amxone

iTrader: (8)

Beware when looking for a shop to repair or modify your RX7 or rotary. there are plenty of shops out there but I found out after making the mistake of taking my vehicle there. not only do they charge ridiculous rates per hour but they are shady when it comes to repairing your vehicle. I paid 14k just for labor on my 1989 FC convertible for a street port, turbo, suspension and intercooler install. there were some miscellaneous items as well but after my large investment which didnt include the cost of my parts I still cant drive my vehicle. I initially got a quote for 4k which then moved to 7k which then moved to 14k. all while the bill kept climbing I thought my vehicle was being worked on. I checked on the car and it wasnt being worked on at all. a job that was suppose to take a month turned into 6 months. I was told that they could work out any problem but they had no input on parts or modifications. I had a vehicle that wouldnt idle, broken interior parts, bad grounds, car still does run past 5 minutes as it shuts down on me while driving, fried my Microtech so I had to buy AEM, didnt hook up wiring to transmission, water leaks from engine, battery wouldnt charge, loose wiring throughout the harness. In total a very unprofessional job and they acted as if they did me a favor. I am telling my story so others dont get ripped off nor get taken by a company that clearly isnt honest in their practice. I was referred to them by a friend that now says he is sorry for doing so. I am stuck now looking for a tuner of AEM in central Cal because I am having issues with the car shutting off. I have yet to drive my vehicle and mad as hell for my treatment. no one should spend that much money for bad work. I could have bought an FD fully put together for that amount. Im done ranting but stay clear of that place.

Monkman33

iTrader: (28)

You should take them to court on that.

RedBaronII

iTrader: (4)

Did you ever asked them, why the cost kept going up from a quoted $4K job???
I mean, any normal person would have inquired as soon as it almost doubled in price to $7K, never mind when it went to $14K.
Also, did you ever stop by the shop, to see the progress or what was being done at the time of the changes???
Your investment on the work alone, is worth more than the car, but hey, it's your money.

People get scammed every day, but most of them have no "COMMON SENSE".
They should remane it "RARE SENSE", since not many have it.

Hope you solve your issue.

amxone

iTrader: (8)

I considered all angles to remedy. I wanted to take my car but that would have meant losing 4k on a car they barely touched. I also live 2.5 hours away from the shop and work so going to get was difficult. It was like having your car held hostage because you cant readily go get it and youve already dumped too much money in it. i gave them the benefit of yhe doubt that they would produce a proper vehicle because of their name and by my referral. All i got was a rush job to get out. I did visit the shop to check on it and talked to the,mechanicsthat informed me that they were being pulled off my car to work on others. I got shaftedand dont feel very smart nor satisfied about my experience. I am experience rich and financially poor from dealing with tripoint. Regarding the bill it was like they were giving an ultimatum of pay or come get your incomplete car. All i want now is to warn others of my experience so they are smart before considering them. I suggest looking elsewhere before you do. I foind a shop to work my FD and they are experienced, transparent on charges and actually do their work.

amxone

iTrader: (8)

As far as the cost also. When i asked they told me the time they took to make brackets for my radiator, intercooler and ALL the time the mechanics spent on my car took up hours. No progress eas made but they spent 6 months on it. the only progress was made in the 6th month after i kept asking when it would be done since they kept asking for money.

RedBaronII

iTrader: (4)

I rather lose $4K, but hey, that's just me.
Would've dealt with them legally for $4K and not $14K plus an unreliable/non working car.
Again, hope you can recoupe something through the court system.

rotordad

Hope you get your car straight man. I do wonder why people don't start to see an issue when the original bill doubles then triples. How is that things get to that point? I do understand things may be needed after the initial quote thus the increase, but damn these increases I hear people describe are crazy. When did you realize that you were being had?

jamespond24

iTrader: (13)

Why not post the shop's name so members can be aware?

RedBaronII

iTrader: (4)

Maybe you didn't read the title: CA Tripoint horror story
I think this is them, http://tripointengineering.com/infor...66d97032f40ec4
but if not, disregard.

amxone

iTrader: (8)

that is the place. Tripoint engineering.

