Is it me/us? Is it a curse? Is it soceity?

AZ ERIK

22's & a Whipple 4 shizzl
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I'm really trying to figure out just what it is that continually keeps screwing me/and everyone else when it comes to automotive things, mainly these trucks and our wallets.

I'll summarize:
1. In 2004 I purchase said 2000 Lightning, in the interest of keeping it stock I purchase a Diablo tuner, then a 4# lower. I pay PowerSurgePerf for a tune and it's good.(1 of only a handful of things that worked well for me over the years, but sadly I'm not using it anymore)

2. I somehow destroy a cat within a year. I purchase 2 new cats ($180) then proceed to have them put on my stainless mids ($225, yup to mount 2 cats and run my brand new bumper directly into the curb thus putting plently of nice scratches in my week old bumper and paint) from this point on I hear an exhaust leak.

3. I take it to another shop, they show me that the $225 job I had done only welded 3/4 the way around the pipe. I can't take it back because the other shop closed. So another $90 to 'fix that'. This shop in turn (attempting to weld stainless to galvanized pipe, punches about 11 holes in the top of the pipe as the welder was up too high) so $90 for bird shit welds that leak, but not as bad.

4. Then I decide that a Silver bullet is too loud with these mids. Purchase BassaniN $700 shipped to my door. Take it to shop #3 to have it installed. Shop 3 proceeds to cut the silver bullet long my catback short, about 4 inches too short. So they proceed to cut off the clamps on the Bassani and add 4 inches of 2.25 pipe to it, note Bassani is 2.5, might as well not have the damn catback as its now restricted, but moving on. They add said shit pipe to the Bassani and don't line the tips up at all, then tell me it's the best they could do with what they had. Yup a brand new just out of the box exhaust, musta been one of those shitty new ones they read about. Any way another $250 dorking around with this. It's on there good and hasn't fallen off yet, oh yeah, $75 of that $250 was making new brackets for the cat back hangers, because they didn't line up, because they cut the mid pipes short! (No problem, I enjoy paying for others stupidity)

5. So a little down the road and guess what, another cat killed (me and my running 110 octane to get my 12 second sticker!) Not worried don't care. Order another pair of cats. $180 (I guess they have like 100k warranties but getting them warrantied is like pulling teeth) shop #4 gets to install them! They proceed to repeat nearly everything from #2 and #3. I'm pissed again that I pay money for this and just decide to drive it till they go again.

#6 so I decided to get long tubes. I buy some, they come with mid pipes, awesome problem solved right? Wrong. I put the long tubes and mids on, the nice thing was they came with everything and were really not that bad to put on, however the mids were modified to fit a magnaflow, which I don't want so I didn't get that. The mids had about 8 inches extra pipe. Cool, just need it cut and I'll strap clamp it and be done. Wrong. One of the collector bolts spins so it needs to be tacked to the collector. No worries how muc could that cost. I call local speed shop, they say, 'a little money' and 5 minutes. They get it on the lift and say, oh yeah we can cut the pipe and these 2 will slip inside and you can use your acc-u-seal clamp from the Bassani and be done. 2 hours later and this monkey has been hammering on my cat back for about 2 hours. 'Slipping the pipes together. So not only does the guy cut the mid pipes short, then he charges me an hour to put the pipe back in, again about 4 inches, why? Because the catback was just laying there, slipped forward 4 inches. So he beat the living shit out of my catback until the back of the muffler is dented in. Pieced the piping together, including his screw up and charges me 2 hours labor at $91 an hour, when his 'salesman' told me $75 an hour. To top it off it still leaks, and is no better than if I did it myself except it looks like a freakin lego exhaust construction set under my frame. So $180 there too, and I still need to fix the actual leak.

#6 is the same shop that had no idea how to dyno, yet has all these supposed 500+hp Merc's, how they havnt blown up a few of those I don't know. Any way, when I was a shop owner this kinda shit didn't fly. I paid for my and my employees stupidity, what happened? I thought we were a sue happy country, now we continually get screwed by shops and continue to pay. I know many MANY people who could have a whole other built truck for what they paid in others stupidity and 'expertise'.

Bullet proof blocks dropping valves, 4 that I know of, granted maybe that's not a lie, the blocks held up just most everything inside needed to be replaced. Dyno tuning gone bad, hell ever having to buy different tuners, sct, sniper, diablo only to find out all you did was spend $400 making the tuners life easier because they already had 'canned' tunes for your truck, that 'worked for everyone else'. Over priced tranny work because it's a Lightning. Though the same work at a desiel shop would have cost fractions of what you paid. The list goes on and on. When does the bleeding stop?
End rant)
This is not a SV bashing thread or an attempt to get others to bash, it is just my experiances with just the exhaust, not to even touch on the tranny or engine stuff. Exhaust, it's pipes, not hard, not an exact science it's plumbing with much bigger pipe, how hard can it be?
 

02REDSVT

alienfreek
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I hear you man, sorry you had so much trouble, the Bassani stuff is easy enough to do yourself, too bad you dont live closer, thats all we've been doing lately over here in cold NJ is exhaust work!!

It does seem lately though that its hard to find ANYONE who takes pride in their work... I've been wondering the same thing, I've been trying to get am alignment since the spring... one guy who "has the best machine around" tells me he can't do the alignment cause my idler arm has "play" in it... had my truck all day and never did a thing to it.... took it to another shop after that guy and they called me and told me my upper ball joints were bad so I told them forget it, just take it off the machine and I'll pick it up later... they call me back like 30 mins later only to tell me that a power steering hose blew off!!! :fm::cuss: I was like WTF!!! they didn't even do an alignment and they tried to charge me $200 to fix the hose that I still believe the caused to break... can't force the steering wheel with those spindles! I expressed my anger to the guy and he knocked off like 40 bucks... so I still paid 160 just to get my truck back without an alignment!!!

