I’ll start off by saying that I know there are a few Kauffman Motorsport / SGS Automotive and Performance (http://sgsperformance.com/) supporters here and I would appreciate this post not turning into a big flame fest. The point of this post is to demonstrate my experiences. After spending almost 2 years of my life planning, gathering parts, waiting for this person and that person, finding a “reputable” shop and spending thousands upon thousands of dollars only to walk away wishing you never considered any of it, is a bit depressing. I cut Kauffman / SGS a check for $4700+ for labor, tune, exhaust and misc. parts. For the money I spent, the service I received was horrible and from now on I will not do anything to the car I cannot do by myself or with the help of some buddies.
I dropped the car off at Kauffman / SGS on November 13th and asked for an ETA. Dave Guy told me it would be done the week of Thanksgiving or the following but that he’s not making any promises. I spoke to them once or twice regarding headers and an LDC cooling mod. I told him to let me know when he thought the car would be ready as I have to schedule time off with work to make the 3 hour drive and pick the car up. I called them on January 4th or 5th to find out that the car was ready to be picked up and made 352rwhp STD corrected. I thought the numbers were a bit low for FR500 cams, 03 cobra heads with bowl work, valve job and cleaned up short turn by Boss330, ported stock 01 cobra manifold, Long tubes into 3” x and mufflers, and I was a kind of disappointed. I heard in the past that their dyno read a little low and was hoping that there was still some good power to be made once my aviator intake manifold gets ironed out.
I went to pickup my car and when I started the car it stalled. I started it back up and the idle hunted a bit. Dave came over and said “Is it doing that again? I thought I got it to stop.” The idle smoothed itself out and I took it for a test drive. Came back and handed over the check, picked up the invoice and dyno sheet. Started the car and as I was backing out I could of sworn I heard a squeak. I looked up and nobody seemed to notice so I thought it was my imagination. Gassed up and headed over to my cousins house in another part of Pennsylvania. I figured it would be best if I didn’t beat on the car until I was close to home. Cruising down the highway I now hear the belt screaming, quieting down, and then screaming again. I figured the belt was new and probably had to break in, especially since it was pretty cold out. I also noticed that the volt gauge read a hair lower than before. Usually my volt gauge was dead nuts in the middle, now it was slightly over to the left. Hmmm…the oil pressure gauge is bouncing around like crazy too. Weird.
Now the time comes for me to leave my cousins house and head home, I go to crank the car up and it takes a full 5 seconds of cranking before it starts. I also go to turn on the headlights and they aren’t working. Pop the hood and notice that the relay I ran for the HID’s had been disconnected from the battery. No big deal, temporarily connect it up and I’m good to go. On the way home the check engine light comes on and my heart sinks. What now?
I get the car back home, unload everything, pick up my girlfriend and go for a ride. Find a nice open stretch of highway and I nail it. Somewhere around 5500rpms I notice the voltage light illuminate on the dash board. I let off and it goes off and the gauge shows slightly lower than it has before. Nail the gas again and on cue the light comes on again. I turned on the volt gauge in my Pioneer radio and the volts are now fluctuating 11.5-12.3 (FWIW, my Pioneer Volt gauge is between .0-.1 volts off from the reading in the ECU). I take the car back to the garage and go home wondering what the **** is going on?
Called Kauffman / SGS and Dave told me to check the connectors on the alternator. I also told Dave that I noticed a new ground wire bolted down to the radiator support. He told me the old ground broke but he doesn’t know the details because he wasn’t the one who was working on that part. I thought it was weird that so many people would have their hands on one car and not communicate details to one another but figured it must not have been a big deal. I told him about the check engine light and he told me to get the code scanned and let him know what it is; maybe he forgot to turn off the air/smog pump.
I checked the connections on the alternator cleaned all the pulleys and put on a slightly smaller belt but the voltage would still fluctuate. Took the car out one night, about 15 miles from home and noticed the volts dropped to 10! Christ. Turned down the radio, shut off the heat, HID’s and hit the highway. As I started getting closer to my exit the radio was flashing on and off and the rpm gauge was bouncing like crazy. I was praying to God the car would make it back. I pull up to the garage at 3am, get out to open the door and the car shuts off. Tried to jump it and it wouldn’t start. Luckily a friend of mine was walking down the street and helped me line the car up and push it up the driveway and onto my side of the garage.
The next day I charged the battery and the car still wouldn’t turn over. I try a few more times and then smoke starts to come out of the center console (my guess is since there was no ground the power leaving the starter was trying to ground out through the e-brake cable)! At this point I’m ready to turn the car into a cube. I buy a new starter, swap it in and it still won’t turn over. Turn the motor by hand, check the connections and the battery. Have a friend help me out and chase the grounds. We notice the ground strap is half hanging off of the motor. Whoever put it over at Kauffman / SGS never put the nut on it. Secured the ground cable and the car fired up, volts at idle were ~14.5. WHEW!
The next day I took the car out and decided to get it washed as it was filthy since I picked it up at Kauffman / SGS. After having the hand car wash, which I regularly visit, clean it up I notice a school of scratches on the passenger side of the back bumper which was not there back on November 13th. The hits just keep on coming.