EB Turbo

iTrader: (1)

We built the motor twice. We short blocked it. Then he decided he wanted to have it ported. So we tore it down, ported it and then rebuilt it. The porting and the Second rebuild was not on the original estimate.

We had to remove the rear hubs from the car to press out the rear axles because he had half installed a turbo II differential also not on the initial estimate.

We installed front and rear Sway bars. He brought us KYB AGX's to install, then decided he didn't want those and brought us Megan coil-overs to install. We properly traveled the shocks and set the body length to match his 19'' wheels(not on the initial estimate). Which he changed the wheels before the car left.

He brought us two different eBay turbo kits and finally decided on a different turbo kit all together. Custom downpipe with wastegate install, Custom radiator bracket, Custom oil cooler bracket and lines. The initial eBay intercooler and piping didn't work. We had to source another smaller intercooler. We had to make custom Intercooler piping to fit stock location optima battery, power steering and A/C. All of that was not on the original estimate because he said it would all fit. Which it didn't.

We did a fuel pump install with a Denso pump and hardwire. We changed the instrument cluster to another supplied unit. We installed a turbo timer. We initially told him we didn't want to work with the MicroTech because we don't know it and the Poor support. We did burn up the igniter box. No proper documentation was supplied with it nor could it be supplied by MicroTech or the customer. we made a custom bracket for the four individual coils, which came out with the MicroTech. The harness was all brand new connectors and each connector was booted and labeled. The harness tied into the AVCR boost controller and the turbo timer. we removed the MicroTech and installed and AEM EMS. We used the same harness and repined it for the EMS. We removed the AVCR and made boost control internal to the ECU. We modified the trailing coils with a new igniter to work with the EMS. We installed AEM wideband and boost gauges with the a-pillar pod.

He wanted a body kit installed. We removed the bumpers and test fit the kit. he decided he didn't want to have them installed so we removed them and refit the stock body work.

The car came to us not running with an engine just sat into the car. He supplied us with a Polished high amp alternator. Upon initial installation of the alternator it was found to be getting hot and not charging. A short to ground was traced to the interior of the car but he decided not to have us find it and fix it. we removed the interior fuse and the alternator would not get hot and would charge. he proceed to reinstall the fuse and complain of alternator issues.

80% were sourced through eBay. There were very few things he would buy from us, even matching eBay prices.


Once we saw the initial batch of parts and the car, the initial estimate was $7,500. A bit less then $14k was the total bill parts included.



We are a Small staffed shop who works on everything from SUP Unlimited Time Attack cars to off the street oil changes. His car was not the only one in the shop. when Issues were found we had to stop to either wait for approval or more parts to show up. I would think this is typical for any Performance/ automotive repair shop.


He would hardly buy anything from us. We are not going to spend the time to size injectors, turbos, intercoolers, etc.. if you are just going to turn around and buy it from someone else. We did notify the owner of items that were of poor quality and poor selection. He then sourced new items on his own and took no interest in our Input. We support customers who Support us.

Bad grounds which he fixed but still has the same issues. If you claim you have a bad ground and it doesn't fix your problem, did you have a bad ground in the first place? The car left our shop running in a very good condition. He drove it home and had no issues for a few months. Not till after he has taken it to another shop to have it looked at, is when he is complaining of driveability issues. The car ran on the MicroTech. He was not forced to buy the AEM.

If you have any type of ECU/Tune installed from us whether it be COBB, EMS, or FIC. We gladly fix issues you may have. We have customers who come back sometimes 2 years after the install to have minor issues fixed. It is worth it for us to make the customer happy then to have issues like this one. If he does not want to bring the car back to fix warranty issues that is not our fault. I am the tech who worked on his car, I went out of my way to try and give him the support and attention he needed. He would agree that this is the case. I only wish he would bring the car back to have us fix these things he says he is having issues with. If you look at the items he has on his car nothing is off the shelf. Custom EMS, Custom Wiring, Custom exhaust, Custom intercooler, Custom Radiator/Fan setup, the list goes on. If you are one to complain about the cost of bespoke parts, Then maybe you just need to stick with off the shelf item eBay items and their quality.


