Thanks for the offer, Joe. Not in the dog house as much as being pissed at myself for being such a sucker!

I did some math after the fact. I guess the $175 belt adjustment, plus the $80 rim swap, and even the $60 cap that was old anyway--$315--is what I would have paid from the start. I wound up paying $200 more for a bumper fix that should have been $100 (if needed at all). At this point, it's not worth the effort to argue, fight, etc. Another lesson learned. All in all, this isn't as bad as the $400 oil pressure sender that the other $105-per-hour mechanic ripped me off for!

No way will I attempt the oil cooler seals. I don't have 10 plus weekend hours to spare. If it's really a 6-hour job, that puts the labor at $480! Yikes! Anyone else have this done??

 

Well going from my experience I'm going to be very unpopular but I gotta say it. I went through SIX Porsche wrenches before I got to Daniel Jacobs LLC. All six where complete crooks and did work I did not authorize, overcharged for simple items, and made it look like they did me a favor. Not only that most of them did not fix what they were originally supposed to fix, but made things worse. All in all I was raped for $12,000 in repairs that had to be done correctly by Daniel Jacobs.

To be perfectly honest I don't think any of these crooks give a **** about us. They just use us and laugh when we leave. We are just revenue streams so that they can race their 911s.

End Rant

 

Andy, I have done oil coolers before and am willing to come up and help.

Christian

 

this is so messed up, I don't even know where to begin.
obviously you got taken for a ride, yet again. is it the mechanics? mostly. although you REALLY should question them about EVERYTHING. dont trust them. even if its a great trustworthy mechanic, just dont trust them until they prove they can be trusted. ask about cost, ask why, ask why not? what if i dont get this fixed? what will happen? you dont need to fix everything that's broken. yikes.

anyway, i take my car to a really nice mechanic. no, hes not a porsche guy, he does every kind of car, fords to porches, but he knows his **** and he did my belt/waterpump job with a broken bolt and everything for a very reasonable price... and at 60/hour to boot. just find a guy you can trust.

oh and if you go to someone on recommendation then mention that when you get there, because if they shaft you, they just shafted the guy who told you to go there too, because im sure he wont go there either. you know?

good luck with your *bumper shocks*. how the hell did those go bad without an accident?

 

Andy

Just don't forget it, or the other guy.

Yeah the oil cooler seal may be something you don't want to tackle, but theres plenty of other stuff you can man.

Hell Distributor is something a lot of mechs go after, they often can use replacing, but even the most novice shade tree mechanic can do it in less than 30 minutes. (Except on fecking 360 Dodges, damn clips are impossible to get to.) Anyways. I'd probably have my oil cooler seals done at a mech, a lot of the other stuff you can do yourself.

This gives you two things.

1. The satisfaction that they didn't screw you this time (When you do something)

2. The knowledge to not get screwed the next time you do have to take it in.

It also helps you find a good wrench, cuz you can tell better when they know what they are talking about it. I'm using a local tire place for my suspension work, because the guy not only told me I needed the rear aligned as well (which I knew) but also what was involved in it (which I also knew) so I knew he wasn't dicking me around. More important for him, he didn't say it had to be done and cough up the cash, he just said it should be done. Let him know when.

The clincher was when he said the rear needs to be lowered a couple of inches. Not only does he know 9444's. But he's willing to ignore the assinine bumper hieght requirements in the quest of getting the car to run like it should.

 

3 hours for the bumper shocks?????????It took me about 40 mins to do the valance and bumper in the dark on my car, I even had to put the clip nut on because I have an NA car.

 

Same, took me about 40-50 min to take off rear bumper and replace a bumperette.

 

I'm tellin' you, post this "mechanic's" phone number and he'll feel the wrath of Rennlist.

 

run it with the leaky oil cooler. i didnt pay that much to have mine done. I paid SM Motorsports $430 for the oil cooler seals, and a flush because i also had the milkshake.

i suggest you get involved in some pca events and ask around about who knows who. you may get a couple more locals willing to help.

 

One thing that I've done myself, especially to save parts when I've talked to the mechanic that my car goes to, is to find out what parts they need and get them beforehand and take them to the mechanic. I know one here that doesn't like to do that because he charges a VERY low rate but he does really fantastic work and makes part of his profit on the parts. Him I would trust to do the work. He's trusted well enough by a local guy with a brand new GT2 that sent it to him for the parts to install for club racing it and then took it to him again after he hit a deer on the roads here locally after surviving his first club race without a scratch. That's painful to see, BTW on a brand new GT2.....I've thought I had bad luck before!

Anyway, the mechanic I usually take my car to charges about $10-15 an hour more (don't remember since I haven't taken it to him in a while) and will take my parts from other sources, especially as I like to know what and where the parts come from that go onto my car and when I can, they are upgraded parts/fluids whatever. I didn't have the tool (allen socket) to get into the tranny and couldn't change the heater hoses either with my hand still sewed up earlier this year, so I took the hoses that I had already bought to do the job myself and the Redline fluid I already had on hand to do the tranny and let him do it. More than I would have liked to pay, but at that point I couldn't do the work myself. I always ask for the old parts back and there are a few areas and things that I have done that he wasn't aware of (he owns a 944 Turbo but not too knowledgeable about upgrades for them out there). He knows I know a good bit about the car as does the other mechanic I spoke of. I don't think either would try to screw me for the reason that I understand what they are going to do before they do it.

