looking for a shop.... [Archive] - IMPORTATLANTA.COM - Automotive, Lifestyle, Offtopic, Forum, Blog, & Online Community

sebastianHoff

11-29-2005, 04:20 AM

quoting someone who has used balanced performance:
"I decided to write this review because I've had an overall unpleasant experience and would like others to know before making a deciding factor when looking for performance work in/around Atlanta.

My experience began when I first decided to use them to build intercooler piping for my car, a 1998 240SX with KA, recently turbocharged. There are no places anywhere near Atlanta that I felt competent enough to handle this, as most tuner shops I've seen/heard of are nothing more than a high school hangout filled with kids leaning on people's cars, doing burnouts, or generally just being trolls as young kids do. All the big name shops here in Atlanta are like this, and on top of that they do poor work that comes with no gaurantees it will last a day, much less a lifetime. For those living in Atlanta you all know this well and that's why most of us do it ourselves, however this undertaking was more than I could handle due to TIG welding required and serious custom fitment to be able to keep the OE foglights. Otherwise as everything else on the car I would have done it myself to ensure it was done right.

I sent a email to them to get a general idea of price/timeframe I'd be looking at, I was quickly greeted with an estimate of $1100 for total pipework and dyno tuning of the EManage I planned to run. Now it was my assumption that this included parts and labor, otherwise why give an estimate if it could easily double when parts and supplies were added in? It was slightly higher than I had hoped, but I also felt like it would be the best option since I could drive it out the day it was finished and not look back. I drove up a few days later to meet with Jason, the man at the front desk, to address any concerns I had and to verify the plan. They were less busy than usual so he had time to discuss a few things with me, and assured me the car would be kept safe and out of sight as I was worried about the possibility of the typical ethugs coming by and seeing it, and even more messing with controls or stealing things as I'd expect anywhere else. He assured me it would be kept in good hands, so I made the plan to trailer it up on Thursday to begin the work. At that time, he guessed at maybe a week total of work.
I had to get a friend to take a day off work to trailer it up for me. We dropped it off midday on Thursday, but it was busier than expected and Jason had very little time to go over anything now that the car was in person. Even more so, he seemed to not care at all and gave me the impression of 'we know what we're doing, just give me the keys and leave' and I nearly loaded the car back up and told him to go to hell with his attitude, but I refrained and went on unloading it. Three hours later, back at home across town, he called me to go over the piping. This was highly inconvenient since I had waited around and had lunch hoping I'd get a better word in while I was close by, but had left to go home and was now expected to come back in rush hour traffic. I told him I could make it back up on Friday morning (the next day), he agreed. On Friday I showed up to find Jeff already had it in the air, I had met Jeff years ago when they first opened and felt a little more at ease that he was working on it, we discussed the fitment and pipe routing and I inquired if the estimate still seemed reasonable, though he couldn't comment on labor rates he assumed it'd be close. He said he'd order the parts needed (I had though they'd at least have a few pieces of pipe on hand) and get back to me later when the mockup was done so I could see it before final welding. I left a handful of hose couplers also to try and cut some cost and give them something to work with.
A week goes by of silence, so I called the following Friday to check in. Jeff answered and said they had been waiting on piping, and in the meantime had a few lesser jobs come in to do, so they hadn't gotten far. I went ahead and let him know I had needed it the next coming Sunday, so if they could move it to the head of the list I'd appreciate it. I was then informed that Ed, the tuner, would be out of town that following week and could not tune it at all, I decided I'd pick it up at least and then maybe bring it back for tuning, or try and get someone else to do a baseline and then have Balanced finetune it. He agreed. I also felt relieved that the time was less of an issue now without tuing, and I'd save a little money in the process by not doing it. He suggested I call Jason on Monday just to make sure, but he didn't see a problem with having it ready in time.
On Monday I called, and Jason backed up the deadline and agreed it would be ready on time. I waited patiently until Thursday when he called to say the piping was mocked up, I dropped everything and went up to see it. It looked great, and I was very pleased at the fitment of the intercooler and the work done thus far, so I let the time holdups go and just relaxed for a moment. I asked Jason if we were still under budget, and he agreed we were under the $1300. $1300, not $1100 I was quoted originally. I asked about tuning time and he assumed maybe three hours would have been required, so at $150/hr I thought I was saving another $450, so even if he was $200 higher I was still looking at $850 total, without tuning. Cool.
Friday I had to make arrangements with a towing service to get the car, but that was fine since I wasn't going to be out the money for tuning. Upon arrival I inspected the car thoroughly, and found a few disappointments. One, the nipple for the wastegate had not been plumbed in at all, so instead a hose was run up and across the front of the motor and T'ed into an existing hose, which I had made a nipple for back on the intake plenum. This was a problem since this nipple was tapped in by me and would require the plenum being removed to replace the hose, plus the wastegate signal was being pulled off much further away and sharing it's vacuum with the BOV, something I didn't want. I also was informed I was 'borrowing' a 90degree silicone elbow since they had needed one, so I'd need to return it as soon as possible. Fine, deal with it and go. Jason and I went to go over the bill, which I was unhappy to find was $1280 and change. That included the $850 labor, but a ton of parts as well that I had assumed were part of the original estimate. So now I was finding that if I had let them tune it, I'd be out almost $700 above the original $1100. I was ready to begin a debate, but I knew it was a waste of time to even try so I paid it and drove the car out. To this day, the car still doesn't run due to some weird gremlin I have yet to find, so I've even more thankful I picked it up because I'd be looking at triple the labor since I seriously doubt I would have been informed of a problem during tuning.
The saga ends today, when Jason called to let me know the silicone elbow was in, and they needed their's back right away. The cost of the elbow? $95. Yes, a $40 part anywhere in the world ($65 on the site they buy from), is costing me $95. I can't protest it, so once again I'm receiving a shaft. Plus, I had left them with all the extra couplers I brought with me and Jeff suggested they'd be taken off my bill, they weren't, so I'll make damn sure I pick them up tommorrow to try and make some of my money back.

