Still no Luck... Sigh...

[Weasy2k]

I have been following this project for some time now and by the looks of the above statement is the shop in question MR2Guru? I remeber that he took this car to different shops across NC/SC and it would be nice to have a clear message about what happened where. Not trying to start something here i just want to make sure the shop(s) that have done this is noted.

[noshoes]

Originally Posted by Weasy2k

I have been following this project for some time now and by the looks of the above statement is the shop in question MR2Guru?

You got it right!

[ecm garrett]

im curious to see what the shop has to say about this thread.
i feel bad for the guy who had to pay for all that work just to get things fixed, that sucks

[lowboost]

when you look for a shop look for the ASE certification... I hate to say it, but theres SO MANY shops out there that claim they can tune a car and work on a certain type of car, I see those shops arent concerned with their customers best interest but their own.

[ecm garrett]

right, i agree with you lowboost, esp when paying 85$ an hour!!!! thats so much money to spend on someone who isnt certified

[PHOENIX]

guys, lets chill on the posting till we can hear what the other side of the story is. This is now in the feedback section and we should hear both sides of the story before making any comments.

[robertsmb]

Originally Posted by Weasy2k

I have been following this project for some time now and by the looks of the above statement is the shop in question MR2Guru? I remember that he took this car to different shops across NC/SC and it would be nice to have a clear message about what happened where. Not trying to start something here I just want to make sure the shop(s) that have done this is noted.

Weasy is 1/2 correct. MR2Guru was not the only shop to touch my car.. In fact he was the 3rd person in line that I had taken it too because the first 2 shops butchered my car. While this issue is about the faults found from his work,.. He wasn’t exactly given a 100% quality product to begin with. None the less, it was his shop that was in charge of fixing the mistakes (that’s what I paid for) and it didn’t happen.

Im also going to reiterate a few things... This will be a long post, but I think it explains another side of the story here. First, I want to say that I think this issue needs to stay about the quality of the work done between you technical guys, and since it was my car, I see it a different way than you professionals. I will only offer my side of the story, and I won’t even revisit this thread again.

My complaints were the tuning issues, exhaust leak and the cruise control mainly. I paid labor and parts for my cruise control to get fixed and my exhaust leak to get fixed and neither one of those things worked when I got to Va Beach with Bryan. Everything else,.. Like the badly designed Manifold, or the sloppy looking engine bay will have to stay between the professionals because I don’t know enough to debate those arguments with anyone...

As far as the quality of work, that is going to have to remain between the parties involved. I cannot and will not look at another mans work and call it "hack work" or just all out shit. I went to him because I could not do it myself, and if you guys don’t agree with the quality, please keep me out of that one. I just wanted my car to work. Now, onto specific issues.

The main issue I had with the whole manifold thing was his word that he gave me about it. While Im sure to him, his product was the best,... I purchased his Intake Manifold because he told me it was better than the stock one. I myself, have no idea about how to design or even test an intake manifold for power increases, so I merely took his word for it. If you guys think its crap, that’s totally fine with me,... but that issue didn’t have anything to do with my complaints. I will say that I paid $500 dollars for that manifold w/ tvis plates, and they charged me labor to put it on. After researching what it would cost to get an aftermarket intake manifold, I see that I paid a little too much. Because I was dumb enough to just jump in and buy a product without doing any research, shouldn’t involve a community bashing him for it. It was partly my fault for telling him I wanted it in the first place. You should absolutely hold him accountable if the design was flawed, or the price was wrong, to the extent that others should know there are better deals on better products. But alas, I cannot go further into that point because I cannot tell if the Guru Manifold is better or worse than the others.



He charged me for a complete new cruise control box and that still didn’t fix the problem. When I left I still had no cruise control, and it was not fixed. His shop also pulled my turbo system off my car to check for a waste gate malfunction, and broke an exhaust manifold stud in the process of pulling it off. I paid for what I understood to be the fixing of the broken stud and exhaust leak caused by it. I was charged labor for that, and labor to put it all back together, but the stud was never fixed. Now, had they required additional time and labor to fix it, I would have paid that as well, but it was broken by them, so that should be a mute issue.

I want to take a second and start speaking for MR2Guru's character, and I told No Shoes this,...

First off, He went out of his way to discount his labor for me, and accept my old stock parts as some of the forms of payment that I gave him. He knew I was running out of money because of the other 2 shops that butchered my car first, and If his labor was too high to begin with that is fine and dandy to be argued, but He did take all of my stock parts for trade, as well as my laptop to try to help keep costs down a bit. He also allowed a guy that owed me money to work off his debt on my car. While this might have not been the best idea on my part, it still should have been quality control checked by Harry before the car left his shop because he is ultimately responsible for the items that are repaired there.

He was on the phone with customers the entire week I was there, setting up new appointments and getting more business lined up for himself. The only flaw I see in this system is the overbooking. He was so busy lining up new clients that he didn’t have time to take care of the ones he already had.

The reason I tell you this information is to tell you that Harry ultimately did not touch my car until my timing belt issue came up. That was the very last day I was in town. He has 2 mechanics working for him that were doing everything to my car and the entire complaint department items listed here was performed by those 2 mechanics. I do not think that should let him completely off the hook, as I said, it is still his shop and he needs to asses the quality of the work being done there by his employee’s.

