My experience with a Rotary "specialists" (quiet a long post)

[imebgo]

I would like to know if you would expect the following from a specialist RX7 outfit.  Basically I bought a 1992 series 3 with a rebuilt engine (Recently) and I was experiencing a small oil leak.  Oil was being found on the engine around the oil dipstick, and the rear suspension was knocking so I took it into a local specialist.  

They diagnosed the problem after having my car 5 working days as a failed suspension bush, and the turbos were passing lubricants into one of the plastic air pipes (i think the ones going to the intercooler) and that was leaking the oil everywhere.  So they quoted my for the job which included suspension, engine/turbo removal and the turbos to be remanufactured by a turbo comapny they deal with.  So after some thought about doing the removal myself (got the service manuals and read up lots of online docs) I decided I would let them do it.  The work commenced and after another 20 working days of really bad communication on their part (out of which only about 13 hours work was done) - they would say things like the engines out, turbos are being sent out tommorow etc.. and another engineer would say they havent quiet got them out yet etc.. they finally get the turbos out, sent of, remanufactured and reinstalled into the vehicle.  First test drive, dodgy idle, not a problem they sorted that out for me within 5 minutes, I get the car home (on some bad roads, so no chance to open it up) and apart from the coolant buzzer coming on (just needed to be filled up and burped a little) everything seemed ok until I took it out and started to open it up, I noticed that the second turbo was not always spooling up correctly and was making a much louder hissing noise, this only really occured when already travelling fast, say 80 and trying to accelerate from there, the car just would not accelerate and would sat at say 4000rpm.  If I slowed down and and let the first turbo spool up the second one might kick in and provide some boost but for definite the high end of the car was crippled.

So, next day I installed a boost gauge to check everything over, what I found was it was boosting to .5 (should be .7) bar with the first turbo and would hold .2 bar on the second (if any) sometimes the second turbo would hold .5 bar, but only accelerating from low rpm.

So, today I contacted the "specialists" and asked them what they were going to do about it and was told that it sounds like I have a dodgy solenoid, sounds reasnoble, so I asked if they were responsible for the damanaged solenoid during the engine removal and fitting and was told that it is nothing to do with them and their road test did not present any issues. They said they would need to investigate the problem which I would have to pay for then fix it - and I was quoted maximum of 8 hours investigation time + labour to fix and parts.

Should I honestly be expected to take responsiblity for the boost problem?

Im going to take my car to Re:Worx on saturday instead for them to investigate the boost problem, they quoted me £68 for use of the rolling road and said it will probably be diagnosed within the hour.

Thanks - J

[Carl]

These cars are now getting quite old,and the heat under the bonnet ages many componenets quite quickly,the "Specialist" may well be right about the problem being a solenoid,or it could be a vacuum/boost hose.
There are many cars like yours now,and it should be expected for these types of faults to develop.
The car can easily of developed the fault after leaving the place of repair.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Carl

[imebgo]

I understand that the parts are old and could have failed in the 18 mile journey that I took back home, but I feel like they are taking the **** a little by saying it could take 8 hours to find the problem, which is 400 quid + vat.

This is why I am taking the car to Re:worx to use their rolling road and hopefully get to the bottom of the problem quicker.  I want to build up a good relationship with a reliable specialist/tuner but i feel really let down with the guys I took my car to mainly because of the fact that it took 5 weeks to do 12-15 hours work and I received a lot of bull**** down the phone about what stage my car was at, and now more problems.  Don\'t get me wrong or anything, I understand the age of the car is going to present problems and I was under no illusion about the maintenance schedule I am going to have to keep with this car, I think i just need to find a tuner that I can really trust, and the only way im going to do that is by experience.

Cheers, J

[20B_boy]

Carl is right J, most of these cars are approaching 15 years old now and stuff breaks/starts leaking/*insert other random failure here* anytime and often, err often

Some cars you can fix a boost issue on and have another (different cause) one the next week - and the same again the following week if you are unlucky. The twin turbo control system rocks!

Most boost problems are usually fairly easily traced and fixed, but the occassional one *can* give big headaches unfortunately.

See u on saturday i expect

R.

[M@r]{]

What \'specialist\' are we talking about here?  Or shouldnt I ask?

[antnicuk]

there are more and more cars going single or non sequential due to these little minor problems that only a specialist is likely to find.  To find one with the twins that work is going to be hard soon.
 Which is a shame as when they do are great.

[iaint]

It does seem a little suss that something\'s failed and nothing untoward was found in their road testing of the car prior to handing it back to you but there\'s no way of knowing what failed or for what reason.  

If it\'s something that\'s failed  because it\'s been disturbed by the work then I\'d expect some goodwill on their part but things like th esolenoids are so old that they break if you so much as look at them.  I\'d still have expected it to be fine on pickup even if you\'d paid more for a few new pipes/valves/solenoids.

On the plus side you\'ll have a fine time at re:worx but you may have to make your own coffee.

[imebgo]

{\']What \'specialist\' are we talking about here?  Or shouldnt I ask?

I dont want to flame them (yet), at the moment, I am just trying to see if I should expect a better level of service from them (or any specialist!).

J

[A7NTY]

These cars are now getting quite old,and the heat under the bonnet ages many componenets quite quickly,the "Specialist" may well be right about the problem being a solenoid,or it could be a vacuum/boost hose.
There are many cars like yours now,and it should be expected for these types of faults to develop.
The car can easily of developed the fault after leaving the place of repair.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Carl

Wow long time no hear! have you got a working computer again Carl? Can we look forward to seeing you keyboard strokes yet again?

All the best, Ant.

[johnf]

M@]{  "What \'specialist\' are we talking about here? Or shouldnt I ask?"

quote

18 mile journey that I took back home

I don\'t know any specialists 18mls from Godalming.

John

[DarranJones]

I\'d just say that if you don\'t feel you\'ve received the level of service you require/expect then don\'t use them again.

In fact, I\'d only take my car to one of the more well known \'specialists\' i.e. re:worx, hayward, wgt, dragon...

[RobbieRX-7]

If this garage was a specialist, surely they would have reccommended replacing the turbo control pipes whilst the engine is out?? Also they should of showed you an on road demonstration  before you handed over the cash.

[sadgoth]

M@]{  "What \'specialist\' are we talking about here? Or shouldnt I ask?"

quote

18 mile journey that I took back home

I don\'t know any specialists 18mls from Godalming.

John

I have my suspicions as to who this would be, but I agree, naming and shaming isn\'t right until other routes have been tried and failed.

[imebgo]

Also they should of showed you an on road demonstration  before you handed over the cash.

Maybe thats something I should have insisted on, all in all I don\'t think im going to go back there again, nor will I be recommending their services to anyone else I might know who owns an RX-7 which unfortunatly, so far is no-one!

J

[gsb876]

Deffo sounds as though the specialist prob isn\'t as good as they say they are, no idea who you are talking about just yet as no idea where godalming is in the slightest