78Silver928

I've owned my 928 for about 6 years now, done everything to it myself to get it roadworthy minus the gearbox rebuild. I've now moved to the LA area, and need a few things done that have been bothering me -- leaks, slight misfire occasionally, minor power drain, and I want the AC to function.

Who better to work on my 928 than Greg Brown and his staff? Now I'm less than an hour from his shop. I've been calling and emailing them for 7 months trying to get my car in there for work. Now I wasn't really in a hurry, but I usually expect a call back when I leave a message, but nope. Every time I talk to them I get told maybe next month. If they truly can't take my car this year, they should just tell me! I'm tired of waiting.

I think I'm going to take it to Sublime Porsches in Silver Lake. It's even closer, and they responded quickly to an email so that's a start. Excellent reviews on Google. Anyone have experience with them?

Speedtoys

Honestly..you're a year away from getting in..most likely. A tremendous backlog. Not a secret having been here since 2017...

Mary's busy 9hrs a day up front, and the few staff able to work in in the space they have are busy too.

Maybe take a step back..cruise on up..and say hello..you'll see. And be on better footing.

mj1pate

If Greg can’t get to it within your timing, make sure Sublime has serious experience with 928s. You’re aware that experience with 928 aging related issues has only been captured by a few.
There are likely some Rennlisters who have that knowledge and will do work for pay. You might explore that.

karl ruiter

I would say you don't need Greg for your AC work. You could have someone else try to identify your other leaks, but I don't know how much further I would go. I lived in S.Pasadena for a long long time and don't know Sublime, but I always do my own work. One thing to ask, is, "Where would you look for 928 parts?". If they don't know about Mark, Roger, and Greg, they don't know 928s, plus it can be very important. I gave my brother my old '82 and he took to a guy with a very impressive German accent, who parked it in the lot for 6 months waiting for Automotive Atlanta to bring a $20 part from Germany that all of the above would have had in stock. The PO of my GTS got charged $1200 for plug wires (thats what they cost from the dealer if you buy them individually). Etc, etc, etc. For example, if your leaks include pan gasket (they probably do), you will want Greg's slick green one and to put in Rogers motor mounts while you are in there and you will want it done from the bottom to minimize cost as well as trauma on wiring and hosing and cables. Will Sublime know about that? You can ask.

mj1pate

Yeah, the above.
Seriously, like I proposed, ask in the forums if anyone close to you will do work for pay. If the answer is yes, then you can search the forums for their posts on relevant topics to qualify them. There are posters here with seriously deep engine and trans experience on these cars. They aren’t Greg, but they are better qualifiers than most general Porsche mechanics.
There are a few near where I live that I keep in mind, but they’re not close to you.
Best wishes on the project.

78Silver928

Thanks for the replies. As for my leaks, I've already done the TB, WP and all of the front engine seals myself, as well as the pan gasket. I still have a leak toward the rear of the passenger side over the exhaust (hoping it isn't the headgasket). Also despite having done the water bridge myself, I occasionally get coolant in the valley. Also on the same side as the oil leak (again could be headgasket). No oil in water, no water in oil. This is why I want someone reputable with experience to have it, just in case it is a head gasket -- and I haven't got the space or the time to do it myself anymore. I'm still driving the car, and nothing has gotten worse, may just wait for Greg. I just never get a warm and fuzzy that I'm actually on the list because they never call me back.

jeff spahn

I'd double down on what Jeff (Speedtoys) said. Drop by, just say hi and introduce yourself to Greg and Mary and then leave. Drop by again in a couple weeks, do the same. Get to know Rob Edwards. Take those guys dinner some night, Rob too. It all helps and you aren't bribing them but rather you want to get to know them and get them to know you. Want to be known as not a snowflake or anything like that. Just a nice, stand up guy. Don't expect to jump line but eventually, you'll get in line and you'll get good work.

tv

Milkbone or Snausages

Rob Edwards

The problem (and it's a problem in that I'm sure it bothers Greg as much as it bothers customers to have to keep putting clients off on the waitlist) is that after 50 years in business he's got enough of a clientele among 356s, 911s, and all the transaxle cars that the backlog is months to years' long depending on the scope of the needed work. Kyle manages the workflow through the shop, to my eyes it has to be the hardest part of the job. Another factor is that 20 years ago most 928s were in for routine service and single-problem repairs. Now every car that comes in has multiple problems and the punch list on every car gets longer and longer as they discover more stuff- it's the difference between running an urgent care clinic and a medical ICU, the median length of stay has increased significantly over the 15 years I've been hanging around the shop. A third issue is that a higher proportion of the customer cars are full-on restorations that suck up 100s of hours. They'd probably make a lot more money and move a lot more customers through just doing TB/WP and fluid changes but after a thousand timing belts that stuff gets boring.

25,000 928s sold in the US market, many thousands still on the road, fewer than 10 (?) go-to 928 shops nationally. Unfortunately the supply/demand curve for service is a little skewed.

GregBBRD

Very sorry, but we are extremely backed up, without much relief in sight....
We are all overwhelmed and doing the best we can.
I had Mary cancel every appointment on the books on October 1, 2022 until January 1, 2023, hoping we could get caught up....but that was just a dream.
We did finish (almost) a restorod that we had been working on for over 4 years....
However, the backlog just got worse, since all of those "scheduled" people just were waiting.
And we had one of our top mechanics off for 2 months....
Personally, I'm hopelessly backed up...12 engines to assemble/build.....in the shop. 3 transmissions waiting.

