Originally Posted by franklin-hid

VENDOR REVIEW

Disclaimer:This MY personal experience at the shop. I don't own any shops nor do I dislike anyone at this shop. This is my only experience at this shop. This is NOT a flame thread. This is NOT "dont go here because they cant do anything else" thread. This IS a review that I feel like I should share with my friends/family/fellow tuners/etc.

Again this MY opinion and should be taken as only that. No one is being accused here either. Only posting what happened. Please feel free to post your opinion and what you feel about the situation

I was told by the owner of the shop, because they did not do this, that:

I CANNOT POST THIS UP!!!
I WILL NOT POST THIS UP!!
I BETTER NOT POST THIS UP!!



My personal experience:

So last Tuesday(6-24-08) I decide I will pay a visit to the shop. They had a great deal on NJTuners.com posted that we can get 3 dyno pulls for $50 on there NEW mustang Dyno, great price right? So why not. I cruise off from work to the shop.

I arrive and I'm greeted by 2 awesome lifted trucks and a few nicer cars. I park look around and the shop bays look really good. I walk inside and the store shop looks great. There were rims hanging everywhere, parts all over the wall, and a nice little section with smaller items to buy. There were also a few LCD TV's hanging off the walls. There were some VERY comfy couches with a LCD there n a PS3 to play with. Only thing was they were playing a bootleg copy of F&F:Tokyo Drift that looked like crap. Beside thats it was clean, well lit, and had a "home" feeling.

I ask about the dyno session and I'm informed there are 2 people in front of me and the owner,that operates the dyno, has stepped out for a moment. I got there pretty early and didn't mind waiting. I talk with the guys waiting and they are very excited to be there since its there first dyno experience. They ask some questions that they weren't sure about and I answer them to my best full knowledge.

Owner arrives ask who is first and we go from there. First up, 2008 BMW M5 in black, it was gorgeous. He had a full exhaust with x-pipes,y-pipes,z-pipes and any other pipe that can be done to the exhaust,lol. He also has a new chipped ECU, n a few other things I cant think of. Price tag was approached 100k. So he pulls in and starts to get on the rollers for the dyno. About 45-60 minutes later its strapped down "securely". The owner and his friend were very worried since they kept playing the guessing game on were on the ground they were going to tie it down. Machine is calibrated "accordingly" after that. He makes the first pull and the car is very beastly wiggling around and pulling forward. He makes 436?WHP on the first run. They stop the car and re-tighten everything and prepare for the 1/4 simulator. Launches the car takes it off, he goes through the few gears, sounds amazing up top, and is still pulling and wiggling. I do know that there must be some "slack" but this was more then allowable slack, IMO. I seen 700WHP cars dyno with barely and moving what so ever. Any who he pulls a mid 11 something if I remember correctly.

So up next is his friend. A 07-08? Volvo sedan that had a "R" badge. No not a ricer badge, but a OEM badge that signified it was the R-class of some sort. Im not sure which number volvo, since I'm not a fanatic, but it was really nice and clean. Its an AWD sedan so the put it on accordingly. Takes another 30-45 minutes to put it on the dyno. The guys are worried once again and start to question it as well. Ok, maybe they like taking there time, right? So there calibrate the machine again and do a pull. Car through a safety light, something to the words of "loosing traction at a high speed". They stop re-tighten everything and go again, same thing. It basically it threw the car to a "limp" mode not allowing it to get to the rev limiter. They stop again make sure everything is good, he ask the guy to sit in the car as he dynos it so he can see what happens. The guy is ****,anyone would, and the just stop on that pull. He makes about 240ish, not bad for an awd sedan with light mods.

Well my turn is up. I'm pretty scared, worried, and have the gut feeling to bail out. I ignore it and decide to dyno. I load it on the dyno. Tie it down in a somewhat acceptable time,IMO. Well he calibrates the machine and says the car doesnt feel right. sk me whats the rev limiter makes a pull. I limits at 8100ish and I make 355WHP, awesome right? WRONG. I expect to make maybe 220WHP, and knowing Mustang dynos are normally LOWER than any other dyno, so just barely breaking 200 would of made me happy. Well off he goes again, get through first, second, and third and the car shuts off. Apparently the "shop" fan in front of the car wasnt on and he said it might have something to do with it. Turn it on and go to crank. Longest 30 seconds of my life for it to crank over. He goes to pull it gain and it dies 2 times again. He cranks it and i hear the THAT noise. Every tuners nightmare, MAJOR ROD KNOCK. I tell him and he didnt hear so he revs it again to hear it. I tell him to shut it off and let it sit. He ask me to get in the cr so I can feel the car and how its acting. I knew what it was but whatever I get in. I tell him I'm one of the bigger names on our really big local forums that he has paid to be a sponsor on. First thing he says is he wont charge me for the dyno run and that he didn't do anything but dyno the car.