- Cody

Tri-Point Engineering

jamespond24

iTrader: (13)

Sorry I miss that name. It is a shame to have to paid $14k and got no result out of it.

amxone

iTrader: (8)

i sent a response but the computer glitched it. I will answer after school

amxone

iTrader: (8)

for now all I will say is if you arent in the loop of information dont defend people that are shady.

amxone

iTrader: (8)

all due respect to Cody because he is the mechanic that worked on my vehicle and only did what he was allowed to do. That being said, if you are not in the negotiations then you should not answer for Tripoint management. The fact that you state that you used the same wiring harness says i am due a refund. if you dont remember the owner told you to go away when the harness came up and proceeded to tell me Tripoint would need to make another harness and could not use the microtech harness that was made. he also proceeded to tell me it would cost another 2500.00 to make it happen.

i am sure you know nothing about that and you know nothing of what went on with promises and the bull they fed me. i will breakdown your responses one by one. as far as parts are concerned I waited 4 weeks for Mark to let me know which intercooler fit my vehicle. this is the man that said Tripoint has done this work and knows parts. he could not and did not tell me anything. i kept coming to the shop and no work was being done and was told that the intercooler was holding up work. you mean to tell me that no other owrk could be done because no intercooler could be found?

I found the intercooler myself because i wasnt going to let that be the excuse for no work. as far as the engine rebuild. i initially went in telling Mark I wanted a street port done to my engine. he said oh no those arent good for the engine and basically wanted 7k at that time for a stock build. i consulted with friends and they said hell no why would you pay yhat much and not get what you want. so i called mark and told him that i would pay the extra thousand to get my engine built the way i wanted it and not the way Tripoint wanted to give it to me. Mark didnt tell me that no one knew how to port. you told me that this was your first street port which really made me doubt the integrity of Tripoint. they would put someone that knew nothing about porting in charge of my engine.

I showed the ports to my friends and they informed me that it was not a port but a fancy polishing of my ports. I was done by that point and really just wanted my car back beacuse it was amateur night at Tripoint. I had already paid upfront so I had to ride it out. You failed to state that all of this work that was rushed through all occured in the 6th month and after I kept calling and told them I wanted my car and did not want to wait any longer. since they were demanding more nd more money I felt they should produce . I am the customer and it is for me to be satified not Tripoint.

The fact that you broke my interior pieces, burnt my microtech, lied about my harness, didnt ground my vehicle,means Tripoint ows me an apology and refunds. the vehicle did not run well when I took it. the lights flickered and it kept stalling. I am lucky it made it home. I guess you forgot that it was stalling and the lights flickered. the fact the alternator was getting hot and the clutch cable smoked didnt matter either. Those things were due to bad grounds. I am sure my AEM isnt grounded well either and need someone to look at it. I shouldnt have to do maintenance on work you shop performed. knowing i live far away they should have had their **** together and not rush me out. You said yourself that you were shocked that they were giving e the car because it wasnt ready. I guess you were out of the loop again when i got the call to get down there and pick up my car because they had gone as far as they could go with it.

oh again with parts it took 3 weeks to even get information on the proper turbo on manifold. so I went to get my own parts since no one at Tripoint wanted to tell me anything. If your shop cant give advice or answers dont blame the customer. I bought my own parts because I had given enough monry to Tripoint and mark stated that he had to mark up the parts to make it worth his while. Why would I pay extra to a shop I felt was getting too much on just labor already? isnt 14k enough along with shoddy work? I shouldnt even have to be on a forum with a shitty running car.

