18 months.

They said 3-5 months and it took over 18 months to finally get my car back.

First drive home the car has stuck throttle, none of the interior lights are working, cluster is fading in and out. Turns out they never even bolted the fuse box back to the car and it filled with water. Car was also left completely uncovered in the sun and it absolutely destroyed the paint (my fault, but I didn’t expect it to take 18 months.) Tires were hard as rock.

Paid for a top mount and didn’t receive it.
(Still have the quote showing as such)

I’ve never had such an awful experience in my life. Constantly ghosting me, had to mask my number or use someone else’s phone to get an answer. I have literally every message with these dude’s saved.

“Your engine is in porting. Your engine is still being inspected. It’ll be in the car next week.” Telling me they are waiting on turbo kits when I called and the manufacturer told me they had them sitting on the shelf.

I totally understand Covid pushed things back but I couldn’t even get small updates on the car.

I asked to receive a box of all my parts after the car was finished and I only got a few things back. Didn’t receive my intercooler, radiator, oem turbos, fuel pump, piping, AC. He said that it was “somewhere in the shop” and they’d get it all together. Months of calling, no answer.

I paid for everything up front like a sucker and they took advantage of me for it.

Honestly, this shop has made me almost resent my car. I regret every day having taken it to RPM.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...d0fc97c13.jpeg

Wow….after hearing your guys’ stories, I think mine was a blessing in disguise. He used the COVID excuses on me as well (2 months ago) which I know COVID is a thing but I feel like we’re out of the “there’s no product anywhere to be seen bc of COVID” stage. That’s sad a shop that is supposed to make you enjoy an already amazing car has made you resent It. Have you taken any legal actions to make things right? Or what’s your plans?

Wow. I feel your frustration. I'm glad to see all of these negative experiences surfacing. I hope that it brings a serious change to this industry.

Google Reviews
 

I'm now looking and RPM is a 4.4 out of 5 stars. I'm not in this one way or another (other than I likely will never spend money there), just wanted to put this out there. Obviously, there are more than a few highly satisfied customers.

I'm not in this one way or another either, but you do realize that Google reviews can easily be manipulated to make a business look really good or look really bad, right?

It's not all that hard for anyone (or an automated bot) to flood Google reviews with lots of fake reviews to make the review stats trend up or down, depending on what they are trying to accomplish.

my review was taken down due to a complaint or flag by the business. The review was nearly identical to my original post. Unfortunately I think the business has a strong pull in the negative reviews. BUT they also have a 2.2 stars on the BBB standing, giving them a D+.

Alrighty then.

D+ is being below average, but excelling at it :)

that’s the most optimistic thing I’ve heard in a while 😂😂

Hey forum. I just wanted to update my findings of the shady work Mike and RPM has done to my car.
Keep in mind that the car has no more that 10 miles on the motor which what about to present should not happen.

I just had the transmission removed and I was shock to what I found(not really, more like expected) What prompted this removal was because the clutch was engaging at the top of the travel. I thought to myself that this was weird situation to have since I was told and sold a "NEW CLUTCH". Upon removing the transmission I noticed some metal shaving on the input shaft of the transmission. Looking further I see that the bearing on the end of the essentric shaft was destroyed! (see Pic)

Now keep in mind I paid also for a new motor. Again I was told and sold a new Mazda motor. I'm not the best mechanic but I don't believe a freshly built motor would have a destroyed bearing with oil residue. Shouldn't it be crispy new??? Now that makes me question if this motor was new or did he reuse other parts. I'm leaning towards the later.

Let's continue with the clutch. Again this is a new clutch with 10 miles max on it.... Why would it look like this?? I'm no mechanic so I'm asking you what your opinion is on the appearance of this New Clutch.
Thanks.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...c10889e57c.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b2dbfada75.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...5b3df03822.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...45e225a879.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...05dd15271b.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...98043d46a8.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...1efd2ceebc.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...46ebbba8df.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...1fabd31c5c.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b7ddd04a8b.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...d7677abaa8.jpg

New Mazda crate engines come with a new flywheel last time I saw a photo of one. The flywheel in your photos has way too much dirt on it to be new + 10 miles of driving IMO. Likewise, the clutch and pp seem to have much more dirt buildup than you would expect after 10 miles of driving.

Well the wear surfaces on the clutch certainly looks like it was used for more than 10 miles to me, but I don't see much clutch dust/grime on all the other surfaces that would be consistent with a well worn/used clutch - in that respect it looks almost new. Maybe they took a used clutch, and cleaned it up first before putting it in?

As for the fragged pilot bearing, I'm not sure if Mazda includes a new pilot bearing & seal with its new 13B-REW crate motors from the factory - that might be something they leave the end user to install? But if they don't include it, it's easy enough for a shop to royally f-up the pilot bearing & transmission installation and end up with the fragged bearings as pictured.

The vehicle was driven on the dyno for break-in and configuration/setup first, and then Diego did his street mileage.

Looks like a misaligned clutch installation (which wiped out the pilot bearing). The clutch and flywheel look new, however, misalignment + possible grease from input shaft/throwout bearing flicking out onto the surface would result in this.

I'm pretty sure all you'd have to do is contact the shop and they'll take care of you for a new clutch setup.

What I will say is this car was picked up before any tuning was completed or any final vehicle inspections were made (rushed out by owner's request), in which during that time this would have been found and taken care of, undoubtedly.

That last factor should heavily be considered on this bashing thread.

Not bashing, just observation. To my eye, the difference between the part that is normally clean (under the pp attachment point), and the part that is open has more dirt buildup than 10 miles of use. And there seems to be dirt under the impact marks on the flywheel nut. But I don't have a dog in this fight so if the parts look good for 10 miles + some dyno time, okay.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0cbe2136d5.jpg

So this must be someone who knows the car and knows me.....
First this is not a bashing thread unless your conscious is making you feel that way. I am just stating the facts and nobody can argue that. Many other have experienced similar.