Harry will undoubtedly argue these facts with an issue of “Time”… because he did mention to me that he was “Squeezing” me into his schedule because he didn’t have time to do it due to all of his other customers, but my response to that is, you should have told me to wait until later if you couldn’t get it done right. That’s all it would have taken. =)

Now, Im sure I have made some enemies here, and I am happy to clear up and answer any questions anyone has, but I will not do it in this thread. Please get with me in person to spare any more drama on the internet. I didn’t want to be in the middle of a war between members of the community… I just wanted my car to work. I am not trying to bash MR2Guru’s shop and don’t want to have any bad blood here,… but I did end up paying yet another person more money to fix problems that should have already been fixed. That is the only issue here, and it’s not an issue to hold a grudge over.

If you want this to be a feedback thread, then this is my only feedback.

Harry “MR2Guru” Davis has a big title to carry. When you call yourself the “Guru” of an item , you insinuate that you know it all and you can do no wrong. He does appear to be very knowledgeable about the MR2 vehicles, regardless of year model or engine code. He treated me with respect and at the time of the service, I felt he was being a straight shooter with me. He invited me into his home and trusted me with his family. There is a lot to be said of a man with such character. Overall, I was not pleased with the quality of the work performed, but as I listed, he didn’t exactly do the work himself, and he made EVERY effort he could to work with my limited budget at the time of payment. Im sure given the opportunity and having the time he would make every effort to correct the mistakes made, and do what it took to get it right. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait that long and had to pay someone else to do it)

Bryan “No Shoes” Moore has fixed almost every single problem I had, and he did it cheaper than anyone else. My cruise control still does not work, but Bryan never told me it would. He never charged me to fix it. Bryan helped me identify and troubleshoot a few more problems that I will have to get sorted out before my car can be completely tuned. These are problems that no one else pointed out to me, and I would not have known about without his expert advice.

My **POSTITIVE** feedback will only go to Bryan Moore, because he is the only guy that took the time to explain things to me while he was doing it. He also did not let ANYONE ELSE TOUCH MY CAR while it was under his care,… and ensured my complete 100% satisfaction before I paid him 1 single red cent. He was completely responsible and happy with the quality of the work paid for and completed prior to me leaving town. The last thing I want to add is, that I paid for a 100% performance tune with Bryan Moore, and even though I did not receive that tune fully, we have rescheduled a later date to complete that tune at no additional cost to me….. That to me is a good business man that sticks to his product.

You gentlemen have a wonderful day, and I hope this issue gets worked out.

[lowboost]

Thanks for squaring everything away

[Locofrancais MR2Guru]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in reply as I was just directed to the thread.

First thing first and I will try to keep organized enough here to answer all of the corresponding questions.

Mike initially contacted us as far as service to do two things; install a Nemesis (not tune as I referred that to NoShoes), and to figure out why his car sputtered under boost. This is what his appointment was made for, and was under that time constraint. Michael had money owed to him by a mutual friend who was subcontracted to install the Nemesis to pay off his debt to Michael, and was not associated with MR2 Guru. This subcontracted person is ASE Certified and was enlisted by Mike himself. My part in this was connecting the two of them.

Once Mike arrived in Asheville, he had brought additional parts and wanted additional services/installs. This is why the time allotted became an issue. Also, the Nemesis became a problem as it was a used unit and had wiring issues. I did not initially want to do the install on the Nemesis and referred it to Bryan, but the sub-contracted party agreed to do so for less money.

The broken exhaust stud/leak was there before we aquired the car, and was not included in our repair estimate, nor was it discussed that it was our enlistment to fix. His car was worked on for 3 days trying to fix issues caused by other shops/persons, as well as installing additional parts/electronics and custom jobs to make inadequate items work. The initial appointment should not have taken as long as it did, but was unavoidable due to the additions and also Mike's own time constraints (his only time off from work). He was also allowed to do some of his own work (which is an insurance risk for me) that he needed done in general and wanted use of the light/heat of the shop. He also insisted that he wanted to learn more about his car and stood in on the whole process. Customers are not typically allowed in the service area as it is a SEVERE insurance liablility for any commendable and legitimate business. That is my fault for allowing this to occur, but I felt that Mike was genuine and trustworthy enough to take on his own responsibility for any adversed occurances that were possible. He agreed that he would be responsible for anything occuring under his request/suggestion and that he was responsible for the safety of his person. This will not happen again for anyone as it has proven to be just that, a liability.

The base maps on the Nemesis were not installed by MR2 Guru, nor any of the tuning. Mike needed this done because the Nemesis was a used unit and was initially mapped for a 2.2 Stroker kit with DFI, which would also not fall back on us. We had to yet again sub-contract someone to come in to get the car mapped enough to run until Mike's appointment with Bryan, which is all that was asked of us.

Our labor rate is $65 and not the stated $85. Mike was not even charged our full shop rate. His discounted rate was very generous and was done under the assumption that his finances were limited. It was a favor to Mike as the car is his only means of transportation and he had been so badly burned by previous shops that performed grade F work.

