called [redacted] to advise him we need more time. His exact words were “take all the time to fix it right, money is more important than time”. I replied “if you allow us all the time to diagnose this right then we can keep the bill low in searching for parts at better deals”.
Within the next 2 days our diagnosis was the vehicle runs smooth when cold then once in closed loop would not lean the fuel mixture but remain “rich”. Enormous puffs of blue smoke would spew out of exhaust on acceleration. Bring back to idle the engine would “flood” with to much fuel and begin to stall. 26 -33 year old bmw’s have a vintage fuel injection system called “Motronic”. This is a very simple EFI system. What is not simple is the scarcity of the diagnosis of which part/s have failed. There is no diagnostic flow chart tree or pin out procedure to the DME to pin point failed circuit. Was not able to call the customer at the time to accurately give him estimate and exact diagnosis. Why ? because we want to get it fixed and then give the customer the call. Would rather find the solution first. Our shop will not “experiment “on customer’s money but on the shops money. One by one we began replacing “common “ parts that create rich conditions. We replaced the 6 fouled out spark plugs and the spark wire set. Distributor cap and rotor, 4 wire oxygen sensor, cold start injector, the temp sensor for emissions, and 6 fuel injectors. We found that cylinder #2 and #5 fuel injectors were leaking fuel with key on with fuel rail removed; this for sure must be the “rich “condition. After replacing all these parts the car still was not fixed. We are puzzled. Called customer and let him know up to date work completed and advised him he will pay only for the parts needed for repair, and we will take out parts not needed and return them. This is not a problem for us, our mission is to keep the bill low. I asked for more time and [redacted] granted more time. Within the next 2 to 3 weeks and
@45 hours of diagnosis to no prevail, I took time off the vehicle and submitted a diagnosis request of the cars problem to IATN. This is an internet site to post difficult problems that reaches over 66,000 BMW technicians worldwide. I would follow up every 2-3 days to see updates. Many feeds came back with advise which we followed up on and still no victory.
At this point we now have $785 of shops money and 45 + hours into this vehicle and still not running right. There are 3 more parts that can be possible repair, the only problem here is I cannot return these if they don’t fix the problem. One is the DME which is the cars computer, other is the mass air flow meter, and final is the air intake temp charge sensor. This is where it gets expensive. This is when I discussed this with [redacted] that I will go to the wrecking yard on a convenient day off and search for an 87 BMW 325i with manual Trans and pull these parts. [redacted] is fully aware. All texts messages between him and I are saved relaying to him of the junk yard visits. Also my friend “[redacted] “ helped me locate [redacted]’s parts in the san Bernardino wrecking yards. All the BMW’s were stripped of the parts needed. I’m scouring through 2 junk yards here in Stanton and another in Anaheim determined to resolve this repair. After searching between July and September in the junk yards, a total of 4 days in 2 yards in a window of 90 days I called 2 European shops. Ronin auto werks in fullerton and BMW performance in costa mesa and spoke to their lead techs. Both techs told me you’re on your own, and said that diagnostic material is very limited on old school BMW’s. They also told me that is why the junk yards are full of 3 series BMW’s, people and techs throw in the towel because it is now a money situation and the repair will exceed the value of the vehicle.
By September I spoke with [redacted] and said please come pick up your car, no charge because I did not fix it and its now 4 months. I’m exhausted with now over $ 800 of shop money invested, over 50 hours of labor and time invested and 4 days of walking miles up and down countless rows of searching for his car parts that’s when I decided to surrender and have him please take the car to some other shop and they can deal with this. [redacted] decided to leave the car with me, at that point I recognized he has faith that we will fix it so I persisted to finish this now 4 month battle.
During a 4 day thanksgiving vacation in Idaho my wife asks me why you are down and look miserable. I told her about David’s car and I’m troubled. I called my friend Robert, a tech at sterling bmw to come back to the shop to go over this with me one more time and that [redacted] would like to speak with him personally about his car. Robert said to me you have all this money and time in this car just drop $560 on a DME and be done with this. Every part on this car is 28 years old so I agreed and called a private BMW parts house. I was able to buy it for $380, installed it and finally fixed. We shouted and did victory laps around the car shouting hallelujah!!!!!
We took out all our old parts and put his back in to keep bill low (this our main concern not time).David paid $380 for the DME, $80 for the coolant temp sender and engine temp sender, and $40 for the 6 spark plugs, $30 for gas and $0 for labor and time. Total $530. The shop profited $0. I kept my word with the customer that it will be fixed and bill low. This is why it took 6 unbearable months. One hour after he picked up the vehicle his clutch slave cylinder leaks fluid on the ground. Another 28 year old part gives up the ghost, and I’m shocked. My wife and I picked [redacted] up at 10 pm within 20 minutes down in garden grove and drove him home and we took his car back to the shop. By 10:30 the next morning the car had clutch pedal and charged him $160.
After reading his desired settlement with Revdex.com, I found a HUGE misunderstanding [redacted] believes we drove his car “around” for 6 months. To be very clear we only drove the car within the shop property lines to move/work/and diagnose the car. The vehicle is un drivable. Once warmed up, it would stall and not run right, the vehicle never left the shop until day of pickup to fill his fuel tank with gas. Even then less than once mile was registered on his odometer. In may was 170,000. Miles on odometer and in November was still 170,000 miles on odometer. He can check his records to confirm this.
In conclusion to the resolve of David’s car. The sacrifices, effort, stress and dedication it took to repair this vehicle are monumental. Wally’s shop saved David’s car from a junkyard or a very high repair bill from another shop where he would have paid for their diagnostic time and list prices on parts, not cost. We achieved again what the customer wanted. Please keep in mind he had every right & option to take his car elsewhere at any time. He signed no contract bounding him to my shop. Even now after all this, I am willing to refund his $690.00 providing I get all my parts back. All his old part are saved here at my shop and he can take it elsewhere.
 
 
Sincerely,
Wally
Wally’s Shop
532 S. Central park Ave. East
Anaheim, CA. 92802
(714)956-9400