Later that night I’m about to get on the highway and decide to hit the HVAC to “Max A/C” to keep the warm air circulating in the cabin. As I’m approaching the onramp I notice the car is now running just passed the “L” on the temp gauge. I turn off the air, get on the highway and get the car up to speed and throw it in 5th. The temp starts to come down and the car stays at the normal temperature. As I’m parking the car the low coolant light comes on.
The next day I get the code scanned, P1443 “Evaporative Emissions Control”. Do a search on the corral and see that there is a Purge flow sensor and valve which regularly go bad. I find it funny that now, all of a sudden, it’s going bad but if it’s just a sensor then fine, I’ll replace it. I figure maybe the bad sensor is part of the reason why my idle has been hunting, the car stalling 3 out of 5 times while coasting to a stop, and the prolonged cranking to start.
I call Kauffman / SGS and informed Dave on the code number. He tells me that he has seen that code before and does not know why it comes up or how to fix it, but not to worry as it does not affect performance. I tell him that I wonder if it’s contributing to my hunting idle and stalling issue. He says it’s probably the cams and I should turn the set screw on the throttle body to raise the idle. I tell him that after taking a few days off from work, and replacing the starter after the car left me dead one night, that I found the cause of my electrical problems, an engine ground strap that had no nut on it. “Ahhh…”. No “sorry” or “how can I make it up to you” but “Ahhh..”. Ok, fine. I also tell him about the car overheating and he says that it’s probably the high speed fan that is not kicking on since it was on A/C and that I should check the harness. I tell him about the scratches on the back bumper and he tells me that they did not work on anything back there so it could not have been them, if it was he would of “taken care of me”. At this point I’m a bit angry and disappointed. After cutting them a check for almost 5 grand I feel abandoned with a car that’s giving me headache after headache. They don’t offer for me to swing by so they can take a look at it, they don’t offer to reimburse me for the days I took off from work or for the starter I replaced for no reason, nothing. If I wanted kinks to work out myself I would have done the work….MYSELF. I tell Dave I’ll let him know if changing the sensor and valve works and hang up knowing that I’m on my own with this car and any surprise it throws my way.
Then today while replacing the purge flow sensor and valve I notice a few things. One, there is now two dents on the inner fender, probably from some sort of engine brace used when removing/replacing the motor. And two, the vacuum cable going from the purge flow sensor to the manifold is just hanging there connected to nothing. Interesting, if nothing else.
I guess in all of this I learned the age old lesson that nobody cares for your belongings more than yourself. Going forward I will be doing much more of the work myself, even if it takes longer then if I had somebody else do it. I feel a little bit taken advantage of and given all of the circumstances I would have left the car alone had I known what this would entail.
There is a thread already going on about this on the corral:
http://corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=878059
I dropped the car off at Kauffman / SGS on November 13th and asked for an ETA. Dave Guy told me it would be done the week of Thanksgiving or the following but that he’s not making any promises. I spoke to them once or twice regarding headers and an LDC cooling mod. I told him to let me know when he thought the car would be ready as I have to schedule time off with work to make the 3 hour drive and pick the car up. I called them on January 4th or 5th to find out that the car was ready to be picked up and made 352rwhp STD corrected. I thought the numbers were a bit low for FR500 cams, 03 cobra heads with bowl work, valve job and cleaned up short turn by Boss330, ported stock 01 cobra manifold, Long tubes into 3” x and mufflers, and I was a kind of disappointed. I heard in the past that their dyno read a little low and was hoping that there was still some good power to be made once my aviator intake manifold gets ironed out.
I went to pickup my car and when I started the car it stalled. I started it back up and the idle hunted a bit. Dave came over and said “Is it doing that again? I thought I got it to stop.” The idle smoothed itself out and I took it for a test drive. Came back and handed over the check, picked up the invoice and dyno sheet. Started the car and as I was backing out I could of sworn I heard a squeak. I looked up and nobody seemed to notice so I thought it was my imagination. Gassed up and headed over to my cousins house in another part of Pennsylvania. I figured it would be best if I didn’t beat on the car until I was close to home. Cruising down the highway I now hear the belt screaming, quieting down, and then screaming again. I figured the belt was new and probably had to break in, especially since it was pretty cold out. I also noticed that the volt gauge read a hair lower than before. Usually my volt gauge was dead nuts in the middle, now it was slightly over to the left. Hmmm…the oil pressure gauge is bouncing around like crazy too. Weird.
Now the time comes for me to leave my cousins house and head home, I go to crank the car up and it takes a full 5 seconds of cranking before it starts. I also go to turn on the headlights and they aren’t working. Pop the hood and notice that the relay I ran for the HID’s had been disconnected from the battery. No big deal, temporarily connect it up and I’m good to go. On the way home the check engine light comes on and my heart sinks. What now?