The intake manifold in question is one of 2 prototypes in existance. It was purchased by Mike from an employee of ours that had used the manifold on his car for testing purposes. It was also used on a dyno run and worked just as well, if not better than stock; which is all Mike asked for. I do not understand why Bryan calls it "the biggest piece of shit" intake manifold he has ever seen. He did not seem to have any complaints when it was shown to him just weeks ago as we were having friendly conversation. I had clearly asked him friend-to-friend for some constructive criticism.

Originally Posted by noshoes

Here's an example:

The shop in question drilled holes in Mike's intake manifold while the intake manifold was on the car, right in front of Mike, and proceeded to state that the motor would be just fine!

This statement is by no means the truth.

Firstly, I did not nor did I ever suggest the drilling/tapping of the manifold in any form while it was on the engine. Mike himself drilled 2 of the hole(s) in question and took upon himself to purchase the fittings from Lowes to install the MAP sensor. I told him to take the manifold back off the engine to properly drill and tap the proper holes to avoid fragments and shrapnel from getting into his combustion chambers. He assured me that he would take the utmost care to protect from this occurance. When he no longer felt confident in himself he insisted that I take on the third hole/tap. I again advised that the manifold should be REMOVED before performing this action, but he insisted that he was in a rush to get to Alabama and did not have time to take it back off. Against my better judgement he assured me that if this were to cause any of the adversed problems I warned against, that he would assume full responsibility.

It is upsetting for him to speak negatively of me after I had to rush to complete all of his requests -that were not included in the initial appointment- that he insisted I do under such pressure. I offered my home as shelter to help him save money for NoShoes after repeated discounts for services that were not even supposed to be performed. This may have caused us to look unprepared, but if you look at it from our perspective, thats like if you book an appointment for an oil change and end up having to do an engine swap.

The services that were supposed to be performed at his first appointment should have only taken one day. It turned into a 3 day project setting back my other customers and turning the whole shop upside down.

The second appointment was set specificly to fix his timing. This also may have been the issue with his tune, as you cannot accurately tune a car that was a minimum of 10 degrees off time (cam timing). That was the handy work of another shop, not my own. Two days after the timing appointment was set, and a couple days before the appointment date I was informed that cams and sprockets were on their way to my shop and that I would need to install these as well. I had to refuse that as the appointment was set for fixing the timing alone, and that would take much more time than I had alloted for the appointment. This is the same situation as the first appointment where more work was trying to be squeezed into what was actually supposed to be done. Being naive the first time about such favors, I could not afford to have the shop in another whirlwind of chaos again.

The issue of the cruise control was as follows; Mike told me the cruise control was not working after the previous shop had performed "services". Not having much time to spend diagnosing the issue, I suggested maybe he try to swap out the cruise module as a shot in the dark. I sold him a good module and installed it. When he said that did not help his problem after leaving Asheville, I offered to refund his money. He said not to worry about it. End of story. He offered no complaints to me about this.

Not that this is related directly to the issue at hand, but we were also recovering being shorthanded the same week due to an employee leaving and another having a family emergency. There were many factors that accounted in this mishap, but many things are exaggerated to sound worse than they were or things that were blamed on my services that had nothing to do with our shop. There were many more problems with Mike's car before Bryan ever saw it that I had to try to piece together.

I have been a member of the MR2 community for some time now, and have helped, repaired, advised and built many MR2's including those of others in the community with no complaints. No one has ever accused me of being a hack shop nor a crook, because those would be false accusations. Anyone that has questioned my services have been answered and have been even more confident with us than when they came. I run a reputable shop, answer people's questions on AIM nearly 24/7, offer phone support, and sell good used and new OE replacement parts that I stand behind. I also stand behind my service 100%. If anyone has any question about my credibility or my work you are more than welcome to contact me, call me or visit the shop anytime.

I would prefer if some were more mature in the matter as to contact me with any issues/complaints before calling me a "hack" shop and call my work "pieces of shit". Miscommunication can do no good for any of us, and those of you who are yourselves in legitimate business should agree. False/negative remarks travel fast, and those that are misinformed are still floating about even after these things are resolved. I base my judgements upon proven facts and truths. I do not know if Mike told Bryan I did a hack job or not, but the so-called hack jobs were in place long before his car arrived at our shop. Any services that were performed and/or not warranteed by myself were performed by persons enlisted by Mike or done by himself (such as Nemesis install, tuning, and drilling etc.). Things were done that I advised against that I am now somehow being held accountable for.

I feel confident that there are many others in the community that will stand behind me and my work. What I offer is a favor to the community, not a way to make a buck-as Mike knows. I try to be fair and reasonable and have on many occasions offered assistance that has cut my own financial throat to help others who have the same passion as myself. I am not in this business because I have to, I do it because it is what I love to do.

I can be reached at (828)776-GURU if anyone has any further questions/suggestions or doubts.

Thank you and my apologies for the length in post.

MR2 Guru
(Speaking of which, I have been called the Guru and it is not a self-proclaimed title.)

[lowboost]

totally off topic, in harry's signature, where is that guys arm?

