Car went to Modular Madness/DSE Speed & Tuning (Mooresville NC) in Feb 05 for installation of Crower Stage 3 cams, longtubes and some Griggs front suspension stuff.
Car came back to Texas in May 05 completely fugged up.
I've not posted anything because I hoped to resolve the issue privately.
I've spent a month replacing parts, fixing things and trying to track down the major issues. On Friday, the major issue showed it's ugly head when something let go inside the valve cover.
This is gonna be long. I'm not even going to go into detail about the problems I had just getting the car back.
As the car comes off the truck:
- Every dash light was on (theft, check engine, fuel, abs)
- Steering wheel was off 80 degrees.
- MGW Shifter handle (not the knob) was spinning around freely.
- Clutch pedal was nearly impossible to push in.
- Fog light was out
- Wideband gauge was not working.
First drive:.
- It was nosing over badly, bucking, backfiring. Had to rev it to 3K and slip the clutch just to get it moving.
- Vacuum was at 9-10 psi at idle and fuel pressure was 50+ at idle.
Next day:
- Took it to have it aligned and the brakes looked at.
- K member bolt was hanging on by a thread.
- A/C line was broken in two.
- Foglight connector broken
- ABS brackets were dangling behind the wheels.
- washers missing on k member- AC line was broken and had to be replace.
- Lock nut missing on clutch cable
- Bumper was dented/broken. Headlight support bracket broken.
Took it to the dyno to see what it was doing.
- completely cut out at 5300rpm
- So, as long as you kept the car between 3-5300 rpms, it ran.
Under the hood.
- wrong idler pulleys/broken bearing in idler (shipped with new BF black idlers installed)
- battery hold down and bolts missing
- bolts for coolant crossover tube missing
- Compression test showed 120psi on all cylinders
- Intake spacer installed with red stuff, leaking the whole way around.
Dropped the fuel tank.
- Sending unit arm was broken off and laying in the tank.
- Fuel filter was on backwards and clogged (not kidding!!)
- Bits of plastic shrink wrap (from the new pumps they installed) laying in bottom of tank with bare wires on the pumps.
- Focus pumps had focus socks, not the much larger 03 Cobra ones.
Got a new tune from a different tuner
- He read the tune that was on the car and was appalled. Said he'd never seen anything so messed up.
- New tune did not fix the backfiring/missing/hesitating, but finally got all the SES and dash lights to go away.
Decided to check the cam timing.
- Broken intake bolt
- Two torn intake gaskets
- Blown o-ring on crossover tube leaking coolant below the lower intake
- Cams were off by 1 tooth on both sides
- Car ran.idled a litte better but major problem still there.
Replaced a few more parts to try and track down the problem.
- Replaced ECM
- Installed 60lb injectors
- No change
Other stuff:
- None of my takeoff parts were returned (they were supposed to be shipped with the car)
- SCT handheld not used or returned. (they used a chip even though I wanted the car flashed)
- I was charged for a bad 02 sensor that went bad on their dyno while they were tuning my car.
- Got a COD notice from fedex for $1065 for the return of my stock parts. I refused the shipment.
- I have not paid the final invoice they sent the day the car was shipped. That invoice was for an ecm, pumps, dyno 02 sensor and plugs (sent new plugs with the car). Previous invoices for the other work/parts were paid in full by check (at their request).
MM response to all of this has been "it must have happened in transport because the car was perfect when it left." They will not accept my phone calls or respond to my IM's or emails.
Of course, there is much, much more to this story that I won't even go into.
On a positive note. A few vendors and members of the Modfords and SVTP boards, and a few friends here in SA have gone way above and beyond to try and help me get this situation handled. If you guys want to speak up, feel free. I won't bring your names into this unless you want it.
Tracy
Here are a few pics of some of the broken things.
Car came back to Texas in May 05 completely fugged up.
I've not posted anything because I hoped to resolve the issue privately.
I've spent a month replacing parts, fixing things and trying to track down the major issues. On Friday, the major issue showed it's ugly head when something let go inside the valve cover.
This is gonna be long. I'm not even going to go into detail about the problems I had just getting the car back.
As the car comes off the truck:
- Every dash light was on (theft, check engine, fuel, abs)
- Steering wheel was off 80 degrees.
- MGW Shifter handle (not the knob) was spinning around freely.
- Clutch pedal was nearly impossible to push in.
- Fog light was out
- Wideband gauge was not working.
First drive:.
- It was nosing over badly, bucking, backfiring. Had to rev it to 3K and slip the clutch just to get it moving.
- Vacuum was at 9-10 psi at idle and fuel pressure was 50+ at idle.
Next day:
- Took it to have it aligned and the brakes looked at.
- K member bolt was hanging on by a thread.
- A/C line was broken in two.
- Foglight connector broken
- ABS brackets were dangling behind the wheels.
- washers missing on k member- AC line was broken and had to be replace.
- Lock nut missing on clutch cable
- Bumper was dented/broken. Headlight support bracket broken.
Took it to the dyno to see what it was doing.
- completely cut out at 5300rpm
- So, as long as you kept the car between 3-5300 rpms, it ran.
Under the hood.
- wrong idler pulleys/broken bearing in idler (shipped with new BF black idlers installed)
- battery hold down and bolts missing
- bolts for coolant crossover tube missing
- Compression test showed 120psi on all cylinders
- Intake spacer installed with red stuff, leaking the whole way around.
Dropped the fuel tank.
- Sending unit arm was broken off and laying in the tank.
- Fuel filter was on backwards and clogged (not kidding!!)
- Bits of plastic shrink wrap (from the new pumps they installed) laying in bottom of tank with bare wires on the pumps.
- Focus pumps had focus socks, not the much larger 03 Cobra ones.
Got a new tune from a different tuner
- He read the tune that was on the car and was appalled. Said he'd never seen anything so messed up.
- New tune did not fix the backfiring/missing/hesitating, but finally got all the SES and dash lights to go away.
Decided to check the cam timing.
- Broken intake bolt
- Two torn intake gaskets
- Blown o-ring on crossover tube leaking coolant below the lower intake
- Cams were off by 1 tooth on both sides
- Car ran.idled a litte better but major problem still there.
Replaced a few more parts to try and track down the problem.
- Replaced ECM
- Installed 60lb injectors
- No change
Other stuff:
- None of my takeoff parts were returned (they were supposed to be shipped with the car)
- SCT handheld not used or returned. (they used a chip even though I wanted the car flashed)
- I was charged for a bad 02 sensor that went bad on their dyno while they were tuning my car.
- Got a COD notice from fedex for $1065 for the return of my stock parts. I refused the shipment.
- I have not paid the final invoice they sent the day the car was shipped. That invoice was for an ecm, pumps, dyno 02 sensor and plugs (sent new plugs with the car). Previous invoices for the other work/parts were paid in full by check (at their request).
MM response to all of this has been "it must have happened in transport because the car was perfect when it left." They will not accept my phone calls or respond to my IM's or emails.
Of course, there is much, much more to this story that I won't even go into.
On a positive note. A few vendors and members of the Modfords and SVTP boards, and a few friends here in SA have gone way above and beyond to try and help me get this situation handled. If you guys want to speak up, feel free. I won't bring your names into this unless you want it.
Tracy
Here are a few pics of some of the broken things.
this was even worse than I thought!
