I Am So Pissed, I'm F%*#ing Raging

[Guest SrbijaAZSale]

There have been only a few times when I have gone off the deep end, and today is one of those days. Without naming names or anything, allow me to explain my situation.

My A/c stopped working (would periodically come on), but at the same time my lights would go dim, my traction control issues, bla bla bla, you C5 guys and gals know what I mean. At the same time, I had my car lowered by Xtreme a few months back (great job guys, you guys are outstanding), but it just wasn't low enough. After some recommendations, I took my car into this shop (which for the time being will remain nameless) a week and a half ago. Here is what needed to be done.

Oil change

Request for other fluids to be checked (clutch/tranny, etc)

170 degree thermostat

Lowering on new bolts (front/rear)

Alignment

Repairing the constant code throwing

and the periodic turn signal/a/c/etc associated with the infamous C5 issues.

Here is what I got after 7 days.

1000 dollar bill.

1) Oil change

2) A car that now runs 230 (up from 220 two weeks ago)

3) Clutch fluid which is rampant with particles in it (I specifically named this on the paper I wrote out at the shop)

4) Tranny fluid which is ridiculous (i mean ridiculous)

5) Car that does 90 degree turns upon braking/acceleration

6) Car that sits higher in the rear than it did after a stock-bolt lowering job at Xtreme (yes, I can fit THREE FINGERS now with supposedly aftermarket bolts vs 2 with the stock lowering job at Xtreme(again, Xtreme did a great and fast job with the stock bolts, and I should've just taken the car back to them).

7) All of the symptoms (yes, including the a/c, traction service bla bla bla) are back (except the turn signal works, as they replaced the entire unit or something, according to the receipt.

Allow me to remind you, I am absolutely, positively f%*#ing bent. The car is undriveable (my left arm/hand is sore for trying to keep it from flying off the freeway), all of the lights (t/c/a/c/bla bla bla) are doing their song and dance, and I swear, I SWEAR ON MY EVERYTHING I have never in my life been this pissed off. My garage took the grunt of my anger. I don't know what to do. This is a well-known shop, especially here on the forum, and I am just lost. I need to go run or lift weights, otherwise I am going to take this car and blow it up in the desert tonight.

Help me, please.

Alex

[ChadC]

do they (the name less shop) know how pissed you are?

if not, Give them a chance to fix the issues.

If they do know and they are giving you Lip service, Trash Them! Talk smack!..Then get your lawyer.

The key about a good Shop is the folow up service. Oops are going to happen (these are used cars ya know). How they handel the oops is important.

[Guest SrbijaAZSale]

do they (the name less shop) know how pissed you are?

if not, Give them a chance to fix the issues.

If they do know and they are giving you Lip service, Trash Them! Talk smack!..Then get your lawyer.

The key about a good Shop is the folow up service. Oops are going to happen (these are used cars ya know). How they handel the oops is important.

No, they have no idea, just got home from there, but they will tomorrow, or when I calm down.

[tcalZ06]

I feel for you. I know how this stuff goes.

I would talk to them asap! See if they will make it right.

These days it's getting very difficult to get things done.

[Eddie44]

One of my favorite sayings is "it's not the problems but how they're solved". I'm sure if you were in business you'd appreciate the opportunity to correct the problems for an upset customer. Sleep on it and approach them calmly tomorrow. If you're still this upset tomorrow I'd go see a counselor before you pop a vein.

Other question on the electrical issues did you try the ground / battery suggestions?

[sffiredude]

do they (the name less shop) know how pissed you are?

if not, Give them a chance to fix the issues.

If they do know and they are giving you Lip service, Trash Them! Talk smack!..Then get your lawyer.

The key about a good Shop is the folow up service. Oops are going to happen (these are used cars ya know). How they handel the oops is important.

No, they have no idea, just got home from there, but they will tomorrow, or when I calm down.

Take a calming breath................we are human and we make mistakes but we also should take responsibility, learn from it and fix it. That is how you keep cutomers. Let us know how you are treated.

[Loud Pedal]

do they (the name less shop) know how pissed you are?

if not, Give them a chance to fix the issues.

