Onijdm…hmm.
if he didn’t have the money, you shouldn’t of even started, especially ended it like that so poorly…(just take whatever money you could get from him and tell him to be on his own) shows the character of not the business but whoever is dealing with the customer. Also those prices are mad cash grabs according to the unprofessional work and parts, from what I’ve seen and heard.
A one man, single army, DubV could of done an amazingly CLEAN job for less…
Mitch, I’ve met you before and you seem like a good guy.
But some things just raise a red flag. If the car was already a complete hack job and even you knew that you could not handle the job, why did you take it on? If I were you, I would’ve saved myself the time and the kid his money and told him to go elsewhere.
Also, it’s really not professional of you to respond the way you did despite him trying to “put blame” on you guys on a public forum.
Usually, the rule of thumb is that if you cannot complete the job, you cannot ask for payment. Even if you spent 2 hours and was unsuccessful.
Anyways, the above is just my opinion, not a fact, not the law. Take it for what it’s worth guys.
FYI, I have been in this situation before and was quoted a certain amount of money to get work done by Sasha. In the end, Sasha ended up putting in way more time than he had to and charged me a little more but I was more than happy to pay it. Why? Because he got the job done and went the extra mile in the end.
Can’t expect to drink champagne on a water budget.
Wow. I actually agree with you. You cant just blame the car and call it a hack job and think everyone will agree with you. I have seen tons of rust buckets with Sr’s that used to be “hack jobs”. When a car is taken to a professional shop then it should receive a professional treatment. If, he didnt have money and you felt bad for him, then why did you charge him 1000+?
This seems very fishy. I have also seen the s14 you guys Sr’d. That also seems like a hack job. The alarm was held with duct tape for god sake. Part of the KA wiring harness is still there, the piping size changes, and the bov is on the wrong side. If im wrong then i take all this back.
wow … $1750 for labour/ parts and the car still isnt running good?
Where did you get the Ca18det motorset? did it come with the wiring harness/ecu? did u check compression prior to the install?
I 110% agree with Fobwall and RR32GTRR
Mitch if things happened like the way he said, then your lucky he handling it the way he is… there are crazy ppl that would have cause you more issues like ALOT of property damage and such… anyways i hope everything gets worked out for your business sake.
Side note, that couldnt have been my car in the end with the money paid!
GOOD LUCK TO BOTH SIDES!!
I hope this gets sorted out, it definitely pisses me off knowing a “well known” company would do this…the cars seem mint, but the service…you guys definitely need to look at this! word of mouth causes more damage, trust me.
As a human being, I feel bad for the guy…never should of gave him service if you’d leave him like that, $1750 richer…money ain’t everything.
they totally fucked u then said u spent no money. ask for a refund.
you people are stupid. if you were told your cars a peice of shit yet you still wanted to swap a motor, then you are the only one to blame. and then you cry cause you have no money, cars arnt free and neither is peoples time they waste on busted ass cars tryin to make apple pie outta shit pie. seriously, if you had taken the car to any other shop they probably would have laughed and turned you so far down you wouldnt want to leave your room.
you should be thankfull they even attempted anything with what they have said.
And i personally know Raf and he knows his shit, so you tryin to say they ripped you off sounds very far fetched
then why take his money if they knew they could not finish the job? i think jed240 is a goof but that does not mean oni is not being fair as well. you take a job with the intention of finishing with a happy customer in the end as well, well at least i try to. i was always tought ‘you are only as good as your last job’.
peace
^^^ that means they suck dont it?? lol i know cheap shot… my bad!!
onijdm could have refused to do the work knowing it would have cost more than the guy was willing to spend.
IMHO its the honorable thing to do
Okay so here is my breakdown of the situation and there is faults in both sides:
Sajed’s Side:
Did not listen to OniJDM, decided to put CA in even though it was a piece of shit.
Did not have enough funds supposedly
Did a hackjob to begin with
Gave wrong parts to begin with
Overall fucked the car before he got there.
Brought in a rusted to shit motor.
I have personally dealt with Jed and he is a stand up guy and when buying parts off me, came with cash in hand no questions asked.
OniJDM’s faults:
Gave an unrealistic quote for a price. When you give out a quote, you spec EVERYTHING before you even make a move then ask the customer first.
Took on a job that they did not want in the first place
Over-charged for certain things (fuel pump should take 1/2 hour in 240s if that. Only time it shouldn’t is if the lines/bolts are rotted or leads are.)
Should have only charged for half the time of the clutch job as they “attempted” it.
Unseizing engine mounts should be part of the engine install.
No way installing an 02 sensor takes an hour… unless the threads in the bung were stripped or the wiring was fucked… if out of the car it should take no more than 15 minutes.
As for the FP ever heard of a walbro… no need for a $300 SR pump.
The throttle bracket being made SHOULD be part of the motor install.
Wiring should be maximum $200 as I know people on this board that will do it for that.
Installing a slave cylinder and fixing the ground should take a half hour and with materials about $60-70 bucks ($30 for slave and $10 for ground, and without a hoist, only jacks I can do the slave in 10 minutes on my back and bleed the clutch system).
According to the Mitchell Labour guide, labour is 85/hr. Along with that I know for a fact any stand up shop gets list price on all their parts… for fucks sakes on brakes I never spend more than $200 and thats with Brembo Blanks and good good quality pads, OEM sway bar link kits I get $30 for both sides, ball joints are $40 for two for me, BRAND NEW OEM FLCA’s are $65 for me. Along with this, if you guys didn’t want to do the job in the first place, why would you guys even attempt it? Just send the poor guy home, and save him his money. I work in a shop, and I know for sure as hell if it’s not worth it for us to do a job we send the person packing or to a different shop. Not only that but the way you are responding to this thread is very unprofessional. Calling a person out on a board that you guys are a respected member of. I have dealt with Mike and he is a stand up guy, so I figured OniJDM would be as well.