You are the mechanic and should be apologizing intead of trying to defend people that had no intention on producing what they promised. why did a one month job take 6 months? why the most work dine to my car occur after 5 months of delay and doing other cars? you didnt say that people were let go because they couldnt afford the help there. they had plenty when i brought my car. Mark told me and scott that there would be multiple people working on my car to get it done in a month. why was it only you working on it? like I said if you dont know then dont efend people when they keep you out of the loop. You are a good kid but your shop sucks *****.

amxone

iTrader: (8)

when I got my quote for the job I brought a load of parts so the amount of parts is not the issue. when you make a quote that is your quote. you cant change your mind later. I have a guy building my 3rd Gen and his quote is his quote. he is doing much more work on my car than Tripoint did on my 2nd gen and is a smaller shop. If you cant estimate a job properly its the cuctomers fault?

amxone

iTrader: (8)

I am out of biology now and can respond to the other stuff that was listed. first as stated before if you are out of the loop then you dont know. I was called by mark to come get my car because the microtech wasnt working and Tripoint didnt know how to program it. He wanted me to come pick up my car and find another shop to program it. I asked about my tuning time and he stated that the tuning money was all used up trying to tune the microtech. Not once did he tell me that Tripoint burned my X4 box or offer to compensate for it. I am not sure why you mentioned parts and the switching of parts because no work was done to the car until the last month.

so it didnt matter which parts were brought in. the suspension was in the same position for 3 months. i took pics of it and kept going home telling my girl that they are just wasting time up there. My engine sat on the stand for a month while you built engines for the race group that wanted to give Tripoint business. it waited also while you worked on the guy with the blown engines car. all of this when I was in the shop way before any of them. They werent too busy to ask for more money but they put my vehicle on the back burner. you told me yourself that you wanted to work on my car but they kept pulling you off of it.

I was suppose to have a completed car with paint and all. The body kit was suppose to be fitted and taken to the body shop to be painted but like everything else Mark couldnt get a quote from his body man. I asked for 2 months straight and then finally gave up. this was the culture there. no answers but pay us was the norm. as far as the grounds are concerned. my vehicle would not idle and the alternator kept getting hot. the clucth cable was smoking and tripont knew this because there is a gummy substance on the cable place on it by them. I took it to a local guy I found soon after I got mt car home. he looked at it and stated some of the work looked good but the job was crummy. grounds were in the wrong place and grounds were not placed at all in some areas. let it be clear. Tripoint made the harness and placed the engine in the car so how can the grounds be previously bad if they did all the wiring???

like I said the battery was grounded to the starter instead of the chasis so it didnt charge. the engine didnt have a grounding strap so the alternator was hot and the cable. once grounded all of those things stopped as well as the light in the car. the transmission isnt wired so I have no backup lights. I am sure the AEM isnt grounded well and that is why the car sputters and only idles for 5 minutes. if this is good running then the Tripoint needs to be shut down. I am the customer and my satisfaction is all I am concerned with at this point. If tripoint wants to satisfy its customer then you talk to your management since you are defending them and tell them I will bring my vehicle to fixed if they pay for the tow and not ask for more money to resolve the issues they created.

I know they wont because if you cannot compensate me for what was ruined by your shop then how can you do anything else to make me whole? I bought expensive and good parts for my car. in just parts I spent almost 30k then to give Tripoint 14k for a shitty job they wont own up to and fix pisses me off. money wasnt the real issue for me. it was the disrespect and the fact they rushed me out after they took my money giving me a shitty car is my issue. you tell them that and see if they will make me whole by fixing my car. if not I will see them at sevenstock with my running FD to let them know how I feel with my friend that referred me to Tripoint and to let the people know to beware of that shop because sevenstock isnt for predators

amxone

iTrader: (8)

oh yeah the AEM issue. I was told to take my car elsewhere because thats as far as Tripoint could go on my car. mid you there were parts not even placed on the car so it wasnt fininshed so he would have been getting out of his quote without dont the work if i would have teken it. He said that Tripoint only did AEM and that AEM was a good unit and would check on a price. well i found a price online and 3 days later he contacted me to give me a price that was higher than the one I found. he siad it would take 2 days to do the work which took two weeks and when I asked about the harness he told me again that the microtech harness could not be used with it. so i had both owners lying to me about the harness. I wasnt made to buy it? let me see...tell me to get my car out of your shop and take it elsewhere but I have one thats good. there is no one to tune the system you have and the company doesnt respond. hmmmm sounds like a good push to me. anyway like before they knew what the task called for and they wanted more money for work they didnt do. they did a rush job and screwed up so I want to be made whole. they took enough money from me now either offer to fix it or accept the fact you did shoddy work