In conclusion: Hard to find people who give a shit and take pride in their work anymore...
 

AZ ERIK

22's & a Whipple 4 shizzl
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This doesn't even touch on the birthday present Midas gave me in 2005, when I took it in for an alignment, 3 hours later it's 'done' and they drop THE TRUCK off the lift. Causing more than $6500 in damage AND STILL charged me $55 for the alignment! Then Ford fixes the truck and the first time the paint isn't even remotely close, and the alignment is STILL wrong after they did it.

My birthday is 3 -31, my trucks birthday is 3 -30, midas drops the truck on 3 -30, happy birthday to me! Atleast I got that scratch out of my front bumper, then less than 1 week later see item #2 in the above list when they curb the bumper.
 

ASUSMC

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Pm me the names of these shops so I know NEVER to go there. I know you are in the east valley but its hard sometimes to find someone who does decent work. If I had a lift and tools at my dispense (I kinda do but not really) I would hang my own parts. Its the welding, grinding stuff that I can't do.

Eventually when this damn car sells I am gonna buy another laptop and SCT software and tune my truck myself. Then I have no one to blame but myself.
 

busakiller

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Eventually when this damn car sells I am gonna buy another laptop and SCT software and tune my truck myself. Then I have no one to blame but myself.

careful. with boost, that can be an expensive learning curve. even with the stock blower.
 

LSUstang05

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Pm me the names of these shops so I know NEVER to go there. I know you are in the east valley but its hard sometimes to find someone who does decent work. If I had a lift and tools at my dispense (I kinda do but not really) I would hang my own parts. Its the welding, grinding stuff that I can't do.

Eventually when this damn car sells I am gonna buy another laptop and SCT software and tune my truck myself. Then I have no one to blame but myself.

welding is incredibly easy. just gotta go slow and take your time. the hardest part is getting the equipment to do it heh
 

MMShaggy

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KARMA?????





totally joking. sorry about your luck, thats one huge snowball effect you got going on.
That's why I have a few who work on my truck and thats it. I refuse to let anyone else even come close to touching it....

wish ya the best...
 

RMoore92

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There is only 3 people I've trusted to touch my truck. I've also yet find a tuner in this city I can trust, or a dyno shop. I took my truck to a dyno shop in Tempe and the outcome was this new built motor I'm braking in =/
 

1BAD93SVT

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I always stay clear of Midas, Aamco, firestone, goodyear, big O tires, etc. I do the work or my friend. if welding is needed I have a friend, but will only do it at his shop, not home. good work is hard to come by. it seems shops promise the world. once partial payment, etc is given, they change from nice to pricks.
 

ecoastkid

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Installed brakes, suspension, engine, and tuned myself...all perfect. Two things done by others...1 The engine (done by a good friend)...Its perfect. 2. The mid pipe. paid some highly recomended person to fab it up...they did a so so job and my cat back has never been the same (moves around) I'm going to bring it to the guy that built the engine cause he is the only one I know that does quality work.
 

AZ ERIK

22's & a Whipple 4 shizzl
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Normally I do all my own work, but the mid pipes shoulda been 5 minutes, cut the pipe and I;m out. The thing that really chaps my ass is paying for shitty work. ASUS you have a PM
 

Silver '01 L

C'MON, ...BRUH!
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Why would you pay for sub par work?
You need to demand more respect.
And you shouldn't pay for an incomplete job.
If a shop can't do a job to your satisfaction why would you compensate them as if they did a job well done?
Someone can only abuse you as much as you allow them.
In the future pay with a credit card: that way if all else fails you can reverse the charge for services not performed.
 

Blk04L

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Damn dude, hopefully your luck will change in a positive direction.




OT, how do you know when you destroyed a cat? I'm assuming maybe a rattling noise?
 

AZ ERIK

22's & a Whipple 4 shizzl
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Rattles like hell! I'm writing up a lengthy email to the lat shop, quoting the fact my exhaust was hammered on and I now dented in the rear, and I'll be asking if that is standard practice on a $1000 Merc exhaust or if it's just because it's a Ford truck. I don't think my truck is a piece of shit warranting a good beating, who knows maybe it's just because I'm me.

I've let people walk on me for years, hence why I closed my shop, got tired of it. I can understand the pain that it is to run a place and deal with everything, but hell have some pride in your work, don't repeatedly tell me to hang out up front when your wailing on my ' cheap ass exhaut ' because it's not Renntech or something. I thought it would have been simple, but my truck and simple shit turns into $k's worth of work.

Sadly I'm now debating selling it and buying a 05+ stang and hoping that that car doesn't get screwed because it's a stang and not a farm truck, but that's another story.
 

HYBRED

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I seriously doubt the shoddy work has anything to do with what kind of vehicle it was. When it comes to exhaust shops, I only go to places I've heard more than a few good reviews about. The one time I went to an untested/unknown shop, to get window tint done, the tint job was terrible, I was overcharged almost $100, and both rear fenders were scratched to the bare metal by someone wearing a belt. At the very least report the businesses to the BBB; they can't do anything, but it will ding their record.
 

LSUstang05

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A lot of companies do take the BBB pretty seriously, though. This is off-topic but a good example...My mom had breast cancer and had to have a double misectomy (sp?). Long story short, one of the hospitals she went to kept sending her a notice to pay a bill that the hospital and her insurance had agreed to paid. After about 6 months of this, she reported them to the BBB and asked for a letter of apology and to stop sending the letter. Within 3 days she had the letter stating that the bill was taken care of and that they would stop sending her a bill. So, longer story short, report the shops to the BBB if they are part of it and see if something comes out of it.
 

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