[Locofrancais MR2Guru]

Originally Posted by noshoes

I had to go behind the worst jack ass work I have seen in 6 years by numerous shops to even get the car running.

I just finished 3 16 hour work days of mechanical work, including removing his cylinder head because of a broken exhaust stud, removing the biggest piece of shit intake manifold I have seen made since the Trueleo days, rerouting all sorts of crap that was laying on top of his coolant filler neck, and all sorts of other cleanup work.

ONE hour of that 48 hours was spent tuning. Mike didn't even know what to say to describe what it is like to actually have a car that starts well, drives smooth, and is nice and quiet (meaning no looney tune exhaust leak blackening his engine bay), and that pulls to redline at 13psi.

There's MUCH more to come once I get these pictures uploaded. I haven't been this pissed at a business for absolute worthless work at $85 a ****ing hour, in YEARS! I don't understand how a business can charge money to completely rape a man's car.

I hope that you are not singling me or my shop out here, because none of those statements refer to work I had done on the car. As I said before, the intake manifold is my design prototype and you have seen it before. Maybe you could enlighten me as to why it is such a "piece of shit". Also, maybe Mike should've let me set the car at 13 psi instead of the 17 psi he set/wanted. Either way I dont believe it wouldve helped much at the time as he did not allow us to schedule enough time in an appointment to address all of his requests. I hope Mike will take some of the responsibility of the complaints he has on work he ordered done or performed himself.
I think issues that anyone thinks are my doing be addressed with me instead of being so vague and general, reflecting poorly on me. Considering his car was last at my shop, the assumption would be that was my work. When people see words like jackass and piece of shit and hack-shop... it tends to instill fear. I hope you don't just blurt bad things about your peers as your opinion is highly regarded. Maybe I am over-reacting and none of this was directed toward me, but maybe you could clarify or expand on your statements. If you have been under the wrong impression, maybe Mike can jump in....

[Locofrancais MR2Guru]

Originally Posted by lowboost

totally off topic, in harry's signature, where is that guys arm?

That is Harry and he was swapping the clutch slave cylinder/hydraulic lines. His arms are down beside the engine, I promise they're there.

[noshoes]

As I stated in my post, there's much more to come once I get the pictures uploaded.

As far as the work that was performed, either Mike is a bigtime liar (based on your story), there's some odd stuff going on by your mechanics that you do not check behind, or you're trying to cover your rear end.

[Locofrancais MR2Guru]

I dont know what you have been told, but I am more than sure Mike will confirm everything that I said in my post is truth.
At any given time, there were three people at my shop that can confirm any of my statements.
Any previous damage done by other shops (all of which Mike was aware of before bringing me his car) can not reflect poorly on me.
If you could, describe to me what work that you think was done by me that you may get the full story.

Just wanted to add that if it took NoShoes three 16-hour days to fix all that was wrong with Mike's car, how does/did he expect me to fix everything in one 8 hour appointment (which is what it was supposed to be)?

[Brinkley]

hey everybody, im somewhat new to the mr2 scene as an owner but i just want to jump in and stand up for my buddy harry and his shop. i asked harry to find me a 2 last year and he found me an mr2 turbo with 61K on it. he didnt keep it a secret (even though i know he wanted to) he told me about it and even towed my new purchase for me he's been nothing but good to me since then, harry isnt perfect but if he messes something up he admits it and makes up for it. he even towed that broke ass parts car for me so i could get a trunk and bumper and that thing was broke i mean broke.
Ill wrap it up here im a local in asheville and am at the shop all the time. i trust those guys---matter of fact harry i still need to do my 60K mile timing belt change/tuneup (on my 91, i might add) and YES i will be having it done at MR2GURU cause he knows whats up and i definitely dont.
Brinkley

[mr2slow4you]

Brinkley did get a pretty decent deal on the mr2 he got, even tho the rear body parts were needing to be replaced.

[Locofrancais MR2Guru]

Originally Posted by noshoes

As I stated in my post, there's much more to come once I get the pictures uploaded.

As far as the work that was performed, either Mike is a bigtime liar (based on your story), there's some odd stuff going on by your mechanics that you do not check behind, or you're trying to cover your rear end.

Thats a pretty bold statement considering you did not see the car before it came to me. You know where to reach me if there is something you feel should be addressed privately.

[Node]

Ok, I guess I should throw in a third party point of view here.

As some of you know I occationally work out of the MR2Guru shop. Harry and mindy have at times been gracious enough to allow me to rent out a bay at their shop for my own side work on weekends. I just happened to be at the shop on one of the days when mike had his car in the bay.

Now I will admit, I am a friend of the shop owner, so I dont need anyone to tell me that. But, those of you who know me also know that I am honest and tell things like they are. Im not trying to bash anyone here I just want to give my impression of what I saw when i was at the shop.

When I arrived at the shop the day Mike was there, I was supprised to see a non-employee (mike) working on a car by himself with little or no supervison. Everyone seemed to be very busy working with other cars, other customers, on the phone etc... I asked harry about it and he said he was letting the guy work on his car himself to try to help him out.