Obviously I'm pissed. We push the car off the dyno and push start it, since it wont crank over regularly. He expresses he understands how it feels and that he feels really sorry for me. Im kinda upset since I have to be home to pick up my daughter. He tells me should be fine as long as I dont beat on it. I beg to differ but he tries to reassure me. Fine, I give in and get in the car, oil pressure light is flashing. I let him know its flashing and ask why its flashing. He states it might not have no oil. I check seems ok. He goes inside and gets a quart of royal purple for me to use. States I should be fine as long as I dont beat on it and if something happens to call him so he can get a tow truck for me. Pissed I get in and slowly tke off staying under 3k to avoid that knock.

Originally Posted by franklin-hid

Well a mile down the road, what do you know, it shuts off. Not trying to crank it, I just get out and push it to the shoulder and call a tow truck. As I wait one of our very own NJTuners drives by and notices me. A few minutes later he pulls up next to me and states who he is and he knew my car from all the HIN pics he seen recently.He waits with me, even tho he has a ton of work to do on his car to set it up for a car show he needed to attend, until my tow truck shows up I thank him for waiting with me.



Well now my motor is blown and I have no explanation. I call my tuner and explain the situation to him. He quickly tells me with my numbers I put down its very clear that the load on the dyno wasnt set correctly. I ask him to explain and he tells me between every car that gets dynos a "load" must be set according to each car. Apparently little or no load was but on the car so basically it was free rolling as i dynoed. The car was tapping out at about 8200 RPM electronically, but as I'm told by many tuners when no load is set that the car continues to rev mechanically to 10,000+RPM's.



So I call mustang dyno the next day and ask to speak to someone who can tell me about the possible issues on the dyno. They explain that it normally happens when no load is set. They also begin to tell me that they are not responsible and its user error. I assure them that I want looking for anything but answers to those questions.



Well its 1 week later and still no words from them. I heard from a worker there that he wanted to talk to me. A whole week goes by so I figured I guess not. I decide to just go to the shop directly. I go after work they call him over and we starts talking.



Basically he states that the reason why my car dynoed those numbers is because he dynoed an AWD car before my car and when he dynoed my car that the settings didn't apparently change. He said he changed it but somehow the computer didnt. Im baffled by that and he tells me his mustang rep came friday and apparently fixed the issue. He explains by running in AWD mode my car was on driving one roller and that it did the 0-100 faster then it would on a regular AWD so the computer computed that it made that much power. I just couldnt accept that and explain what Mustang Corp told me. He tells me that they are wrong and to call his rep. Fine, call ur rep.



Calls him up ask him if he remember that car that blew up on the dyno and made the wrong HP. That raised a flag, basically they spoke PRIOR to the call. Not saying that he did anything wrong, but makes anyone wonder. Well we speak and tells me the same exact story. States what I was told earlier was wrong and not correct at all. FINE.



Starts messing with the dyno machine to show me the numbers. Apparently i made 370 something when it blew up, LOVELY.



Seeing that its getting no where and he keeps putting me to the side to do other things I figure I would leave.



While outside he asks me what I want him to do. I say take responsibility and just fix what broke. Not asking for a new motor, just fix it and be squared off and leave off on a good foot.



Why did I say that. Starts telling about all the things he has broken before and how he has fixed them. How he has cut checks for 150k to clients who have had issues with his security firm. How the few thousand(like $2,000 MAX) that it would cost to fix my issue wont affect but he didnt do anything so he is not. How he has been to court and hasn't lost a case so if I take him to small claims I wont win. FINE! I agree and say sure I wont sarcastically. He assures me that I wont. Tells me to stop posting on the internet the things I posted.



I ask what have I posted, since I really havent posted anything. He says that on the scion forums I posted to not go to them because they dont know what they are doing and that I said they blew up my motor. I giggle abit, knowing I had posted NOTHING like that yet alone on a SCION forum. I tell him I know exactly what he is talking about and I did NOT post it and that the post only said "Dont go to them I heard they aren't sure how to use the dyno."THATS IT.



Well I tell him that its fine don't worry about anything. I will just post this review and I wont make any accusations. He states what I posted in the begging about I cant blah blah blah.I have not made any accusations. I have posted my experience and what I have been told by tuners,shop owners, and the owner of this shop.



Please make YOUR personal statements and what you PERSONALLY feel. I ask that people post their opinions on here as I would like to know what OTHER people think.



Please post this on other forums as well and state where have u posted. I would like to know other opinions outside of NJTuners.



If you dont feel safe posting where you have posted just PM me and I will GLADLY add it to the list of sites it has been posted on so it doesnt get reposted on the same forum.