Right now for me, I enjoy working on the car and yes, I'm in the same position as you in not having a lot of time, but if you consider that maybe you'd have 2-3 Rennlisters come by to help (especially if one has done it before) and you have everything you need on hand, maybe it's worth a 6-pack and taking a few hours to let them come over and help. If NOTHING else, before any work is done on your car and you know what you want done, ask here and get some ideas on parts and time to do the work before you agree to anything. Make sure you ask up front about getting back any parts taken off of your car and if they call to say something else needs done, especially if it's non-critical like a bumper shock, tell them NO and ask about it here first. Heck, if you can spare an hour to change out a bumper shock you could save another $70. If nothing else, surprises will be much less in store if you can discuss the job with the mechanic before you start. Demonstrate knowledge of the process that is going to be done and possess and use that knowledge as a tool.

Don't think you're going to get away just because you sell the Porsche and get some slushbox American POS to just beat around in. Even the Ford dealer here tried to take advantage of my sister when she went to have some work done on her Exploder. I happened to have worked there for a summer a few years back and knew who to talk to there and I gave them a ring when they came back with some outrageous claims of work on the vehicle. The price dropped like a rock and in the end they did several hours of work for free to make things right that they had messed up and they paid for the parts. My dad had a Jeep transmission worked on and afterwards the driveshaft that goes to the front transfer case fell out on my mom while she was driving! Not to mention the other problems with it and after paying for it the first time, after the repairs were finished the second, my father at my urging, told the guy he wasn't going to pay this time, it should have been fixed right the first time. They didn't charge him a thing and the service manager relented on it.

They are responsible for what they do so make them take that responsibility seriously. Keep the Porsche, you'll enjoy driving it more, looking at it more and in the end if you ask questions and you are heads up, you will learn a LOT about your car (even if you maybe don't do much of the work yourself) and feel better about knowing what they have done to it. You have already seen what a little knowledge given to that mechanic can do with dropping $80 from the bumper shock price. He may be a good mechanic...but he may also be greedy and a bit shady on doing things that don't need to be done except to line their pockets.

 

Thanks for all the support guys! Lumberg's Lackey (funny) hit it on the head! Most of these guys rip us off to fund their BS racing activity. This guy races Miata's! That should have been a tip.

I do do what I can as far as working on the car. I replaced the chain tensioner myself, I fixed the AFM, I've done plugs/cap/rotors on my '88, fixed the sunroof motor and gears--all thanks to fellow rennlister's help/advice. I just can't start pulling the engine appart for 10 hours. I just don't have the time, patience, or skill. Sure, if I had a lift and a large garage, maybe I could learn. But with the baby, time is precious.

I have to fix the oil cooler seals...or have a mechanic do it. I cant be leaking oil all over the place. When I brought the car to the $400 sender mechanic, he said there was a leak near the bolts of the oil cooler. Turns out he put some kinda sillicone around the bolts. This latest mechanic said that did nothing because the leak is in the back, by the seals!

The only mechanic that knows his stuff is a flake that keeps blowing me off. I have no luck with mechanics!

 

Talking about horror stories. Woman I used to work with took her Omni into the shop to get the car checked. This was her Nephew.

She said it cost $550, so that's not bad. I said that's a bit high. She said she'd ask him about it when she took it back to get the front brakes done. AHHH

This was like 15 years ago.

 

I know that feeling. Got wife, baby and young dog on my hands all screaming for attention. Basically I just let my 944 hang on jack stands for a few days or weeks until the job is done. Figured Ii've got about an hour each night to sneak into the garage. Meanwhile I use my beater to get me around. If you add up all the money these crooks steal from us it pays for a cheap transportation backup and still save major $$$.

Seems to me you're under rating your mechanical ability. Don't be afraid to touch the engine. Worse that can happen you'll have to do it again. But learning experience will prove to be invaluable. Then you can point your middle finger at the shops! Independence is a sweet thing to struggle for but never give up on your dream!

 

Andy:
Two other shops that are active with PCA:
Pinnacle Motors in Stirling
Autohaus in Chatham.

My number 1 choice is still Powertech.

I understand how your wife doesn't want to be driving you all over God's green earth to get your car serviced, (she must be friends with MY wife!) but try to convince her that these shops will fix your car right the first time, and you won't have to make so many trips. Also: buy her some flowers: that always helps!!

-Z.

 

I have to see if Powertech is near any trains. I have dealt with Gene at Autohaus, and he seems like one of those "$400 to replace the spark plugs, but I'm too busy" types!

I also can't have my car up on jack stands for a month! I use it, and own it to enjoy it, not work on it forever! Paying a mechanic is fine. I just don't wanna OVER pay for stupid crap (bumper shocks) when I have an oil leak that needs fixing.

What does Powertech charge per hour??