I went about my buissness, ordered a few parts, and welded a few things that I had fabbed the previous time I had been in the shop. After I finished my work I walked in to check on what mike was up to and see if he needed any assistance. To my suprise I found him with a drill in hand boreing holes in an intake manifold that was on his engine in his car! He made no effort to clean the shavings out of his intake nor did he seem concerned that doing something like that could potentially DESTROY his engine. I decided NOT to offer assistance to someone that didnt respect his own property enough to treat it appropriately.

I need mention though, the intake manifold that Mike was sold was a prototype that one of the employees had been playing around with. It was rough looking and is obvously far from a finished product but Mike wanted it anyway. He wasnt duped into buying something sight unseen.

As many of you know Harry has been selling good quality products for years now. He spends a good deal of money developing products for a tiny neche market that has very little profit in it. If he was trying to take advantage of people & make lots of money from "inferior parts" he would be developing civic parts or something for other mass market cars. Its unfortunate that a developement level part was sold to Mike but I say again, Mike was there, IN THE SHOP, and wanted the part. Nobody was trying to take advantage of him. He asked to have it installed and was told the costs involved.

I can say from first had account that what harry is saying is true. The EMS WAS used. And some guy who didnt work at the shop installed it. Mike doesnt seem to be blameing that on the guru shop at all so lets move on.

I will also add that the ammount of work that Mike wanted done should have taken longer. That was not the shops fault. They schedualed the appropriate time for the work that Mike originally requested. When it turned out that the car was in worse shape than expected & Mike asked for additional things to be done, harry made room at the shop for the work. Harry should not have allowed mikes tight time table to impact his shop schedual but unfortunately, because of his good nature and helpfull attidute, it did. I cant blame him for spending so much time that day on the phone trying to move arround his clients appointments. Mikes car was apparently schedualed for much less work origianally (sounded to me like a 1 day appointment that turned into three). As stated earlier the Davis family went WAY out of their way to be helpfull and kind to this customer. They even opened their home to him! Thats well beyond anything I personally would expect if I were a client in a tough spot. I think the Davis family should be praised for that- at least.

It seems to me like there were a lot of hands on this car is a very short period of time. I can understand Mikes frustration with all the different people he dealt with and its unfortuante that everyone came away with somewhat ill feelings. I can only hope that everyone learns from this so we never have something like this happen again. In my experiance Harry has always gone out of his way to be helpfull and honest about costs parts etc.. Heres what it comes down to: Harry is THE ONLY person I trust to work on my cars besides myself. Not only that, he is the only other person besides myself that I trust enough to drive my MR2.

[Weasy2k]

Its great to see both sides of the story, very civil...i hope it continues this way and maybe no hard feelings can be taken from it.

This wont make me think twice to recommend Mr2Guru's shop in the future to people on this board or off the board. I have been talking with Node for a long time now and trust his words.

I cant wait to see the dyno map Robert!

[robertsmb]

I know I said I wouldn’t revisit this, but now the blame seems to rest on me, so I feel I must comment on a few items.

The broken exhaust stud/leak was there before we acquired the car, and was not included in our repair estimate

As you said, Harry, I did stand there and watch the majority of the work being done. I saw Mike twist the nut off the stud and pull it out with a piece of the stud still stuck in the nut. I heard the pop with the wrench, and he showed this to me, and that’s when I was asking you about fixing my exhaust leak. The exhaust leak was there before you ever started working on the car due to my manifold being warped. The bottom line here is that Mike did break that nut off the stud. He did it trying to diagnose another problem of my waste gate sticking open,.. which your shop did fix with the bicycle pump test and a little bit of PB Blaster lubricant if I remember correctly.

The base maps on the Nemesis were not installed by MR2 Guru, nor any of the tuning

This is correct. A man named Steve (forgive me for not getting his last name) was responsible for the initial running and setting up of the nemesis. As far as I am concerned he did his job enough for what he was given. Which brings me to what he was given.

When Steve and I hit the road for a very basic “get me down the road” tune, that didn’t happen because of a few things. The first thing was that the map sensor wasn’t correctly installed. It would blow out of Harry’s intake manifold if I got even 1psi of boost under load. The second thing that happened, and I wasn’t going to bring this up either, but when Harry’s shop reinstalled my new fuel rail/injectors/fuel pressure regulator/ his mechanics installed it with vacuum hose and not high pressure fuel line. As Steve and I were driving down I-40 working on the tune, this line ruptured squirting fuel all over my hot engine and compromising the safety of the passengers of the car as well as the car itself. Steve and I proceeded to push the car down the road to a NAPA auto parts store and purchase the correct line and fittings needed for fuel pressure line. I want to be perfectly clear about this next statement. MY CAR ALMOST BURNED BECAUSE MIKE INSTALLED THE FUEL PRESSURE REGULATOR WITH VACUUM LINE. I don’t want there to be any clarity issues with that. I was sitting in the car at the time that piece was installed with Steve the tuner setting up the Nemesis software on his laptop. I was not paying attention to what he was doing. After that little problem happened on the side of the road, Steve (im going to assume out of fear for his own safety) told me he didn’t want to tune the car anymore. He told me we needed to go back to the shop and work out my issues, because if those were made, then others were made as well.

