Jake Raby

Mr. Tribbie,

Your engine is damaged and I am experienced enough to see the engine's symptoms, leak down numbers, compression test numbers and visual characteristics to clearly see this. The aroma of burned coolant and oil emits from both tailpipes on top of the low numbers and noises that the engine is making.

With the engine having been damaged it would have been near impossible to continue to track down the cause of the overheating situation, and it would have been worthless because the engine had already been damaged. All that would have happened is a draining of your wallet and a waste of my time, because the issue is mechanical and will not repair it's self. If the overheating issue is solved you still have an engine that has been fractured.

So, let me get this straight.. I receive your car and make it a priority to troubleshoot only 4 days after the loss of my Father. I then tell you what the numbers are and give you several options and then I tear up the bill for my work to try to be fair to you and I then end up with a negative post here on the forums? Thats not fair! I didn't charge you a dime for my work and I didn't charge you for the inconvenience the shippers posed on two separate days when they were trying to pick the car up after hours, expecting my Employee to work overtime to come meet them at 2030.

Its odd how you left out the critical aspect of the story that refers to my company not charging you a dime for ANYTHING that was done to the car, not storage, not anything. I'll think twice before helping the next person like yourself thats in a bad position, has been screwed and is looking for someone to blame. I attempted to treat you as I'd expect to be treated, but obviously you didn't appreciate the 300.00 invoice that **I** directed to be thrown away because we didn't do any effective work for you or the car.

We are not the bad guys here, don't shoot the messenger- I don't appreciate the fact that I received a negative review for **TRYING** to be fair to you because I felt sorry for you and the car with the amount of money that had already been wasted.

The issue you have effects both banks of cylinders and pistons. This is what complicates the situation because there is NO WAY to remove the bank 1-3 pistons to repair the damage that is leading to the low compression and oil contamination on those cylinders without 95% engine disassembly. Anyone who has assembled an M96 engine will know that this is not a simple repair to be done correctly.

When we were talking on the phone you stated that you just wanted to get the car repaired "good enough" to sell it. I do not support activities that are anything less than a 100% complete, correct and extensive repair that will be fair to the next Porsche owner that purchases the car. Too many people (mostly first time Porsche Owners) are buying these cars with patched up engines, experiencing failures and then HATING the Porsche for it when its not the car's fault. I will not be party to that, and that more than likely pissed you off and if it did, well so be it. I have been a Porsche enthusiast all my life and that blood goes deeper than business.

My 8,800.00 quote was for a 100% complete repair of the engine that would supply the expected longevity and reliability to the new purchaser, or to you if you decided to retain the vehicle. It would not be a quick fix that would be cheap for you and would leave them on the side of the road later facing a 15K repair bill. (thats what cheap M96 fixes do)

Would you rather I'd spent two days trying to find the source of the overheating, then torn into the engine to then find that it had mechanical issues as a result of the overheating? Would you have rather my tab been THREE THOUSAND dollars rather than THREE HUNDRED? The 3,000.00 tab would not have been thrown away. I didn't play the game this way because I knew the engine was hurt and it wasn't worth time and money to go further.

As for having a "Buyer":
Yes I have over a dozen people waiting to purchase a car like yours with a bad engine. These people contact me looking for such a vehicle to convert to a track car. These people do not care if the engine is blown to hell or not; because they are going to buy a complete package from me and have it installed before they ever touch the car for the first time. If the engine needed a fast repair they would not care because it would be subject to a full reconstruction. I had someone 20 miles away with cash money in their hand to buy the car KNOWING the engine had issues and he was OK with that. You could have dealt directly with him as he is already in my queue to build an engine and he doesn't even own a car to put it into! That means that if the potential buyer would have bought your car the engine would not have been repaired, so the assumption of your local shop (who obviously thought I was trying to screw you) was incorrect. Did you tell them I spent the majority of a day worth of time on the car's troubleshooting for free?

