Poor service in Stockport
26 July 2016, 09:02 AM
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Poor service in Stockport
Hi all
Long story short - I got an 09 plate 330s in Dec 14. Lovely car and for 7 months and 2.5k miles, all was good. Then the dreaded smoke on startup
. Took it to a subaru specialist in Stockport, who'd been recommended by people on PH. Pete was the chap and on stripping the engine down found a cracked ringland. I thought while it's being rebuilt, I may as well get forged internals etc, do the job right and have it last me many years. So I did - it took Pete 9 months to get the car back to me for a start (delay and excuse after delay and excuse). But I finally got it back (£6k later) and ran it in gently for 1200 miles, changed the oil etc, as instructed. All was fine for another month and 800 miles, then under boost it pressurised the coolant system and I had it recovered to someone in Blackburn. 2 reasons for now going back to Pete - the hassle getting my car back originally and the fact he'd since sold his business (although is still working elsewhere). I did contact him and the message he left was that he'd never seen a head gasket go after an engine rebuild with uprated studs and gaskets. He said he suspected a cracked head.
The new place told me that all the studs were at different heights and 3 seemed loose - they have pictures of all this. However, it's worse than that - on removing the studs, the threads came out of the block and they suspect they were cross threaded to start. There was various other signs of poor workmanship, but that was the worst. So now I need a new block.
I contacted Pete again. He confirmed that he'd personally worked on and built up the short engine, but that the cylinder heads etc (and studs) were done by someone else. I pointed out it was still his team that did the work, so asked him what he was going to do about correcting the fault. He is now just ignoring communication.
He told me at the start (when I said he'd been recommended) that 'you're only as good as your last engine'. That's certainly true and I know he's been in the business for many years. It's also true that a reputation takes a long time to build up, but can be destroyed very quickly. I accept mistakes happen, but to just wash your hands of it and ignore communication isn't acceptable.
Long story short - I got an 09 plate 330s in Dec 14. Lovely car and for 7 months and 2.5k miles, all was good. Then the dreaded smoke on startup
. Took it to a subaru specialist in Stockport, who'd been recommended by people on PH. Pete was the chap and on stripping the engine down found a cracked ringland. I thought while it's being rebuilt, I may as well get forged internals etc, do the job right and have it last me many years. So I did - it took Pete 9 months to get the car back to me for a start (delay and excuse after delay and excuse). But I finally got it back (£6k later) and ran it in gently for 1200 miles, changed the oil etc, as instructed. All was fine for another month and 800 miles, then under boost it pressurised the coolant system and I had it recovered to someone in Blackburn. 2 reasons for now going back to Pete - the hassle getting my car back originally and the fact he'd since sold his business (although is still working elsewhere). I did contact him and the message he left was that he'd never seen a head gasket go after an engine rebuild with uprated studs and gaskets. He said he suspected a cracked head.The new place told me that all the studs were at different heights and 3 seemed loose - they have pictures of all this. However, it's worse than that - on removing the studs, the threads came out of the block and they suspect they were cross threaded to start. There was various other signs of poor workmanship, but that was the worst. So now I need a new block.
I contacted Pete again. He confirmed that he'd personally worked on and built up the short engine, but that the cylinder heads etc (and studs) were done by someone else. I pointed out it was still his team that did the work, so asked him what he was going to do about correcting the fault. He is now just ignoring communication.
He told me at the start (when I said he'd been recommended) that 'you're only as good as your last engine'. That's certainly true and I know he's been in the business for many years. It's also true that a reputation takes a long time to build up, but can be destroyed very quickly. I accept mistakes happen, but to just wash your hands of it and ignore communication isn't acceptable.
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