RedBaronII

iTrader: (4)

Wow!!!
Try to follow the KISS Rule (keep it simple...) on future responses and check for spelling (makes it hard to read).
You lost me at hello.

jamespond24

iTrader: (13)

The guy has $14k in his car that is not running right so I give him a pass on your quote.

Circuit Theory

iTrader: (52)

tough call on this one. The amount of custom work and the type ebay deal hunter "amx" seems to be makes me weary of his claims. However the amount of time for the build is also hard to swallow. I can say I have not heard anything bad about Tripoint that I can recall which is why I was pretty shocked at how bad they seemed from "AMX"s description. Anyone as bad as that would definately have a long list of others making claims of the same sort.

Sorry things didnt work out and it seems that both parties learned lessons. Just like AMX stated:

"All i want now is to warn others of my experience so they are smart before considering them"

RedBaronII

iTrader: (4)

In these situations (God knows, I have had a few in 50 years), it's better to try keep emotions out (very hard to do, i'll admit).
So, the best thing to do is, stay calm, state your case, short, sweet and simple, and you will get a better resolution.
Once emotions get the best of you, nothing comes out right for anyone involved.
I was following this story and still would like to see the OP done right (if true what's been stated), but I did not read AMX 6 post dense reply at all.

As always, there are 2 sides to a story and the truth is in the middle.
Tripoint has never been in this section (as someone mentioned) and the multiple changes and waiting for parts to be modified for a custom fit was not mentioned by the OP.
This obviously adds time, cost and cast doubt on the claim.
Now we have a battle of the truth and apparently this car was a mess to begin with according to the mechanic that worked on it.
We all know electrical gremlins are a B to find.
He drove the car out and complaints started months later.
We don't know what happen in those few months(more mods, tuning, how it was driven...etc) and he never gave them a chance to rectify the issues.
Time is money and if he changed his mind so often, you can't expect to pay the original estimate.
I still have a serious problem, believing someone not having an issue with and estimate, that doubles in cost TWICE!!!
I sure would have problems on the first time around.
Any normal person, would ask for the reason of the estimate doubling and if satisfied, then you pay toward the balance and proceed with the project.
I doubt you pay without knowing or give Card Blanch on a project, if you don't know the cost.
The OP explanation for this, is not very convincing to me.
Oh well, we all live and learn and some, pay more than others to play.

EB Turbo

iTrader: (1)

I am answering on behalf of Tri-Point Engineering. not me personally.

If you look at your bill carefully it says, Install AEM Computer and Re-Wire Harness, Tune car to run. We had to remove The MicroTech and its components. We had to repin the Microtech harness to work with the EMS. No place does it say make new harness. we used an $80 plug n pin kit for the EMS that you were never charged for. We repined the existing Car harness of the FC to use the stock wiring harness for the coils. We changed the sensors over to FD sensors to work with the EMS. That price also included creating a map from scratch and Two days on the dyno. and that total $4k bill for the AEM install you can take that right off the top of your $14k total bill. because installation of your Microtech and removal to install an AEM EMS was never part of your initial quote. so, from $7,500 to 10k is not that big of a jump

Yes, We know what Quality parts fit your vehicle with minimal work. You did not seem interested in spending $1600 to buy the correct intercooler kit for your vehicle. nor spend the proper amount for a proper intercooler. you wanted to use your $300 eBay kit, and just buy another eBay core. We don't sell eBay items. There were so many more aspects of your build that we were waiting on parts for there was no way to contribute it to one specific part.

