This quality work was done by Alpine Jaguar of Fort Lauderdale, FL. I took my car to them a little over a year ago for a mis-fire problem that I did not have the time to work on.

The issue was caused by the portion of the wiring harness that connects to the coils. The shielding on the wires was brittle and was coming off of some of the wires. This was causing them to randomly short-out.

The "service manager" informed me that "the technician rebuilt the wiring harness to the firewall" and that the problem was fixed.

The problem was fixed, however, imagine my surprise yesterday when I performed the major maintenance on my car, which includes replacing the coil gaskets, spark plugs, et al.

Duct tape?! Electrical tape?! What a genuis idea to use tape that is only rated to 176° F.

I am truly appalled and plan to write a letter to the owner of the dealership with these photo's and a copy of my invoice. Not that it will do anything, but hey, why not.

 

I'd be furious

Let me know if you need help with the letter :-)

Cheers
DD

 

That has nothing to do with a dealership. But the tech doing the work, and maybe the assumptions of both parties. To really rebuild the harness youde have to have connectors, pins and wiring. Wireing isnt to hard we useally keep a handfull of factory harness pulled out for different reasong to take factory quality wire from. Connectors however are non existant unless youre buying 10,000 piecs lots(someone already looked up here) then crimping and refitting. This would be ideal but not able to really do and the cost goes up alot. I would rather replace whole harness if even avail. But barring that youre just about only able to wrap the harness wire by wire and then bundle and wrap again. The less breaks/cuts/splices in the wire the better. Maybe there should have been some discussion before hand as to the expected type of repair. You might be thinking cut, solder new wiring and heat shrink. He may have been esitimating electrical tape rewrap? I have cut wires and slid long lengths of heat shrink over wiring and soldered or butt connected and rewrapped also. But it depends on the need, the money the customer want to spend on the job and what extent the damage and repairs that need to be done.
I useally end up doing a rewrap free on xtypes of the coil wires over the front side exhaust when Im in there for battery cables or coolant hoses. And not for misfires or complaints, but just cause it comes apart and exposes the still insulated wires, then rewrapping at least makes it last longer and is quick and the price is right......free

 

Communication as to how the repairs are to be made and what the expectations is always useful, yes :-)

However, the typical expectation from customers is that repairs made by dealer technicians will be higher grade than most others. Even though using all factory connectors is not practical I think it would be perfectly reasonable to expect a more "sanitary" repair job.

What I see is a "there, that'll probably do it" job. I know the game only too well. Spend 40 minutes and flag 3.0 hours. Although "rebuild the harness" can be subject to interpretation I think it's pretty clear that wrapping a wad of tape around the broken areas doesn't qualify.

Of course, if the customer said "OK, repair the harness...but do it as fast and cheap as you possibly can", then that would be a different story.

Cheers
DD

 

Looking at the photos, it would appear that he soldered and heatshrinked the connections, which would make it a professional repair. It is hard to imagine that the same tech then used duct tape to finish the job. I used to work at a dealership, and know that purchasing connectors is much harder than a customer would imagine. The service writer should have expained what the repairs were to be completed. I do not agree with the statement that it has nothing to do with the dealership. Dealerships charge a premium for the labor rates, and customers have the right to expect professional quality repairs.

 

the dealership charges a premium, but as you guys should know...that doesnt meen the tech gets a premium hourly rate either. I know that many techs at independants get alot more per hour than I do, some even get half the drive/hourly rate. So............just cause the dealership charges a premium DOES NOT meen the tech gets that. I just had a guy I work with make the statement that "IF they paid us more/better we'de do a better job" My response was, "Thats bull****, you do a good job no matter what you do cause thats your charector, not your pay grade!!!!"
thank GOD he doesnt work on Jags
YOU CAN GET CRAPPY OR EXCELLANT WORK NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO. IT DEPENDS ON WHO IS WORKING ON YOUR CAR MORE THAN WHERE WHICH IS WHY I MADE THE STATEMENT IT DOESNT MATTER WHERE YOU GO... HELL IVE PAID ALOT OF $$$/HOUR TO SEVERAL ATTORNEYS IN MY LIFE AND GOTTEN WORK AND MISTAKES MADE THAT ANY PARALEGAL FRESH OUT OF SCHOOL COULD HAVE DONE

 

Didn't you check the work when u originally picked up the car? I always ask to see exactly what was done and any vehicle I own when it goes in for sevice whether to a dealer or independent, warranty or paid work.

 

I'd like to know what you were charged for this work originally.

 

I paid $1,247 for:

"REPLACE SPARK PLUGS AND PERFORM RELATED ENGINE MAINTENANCE; REPAIR HARNESS.

CLEANED CAM COVER SPARK PLUG HOLES. PERFORMED O2 ORIENTATION. REMOVE CAM COVER AND STRIPPED SPARK PLUG HOLES CLEAN. REPAIRED AND PAINTED. CUT OUT COIL HARNESS AND REPAIRED HARNESS."

 

No, I did not.

