Hi guys and gals. Unfortunately I fear I can no longer tune Hondas. The Scene isn’t quite what it used to be and the market has been flooded with sub-par parts that anyone with $200 in there bank account can hop onto ebay and piece together a kit. I feel like ive cheapened my product by tuning or attempting to tune some cars that I probably should have let go and regrettably informed I cannot help.
This year has been particularly rough and the worst its ever been with hondas. I had my first car/motor fail on my dyno and a couple other incidents involving Hondas. Everyone is a fabricator and apparently everyone is a tuner. I know im not perfect, and im not claiming to be. Even I make mistakes sometimes. And there will always be the shoulda, coulda, woulda’s that every other shop jumps on at the first scent of blood in the water. Im making a decision to eliminate myself from this as quick as possible before it tarnishes my name anymore.
If you are a current customer with a Honda that ive been taking care of chances are your car was put together somewhat correct and ill continue to service you for all your needs at a great price. If you are possibly a new customer with a Honda I can put you in contact with some great people.
Thank you everyone again. I have a really great following of guys and girls who support me and that’s the kind of positive support I feed off of to keep doing this stuff and give western ny one more option when it comes to there performance/ maintenance needs. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me and ill be more then happy to assist you.
when you have tuned as many cars as I have you begin to realize what “brand” has a certain “client”. this isn’t always the case but as of late its been 9 outta 10. Ive tuned cheap builds with great success and ive tuned expensive builds with no success. I witnessed a brand new precision turbo fail after 5 pulls the other day. roll the dice these days.
I’m around a shop daily that turns down Hondas left and right. They still tune them and the majority of their business comes from them as well. So I understand exactly what your saying, just think it’s foolish of you to cut out the profits available if your more selective instead of just saying no in general
ill cross that bridge when I get to it. I can do all the inspections in the world but im at a point where if I didn’t build it I don’t trust it. I cannot check bearing tolerances or piston/wall clearances, or cylinder head assembly by a simple check down. I recently had a Honda motor fail that was an incomplete tune do to vtec issues. ended up spinning a bearing and slandering my name all over the internet only to find out from his builder he had sand through out his motor from getting his valve cover powder coated. these things don’t happen when a customer pulls up with a newer Camaro/vette with cai, headers, and exhaust. that customer will drop $350 to $450 on a tune that nets maybe 25- 30whp and walk away tickled silly. Most Honda customers want a minimum of 400whp on a budget, and because he or she read it somewhere on the internet that someone else did it they then expect it. And when it doesn’t happen you have a million other tuners saying how they could have done it better. it just gets old after a while…
Do what you gotta do john I agree with you and your reasons for not wanting to touch shit cars. But on the other hand you are one of the best tuners in the area, and hondas are usually a cake walk for you. Hondas are what comes to mind when you think about your roots and your old all motor ef hatch. I remember how meticulous you were doing my ls/vtec integra build back in the day. I was missing one little dowel pin and you wouldnt touch the car until it was ordered and in your possession lol. You are the type of car guy that everyone should be patient with and wait in line to get their car done right by.
a few bad short cuts people took before their car was in your hands shouldnt place any blame or fault on you. You know your shit and can back up your evidence when something goes wrong that wasnt your fault. Your name is reputable around here and one or two bad customers out of the hundreds you do will never tarnish or taint your rep man.
Either way, you have my vouch and all of this forum and beyond keep doing what you do man :tup:
I wouldn’t let the cheap shots of 1-2 people with a clear agenda get to you. Trying to skew the “blown motor” to be your fault is beyond my comprehension.
This isn’t aboUt any one instance or any certain persons. I’m just tired. I have a few hondas left to tune then ill reevaluate at that point. But for now its not looking good.
This is unfortunate for me as I am soon gonna be taking ownership of my lady’s 09 accord coupe and was gonna do the usual bolts ons and get a tune set, maybe you will reconsider the newer Hondas. But it’s your shop and you have a job to do. I was very impressed with what you did to robs h22 hatch. Thing pulled very hard when I drove it and made me almost start a h22 build myself (for those who may need I do have a h22 at a buddies house for sale,not to thread jack tho) maybe this will shine light to those cheap asses.
I understand the caution…but doesn’t that come along with tuning any car? The risk of failure? And isn’t that why most shops have a waiver for any damage that takes place as a result of tuning?
I am far from an expert so I don’t know if Lsx or other platforms are safer to tune?
Like others have said, don’t let a few bad apples spoli the bunch
You are right, there are enough tuners out there that you need to separate yourself from being the walmart of tuning. No reason to whore yourself out to anyone with a few dollars to spend. Having the ability to chose your market isn’t something most can do, although it seems those who can seem to succeed.
Seems like a drastic move. Why not simply require the customer to pay for a vehicle health inspection before tuning, and then apply that inspection fee to the cost of the tuning in the end. Then if the car is a pile of shit, you still get paid for your time to look at it. That way you can be sure the cars meet your standards without blacklisting a large segment of customers.
I say do what you think is best, from the one time i was at your shop its easy to tell you only do quality work…that guy who had sand in his motor probably feels like a real idiot right now.
See: Honda4Life’s “build thread” to find said quality of parts being put on. The mindset now a days is that I can buy the same piece on eBay made from the same materials for much less money, why would I buy that expensive well known part? I don’t know any of the details as to why you aren’t doing it, but I can pretty much put it together. Sucks you have to stand up and do this, but hopefully it will better you/your work in the long run.
