It's a sad sad day when you cant trust a specialist!!!!!!

[Banana Man 0]

Recently I had some work carried out by john ( ex pd motorsport) which entailed the fitting of a flowed and ported head fitted with a piper bp270 high lift cam, as well as the porting and flowing of the inlet manifold and the T/B and a few other bits and bobs. My problem was that when the car was finished it seemed to be very sluggish I had darren test drive it and he agreed with me so I took it back with the correct timing figures for john to dial it in properly but the way he set it up wasn't correct and it was still very sluggish I took it away thinking that I had the wrong timing figures for it but now I have checked and double checked with the previous owner that the figures I provided were indeed correct, I have since found that I have been getting fuel in the oil due to the fact that the cam timing was indeed a long way out, and when I spoke to john about it he stated that he had fitted the parts correctly and that it had nothing to do with his work and that it was my fault for playing with the car, when all I had done was adjust the co pot back to make it run less rich as it was very high, and that would not cause the cylinders to be bore washed in the way that they had been doing ever since the work had been done he told me that I had no warranty on the work as the head provided was second hand even though I had it pressure tested and crack tested so it was all fine, and when the car was at PD we even did a pressure test which showed that all cylinders were spot on so that wasn't where the fault lied. Anyway I have spent the last 2 nights setting up the cam to the standard G60 timing and hey presto the car runs 100 times better than what john had set it up too which originaly was supposed to have been the standard cam timing so take this as you will but imho john doesn't know as much as he likes to think he does as even a minor diy mechanic can get better results and cost alot less as well, seing as I was charged £1188 which was £400 over the agreed budget I had spoken to him about I expected the work to be top notch, what I got instead was a whole load more problems and no come back!!!

 

Take it as you will folks !! just thought I would put my opinion across about john!!

 

Not such a god with cars after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

[Joe M 0]

:shock:

[dazzyvr6 0]

thats not good...glad you got it sorted now ant,even though it cost more than you hoped and to think he got it wrong...he must of taken it for a test drive?

[Banana Man 0]

No he didn't! I left it down to him as I thought he new what he was doing but obviously he didn't as even I could get it right!!!!!

[stormseeker 0]

Maybe it would have been better trying to sort this out with John privately than airing it here in public.

[VR6 0]

This thread is under much discussion at the moment.

 

As long as Ant is prepared to stick to his comments, and can prove them, they are not classed as libel and the thread can remain.

 

If John asks us to remove it, then we're going to have to probably do it.

 

Please think carefully about what you say, or it may be deleted.

[vr6storm 0]

Maybe it would have been better trying to sort this out with John privately than airing it here in public.

 

 

yeah i was thinking that too chris............ant unless you've already tried speaking to john regarding this and not had any positive feedback from him this is maybe not the proper way to try and resolve this matter.....afterall this could be damaging to john's future business........if as you've said you have spent over £1k with him and there has been a noticable performance loss then you should give him the opportunity of either fixing the problem himself or refunding some of your money or paying for somebody else to fix it

 

 

whatever happens i hope it gets resolved amicably

[Banana Man 0]

Yeah no problems Tom I am sticky to my words, everything I have put in my previous posts are the truth and I have evidence so if he wants to argue it then he can try his best!!

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

I have been involved and informed of this incident from many angles before this post was made.

 

I can't comment on the work, since it is beyond my knowledge on engine mechanics, but I do know that John is human, and human's make mistakes.

 

I'm sure things like this happen all the time from garage to garage - mechanics do blinding jobs day-in-day-out then have a stonker of a day and the result is a very unhappy customer.

 

I am not defending John, nor am I defending Ant, I am just trying to ensure this doesn't end up being a damaging slanging match.

 

I am glad the problem is finally sorted and I'm sorry John didn't notice the mistake, but 'stuff' happens.

[CaiosG60 PWR 0]

PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THIS POST!! :cry:

 

That would be a terrible course of action. One of the reasons that forums are so good is that people aren't afraid to inform people of there experiances with tunners and after market parts. Unlike magazines who have to be constantly aware of afending advertisers who are responsible for a large amount of there income! If a company that buys two pages of advertising space every mounth in PVW or the Golf has left somebody unhappy the magazines arent going to shout about it!

 

Its a bit like when I posted a qestion asking if Raceland coilovers where any good. People replyed saying they where crap! Those replys where not deleted. Saying there crap is libel. But giveing FACTUAL details of why there inferior isnt, as that would be FACT. (If something is true it is not libel however damageing) I'm sure if I sent a letter to one of the well known magazines they would not print a reply saying that they where crap even if they where!

 

Thats my rant over! Sorry but this is a problem that I think plagues the VW press. They are influensed by there advertisers!