Next on the list:

Our labor rate is $65 and not the stated $85.

Harry told me that his rates were $65 AND $85 dollars an hour. As stated in my previous post, he did help me out in any way he could without causing me to go broke, but I want to be perfectly clear about what was said. Harry told me that custom work, specifically the NEMESIS INSTALL, was considered to be $85 dollars an hour. He told me that any custom work done to the car would fall under his custom hourly rate of $85 dollars an hour. After the first 14 hour day we worked on the car, I asked Harry if he was keeping up with all of the labor and parts and such, and he told me yes he had remembered it all. We proceeded to write it down on a white piece of paper. He showed me the labor he was charging me, and the cost for parts installed as well. The first 2 days of the total 4 days on my car were at a discounted rate…. But :

Just wanted to add that if it took NoShoes three 16-hour days to fix all that was wrong with Mike's car, how does/did he expect me to fix everything in one 8 hour appointment

This statement right here is completely wrong. This was not 1 scheduled 8 hour appointment…. Not to me, and not to anyone that thinks there are 24 hours in a day. Harry and I had discussed the problems with my car, and I was charged for nearly 28-30 something odd hours of labor, some of it discounted, some of it not discounted, and all of it varying between his normal rate and his custom job rate. The labor was calculated by the time we got into the shop and started working on my car until the time we left the shop and went home. Almost 30 hours of labor cannot possibly be completed in 1 single 8 hour appointment, and I think everyone here knows that. I also know that everyone here should be a witness to how long I was at Harry’s shop. If we would like to have any more guest appearances by people that saw me there for 4 days straight (showed up on Thursday, left on Sunday night) and then came back on Weds and stayed thru Saturday for the MR2 meet hosted by Harry that weekend.

Firstly, I did not nor did I ever suggest the drilling/tapping of the manifold in any form while it was on the engine. Mike himself drilled 2 of the hole(s) in question and took upon himself to purchase the fittings from Lowes to install the MAP sensor. I told him to take the manifold back off the engine to properly drill and tap the proper holes to avoid fragments and shrapnel from getting into his combustion chambers. He assured me that he would take the utmost care to protect from this occurrence. When he no longer felt confident in himself he insisted that I take on the third hole/tap. I again advised that the manifold should be REMOVED before performing this action, but he insisted that he was in a rush to get to Alabama and did not have time to take it back off. Against my better judgment he assured me that if this were to cause any of the adverse problems I warned against, that he would assume full responsibility.

I want to cleat this up as well. I remember this VERY VIVDLY. Ok,… Harry did suggest not doing it while it was on the engine, but due to the time restraints placed on everyone, he opted to go ahead and do this. We had to get the map sensor tapped in order to run the Nemesis. I don’t think the Nemesis will work without it. At any rate, we had completed all the mechanical work in the (2) 14 hour days prior to attempting to install the Nemesis on my car. When we realized that the map sensor had to be tapped into his custom manifold, we started exploring options HE was the Guru… it was his shop and I thought he was trying to do what it took to get my car working and running, so I trusted his judgment on the issue of drilling the holes. Now, HE DRILLED THE FIRST HOLE. I want this to be very clear, because in him drilling the first hole, this gave me the assurance I needed in thinking he knew what he was doing. He can say all day that it was against his better judgment, but he even sent me to the store to get a bigger drill bit because he didn’t have one big enough to drill the hole big enough for the MAP sensor to sit in. I purchased the bit, and brought it back to him, again assured by his actions that this would be ok. Harry told me to use his shop vacuum to try and help keep metal from getting in the engine, and I asked him if it would hurt anything. He told me he didn’t think it would hurt anything, that it would probably combust and that would be the end of it.

Now, in justifying my actions, the hole that was drilled first by Harry, and tapped by Harry, and the map sensor was installed by Harry. We used a quick setting epoxy to attempt to hold the map sensor to the manifold because the manifold was a steel material and the bung for the sensor was aluminum. He told me he could not weld it. After the quick set epoxy broke free and the sensor wouldn’t stay, Steve and him suggested that J.B.Weld Would hold it on. I specifically remember asking over and over if the J.B. Weld was the way to go. They both told me over and over that it was fine to use and it would hold. When the J.B. Weld didn’t hold, I asked Harry if there were some sort of self tapping screws we could use. Keep in mind that I was pressed for time, and he had already told me it was ok to make holes in the manifold…. So, again, he sent me to Lowes to get self tapping screws and when I returned Harry was busy working on an 86-87 4AGE with considerable oil leaks… Harry’s mechanic mike was assisting him, and nobody was working on my car,… that I thought I was getting charged labor for. So I asked Harry if I could drill the holes, to help speed up the process. He said yes. I drilled in the self tapping screws basing the information that it was ok, off of our previous actions of drilling the manifold before. After I drilled in the self tapping screws, I backed them out and attempted to use a shop floor vacuum to get the metal out of the bottom of the intake manifold, because metal in my engine is something I don’t want…. But again, I was assured that it would be ok. And then, I put the self tapping screws back into the manifold securing the map sensor, and J.B.Welded around the sensor again, just like I was shown by Harry and Steve the first time.