I get the car back home, unload everything, pick up my girlfriend and go for a ride. Find a nice open stretch of highway and I nail it. Somewhere around 5500rpms I notice the voltage light illuminate on the dash board. I let off and it goes off and the gauge shows slightly lower than it has before. Nail the gas again and on cue the light comes on again. I turned on the volt gauge in my Pioneer radio and the volts are now fluctuating 11.5-12.3 (FWIW, my Pioneer Volt gauge is between .0-.1 volts off from the reading in the ECU). I take the car back to the garage and go home wondering what the **** is going on?
Called Kauffman / SGS and Dave told me to check the connectors on the alternator. I also told Dave that I noticed a new ground wire bolted down to the radiator support. He told me the old ground broke but he doesn’t know the details because he wasn’t the one who was working on that part. I thought it was weird that so many people would have their hands on one car and not communicate details to one another but figured it must not have been a big deal. I told him about the check engine light and he told me to get the code scanned and let him know what it is; maybe he forgot to turn off the air/smog pump.
I checked the connections on the alternator cleaned all the pulleys and put on a slightly smaller belt but the voltage would still fluctuate. Took the car out one night, about 15 miles from home and noticed the volts dropped to 10! Christ. Turned down the radio, shut off the heat, HID’s and hit the highway. As I started getting closer to my exit the radio was flashing on and off and the rpm gauge was bouncing like crazy. I was praying to God the car would make it back. I pull up to the garage at 3am, get out to open the door and the car shuts off. Tried to jump it and it wouldn’t start. Luckily a friend of mine was walking down the street and helped me line the car up and push it up the driveway and onto my side of the garage.
The next day I charged the battery and the car still wouldn’t turn over. I try a few more times and then smoke starts to come out of the center console (my guess is since there was no ground the power leaving the starter was trying to ground out through the e-brake cable)! At this point I’m ready to turn the car into a cube. I buy a new starter, swap it in and it still won’t turn over. Turn the motor by hand, check the connections and the battery. Have a friend help me out and chase the grounds. We notice the ground strap is half hanging off of the motor. Whoever put it over at Kauffman / SGS never put the nut on it. Secured the ground cable and the car fired up, volts at idle were ~14.5. WHEW!
The next day I took the car out and decided to get it washed as it was filthy since I picked it up at Kauffman / SGS. After having the hand car wash, which I regularly visit, clean it up I notice a school of scratches on the passenger side of the back bumper which was not there back on November 13th. The hits just keep on coming.
Later that night I’m about to get on the highway and decide to hit the HVAC to “Max A/C” to keep the warm air circulating in the cabin. As I’m approaching the onramp I notice the car is now running just passed the “L” on the temp gauge. I turn off the air, get on the highway and get the car up to speed and throw it in 5th. The temp starts to come down and the car stays at the normal temperature. As I’m parking the car the low coolant light comes on.
The next day I get the code scanned, P1443 “Evaporative Emissions Control”. Do a search on the corral and see that there is a Purge flow sensor and valve which regularly go bad. I find it funny that now, all of a sudden, it’s going bad but if it’s just a sensor then fine, I’ll replace it. I figure maybe the bad sensor is part of the reason why my idle has been hunting, the car stalling 3 out of 5 times while coasting to a stop, and the prolonged cranking to start.
I call Kauffman / SGS and informed Dave on the code number. He tells me that he has seen that code before and does not know why it comes up or how to fix it, but not to worry as it does not affect performance. I tell him that I wonder if it’s contributing to my hunting idle and stalling issue. He says it’s probably the cams and I should turn the set screw on the throttle body to raise the idle. I tell him that after taking a few days off from work, and replacing the starter after the car left me dead one night, that I found the cause of my electrical problems, an engine ground strap that had no nut on it. “Ahhh…”. No “sorry” or “how can I make it up to you” but “Ahhh..”. Ok, fine. I also tell him about the car overheating and he says that it’s probably the high speed fan that is not kicking on since it was on A/C and that I should check the harness. I tell him about the scratches on the back bumper and he tells me that they did not work on anything back there so it could not have been them, if it was he would of “taken care of me”. At this point I’m a bit angry and disappointed. After cutting them a check for almost 5 grand I feel abandoned with a car that’s giving me headache after headache. They don’t offer for me to swing by so they can take a look at it, they don’t offer to reimburse me for the days I took off from work or for the starter I replaced for no reason, nothing. If I wanted kinks to work out myself I would have done the work….MYSELF. I tell Dave I’ll let him know if changing the sensor and valve works and hang up knowing that I’m on my own with this car and any surprise it throws my way.
Then today while replacing the purge flow sensor and valve I notice a few things. One, there is now two dents on the inner fender, probably from some sort of engine brace used when removing/replacing the motor. And two, the vacuum cable going from the purge flow sensor to the manifold is just hanging there connected to nothing. Interesting, if nothing else.
I guess in all of this I learned the age old lesson that nobody cares for your belongings more than yourself. Going forward I will be doing much more of the work myself, even if it takes longer then if I had somebody else do it. I feel a little bit taken advantage of and given all of the circumstances I would have left the car alone had I known what this would entail.
There is a thread already going on about this on the corral:
http://corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=878059
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