[16VG60 1]

Dear all, when i attempted to discuss this matter with Anthony he put the phone down on me. I tried phoning him back numerous times, i sent him texts and private messages via the forum. I have given Anthony numerous hours of my time free of charge on the pre text that the cam timing info supplied was indeed correct. However when it was set to standard timing and the timing he info he supplied he was not happy with the result, so i spent further hours adjusting the setup to reach an acceptable conclusion. Anthony test drove his car for some time and came back to the workshop expressing his content with the result. At all times i have informed Anthony that i would look at his car again and carry out adjustments to his request without cost to him. By ignoring my attempts to help him he made his own choices. Clearly that is his right, as it's his right to air his opinions about me.

 

Many of you will know of my work and the standards i uphold, with regard to not only my work but also relationships. I let you draw your own conclusions about this matter, but i rest assured that the truth will out. Regards John.

[Banana Man 0]

John after going round in circles with you for over half an hour It was obvious that you were adament that you had had nothing to do with the fact that the cam timing was out, I wasn't prepared to make the 80 mile round trip for a fourth time to have exactly the same outcome as I had the previous 2 times I had taken it back to you which would risk my engine and charger further as the oil was contaminated with fuel so a trip like that could have jeopardised it all as fuel acts as a degreaser. I have given you plenty of chances to put things right since the work had been carried out by numerous phone calls I even had a fuel leak on to the manifold because of a faulty replaced jubilee clip that had been put back on the car. I dont think I am an unfair man I am just fed up with people taking me for a ride!!!! If I could get the car to run very well on standard timing why couldn't you????????

[16VG60 1]

As previously stated I'm happy for people to draw their own conclusions. I will not comment further on this matter.

John

[LowG 0]

whats so hard about setting an engines timing???all you need is a timing light,surley john knows how to time a car ,that is loads of money though so u probably right bananaman there is no room for errors with a job like that. how is the car runing now?

[Mike Edwards 0]

Cam timing is set relative to the crankshaft and is an entirely different animal to the ignition timing.

 

Even VW get it wrong...

[Banana Man 0]

Migs timing up a car is very easy you just have to get the crank to tdc align the intermediate shaft so it is on cylinder one and align the marks on the cam pulley to the front face of the cylinder head, what john had done was put the mark from the standard pulley onto the vernier pulley in the wrong place so the cam was out of sync with the up stroke of the pistons hence why it was really down on power and sluggish. I can understand doing this by accident once but 3 times!!! and still not getting it right is appauling. Because of the mild duration of the cam I have in my car it is still possible to use the standard cam settings and still have a reasonable power output. I had put it to john that I wasn't prepared to take the car down to him for a fourth time for reasons stated above and tried to negotiate a deal with him for me me to take it to the a rolling road where the cam could be setup to the correct specs and for him to pay for the work but he just replied with the comment that it wasn't his fault and that it must be another fault with the car even though all the evidence provided contradicted his explanation. I would like to know now if he can admit that he has made a big error now with the timing of my car as before he couldn't. Thats all I have to say really on the matter

 

how is the car runing now?

 

The car is running fine now migs there is alot more punch and you can really feel the cam come in at around 3k rpm :D

[LowG 0]

ok my bad,so i take it you have an adjustable cam gear? what degre crank timing are you runing?Im runing 8 with the big intercooler. Glad to hear is runing nice,finally my G60 also seems to be going well :D

[Banana Man 0]

Yeah I have got a vernier pulley but I have taken it off for the time being the ignition timing is set to 8 degrees before tdc at the moment as this is the spot where it seems to suit it best. But once I take it to the rolling road in crawley I am going to let them set the car up on the rollers and see what outcome I get :D

[forcefed 0]

:shock: and i thought it was such a freindly place on here ! not good though ehh

[Kevin Bacon 5]

This a real shame :(

 

From a neutral perspective, Banaman paid good money for a service and didn't get the results he hoped for. I can totally understand that as I've been in that situation countless times myself, but I don't think it's fair to try and disgrace John in this way.

 

The issue is between client and vendor and it's not fair to get our Corrado community involved by association. Public humiliation can be very damaging for a small business. Large companies have legal departments and customer service teams to deal with dissatisfied customers and do it daily, but John is trying to build a reputation and this won't have helped.

 

I hope the outcome of this is positive, for both parties.

 

Cheers

Kev

[Banana Man 0]

Kev I agree with you totally I think this thread has gone far enough now, I just wanted to get my point of view across with the experiences that I had with john which is the beauty of a forum like this as you can express your views on any subject. I just wanted to get across the fact that I had spent alot of money to get my car running well and to get it reliable again, I haven't said that you shouldn't go to john for work to have done on your car that is entirely up to you. But with my experience I wont be using his services again in the future.

 

That is all I have to say on this subject now so Tom, nigel, jim or andi can you please lock this thread!!!

 

Cheers

Ant

[Kevin Bacon 5]

OK, I think the thread is now dead! Hope you get your car sorted.

 

Forums can bite you in the bum sometimes though as I got in trouble at work for saying something on one of their unmoderated 'public' notes discussion databases!

It was an innocent comment taken completely the wrong way! Just trying to say be careful what you type!

 

End of.....

 

Cheers

Kev