If you would like me to take the responsibility for this based on my actions I will. I was told by the shop, Harry specifically, that it would be ok, and I did it. I did the work myself because the shop was too busy with the other customers, some of which arrived after me... When I arrived at Bryan’s shop and had to tell him why there was metal floating in my engine, I told him that Harry had done it, and that I was acting solely on his advice… the advice I paid to receive, and acting under the influence of his actions already performed on the car.

Onto the next topic.

It is upsetting for him to speak negatively of me after I had to rush to complete all of his requests -that were not included in the initial appointment-

I have stated many times that Harry went out of his way to try and help me,.. discounting labor, parts, working long days, and taking my old parts as collateral for some sort of payment. I am not trying to badmouth Harry, and I even said that the majority of the problems with my car weren’t even conducted by Harry… they were conducted by Mike and Chad,…. Without Harry’s supervision. This was my main problem. Almost every problem caused at Harry’s shop was not directly Harry’s fault. I understand he should take the blame for it, and I understand he alone should be defensive over it, but as far as Harry goes, just speaking for himself, when he touched it, it worked…. (except for the manifold thing)

Harry, I am not trying to make an enemy here, I am just trying to make my car work. With that said, I will tell the truth to anyone that hears it, in hopes of sorting out what happened and what it will take to fix it. If I say something to someone and they think you are an idiot for it, that really has no bearing on me or anything I have done. Yes, Maybe I was an idiot in assisting your shop with some of the things I know now to be completely stupid, but at any rate, I was acting under your influence, and I made every attempt to clear up what we were doing before we did it. As I said in my feedback posts,… you just seemed aggravated to have me around while the repairs were going on and didn’t really answer questions like Bryan did… I didn’t feel like I understood the process as much, and my actions were based on your advice.

The second appointment was set specifically to fix his timing. This also may have been the issue with his tune, as you cannot accurately tune a car that was a minimum of 10 degrees off time (cam timing). That was the handy work of another shop, not my own.

This is true. Another shop had messed up the timing belt install, causing my intake and exhaust cams to be 1 tooth off when at top dead center on the crank. I never blamed Harry for my timing belt issues. I never told Bryan that Harry messed up my timing belt.
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It took Harry about 2 hours to fix this timing belt issue, and He charged me $130 for the work done,… 2 hours of labor at $65 an hour.

I will say that the timing belt job was only done by Harry and it seemed to be done right. Harry had told me that my timing belt was walking a little bit, probably due to a washing missing somewhere down by the pullies. Its not something I understand, and he could better explain that, but that’s not the real issue. I was there for 2 days and 2 hours of labor was conducted. I had called Harry and set the appointment. When I showed up, one of the first things out of his mouth was I’m too busy for this and I don’t have time for this. He told me that he wanted me to call him to set the appointment for that Thursday, and I was under the impression that the appointment was already made. I told him I would be there, and he said Ok. I did wait nearly 2 days to get 2 hours of labor done, which goes back to me trusting his judgment when it came to my car.

The reason I picked this passage to quote, is to show the second time I came back. I still showed him the broken stud, caused by Mike, and the cruise control still did not work,.. a part he charged me for, and labor he charged me to fix it….. Even though Harry said this appointment was specifically for the timing belt, I brought these up, and the response I received from Harry was “We will get it taken care of man, relax”. I heard that about 10 times. My cruise control still doesn’t work, and Bryan no shoes had to fix the stud…

I also wanted to show that his prices were pretty fair to me, and that Im not bashing his character or the work that “HE” specifically did…. Most of my complaints were about the other 2 guys in the shop. I don’t want anyone to think Im bashing him.

I do not know if Mike told Bryan I did a hack job or not, but the so-called hack jobs were in place long before his car arrived at our shop

The only things I told Bryan NoShoes were the things he asked me about. I at no time used the words “Hack Shop” or “Hack Job”, and the only things I complained about to Bryan, were the things I also complained about to you. The things mentioned by Bryan, such as the stud, or the fuel lines being run in a potentially hazardous place, the engine bay looking like shit, the manifold issues, or anything else that accusations were thrown about were all from your shop. They were all related to items you touched.

For instance. Bryan did not say you screwed up my fuel pump install, because you didn’t install it, and I told him that someone else did it. We ended up fixing some lines near the firewall due to that install being wrong. He called that shop a bunch of redneck hacks,… because they hacked that job. Bryan did say that the fuel lines looked like shit because they were running all over the place. Your shop installed the fuel rail, and ran those lines. I want to be clear that he nor I or anyone else is blaming you for all of my cars problems. We are simply commenting on the items that your shop had to do with, because it’s a feedback forum.

Also, maybe Mike should've let me set the car at 13 psi instead of the 17 psi he set/wanted.

The PSI was never set to anything. After your shop installed the Electronic boost controller, and nobody could read the directions (all in Japanese) we elected to leave it alone. It should have been running at stock boost, and Ive been told that the ATS CT27 has a tendency to creep a little bit. The car was running at 17 psi because the waste gate actuator has a big ass hole in it… a hole that we capped at your shop, and I’m guessing the cap fell off, or blew off or whatever. The car was boosting uncontrollably due to that, and not because of a boost control setting that I wanted or suggested.

