Fontana

I do not know him personally or when he had his business. I can't speak for him. I can only comment on my personal experience with him and I have to say he has been an absolute gentleman with me. He took the time to stay on the phone with me for over an hour to walk me through what I needed to do for one problem and then drove to my house to fix another and refused to take a dime from me (and I offered a few times).

Sorry to hear about your experience, but this is my thread and I would like to keep it positive as I have had nothing but positive experiences with him. He at the very least deserves that respect from me!
Start your own thread.

mickster

+928.

Landseer

Yes, they start in first gear.

Sometime in 1987 a change was made that was in effect for 1988 model year and likely somewhat before / they start in second.

I put an 89 automatic into an 84 car. That car starts in second, but if you go deep into the throttle it immediately downshifts and holds first to nearly redline.

Landseer

This should help clarify.
Documentation relative to the modification.

I spend too much quality time with my Morehouse CDs when not driving these things.

Note the somewhat ambiguous reference to exactly when the change took place. Or what exactly was done to effect the change.

First two pages are from Service Tech Info documents for highlighting to the techs the changes introduced leading into 1988 MY.

Third page is an entry from the Technical Bulletins.

SMTCapeCod

Hm.
Great info.
Nailed it with production date, too.

So a faulty or poorly adjusted TPS could add slug factor to an S4, but doesn't get at the second gear starts in the earlier cars. Wonder if it could be line pressure/modulator.

Landseer

I've wondered that too.
Many have made that complaint.

Lizard928

I don't know how much I would trust nsantolick.
95% of his threads are about him being screwed by this mechanic or that one. Do a search.

I'm aware there is always two sides to every story, but there are some people that no matter how hard you try you just cannot please.

marlinspike

Steve pretty well ruined me. It's probably too late for you, but you might want to file a complaint with the New York DMV. You'll be joining 5 of us (IIRC it's a total of 5) who are going forward with a court hearing.

nsantolick

I bought this car on eBay over four years ago. Although the car had something like 87,000 California/South Carolina miles and looked like new, inside and out, I opted to not drive it until I had the timing belt serviced as I couldn't verify that it was changed in the past. No, I didn't have a PPI done. I also didn't have a freaking priest perform an exorcism on it, which might have fixed it as now, I realize what a cursed object this car apparently IS...

In retrospect, that was my mistake. I should have just said "screw the timing belt", taken the chance and driven it until it failed, however many days/months/years that would take. I'd have been better off. Who cares if I would blow the motor? It'd have been a LOT cheaper than what I have into it now and I'd actually had been able to drive it for a while. The whole point of buying this car was that it was my 40th birthday, and I wanted a toy.

This car has been an tremendous pain in my *** for most of the four plus years, and I've only driven it perhaps a few months. (Not that I ever dropped my $1,500+ a year insurance on it.)




*** This has been because most mechanics have needed to feel like they're important, omnipotent and also feel that they're "master mechanics", whatever the **** that is, if they've ever taken a wrench to ANY "Porsche..." ***




I can blame myself for actually believing Rayco, that "exotic car" dealer that started all of this ****. I should have checked into their reputation first, something that they try to hide. They suck. Seriously. They really really really really suck.

I can blame myself for believing some nearby loser "master mechanic" who had it next, and kept if for months and months longer than he said it would take, and returned a car that had questionable brakes, a questionable transmission, no air conditioning and a few other problems. (I drove it over 30 miles to Rayco at first - the car was good - wonderful, in fact...)

I had called that Teutonic *** within 1/4 mile of picking it up, asking about the transmission. He assured me that it's "supposed to shift that hard..." It wasn't firm. It was clunky. Oh well, what do I know? I didn't self knight myself a "master mechanic."

A few weeks later, the original transmission blew up. That's when I threw another $5,000+ dollars into it, courtesy of Mastertech. He didn't do some smaller things I had asked for, and had it done weeks later than promised and took months to return the old torque tube, but what the hell? At least I had my 928 back, FINALLY... (And I was THE PERFECT CUSTOMER by just letting him alone with it - NEVER calling - NEVER bothering. I stayed out of the process as much as was possible.)