You initially went in telling mark you wanted to do this project on a budget and only wanted to spend a certain amount of money. We initially talked about porting but told you for the amount you wanted to spend you could not get both porting and your suspension installed. We told you you would be better off with suspension then porting. You agreed. Then your friends talked you into spending more money to get the engine ported.

When does if an individual can port or not determine the integrity of a business? I had said I had never ported Rotary side housings before. I wasn't creating port shapes out of thin air. I used templates and the expertise of Craig Nagler(owner) that Tri-Point has used and modified from over 25years of porting experience. And, the same time I am doing a questionable job porting your engine, I am building race engines for Professional Race teams. where do you come from to question my capabilities of porting and engine building? because your friends look at camera phone pictures they can tell if a port is good or not. you asked for a street port. not a monster street port or, a half bridge, a street port.


I told you about the interior pieces and said I offered to replace them. you proceed to tell me you wanted to replace them in carbon fiber and not to worry about them. If you had an issue with the interior pieces why didn't you bring it up with the shop owner? again with the MicroTech, we admitted fault, did you not bring this up with the owner? Your engine when it left had the original chassis ground hooked up. This ground is for the starter/alternator, chassis and dash sensors. The AEM has its own dedicated engine grounds, on the front rotor housing and in the interior where the ecu is mounted. The hot alternator and hot clutch hose were all due to bad grounds which you have fixed? so why are they still hot? If you were not happy with the way the car ran, why did you pick it up?

We told you we would make you a bespoke turbo manifold but, you did not want to spend the money. We do not sell products we don't stand behind. We are not going to source you a cheap manifold and sell it to you. If and when it breaks it will come back to us and we don't want that liability. that's why we either deal with reputable shops/parts or build it on our own.


Our old facility had three different businesses running at the same time. What those business did with their employes had no effect on the outcome of your car. and there was no case of us not being able to afford our employes. you also need to take into consideration what the original estimate and discussion of what was supposed to happen with your build and what the final bill entailed are completely different.

By law there is a variance allowed to a shop to increase an estimate based on the same amount of work being completed. but in your case the items/jobs that were initially quoted were changed and therefor the quote is allowed to change accordingly. If i quote you for a 13B and we end up installing a 3 Rotor the price does not stay the same as the 13B. if you were unhappy with the process of your build you should have had us stop working on the areas and items that needed more time and come and pick up your car.

The chassis, engine/trans and the battery need to be all grounded together. the battery cable goes to the chassis and then it goes to the starter. It is one cable that has three mounting points. It doesn't matter it the engine ground is too the starter/trans or the engine. they are both connected. Even after finding this issue you still have problems with your alternator. this claim that bad grounds being the cause of your issues it clearly not true.


You are having this problem 6 months after your car left our shop. and after going into other hands. We have no problem looking over you car and fixing any issues you may have with our parts supplied and installation


We will be in contact and we will come to a resolution to address your concerns.


Knock Off eBay is not quality. Not all of your stuff was this way but more then 60% was.


We told you we did not have the time to figure out the frequency for the IAC motor and the Idle control didn't work. If you wanted us to get it working it would take more money or you will have to take it to someone else to figure it out. As far as the price, We sold it to you for 1,299.00. that is the lowest advertised price allowed from AEM. How much less can you find it for?

What Items were not installed on your car?


Like I stated above we will be in contact and we will come to a resolution your address your concerns.


- Cody

Tri-Point Engineering

RedBaronII

iTrader: (4)

Not having read your 6 post long story, my advice to you is, stay in school.
Take a 101 class on Basic Finance/Economics, you need it bad.
$30K for quality eBay parts and $14K for labor = $44K !!!
You could have bought a nice sorted out single turbo FD and have money left for a DD.
I don't know, but your story is making less and less "Rare Sense" (common sense) to me.

amxone

iTrader: (8)

I bought an FD so I have both FC and FD. Its not the money papa its the work.