To this day, when Bryan said that the car is boosting 13psi all the way to redline, its doing it without the boost controller turned on. We still haven’t set it up, or even touched it in any of our endeavors. This is a result of the turbo setup being installed correctly, and like I said before, I brought the car to you to address an issue with uncontrolled boosting,.. in which we took the turbo/down pipe/manifold assembly off the car for in the first place, which lead to the broken stud,.. and it just rolls down hill from there. So, the boost issue had nothing to do with me setting it at a specific level as you just said here.

Considering his car was last at my shop, the assumption would be that was my work.

This should be the correct assumption. The whole point of this post becoming a feedback post, was to show that I had certain problems you fixed, and certain problems you didn’t fix. Again, as said before, when Bryan no shoes said the fuel lines were wrong, or the stud was broken, he is talking solely about work that came from your shop. It left your shop that way as a result of work your shop did. Your shop installed the fuel system. So any issues,.. what so ever, should rest on your shoulders. I am not blaming you personally, but it came from your shop,.. a shop with your name on it.

I guess in my feedback I should say something like,

“Hey if you go to Harry’s shop, don’t let anyone but Harry touch it, because his other mechanics will do it wrong and he wont check it”

That doesn’t make much sense to me to rest the blame on one person,… because it was a shop effort, as well as me acting with your “PERMISSION” as well as you “ADVICE” that led me to perform the work I did.

As far as the work that was performed, either Mike is a big-time liar (based on your story), there's some odd stuff going on by your mechanics that you do not check behind, or you're trying to cover your rear end.

I have not at any time lied about any statement made here. I will say that insinuating a customer is a liar is a great way to loose business. I have stated over and over in my posts that Harry him self did not screw up one part on my car. Everything “HE” touched is working fine, and in great condition. MY WHOLE ARGUMENT is that the work that Bryan no shoes is calling “hack work” came from Harry’s shop,.. but not specifically Harry himself. Again, Bryan did not call my short shifter “hack work” or my fuel pump “hack work” and he did not blame you for those items being installed because I never told him you did. I am keeping this as truthful as I know how based on my memory of the events that transpired.

As far as the work going on behind Harry’s back. Yes. I think that is the real issue here. I have stated numerous times that when Harry fixed an item, that item was fixed. I have also stated many times that the issues everyone is referring to as hack jobs were done by another individual, not Harry himself. I even stated myself that Harry was far too busy to watch the other mechanics work on my car, and that he did not check on the work being performed on my car before it left the shop. Another prime example of this, and maybe its not my place to say, but the day I arrived, Harry was swapping a JDM 3SGTE into a black NA MR2, that was covered in field mice and the works. I don’t want to bring another customer into this, but this customer took delivery of his car, and brought it back a few days later (during my 2nd trip to Harry’s shop) to get another problem fixed there. I believe he was bogging under boost and it ended up being a fuel problem. But during troubleshooting, the other mechanic had to take off the distributor and a few other parts, and when he put them back on, Harry had to stop that and correct the work done there. I cant count how many times I heard Harry ask mike what was going on? Or why it was done like this? I think that if Harry is watching his mechanic very closely and following up on EVERYTHING that this kid touches, the system would work pretty well. This was not the case as posted by me. Harry didn’t touch my car until the last day I was there, and just a simple thing as having to replace my ashtray that was broken, or rewire some of the things that this kid touched should jog Harry’s memory to what I’m talking about. Everything wrong with my car was performed by this kid…. But AT HARRY’S SHOP… and that’s why its resting on Harry’s shoulders.

On another note, I am a United States Marine. I am regarded as one of the most integrity filled individuals in my entire organization, let alone the world. US Marines are regarded as some of the most professional individuals in the US Military. We are the only people on the planet that are allowed to guard the President of the United States, or the U.S. Embassy’s overseas. (Im not getting on a military trip,.. just trying to prove a point)

People don’t question my integrity because I have never given them a reason to. While I have had some bad luck with my car, and you guys argue about what is hack work and what isn’t,. at no time in any of my time with any mechanic did I lie, or even so much as stretch the truth even a little bit about what has gone on. Why would I?? I have almost $20,000 dollars invested into an MR2 that barely gets me back and forth to work every day. What do I have to gain from lying to one shop about another? What do I have to gain about turning one of my trusted mechanics against one of my trusted tuners?? That just ensures that I wont get work done by either of them ever again.

We have established based on my past record that I have gone from shop to shop trying to find someone to get my car working right,.. and I have told the truth about every even that has come about. I have posted faithfully on these boards about every even that has happened with my car, even the ones that nobody cares about. I have posted here several times asking for advice about my car and what to do, or who to go to for this,… and my car still isn’t ready yet.

Why would I want to cut myself at the knees by having everyone think touching my car is a way to start an argument within the community?? That doesn’t make much sense to me personally. I still have needs from this community, and until I know EVERY SINGLE THING about this MR2 that I own, I shouldn’t be worrying about putting myself in these situations.

I just want my car to work correctly without any troubles… troubles from the car, or troubles from the mechanics that I pay TONS OF MONEY for.