Thumbs down to these guys.
My '03 Cobra had a recurring pretty bad leak from around my differential, so I had it worked on at another local shop. They ended up referring me to M V Performance after replacement of the pinion seal didn't solve the problem.
After the initial visit to M V Performance, they informed me that it was, in fact, the pinion seal that was leaking and the previous shop hadn't installed it properly, most likely. They replaced it again and also installed new Energy Suspension pinion bushings at the same time (Their request, not mine - in fact, I'm not sure they even told me they were installing these). I was assured that the leak was stopped. The next morning, there was already a puddle forming under the car.
I ended up taking it back there a week or 2 later and I was informed that my differential housing was cracked. The Ford Racing replacement part was on back-order with no release date determined. Of course, the salvage yard next door had a used one - for $100 more than a brand new one. I said to go ahead and do it with the used one since I seemed to have no alternative and needed it fixed. On the 5th business day, after promising to have it ready the 2 days prior, I went to get the car.
I was told that it wasn't started yet and to come back tomorrow. As I was going out of town that day, I asked if the car was disassembled yet. I was told it was not. I was going to take the car and work out a time to replace the housing when I got back.
The first thing that caught my eye after I left was that my exhaust tips weren't lined up. One was sticking out way further than the other and lower. The second thing I noticed were my exhaust clamps on either end of my mufflers (Previous owner had the Magnaflow installed with these instead of a weld) were upside down, so the bolts were catching on speed bumps that previously weren't an issue. At that point, I decided to not go back to M V. Sure, it's a simple alignment issue, but I wasn't a jerk or anything when I went in there. I was more concerned that my car had been taken apart when I got there, I was then lied to about it, and then it was sloppily thrown together to get me out of there. Now I was concerned that they might have half-assed something else.
This past weekend, I finally scheduled some time with a friend to take a look at the differential. I'm obviously not the most mechanically inclined, nor do I have the tools to really do much work aside from an oil change. Anyway, we cleaned the differential and watched it to see where the leak originated. It was pretty clear that the housing wasn't cracked at all. The leak came from the seal between the cover and the housing. Upon removing the cover, there was no actual gasket in there. Only a strand of RTV around the vein in the cover (the bottom of which was torn and causing the leak). A gasket was installed and no more leak.
My complaint about M V is that these guys talked like they knew exactly what was wrong. It was a pretty simple diagnosis and fix, yet they were completely off-base. These guys aren't incompetent since they seem to build some pretty nice cars amongst themselves and for others, so I can only conclude that they tried to take advantage of me. I don't really care about how long it takes to have a job done as long as it's done right. Maybe they build some nice cars for people, but in my experience, they came off as lazy and dishonest, and I definitely couldn't recommend them to the average Mustang owner. Luckily, I only lost $170 to them; it could have been much worse.
My '03 Cobra had a recurring pretty bad leak from around my differential, so I had it worked on at another local shop. They ended up referring me to M V Performance after replacement of the pinion seal didn't solve the problem.
After the initial visit to M V Performance, they informed me that it was, in fact, the pinion seal that was leaking and the previous shop hadn't installed it properly, most likely. They replaced it again and also installed new Energy Suspension pinion bushings at the same time (Their request, not mine - in fact, I'm not sure they even told me they were installing these). I was assured that the leak was stopped. The next morning, there was already a puddle forming under the car.
I ended up taking it back there a week or 2 later and I was informed that my differential housing was cracked. The Ford Racing replacement part was on back-order with no release date determined. Of course, the salvage yard next door had a used one - for $100 more than a brand new one. I said to go ahead and do it with the used one since I seemed to have no alternative and needed it fixed. On the 5th business day, after promising to have it ready the 2 days prior, I went to get the car.
I was told that it wasn't started yet and to come back tomorrow. As I was going out of town that day, I asked if the car was disassembled yet. I was told it was not. I was going to take the car and work out a time to replace the housing when I got back.
The first thing that caught my eye after I left was that my exhaust tips weren't lined up. One was sticking out way further than the other and lower. The second thing I noticed were my exhaust clamps on either end of my mufflers (Previous owner had the Magnaflow installed with these instead of a weld) were upside down, so the bolts were catching on speed bumps that previously weren't an issue. At that point, I decided to not go back to M V. Sure, it's a simple alignment issue, but I wasn't a jerk or anything when I went in there. I was more concerned that my car had been taken apart when I got there, I was then lied to about it, and then it was sloppily thrown together to get me out of there. Now I was concerned that they might have half-assed something else.
This past weekend, I finally scheduled some time with a friend to take a look at the differential. I'm obviously not the most mechanically inclined, nor do I have the tools to really do much work aside from an oil change. Anyway, we cleaned the differential and watched it to see where the leak originated. It was pretty clear that the housing wasn't cracked at all. The leak came from the seal between the cover and the housing. Upon removing the cover, there was no actual gasket in there. Only a strand of RTV around the vein in the cover (the bottom of which was torn and causing the leak). A gasket was installed and no more leak.
My complaint about M V is that these guys talked like they knew exactly what was wrong. It was a pretty simple diagnosis and fix, yet they were completely off-base. These guys aren't incompetent since they seem to build some pretty nice cars amongst themselves and for others, so I can only conclude that they tried to take advantage of me. I don't really care about how long it takes to have a job done as long as it's done right. Maybe they build some nice cars for people, but in my experience, they came off as lazy and dishonest, and I definitely couldn't recommend them to the average Mustang owner. Luckily, I only lost $170 to them; it could have been much worse.