If they do know and they are giving you Lip service, Trash Them! Talk smack!..Then get your lawyer.

The key about a good Shop is the folow up service. Oops are going to happen (these are used cars ya know). How they handel the oops is important.

[1EvilC5]

Take it back and let them know what is not to your satisfaction. The true service of any shop will be on how they handle the un-satisfactory job.

I know the Traction Contol issue is a pain in the rear to find, I thought I repaired my own, but I will get an intermeadiate failure with the yellow lights on that say service traction control. I think it is the main part that mounts in front of the engine that has a fault in it, but I will not replace until it goes completely bad. "$$$$"

Let us know how it turns out.

Phil...

[anmracing2]

Well, if they were recomended by this forum, then hopefully they will see this thread and do know how your feel. I certainly hope this gets resolved. I wish I could say more than just good luck but at this point we need to see how they deal with this issue. I'm sure we all hope that their follow up and customer service is up to par......

Andrew

[Guest intmd8r]

One of my favorite sayings is "it's not the problems but how they're solved". I'm sure if you were in business you'd appreciate the opportunity to correct the problems for an upset customer.

Good luck in getting this taken care of - with a $1k bill, your issues should be properly fixed.

[Guest SrbijaAZSale]

Thank you all for your advice. I am a lot more calm today (sleep will do that to you). I have had some truly crappy experience with this car (not car's fault), from the paint issues (i.e. detailers that can't detail-see CF car car forum) to this mess of constant issues. I thought I chose wisely, and I don't care that shops make money, as long as the issues are taken care of properly, which is not the case in this situation. I will take everyone's advice in a few days and contact the shop and see if they can make this right. If not, there goes a thousand bucks for an oil change and working turn signals.

Alex

[F22trainer]

Thank you all for your advice. I am a lot more calm today (sleep will do that to you). I have had some truly crappy experience with this car (not car's fault), from the paint issues (i.e. detailers that can't detail-see CF car car forum) to this mess of constant issues. I thought I chose wisely, and I don't care that shops make money, as long as the issues are taken care of properly, which is not the case in this situation. I will take everyone's advice in a few days and contact the shop and see if they can make this right. If not, there goes a thousand bucks for an oil change and working turn signals.

Alex

Stay cool and discuss your disaapointment with the shop - I know the shops we reccommend here REALLY value the Corvette community, and most are Corvette owners too!

[Drewstein]

Stay cool and discuss your disaapointment with the shop - I know the shops we reccommend here REALLY value the Corvette community, and most are Corvette owners too!

/Agree

[Guest SrbijaAZSale]

Update: even the "replaced" turn signal module stopped working. So, all in all, I have a lowered front end and an oil change for a thousand bucks.

Ahh, ain't life great.

Alex

[Guest XLR8TNC5]

Alex,

I am really sorry to hear about your experience and somehow I feel partially responsible because I know I talked that shop up A LOT! I am sure if you contact them you will be able to get it resolved. I have neer had any issues getting anything resolved.

Also, don't' forget, it takes about a week for the new suspension to settle. So, that could be part of the lowering issue. As for the rest, I am really sorry to hear about it all and I hope it all gets taken care of soon! ASAP!

I would feel the same way if I was you. Good luck buddy!!!!!

Tanya

[Guest SrbijaAZSale]

Alex,

I am really sorry to hear about your experience and somehow I feel partially responsible because I know I talked that shop up A LOT! I am sure if you contact them you will be able to get it resolved. I have neer had any issues getting anything resolved.

Also, don't' forget, it takes about a week for the new suspension to settle. So, that could be part of the lowering issue. As for the rest, I am really sorry to hear about it all and I hope it all gets taken care of soon! ASAP!

I would feel the same way if I was you. Good luck buddy!!!!!

Tanya

Tanya, don't worry about it, I've done the same thing in the past and been wrong. I am gonna call them tomorrow and figure out what they are willing to do.

Alex

[Guest Chad@AZPS]

I hope that the issue has been resolved and everything is okay.