Not only that, but we all know motor swaps cost a shit load of money… take for example my RB, I already spent $2500 (including motor) and its not even in yet. But a CA swap is much cheaper as a) it can use almost all the same parts as a KA and b) the only thing you need to worry about is a SMIC, ducting, wiring essentially. Other than that it’s set.
It’s shit like this though that has turned myself into thinking the only way to get something done right is to do it yourself, or shut the fuck up and fork over the ridiculous pricing everyone has for motor-swaps these days, it’s fucking stupid.
/end rant
omni probably wants people to pay millions, then charge extra the powerwash and remove the shit they left in the car.
money does fall outta the sky.
The swap included installation & wiring so why wouldn’t that include hooking up the vacuum & coolant lines as well. If you perform a swap aren’t you at the very least supposed to look and check and make sure that the installation is done properly and the car is running fine. According to you the only thing required to complete the car was the fuel pump (Raf’s oem sr pump) and hooking up the exhaust.
FYI the dohc tach is supposed to work with a ca18det/sr20det. Only reason for it not working would be in the wiring.
As for the engine several compression tests were done both by you and the engine supplier. Regardless even a poor engine wouldn’t act this way.
What discount?? I find it quite hard to believe that u spent more time on the car than was actually billed. You are claiming that it took the whole of 10hrs just to throw the engine and harness in and not even look to see if you did it properly. You went ahead and charged me extra time for freeing the mounts, putting a throttle bracket and running a ground wire from battery to block & body.
You make it sound like you almost did a charity. You either do it or don’t. Instead of refusing to do it you chose to take a hefty payment for a job you could not do or did not want to do and did what can best be described as a HACK job. You cut corners to save time that was paid for, and billed for more time.
Me doing a hack job on my old ka has no bearing on this issue, I didn’t pay you for a hackjob. How do u assume that I didn’t have the funds to do ‘any’ of the work? I paid $1750 but still didn’t get the job done as promised.
I am extremely disappointed in the job done. Pls clarify how u propose to resolve the issue.
No I just find it rediculous… why do a job in the first place if you don’t want to. It’s as simple as that… no problem turning down one customer to make your business look better. As for diagnosing, a spec should be free. Every time a car comes in for an Oil Change in my shop, we do a quick once over for free, (takes all of a bout a half hour to do or once again according to Mitchell Guide $42.50). Along with this, for work done we only spec what the Mitchell Guide says, if it takes 3H to do a 2H spec’d job we only charge for 2 as we feel it is our fault for not finishing in time. Not only that but if it is just impractical for us to do it, we say no. As for this, you should atleast treat Jed with some respect, $1750 for a motor install is A LOT of money, as for the 10H you billed him thats $850 + tax $960.50 for labour then. The other stuff such as running a ground wire, freeing up mounts, slave cylinder, throttle bracket, hooking up hoses and lines AND wiring should be included in this, as is installing the clutch as they are all PREP work for installing the motor. As for you charging for coolant and other fluids, this should be included in the swap fees as well.
As for parts I understand where you guys were coming from, but c’mon $300 for a STOCK fuel pump. If you guys had any brains you should have used a Walbro which retails for $150 so with a mark up you could sell for $200. As for the 02 housing install… correct me if I am wrong but is that not a turbo dump pipe? How are you going to charge him for that, that should be included in the swap.
For Parts:
SMIC: $100
Piping: $50
CSC: $50
BOV: 80
Rad Hose and IC Elbow: $40
Intake Pipe: $20
Total: $340
Plus Tax: $382.40
Total including labour: $1344.70
When a customer spends more than $1000 you could atleast return the car in proper working order or atleast attempt your best to do so. This is rediculous in my opinion, and to have the nerve to not even block off all unused vacuum lines, that may be the problem with the idle. As a fellow trades person I am sad to see what this industry has become. Long gone are the days of helping a person to the best of your ability. This industry has became a money grabbing cash cow aftermarket or not. Also as a trades person I know just how hard it is to make an income in these stressful times, but this is by no means a reason to take $1700+ from a person and not return their car in half decent working (and I stress working) order. In closing I believe you guys have some explaining to do, and due to recent rumors circulating this board about certain shops I am happy I have decided to take it upon myself to get what I want done.
Just found something on GTRC that they probably wont want you to see. Its a post way before they became sponsors on this website. See how much respect they had for son owners
To summerise
Below are some images of the “Rusty” engine. Compression was 165psi across all cylinders last time it was checked at onijdm.
engine looks really clean stillz!!
and that link i clicked it and they (oni) have NO respect for SON240… that goes to show how he feels about working on your cars all half hearted work on rust buckets that making him have an income!!
I wanted to stay out of this, but he is right. Regardless EVERYONE involved was aware of the quality of the potential swap and do it right or dont do it at all is the key to every job.
Mitch stated he knew there were problems with the engine so when he put the engine in, he knew the problems were not just going to disappear…and a thats how it would have been given back to the customer.
A shop should know better to swap an engine with problems to a customer expecting something working.
If I paid $1800 for a CA18 swap I would expect a working car returned, there is no deal from what i can see.
I think both had the wrong idea of the outcome…customer wanted something working, and the shop wanted to just do what the customer is asking for and not fix problems not related to the swap. The shop should take into consideration what the customer is expecting to avoid conflict.
I think the customer should have taken an expeirenced shops advice, cant say he wasn’t warned.
I think the shop should have not touched something they didn’t want to touch in the first place.
oh by the way, I own a skyline and i still cruise the son240 forums…and i’m sure i’m not alone!