There's a decent amount of positive reviews for that shop on Google and the owner seems fairly responsive, so I'm interested in seeing his side of the story. The way you've portrayed it certainly seems like they are in the wrong.

 

Likewise,

I've only openly only told the truth of the situation in its entirely where my hands had the energy to type such a long event, even where I should have just pressured and asked more questions though ~ they were very dismissive anyway over the phone and through text~. But even now, Just asking him about about the job and the supercharger info/ where it came from he refuses to answer me or provide me anything. If I could, I would post all videos and chats but I obviously cant upload everything as if it were a court case with no boundaries.

 

I've stopped driving the car for now as the weather got warmer and I'm riding my motorcycle. I've changed the oil and I have it sitting in a container which I can send in. I plan on taking out the spark plugs and sticking a borescope down to see the condition of the cylinder heads and doing a compression test. According to the SDD misfire counter (which of course I know isn't 100% accurate) within 9 mins of running at 700 - 500 rpm it had a misfire count of

86 on cylinder 6

none on cylinder 8

30 on cylinder 2

32 on cylinder 4

Which gives an idea that either

A. poor assembly

B. Low compression

C. Fouling of the spark plug

D. Ignition coils are weak

E. I wasted money on a shop who lied on what exactly they did.


Obviously E. is part of the answer and I've came to terms I should have just let them have the car and they for sure wouldn't have been able to sell the engine or the car unless they actually addressed the issue. And to think they called me DEC 30 to say the car was ready knowing it was misfiring and backfiring out the exhaust that side.

 

Here's the link to the review on Google maps, yelp pretty much says the same.

https://goo.gl/maps/D5JgdaKGaSQznz4e8?g_st=ac

You'll see his response as well.

 

It may be worth going to small claims court if nothing else since it's cheap & simple compared to a full court case. And it'll only be decided by a judge that you could show the evidence to. It would limit what you can recover to the small claims limitations where you live, but it's something.
Also, I'd guess no business owner wants to deal with a court case - small claims or otherwise.

 

If I find that during my engine testing that there's anything that requires me dismantling the engine to fix what they neglected I'll go that route.

I woke up this morning and saw he updated his response. He fabricated throughout out his response, saying engine rebuild for this specific engine is 30k, that my car is 2014 (it's 2012), and that I had the engine completely rusted out for years. When it ran before it got to the shop. And he was the one that had it sitting for a month with water in it after attempting to start it

Also in his message he stated they are only doing tweaks and diagnostics for the engine. Not anything that requires parts as part of special warranty that has no liability, so in my opinion they had no intention of addressing that misfire and I'm better off doing it myself so at least Im comfortable knowing nothing else unfortunate would happen.

Like getting more of my stuff stolen and or faults created in different areas.


This first response


His second response after he edited it.

I had no intention of bringing it back anyways. I guess I'm just the crazy guy to the area who paid 10.7k for a misfiring engine and still got called cheap by them. After they put me through the ringer. It's okay life goes on and I'll address the issue as I should have done in the first place

​​​​

 

I just checked MD, and it's only $5000 for small claims court, which stinks for the OP. Here in TX, they raised small claims court to $20,000 in 2020, which is nice.

 

A consistent misfire suggests you need to perform a compression test. Misfiring on a fuel injected engine is never normal, even if it's within the break-in period.

 

I agree.

I would also do a smoke test of the whole intake system because an air leak can also cause misfires. I know firsthand because that was what was causing misfires on just one side of our Rover's 3.0L engine. After having some shady mechanic do a bunch of engine work, I would definitely do a smoke test as a matter of course.

 

The misfires are inconsistent, sometimes its bad, sometimes it gets smoother. During monitoring it's a bit bipolar, as if the plugs (supposedly new) are carbon fouled or coils are weak. (I ended up getting new coils just in case for that whole side of the engine). And the coils are the original since before I got the car when the old owner blew the gasket.

Thanks for all the advice! This is really helpful I'll add that to my list

~Ignition system
~Vaccum Leak Test
~Compression Test
​​​​​
​​​​​When I find the cause of the misfire, I'll update you guys. Hoping it's not low compression.

