I’ll try to keep this short and not name any shops involved. Dropped off my 93 lightning 26 hrs from me to get an engine swap done in July of 2021.I have over 40k in this swap with labor (not cheap). Paid 15k up front for engine. For whatever reason engine arrived at shop on July of 2022. Fast forward to may of 2023, truck is finally complete and was towed to new shop for a tune. Tuner calls me and tells me transmission is making noises when in gear, he proceeds to check the fluids and finds that it’s really low on fluid. Tuner calls original shop and was told that its his responsibility to check all fluids (sounds funny). Tuner tells me he thinks it might be the torque converter (new from circle d) and proceeds to pull it and send it in for warranty. While torque converter was pulled pan was pulled and oil was as pictured. Circle d found debris in it (of course) but warranted it and shipped it back. Fast forward to Monday, replacement transmission was shipped to original shop and tuner picks it up. Old shop then calls me and tells me I’m responsible for new shops labor since he can do it for free, this is where I get angry and tell him that it wouldn’t be free. First you would have to tow it to your shop, pay your employees and then tow it back to the tuner, which he didn’t understand. So then I get a call from tuner saying that fluid in the replacement transmission is in terrible condition and more then likely would have issues and he wouldn’t recommend installing the transmission. Not only I’m I out on a transmission but truck sat for 2.5 years outside so my paint is faded now and screwed up, surface rust has appeared steering wheel rotted away, carpet and floor mats were not protected and now covered in oil from shop floor. As of right now I I’m talking to my credit card company and disputing the charges to replace the transmission and was told to talk to a lawyer about the rest of the truck. Long story short 40k in parts and labor, truck looks terrible inside and out and doesn’t run.What would you guys do in my situation?
What would you do?
- Thread starter Svt93Lightning
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Talk to a lawyer.
If you have 15k into the engine, what’s the other 25k for?
Even with R&R, 15k should have been a pretty serious build.
I’ve never seen one of these deals where a shop had the vehicle for years where the owner didn’t get totally screwed.
Talk to a lawyer but you’ll be paying them 250-300 an hour.
May be throwing good money after bad.
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Even with R&R, 15k should have been a pretty serious build.
I’ve never seen one of these deals where a shop had the vehicle for years where the owner didn’t get totally screwed.
Talk to a lawyer but you’ll be paying them 250-300 an hour.
May be throwing good money after bad.
Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com
Why did you use this shop? I'm assuming they're well respected in the lightning community? I would tell the shop for the 40k you paid them they need to make it right, if they don't want to, than yeah, talk with a lawyer and put them on blast.
Coyote swap with 3.0 whipple was around 20k by itself
This is exactly why I took my truck there. Thought I was taking it somewhere that was going to do it right. Shop didn’t want to cover the $500 hundred dollars the new shop was going to charge to reinstall the replacement transmission so there is no way they would pay for a new transmission. Other issue is that the new shop has has my truck for 2 months already and I would rather pick it up and have someone local do the work at this point if it’s just a transmission.
Wow, for that work with that cost, that amount of time seems insanely ridiculous to me. I quoted someone with an 04 Mustang to do a Coyote swap with engine and harness and all and it was like $28k, only adding some additional labor for any fabrication we might have to do. I guess with a blower added on and all the required parts I guess $40k is reasonable but it still seems a little high, but would be possible if it was all new parts.
Engine swaps are not something we do regularly but if we did do it then it would be done in 2-3 weeks. Every bay that's down for repairs is money the tech isn't making so they want that car in and out as soon as possible so they can move on. 2 years is an unacceptable amount of time for that kind of repair and the shop likely didn't make as much as they should have while having a bay down that long.
I can see where they wanted to perform any warranty work as that is normal. You don't pay another shop to perform your warranty work because you don't know what that other shop is capable of and if you do that then they could jack something up because they don't know what they are doing yet the customer comes back to you angry about repairs you did automaticallt assuming it was your fault. With that being said, the first shop should have went and picked up your F150 and taken care of what needed to be done as long as it falls into the scope of repairs they performed. You definitely want to take care of a customer who has spent that much money with you if you really want to keep your reputation in tact.
Just remember that if you start throwing lawyer threats around with the shop they are very likely going to shut you out and tell you to have your lawyer contact them. If anyone does that to us we ask them to leave and tell their lawyer to contact us because you don't want to say something they will use against you and it is pointless to argue at that point. You have a very big reason to lawyer up so they will likely take it seriously so I wouldn't bring up getting a lawyer at all to them and try to work out as much as you can but lawyer up of you feel you need to but don't mention it.