I have just now taken the time to remove the elbow to return it and find even more concerns, the holes cut in the chassis for piping/intercooler have been left untreated, so rust is beginning to show. A simple can of paint would have solved that. The inside of the hot pipe hasn't been cleaned and contains slag and other trash, and there's no bead on the ends of the pipe to keep it secured as promised there would be. I'll need to do that as well, and thoroughly clean the pipes before reinstall, that is after I coat them to keep them from rusting themselves."

he goes on to say:
"Over the weekend I pulled the pipework off to get it ready for powdercoating and discovered another surprise. When I had last seen the car before the final welding there was fluid spilled underneath it, Jeff admitted to cutting a PS hose on accident and assured me it would be fixed before I got the car back. With the piping now out of the way I had a better look of the repair. First off, the spill had not been cleaned up, so the framerail, engine undercover, and Power Brace were all soaked with ATF. Secondly, the hose that was cut (feed line from the reservoir to the pump) had been replaced with a much lower quailty hose. Due to clearance issue I had moved the reservoir to the core support (where the carbon canister would reside) and ran all new hoses, the feed hose I used was a very nice high pressure hose with a reinforced outer coating that I bought at a hydraulic supply store at $6/ft. I picked this up intentionally for it's durability, size (OE is 14mm, hard to find), and chemical resistance. In place of my nice $18 hose was a piece of 5/8 heater hose. Incorrectly sized, the ends were tightened down past the point of maximum with shitty worm drive clamps, not the nice OE clamps that were in place. The hose itself was ran in the same place, but since there's a U-bend into the pump that a heater hose can't really make it was folded over on itself, causing a kink in the hose just before the pump. Now I know why the pump has been whining, it's being starved of fluid and running dry. Hopefully the pump hasn't been damaged, but now I'm off to buy more of the right hose, pick up a pair of clamps at the shop, then spend the day draining and bleeding the PS system once again.
And once again I'd complain, but would it really do any good? Doubtful."

deside for yourself.