When people throw good money after bad with several other shops and then come our way its fairly easy for them to vent their frustrations toward us when I don't tell them what they want to hear or sugarcoat the situation.

Even with poorly sealing rings and issues the 996 will outperform the 993 in most situations, I'd expect it to as long as it wasn't misfiring on a pair of cylinders.

No one here was trying to take advantage of you or take your money, thats why we did our work for free. I don't think I have ever seen someone argue about free work before, but that may be because I don't extend that sort of service to just anyone off the street.

I'll be contacting you offline.

jrgordonsenior

Jake my GF's been overheating more and more these days and doesn't appear to be running on all cylinders. If I ship her back to you would you leak her, check her compression, and see if there's an "aroma of burned coolant and oil emitting from her tailpipe"? Oh and would you do that all for free please?....

Jake your post was well written, concise, and to the point. I've built 50+ homes in Beverly Hills, Brentwood, etc. over my 32 year career and it always amazes me how ungreateful people can be. Oh and it's usually the husbands...

Jake Raby

JR,
Send her on over.. I'll do some mods to her after the repairs :-)

Yes, ungrateful people **** me off, then of course you have the miserable people who are looking for something to whine about..

Mr. Tribbie hasn't been answering my calls all day long, he obviously doesn't want explain himself over the phone; he'd rather hide behind the monitor.

He obviously never thought I'd see his post. Wrong. In his post he mentioned that he'd never send any more business our way or use us again- Trust me, I wouldn't put air in his tire on the side of the road if I saw him with a flat after the way he threw us under the Bus!

The only way around trouble is straight through the middle of it.

Oh, and he isn't our Customer, so he CAN'T complain.. He has no account here, it was all written off as "complimentary". He didn't have to ask for that.

eric523

The work by the indy is warrantied at the shop that did the work....not another dealership.

You were also the 3rd owner since the motor was installed. The owner that had the motor installed, then the used car dealership, and then you. Not many warranties transfer in that manner.

I can tell you as an undeniable fact that reputable indys can install a factory reman motor into your car and it carries a warranty. A 2 year PARTS warranty from Porsche, and then the warranty the indy offers on their labor.

Marlon

Jake - call again if you want to discuss anything that you taking issue with. You can call me on my office line - maybe you'll post that information for public consumption as well. Obviously there are enough folks on this Forum that will 'side' with you - the "expert" on the 996 engine. That's ok, and I don't really care - I'm the customer. Also: your associate Dean spent a half-day 'researching' warranty information from Porsche regarding remanufactured Porsche engines. Strange that he could not come up with the information that casual lay-persons on this Forum seem to have in a split-second. I did not ask you to adjust my invoice or 'not charge me' - or are you going to inaccurately characterize that as well???

BTW: there's no 'aroma of burnt oil or coolant' from my 996 tailpipes.

Pugnacious P

Hmmm, Best Reman 996 engine? The one you didn't have to pay for

BruceP

There's obviously something I'm not getting about this story. It seems to me that any mechanic has a right to his opinion about what's wrong, and any customer has the right to take his business elsewhere if he doesn't like the answer. Why so much heat? You got your car back, didn't pay a cent, and it's with another mechanic you like better. I've heard a lot sadder Porsche stories than that.

chsu74

I agree with Bruce here. Could it be something as simple as a bubble in the cooling system and needs to be burped or replacing a new reservoir cap?

jrgordonsenior

OK so your Indy's had the car for a few days now, what does he say?....

Jake Raby

Then someone doesn't know what coolant smells like when it has been exposed to combustion. I was sitting in my office upstairs about 40' away when the car pulled into the shop. It idled until it got up to the temperature that we use for hot compression and leak down tests and I could smell the aroma of cooked coolant at my Desk. AsI walked down stairs it was notably worse and there were no other cars in the shop and running that day.

.
Hold on a minute. You are the one who went out of your way to post negative statements about my company "for public consumption" first. Had you not "gone there" none of this would be occurring. You had no reason to throw us under the bus.