Chad

[GoNSyco]

Any updates? Hoping this got taken care of.

[Eddie44]

Have you read this thread over on the CF? Symptoms sound familiar to me. Good Luck!

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=896875

[Buccaneer]

Wow, that was an amazing article about the gound issues on C5s. You would think that GM would have fixed all these issues by now, and I thought I had ground issues. I installed three new ground straps when I put the new motor in frame to block just in case. Good luck on your electrical problems and hope you find the cause soon.

[Guest Steve Mulvey]

Ahh... Finally an area in which I have some expertise! In a former life I raced in several pro endurance series and owned some Firestone stores (to get cheap race tires, long story) and I recognise the 90 degree braking manouver... They have aligned the car with a boatload of toe-out which is not a good thing on the street as you have discovered. When they lowered the front, they screwed up the toe and probably the caster and camber. Most shops use a laser alignment jig and the techs only know how to adjust the car the way the machine tells them to. This is not a reflection on the shop or the employee, it is just the way it is. A similar situation is evident in retail stores where the cash register makes the change - the employee is not stupid or incompetent, just dependant on the technology. I myself cannot recall any phone numbers I have plugged into my cell phone - same problem. Soooo you want to return to the shop and find the person who understands the relationship between caster, camber and toe. Lowering the car probably gave you negative camber as well , which translates to wicked turn in and combined with the toe above is why you feel like you are in a F-18A and not a Cessna 150 (stability-wise). This is a good way to test your de-odourant... and your Depends....

Feel free to give me a ring-a-roono at 602-228-3911 if you want some help explaining the problem to the techs...

Steve

[Scratch]

Well?...

[Togo]

Well?...

well what mofo?

[BSeery]

one note on your temp / thermostat issue.

A radiator only can cool to a certain point. You can think of it as a given quantity, no mater what you do it will only cool down to a given point.

Things that will help are more airflow, better transfer of heat from water to the radiator and heat from engine to water, and capacity of the radiator.

Without changing the airflow and the radiator capacity and only changing the thermostat you may or may not get any results. If you have a 220 tstat in now, and drop to a 190, but the temps stay at 200 -- well, that's the cooling limit of your configuration. From there you have to increase airflow or, most likely, increase radiator capacity to get more transfer of heat from water to radiator. If it's stuck at 200 putting in a 170 or no thermostat isn't going to change that fact. In many cases putting no thermostat in will actually cause more problems (higher engine wear, bad fuel economy, loss of power and overheating).

The fact that you had a 170 put in and it went up another 10 degrees is a bit troubling. It may not have gone down any at all, but it shouldn't have gone up. Since nothing else changed I am going to guess that there is air trapped in the system and that limits the transfer of heat and causes blockages. Having too much anti-freeze will cause problems as well, make sure the balance of anti-freeze and water is right.

Make sure nothing is blocking the radiator. Vette's being bottom breathers means they suck a lot of trash off the streets right into the radiator.

Make sure that when the shop was playing around in the computer that they didn't change the on-off points for the fan. If you want to cool to 180 (and I would never cool lower than that) make sure that the fans come on at 180 and not 220. If the fans don't come on at the right temp then the lower t-stat won't mean squat (unless you are driving the interstate in North Dakota in winter).

Best of luck on the rest of the problems.

[Togo]

Alex,

I am really sorry to hear about your experience and somehow I feel partially responsible because I know I talked that shop up A LOT! I am sure if you contact them you will be able to get it resolved. I have neer had any issues getting anything resolved.

Also, don't' forget, it takes about a week for the new suspension to settle. So, that could be part of the lowering issue. As for the rest, I am really sorry to hear about it all and I hope it all gets taken care of soon! ASAP!

I would feel the same way if I was you. Good luck buddy!!!!!

Tanya

from what i gathered from talking to Alex, i don't think you referred him to this shop - or maybe i missed something.

i agree with what Bryan said too - about the T-Stat and the limitations of your programming etc.

i had a 160 stat in my '92 C4 and never changed the programmins, so basically that change that i needed the most help in the summer, will only take effect in the winter when it's actually cold outside!