Vehicles can often sit for a few months so they get dirty and dusty and all of that, but since it is in the shop's care they should be taking care of it and making sure they aren't damaging it anymore than it is. Your truck should have been kept inside if rust is an issue and more care should have been taken to keep the interior covered and clean.
Hopefully some of that info helps.
Engine swaps are not something we do regularly but if we did do it then it would be done in 2-3 weeks. Every bay that's down for repairs is money the tech isn't making so they want that car in and out as soon as possible so they can move on. 2 years is an unacceptable amount of time for that kind of repair and the shop likely didn't make as much as they should have while having a bay down that long.
I can see where they wanted to perform any warranty work as that is normal. You don't pay another shop to perform your warranty work because you don't know what that other shop is capable of and if you do that then they could jack something up because they don't know what they are doing yet the customer comes back to you angry about repairs you did automaticallt assuming it was your fault. With that being said, the first shop should have went and picked up your F150 and taken care of what needed to be done as long as it falls into the scope of repairs they performed. You definitely want to take care of a customer who has spent that much money with you if you really want to keep your reputation in tact.
Just remember that if you start throwing lawyer threats around with the shop they are very likely going to shut you out and tell you to have your lawyer contact them. If anyone does that to us we ask them to leave and tell their lawyer to contact us because you don't want to say something they will use against you and it is pointless to argue at that point. You have a very big reason to lawyer up so they will likely take it seriously so I wouldn't bring up getting a lawyer at all to them and try to work out as much as you can but lawyer up of you feel you need to but don't mention it.
Vehicles can often sit for a few months so they get dirty and dusty and all of that, but since it is in the shop's care they should be taking care of it and making sure they aren't damaging it anymore than it is. Your truck should have been kept inside if rust is an issue and more care should have been taken to keep the interior covered and clean.
Hopefully some of that info helps.
Story number 12,343 on why you should do your own work.
I just don't trust any of these "shops".
Sorry this is happening to you!
I just don't trust any of these "shops".
Sorry this is happening to you!
All good advice in this thread. You may want to talk to a lawyer and get some advice on your own but like mentioned here, don't tell the shop you're talking to a lawyer.
Also consider how much money you'd spend on attorney to sue these people (easily tens of thousands), and how much they have in assets (likely not much), and the difficulties you'd face collecting even if they did have assets. Additionally, at least here in Colorado, good luck getting a judge to tack on the full amount of your attorneys fees to the claim.
First pass from me would be determining what you want them to do and then sending them an informal demand letter to that effect. Also blast them publicly in the community if they don't start making it right.
2 years to get this done... F that.
Also consider how much money you'd spend on attorney to sue these people (easily tens of thousands), and how much they have in assets (likely not much), and the difficulties you'd face collecting even if they did have assets. Additionally, at least here in Colorado, good luck getting a judge to tack on the full amount of your attorneys fees to the claim.
First pass from me would be determining what you want them to do and then sending them an informal demand letter to that effect. Also blast them publicly in the community if they don't start making it right.
2 years to get this done... F that.
Exactly.
Don’t think they were willing to work anything out. New shop told me they wanted to pick up the truck if I was going to dispute the charges, so had the truck towed to a family member’s house. Funny think that he post that he’s got 30+ trucks at his shop, probably 25 sitting in the sun getting the same treatment mine did.
Don’t have the knowledge, tools or time.
damn, would disappointing if that's who first came to mind. This in Tx?
You may want to put some feelers out over the forums asking for owners of those other 25 trucks and any others, their experience with this shop. You may find a pattern that would give you some leverage.
There's strength in numbers...
There's strength in numbers...
Tried posting this same post on nloc but wasn’t allowed to post it.
seems like most of the traffic is in FB groups now anyway. If you're on there I'd consider PMing a mod (lightning garage group), give them a quick run down and ask them about making a post to see if others had similar issues. Assuming we're talking about the same shop the owner is in there as well though
what a shame, really thought they ran a good shop
Neither did I, until I did.
Again, not trying to be a dick -- some of these vehicles (Gen 1 L... yeah, for sure!) are wildly exclusive and becoming rare. Truthfully they should only be handled by reputable folks who can be trusted and who have proven they can be trusted over decades of verified peer and customer reviews.
This is why I took it where I did. They are suppose to be lightning shop
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