 

A compression test is a massive pain on these engines, so I would start with the smoke test. That's a lot easier to administer.

 

Thanks lotusespritse as I was about to say the same thing!
I have done a compression test on a 5.0L SC engine and it was NOT fun.

Here is a worksheet that's in the shop manual. I filled it out to keep track of what I got for each cylinder. Note the comment about how much oil to add. If done properly you will be doing 2 complete compression tests. Dry then wet. If things are OK you should get an increase in compression with the addition of a small amount of oil. With the amount of work involved I did the complete dry test but only a couple of cylinders wet.

My problem was not mechanical damage and I knew that but wanted to rule out compression problems. I was getting desperate at that point and checking everything I could think of!
.
.
.

 

An smoke test to find intake leak is also a good idea. (smoke devices are quite reasonable priced nowdays - check this: )
Air intake leak usually cause lean mix in idle and rich mix on rews on forced induction engines. (air leaks in on idle and out on rews, following the boost)

 

Update on the engine, for those still curious~

Pulled the plugs, and they were new, but they're coated in a bunch of carbon, I borescope the cylinders and yep; heavy carbon build up especially on 6. When they had the engine dismantled they didn't think to clean or even call to ask if I would like to have the carbon cleaned when it went to the machine shop. They purely only resurfaced the heads for the gaskets replaced seals and slapped it back together and basically told me to drive it out. Not Italian tune up but by the shop owners words (drive the car softly).

Changed the oil as previously stated; also I replaced the plugs and ignition coils just incase since the job was already hard enough to do getting my hands between the strut tower, the plugs and removing the coolant connections from the supercharger for access. I used some injector cleaner and valve cleaning additives with 93 octane on different tanks of fuel. Also did the vacuum test, there is no leaks or unmetered air getting sucked in from somewhere else.

And to that affect the misfires on cold starts shorten in duration and stopped bogging, the car started to run smoother with each drive (drove with higher rpms in sport mode on the highway). Before the misfires were bipolar and violent at times.

The misfires and the sound of the valves when listening to the engine calmed down with the valve sound almost disappearing completely. The back fire is subtle now unlike before its been 180 miles since I started with the additives and haven't seen any regression.

And before I got the car I wasn't sure how long it sat without driving or what gas the previous owner used. But overall the remedy is working(without me having to completely dismantle a engine I paid 10.7k on getting fixed.

 

Ofcourse we are interested how things going on. Thanks for updating.
Good progress.
Hmmm... The 93 octane sound a bit low on high performance engine. We have different steps here (95 and 98) but i have been used 98 on all "above average" engines. Usually forced induction engines can benefit of higher octane controlled by knocking sensor, so overall cost / mile is same or very near with 95 or 98 octane gas.
The carbon on combustion chamber can be also by binding piston rings. It might be vise to try some engine internal cleaning oil additives too. Some user on this forum had good outcome, but i am not sure what product he used? (maybe Wynn´s? Always read instructions. Usually need new oil and filter after use - And when use cleaner its wise to grop oil thru sump plug to get some flow on sump)

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll try that before my next oil change which I'll do in 1.8k more miles. It's worth a shot but by then the results of the gasoline additives should have have already came to the best of the their results.

Also in my state(USA), 93 is the highest premium grade octane here.

 

Hi, just read that its the difference of ratings between US and EU. The 93 octane in US is same than 98 in EU.

 

Holy cow - that's a big difference.
Is all automotive "petrol" (just plain "gas" here in the US) in EU mandated to be Ethanol as it is in the US?

 

Hi, its only how its measured. Same fuel, but different way to measure and advert on pump.
(i learn this just yesterday )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating
Scroll down on the Measurement Methods (MON, RON and AKI)
On here they add (max) 5% of ethanol on 98 and (max) 10% on 95 octane for green purposes. (less fossile based)

 

Ah yes, I wasn't thinking.
We use the RON in the US.
EU doesn't....