*this my opinion and is not related to that of the hosts of wrxatlanta in any way *this said no flames please. just an experience i had and wanted to share. :weaksauce i was having turbo problems. it wouldnt spool. i called them after getting a refrence to them. they set an appointment for three days later. i go to the appointment. and show them some brittle hoses by the wastegate. and my boost guage install. they say ok and pull the car in back. he redoes the boost guage and replaces the brittle hosing. when he redoes the boost guage they spliced the vac line that controls the bov. they didnt give me new hose just spliced and used the short hose that almost kinks going from the T to the bov. all good easy fix right? well after they charge me $50 dollars i go to leave. driving away up that lil hill i stomp it. nothing. no boost at all. so i return and ask what happened so they say let us test drive your car. at this point im askin my self why didnt you test drive my car before returning it to me. about an hour later they say my turbo is fried. we thought it might be that i was having oil pressure problems when i got close to time to change the oil. so we thought the lac of oil fried the barrings. so my options now are to get 1 ecu,fp,injectors,bigger turbo, or stock replacement. so opt for the stock replacement as i didnt have 4k to spend. i ask about warrenty at least on the work. the guy laughed at me. so i ask how he knows the person that had the turbo before me didnt rag it. he replied "i dont.". so im a lil up in arms right now. i ask about doing the uppipe at this time since the turbo is off the car. they said i couldnt do the up with out the dp. so i said i could do a dp but if they have the turbo off they might as well do it. so they finaly said ok. the guy gives me a walk around the shop pointing to this and that and this is the best for this and that is the top drift car over there. so after i desided to get an allignment done since i just got my barrings replaced. i leave my car there overnight to get done as soon as the up came in. at this time they should have told me my turbo inlet pipe was done but nothing was said. i wait till the next day after 5pm and no call. so i call them. im carless remind you. they say oh yeah its done . i was like geee thanks for callin me. so i get a ride up there with my gf parents. im inside forever waiting to pay my bill.i ask about the allignment and the guy says i didnt know about an allignment. im thinking you did look at the workorder. so i pay, leave, with gf parents behind me. i go up the hill and wow the power was back. since i had followers i couldnt test a whole lot. a day later i test her out. balls out was fine i was runnin an extra pound of boose so im like cool they tuned a lil for me. well when im goin down wade green road in third i press on it. bosst is on hard and swells to 18psi i hold for a sec to see if it was a spike but it held. so i get a cel and fuel cut from over boosting. now im mad. do these guys even know how to set a mbc. i dont have any allen wrenches or money since they wiped me out. so i take it back for the allignment they forgot to do the first time. and tell them its overboosting. so when i get my car back i ask if they fixed the overboosting and they say he turned it back one click to stock. hold on its a screw it doesnt click. so im like ok. i leave. this guy actually turned it up insted of down. now its peaking at almost 20psi. so i buy some allenwrenchs and fix myself. so i go back and get my fried turbo. i tell them bout turning it up and the guy had this dumbfounded look on his face. says sorry and gives me my old turbo. im mad so i leave before starting a confrontation. as im walking down the stairs to my house a huge chunk of cat falls out my turbo. im like wtf. if they would have left that cat on my car like they wanted i would have been in the same boat a week later suckin cat into turbo. a few days later im installing my groundwires and had to remove the ic. when i do i see how the inlet pipe is inlarged and strapped onto the turbo. getto is all i can say. ill post pics next time i take off my ic. i dont know why they didnt tell me i need a new one. i would have bought it. well the end total was $1150 for used stock turbo, allignment, txs uppipe, and labor at $75 an hr. i would not recomend this shop unless you have lots of money. my 11hundred wasnt even enough for a test drive to make sure the car was running properly.:thumbsdow
JT, i have never stepped foot in that shop, but by seeing plenty of their work come back to me and mike, i know that i dont even want to go near it for the fear of getting the sucky work bug. Slug's exhaust weld had 13 leaks in it. FREEKIN 13 in one bead. there are other things that i have seen but dont care to waste time talking about it.
*update* after knoledge performance read this thread i recieved a phone call. they wanted to know if there was anything that they could do for me to right the wrong. i simply stated that if the work was done properly the first time i wouldnt of had any negitive feedback. and i let them know this thread is not a bashing but rather my experence at their shop and i wont be returning for anything.
Pitty, we had our first dyno day there and they seemed like good people. However, within the last year I have heared few good things about their work. I only dealt with Melvin really during the dyno day and he was most hospitable for us, however it troubles me to hear about experiences like this.
I have to back up the bad experiences at knowledge... I've been there 3 times. the first time was a dyno for my front wheel drive car, and everything was pretty cool. The black guy with a V8 tattoo helped me out Which is why I went back again to get dyno'd. Well, i went back at around 5:00pm and went in the shop and couldn't find anyone... I honestly could walk around and grab parts if I wanted to, but no one was around. Turns out I found them by yelling in the back section in the office with the fans on. They then told me that they couldn't do a dyno at that time cause they were occupied... I didn't schedule a return appointment. the third time I went back because I had to get a new MBC for my previous car, and NOPI wasn't convenient for where I live. I went in and waited behind one guy at the counter talking to the technician and they just talked and talked for about 10 minutes about nothing... I elbowed my way to the counter and said "I want to buy that MBC" and the guy just looked at me and said "I can't sell you that, I dont work the register" and went back to talking to the guy... I waited for a minute dumbfounded, then asked who did work the register, and he yelled back for some guy. I waited for another few minutes then just walked around to the back myself and asked the black guy if I could get a MBC and get out, and he helped me out. I feel sorry for that guy, I wish I knew his name so I didn't have to call him "the black guy", his name might be Kevin, but if he is listening - you are a professional held back by your surroundings... The first time the dyno experience was pleasant enough, which is why I went back a second and a third time. But I guess the first time was before they had so much business, and now they can afford to lose some new customers over existing customers.
I think you are referring to Melvin. Sorry to hear you had such a bad expereincing with them, repeatedly. I agree, doing unprofessional in your off time is all fine and good, put not while you are at work, though I really have no right to complain considering that I used to do that all the time. You should have let them do something to your car. Then go back a few days later and complain that they broke your turbo or something, when they argue just say, you guys were too unprofessional to remember. j/k
looking back at my post, maybe I shouldn't have said some of the things I said about thier "hobbies". I'm going to edit that. people can PM me if they really want to know the specifics. I dont know the name of the counter guy, I never got to meet him... hehe. I'm sure he is a decent enough fellow. all of them probably are, but those were my experiences.