 

well and beside brittle wiring he also took care of the major issue which is(less coil boots) the coils arcing to the cam covers spark plug wells and causing oxidation. He states he stripped and painted which is perfect, and I have seen the oxidation so bad the holes are half their normal size, even on my own I did this and repainted the whole cover. And I may not be seeing correctly but that does appear to be glued heat shrink by the coil connectors , standard heat shrink further up the line and some electrical tape to loom wrap and few sections, and thats more robust wiring than a factory harness. So...........

 

I would go back and get the head turd to look at it and raise hell for what they did.I am talking DO NOT BE SHY OR PASSIVE!!! While in front of him and other customers, aka suckers.Make a complete *** of himself if needed.As I have here and been told so.

I have changed this to say make a complete *** of them for the quality of work done.It is not like you took it to the corner gas station for repairs as in "just get it running".You paid top dollar.This is why you ask for old parts if any and even then i would put a mark on them before hand,to see if they are from your car or not.

I myself made the service manager so mad at you that they refund the crap work 100%.
You should had looked as soon as they gave you your keys.And only at that time saying anything about it would get what ever you are unhappy with fixed.

Once when I could not find the reason for a stumble in my truck engine i had made the dealership mistake. Need said ride had to be ready to go half way across the United States the next day.So I paid them jerks to find and repair my stumble.
When I paid my bill and drove off the dealership lot.I gave it gas to pull out on a 4 lane bad bad busy road.I needed to be on the far side of 4 lanes.The truck stalled and I was almost killed.T-BONED.While sitting in the road blocking 2 lanes of now non moving traffic.Truck had finally restarted and I went right back mad as hell.Straight to the Service manager.After him going outside"away from paying customers"he sticks his fat head under the hood of my truck to see the bs that I had just paid them to do.I let him know about how they almost got me killed!!He looked at my service bill and ripped it up and credited the card from my bank.Saying in front of customers now inside,that they did not want to be married to my truck?As if I had been in before?I had bought it from them brand new off the lot a couple years earlier was all.
They had the air cleaner gasket half shoved down the carb.
This was on my original owner,1988 Mitsubishi SPX 4X4 truck .
This happened to me back in 1990.I was 20 years madder back then,lol...


My Mother told me you never get anything good when you get mad.I guess that she has never been mad enough to make bad things,righted?Meaning the wrong doer,getting his act in order real fast!!
I HAVE NO PROBLEM AT ALL WHEN MAKING A *** OF MYSELF.See...
Good luck.Call BBB on them and report it.Here we have channel nine news for crap like this.
You are only as good as your crappiest worker.That person will bring you down in time.
They need to send him off,if he truly half assed it together..

 

^ may be a tad enthusiastic there.

Sure, the tape is on the outside, and most visible. If there's truly soldering and heat shrink on the wire, and it is repaired, and more importantly, the shorting has been prevented by the additional repainting of the cam cover, it could be a long term repair. I'm trying to think what else could have been done for a better 'appearance' of the wiring. Can you dip wire in an insulation coating? The duct tape is probably on an area that gets the most heat.

 

Yes, we can tell.

Cheers
DD

 

And Doug has said let the first who's made no mistake stand up. words of wisdom. We should all treat others the way we would want to be treated in the same situation...

 

My advice is always the same: start off being polite and civil. There will always be time later to get tough if needed.

Whether or not you wanna make an *** out of yourself just depends on your own level of dignity...which varies from person to person, obviously.

Cheers
DD

 

Hear hear Brutal, that's probably why most of us sit in front of the computer.

 

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"

 

Hmmm, may not be as "professional" looking as we might expect but if its worked this length of time and continues to do so, what is the complaint exactly? The appearance?

As for some members here and the attitude used towards dealerships and their personnel......unbelievable!!
Me personally? I always use the nicely nicely approach, easy going and freindly but no pushover either! That can always be elevated into a more serious discussion using reasoning and bargaining tools, then a more upset / tone attitude before resorting to WWIII.
I honestly don't believe I've ever got beyond level II at any point and 95% of the time get what I want and more!!
I'm not surprised that some dealerships actually refuse pointy blank to work on certain peoples cars precisly because of the attitude they have. Not ALL business is good business and they can quite easily turn you away and offer no assistance at all whatsoever and be quite within their rights to do so!

 

Jim, I've fired a few customers in my day, yes :-)

IMHO, yes, the appearance, at minimum, is the issue. It's not professional looking, esp. the duct tape. I'm not saying that custom quality work should be expected but when you look at what's been done and think to yourself (or even say out loud!) "Good grief" or "Holy *^%" or "What the %$#?", then sumthin' ain't right.

It's true that some heat shrink was used in the repair but it looks to me like some electrical tape was simply wrapped around (what I suspect to be) cracks in the wiring insulation. That works OK but looks raunchy and will probably come off.....and certainly shouldn't have been represented as "rebuilding the harness". I think that's what chaps my hide. "Repair the harness" or "patch up the harness" are closer to reality in this case.

It's like wiping off the excess sealant that oozes out after you've tightened down a thermostat housing or any other of a hundred small detail items that leave a good or bad impression. In some cases it's only a matter of a minute or two to make a job look ship-shape and it's a shame when guys won't take take the time. It reflects badly on themselves, the dealership, and the repair industry.

Mini rant over :-)

Cheers
DD