Kyle (my son) runs the day to day shop work....and isn't as buried as I am.
However, as Rob Edwards alludes to, we get in a car for a transmission rebuild (actually on a lift, right now, and it turns into a torque tube, clutch, and complete suspension refresh.)
Another (current car, also on a lift) came in for a 4 year check-over with a list of stuff (suspension squeak/clutch noise) Also turned into a clutch replacement and complete suspension rebuild, plus his list.
Repeat this on virtually every 35 year old 928 and it gets really busy, really quickly! (There's 30 of them sitting here, today, waiting for work.)

Plus, we deal with any issues our "long time" clients have...as quickly as possible. (As we should!)

Admittedly, now that Rennlist/moderators have driven me away from doing any technical help/tips and I now only respond to direct information about products or things like this, I have a couple extra hours, every day.
This will help me, but terrible for the people on Rennlist that are asking for help. The current "answers" from rookie home 928 guys (some of which don't even work on their own cars) are mostly so bad that they are funny.

Your "best" chance for "relief" is to call Kyle directly (I'll PM you his number) and tell him your story and see what he can do.
(Mary will just tell you what she's been telling you.)
While I'm a grumpy old man, Kyle is one of the most gentle and understanding souls I've ever been around!

IcemanG17

As a customer, when I owned and raced 928's I was quite lucky that they weren't as busy back then.... The upside is its worth the wait! Do it right, do it ONCE.... Of the nearly 20 years I've been around 928's I can't begin to count how many people took their 928's to a local shop, to seriously regret it later! I was lucky that there are solid shops locally, but an even better group of enthusiasts that help each other out with projects. Like others have mentioned, the youngest 928 is close to 30 years on the road.....the oldest are almost 46!

A huge perk of living in California (or close) is it easily worth the drive, especially in a well running 928, to go down an visit Precision Motorwerks and 928intl.

jej3

@78Silver928 - I was wondering when you'd get an official Precision response but had no question in my mind that the quote would be part of the response. Precision Motorwerks is by every account a great shop and as others have said, has built a significant client base. Frankly, their popularity probably rules them out - which is presumably good for them (and maybe good for recent tensions on RL). So, assuming Greg is scaling back here, the amateurs of Rennlist (which are the majority) will just have to do a fine job of helping one another (as they've always done).

I've never met a more collectively informed group than 928 owners. I've seen them first hand solve some crazy stuff at Porsche 928 Get Togethers, even if they're just "rookie home 928 guys" (who drive their cars LONG freaking distances and enjoy spending time with each other)

There used to be a mechanics list by region on either the 928 Owners Club or on the official sponsor of this forum, 928 Specialists. You probably could reach out to one of the great vendors like 928sRus or 928 International to find out who they know.

Keep the faith...I'm starting to like RL again

GregBBRD

We actually encourage and help people/other shops with their repairs.: Read through the thousands of technical tips I've provided people, here, alone (now in the past). Talk to one of the hundreds if shops who have contacted us, for help! (Also a "past tense" think, except for a select few.)

Unfortunately, are also painfully aware of people doing terrible things/work on these wonderful cars. Many good home/professional mechanics would be flabbergasted at why we see/need to repair, on a daily basis!
Sometimes it is just sad to see what people can do...sometimes it borders on criminal.

I literally finished, this week, the first "early" transmission that exceeded (or even got close to) 10K, even using lots of used pieces inside. (I'm not proud of this, actually feel terrible for the client.) It was the most incredible mess that I've ever seen. Obviously, someone not qualified to touch the external hardware, much less the internals was there, before me.

The important thing to take in, from the above, is to realize that while most people/most shops have limitations at what they can repair/rebuild on 928's, we have absolutely no limits, when it comes to these cars.

We can fix (and do) any single complaint or component on these cars...the first time....not the 2nd or 3rd attempt.

We're tenacious.
Sometimes we will drive/test cars for hundreds of miles to find issues or to test that we have fixed an intermittent issue. (Almost every single car gets driven 20 miles, by me, personally:
Either making sure that we have repaired it correctly, breaking it in, or even just checking for other obvious issues.)

Add on to this the fact that we have virtually every single repair part ever needed, for all of the 928 models. We never have to "glue" or do some other low quality repair on a part...we almost always, have the part, in inventory...no cutting corners on Friday afternoon...or any other day!

The above are just some of our "advantages" and some of the major reasons why people wait months for us to work on their 928's!

79NINE28

My experience has been great. Yes delays but that's because of all the 928's having work done ahead of me. It's a testament to Precision's service. Everyone is very helpful and I have even managed to get help via text on fuel system installation (using their excellently made lines by the way....). Short answer: be patient or look elsewhere.

Darklands

I think if you have two or more 928 it's easy to deal with Greg. Rotate your cars in the shop and all is fine!

It's the same here in Germany. I finished college 1987 and in the 80's the kids want to be car mechanic.
Now we have 90 % parts changer who are helpless without an OBD II plug and a tester. The job car mechanic is gone the way of the Dodo, now we have car mechanotronics.
My friend Jochen who did 90 % 928 can't find worker for his shop so so he doesn't do restaurations with painting anymore.

The disassembled car needs half the shop for months, it's a hassle not worth. As Greg pointed out, especially the collector cars who are standing the wheels cubic needing a truck load of parts.
So new clients get an inspection and the list of horror with 10-15.000 € labour only for mechanical things.