A few months later, the car started to run on one bank of cylinders, intermittently.

I'll accept that it wasn't a big deal when the coils started to fail, but by the time I figured out what that intermittent problem was, I had moved some 2 hours away and I let it sit for a year or so. I was disgusted. I was busy.

I changed the coils, MYSELF, as well as installed a few other upgrades. As I finally drove it to get a state inspection, the transmission (which had started leaking while it sat) gave me problems. I assumed Mastertech actually rebuilt it. Bottom line is that he DIDN'T...

When I had it towed back to him, some 160 miles away, "he didn't remember working on that car." He just told me that it needs another transmission rebuild, and didn't touch it after he knew that it'd be a warranty case. That's when I realized how he screwed me. A while later, his phone lines were disconnected. I pulled the car. He didn't as much as even call me when the flat bed showed up to get my car the hell out of there...

Now, it's been at a genuinely "good" shop, and I've been "the perfect customer" again, by leaving it up to them and only stopping in once a month or so. The thing is that they've now had it for over a year, and all that they had done was to remove the transmission, exhaust & rear wheels. I'm stuck there now, and hope that they fix it. A month ago, they said that they've called the transmission shop which was coming to pick up the transmission. I haven't checked back, yet.

Regardless, Mastertech definitely screwed me, probably because his business was failing and he got a couple grand more at the time by cheating me, as he did. Like I said, should the "front seal" fail a year or so after a "rebuild" by that prodigy??? Was it "normal" to not even touch it for months when I had it back there? Was it "normal" that his phone lines got temporarily disconnected while I had it there? Did it really need that half-assed "protective coating" of red paint, over the grease, to "keep the aluminum from rusting???"

I know Mastertech ONCE was a good shop. I was just really, really unlucky, I guess. The shop is gone now. He was in bankruptcy court months before I brought my car there, for the first time. He screwed me, and for his sake, I hope we never cross paths again.

I'm at the mercy of the current shop. I have no problem with them, other than they keep telling me "one more month" and never touching it. I know the manager really knows these cars well. There have been 2 other 928S4's in that shop this year. They CAN do the job, and may soon have it done. Maybe I'll actually be able to drive this car then. It's only been 4 1/2 years of owning it. I have over $40,000 invested in it. Oh, wait - I still didn't pay the current shop. lol

If they don't finish it soon, though, expect to see a YouTube video of me demolishing the car with a sledgehammer. I'm quite serious.




*** It won't be sold. It'll be destroyed, by me, and videotaped. I'll be videotaping it as I expect to hear demons screaming as I kill this car, and might be able to get some cash back through advertising revenue if it happens to go viral. ***




Not "trusting" me??? Well, I can agree that a lot of my posts have been negative. If you went through this though, wouldn't a LOT of your posts have been negative too???







P.s. - The irony here is that if it actually gets done, it'll be about 5 years since the timing belt was changed and I may get to start this crap all over again.

marlinspike

I hate to say it, but your experience has been a lot like mine in so many ways (even including the amount of money I'm out thanks to him). One thing I learned is that internet reputations are worthless. There are a couple of people I've met along the way whose opinions I trust, but I'll never listen to the internet again. This is not where the transmission I ultimately had installed came from (the guy I got my current one from doesn't sell to the public, but my engine builder happened to have helped him start his business, so I was able to get one), but one of the only shop owner's whose opinions has proven to be worth anything tells me he has used http://www.europeanexchange.com/ with good results.

As far as Steve goes, I remember when your car was at the shop. He told me it was a warranty repair he had to do. I also remember talking to him in person shortly after you took it back, and he denied any such vehicle existed, until I gave him so many details about it being at his shop that he finally said "oh yeah, I do remember" and then began mumbling. He couldn't even bother putting the sunshade back in the windshield. My car sat up there in the sun for so long that the seats were sun damaged when I got it back (he dumped it off at another shop after he sold his). Heck, my car sat so long up there that my previously impeccably running car came back with a dead cylinder. I got back a gutted car - not only was the transmission gone, but so were many other parts, including some that are NLA and hard to find used in good condition.