Yes did pick up the car but not because I was rushing YOU. It was because after so many excuses and almost 2 years have passed by it had to end. After spending 30k! And RPM you'd think that the car would be in great condition. Or at least working condition. Mike and Karl were very aware of my pick up date. Maybe instead of telling a customer that the car will be ready, how about the truth... The problem is when you start a lie then it's hard to show face..
I brought up the clutch issue when I was there to pick up the car and was told by Mike that the slave cylinder needed to be bled. If that's the case why didn't he do that right there on the spot. It's BS that's why. He knows what he did.
As far as the tuning goes, Ryan did a break in tune while I was there. I had to break in the motor in order to do a proper tune which wasn't going to happen that day. Ryan even told me to reach out when mileage was on the motor. So I didn't break in the motor yet because I couldn't drive it with the clutch the way it is. This is why it only has 10 mile on the motor. Came off the trailer and around the block a few times. After that I was to disappointed in the car that I didn't want to drive it.

"I'm pretty sure all you'd have to do is contact the shop and they'll take care of you for a new clutch setup"
Mike has ignored my texts and calls. It doesn't seem like he cares about providing a solution.

So you expect me to ship the car back to them to solve the issue?? Will I be given back the to and from shipping cost? I doubt that very much. The right thing to do is pay for the replacement and labor.
You say that the flywheel and clutch look new. Are you smoking while you wrote that?? I'm getting Clutch master to provide a professional opinion on the condition of the clutch and flywheel and I'll post it.

What I'm seeing here is advanced material wear from the clutch around this region. When the clutch was misaligned and failed (the drivetrain vibration should have been a dead give away!), this excess material around these bolt holes and heat into the flywheel would result.

Not discounting what you're saying at all.

What I am saying is that this would have been found after maybe 3hrs on the dyno and the car was legitimately rushed off to its owner before completion.

This isn't me defending the shop either, but I know that ALL of this is a PROCESS and that this is a prime example of a "rushed out" scenario.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a0c7dd4e54.png
This is as far as the car got on the dyno.

If there was any vibration it would of been felt by the guy driving the car on the dyno.

You can throw out there all you want that the car was "rushed out" but the fact is that these are issues that could of been avoid if it was done right from the beginning.

I'm going to contact Mike for you and have him send you a clutch. That would have been a fault on the shop regardless.

None of this is in disagreement.

I'm just giving the full story here and how the scheduling was a communication error between you and RPM; which is a mutual fault.

Personally, I would have loved to see the car completely gone through which is why I'm saying anything at all. You would have gotten it back at 400whp, fully tested and fixed.

I mean, when the car's a year late, saying it was "rushed out" at owners request and thus they didn't have time for quality control is a little rich.

Sadly, we live in a world where some of you would rather be out for blood instead of understanding first person perspectives, or allowing a business time to execute a correction.

I can pull up time stamps on the dyno and sheets of how long I had the car running based on the tuning work I did.

For you to disregard a queue of work and say a year late, smack dab in the middle of the shutdown of our economy is a bit brash. I wonder if you go into your doctor's office and when he's 30mins late just run into the room expecting another rectal exam... Things got pushed back. Supplies ran out.

This scenario communication broke down and YES, RPM is responsible for this clutch. None of this would have happened if the vehicle got the green light from the technicians that it was completed.

There's a reason why I push them to be better and test everything... This part would have been found within another hour of someone working on the car and resolved without any expense going to the client.

So here's what I'm doing...

Mike is getting notified for the expense of a clutch, shipped to Texas for Diego.

Diego will be treated like royalty and everything will be gone through properly on MY side of things. When other mechanical faults come up, as they always do, as this is a PROCESS, we stop the tuning and diagnose, then continue once resolved.

The world doesn't need bandwagoners out for blood, it needs hard workers and resolutions to problems.

I don't think it's correct to compare a year waiting for a car to 30 minutes of a doctor being late. There is simply no worthy excuse for a car to end up at a shop for a whole year without the owner being fully aligned and well communicated with, and without their prepaid funds held hostage.

There are plenty of examples with this shop using money from one project to pay for another, getting behind, and not communicating effectively with the customers that laid out funds in advance. People basically have to threaten to bash on social media to get taken seriously.

Maybe I should open a "shop", make an instagram account with some FD pics, and then take peoples money.

And Peter has like 9000 posts. Not one of them is an out for blood type of post. His comment was valid.

Between this and a couple other similar threads, the lack of customer service is simply alarming. I don't get it... communication is priority and falls solely on the business when delays occur. My guess is, had the communication been prioritized the customer/s would be much more empathetic.

It's hard to give a business the benefit of the doubt (even during a pandemic) when a customer pays in full upfront and yet the finished product is non-operational and customer service is poor.

I'm done trying to help everyone. I won't continue to stick my neck out trying to help others; there's no gain and some people cannot be satisfied.

Diego, you'll be refunded a chunk of money to have someone else handle the rest of your work. I wish you the best of luck.

I feel as if this could have been resolved better and don't wish to have my business associated with you. There are plenty of options out there.

If you need help in your new state of Texas, Maple Racing is a phenomenal shop with top tier communication skills.

I'm out. Sorry you guys dealt with this.

As has been said previously, REAL-TIME, continuous, honest communication is essential in maintaining good customer relations. As an engineer who worked for Bridgestone-Firestone on many projects for vehicle manufacturers, good communication was essential in keeping customers satisfied even when things were not going as well as hoped.