No, it doesn't take a rocket scientist that you are off base with your negative statements. I went out of the way to help you and thought that I'd receive at least some sort of positive reaction from that, but instead I got a knife in the back. If people "side" with me its simply because your actions warrant it.

.
Imagine that. You are one of those people who feels the customer is always right, even if they become complete jerks for no reason. You had work given to you for free from an engine specialist and you still complain about it? Excuse me for not telling you what you wanted to hear or for not assisting you with "passing the buck" of your engine problem on to the (unsuspecting) next guy.

You aren't really the customer, you have no account here and I have never charged you for anything.

WOW, you can really find something to complain about. That was 1/2 day of research that Dean did for you that you also WERE NOT CHARGED FOR!! Your welcome.

Here we do not deal with Porsche or Porsche reman engines. We do not sell them and generally do not work on them, except to take them apart and re-create them. We are not a normal INDY shop doing engine swaps, clutch jobs and service work- we do the things that no one else is capable of doing or that no one else is willing to do. This is because we are specialists.

We don't deal with warranties, or Porsche or any of the other things that general shops that work on general aspects of Porsches deal with. We don't want to and we generally don't need to because we have our own engine program.

Whe Dean spent his time trying to gather info for you he did so with a higher echelon of the company that is one of my contacts. We were going to try to get you a bit of a "favor" due to the circumstances that you have had to endure thus far. Dean made these calls to find out specifics about the program so he could give you ACCURATE information about the chain of events that you'd be expecting if a warranty claim was filed. I can see now that its a good thing that we didn't have success in getting you a replacement engine as you'd surely complain about some aspect of it.

Yet again the time that Dean spent was not charged to you and we retained a lot of information that will help others that may have similar situations in the future. In case you didn't know it, nothing stays the same and policies change, never assume anything.

You didn't have to ask me to tear the invoice up. We did nothing for you and you had no desire to go further with my company after you found out that I had no desire to partially repair the engine (Due to liability reasons and the risks associated with our reputation should the "patch" break).

Since I did nothing and you had been screwed over and over again I instructed Dean to destroy the invoice. I can see now that I did the right thing, imagine how bad you would have complained had I actually charged you...

Anyway, I'd concur that an obstruction in the cooling system was creating the issue that created the elevated temperatures that lead to the engine damage that Mr. Tribbie's Porsche experienced. At this point he has more to worry about than coolant temperature elevations. The primary issue was the coolant temp elevations, but now the secondary issue has overcome the primary in severity.

Even if the coolant temp issue is solved today the engine still has uneven compression readings, internal noises that are not normal and that aroma of burned coolant emitting from the tailpipes.

BTW- If your INDY doesn't know what hot coolant smells like you should find a new one, because he is the last person that belongs in your engine bay. Sorry, thats just the facts.

I apologize to the bystanders and I apologize for taking this thread off topic. Hopefully the thread will get back to normal now.

Good luck with your situation

RallyJon

Jake, you don't know me, but please take some unsolicited advice. As you posted in an earlier thread, you don't like to get drawn in to internet pissing matches. Well, you just did.

You may be 100% right here--but even assuming you are--you can't "win" a discussion like this if it gets into a back and forth. Your first post, stripped of all emotion and laying out the facts as you saw them, should have been your last. The last word means nothing, and you can never get it anyway on a web forum.

You don't have to debate every line. Look at how Steve Weiner or Mike or Todd from AWE handle disputes.

Jake Raby

Rallyjon,
Thanks for the advice... In the past 15 years and around 115,000 combined posts on forums I have learned a fair amount about how to handle situations like this one...

Fact is Marlon's rebuttal post simply outlined more information that needed to be clarified and thats what I did.

My entire life revolves around the company I have built and this is much more than just a company or a "Job" to me. I have worked hard to attain and maintain my reputation and no matter what I refuse to allow someone to state inaccurate information in a negative light about my company, my employees or me.

My intense personality shines through in a situation like this- it always has and always will because thats just who I am.

I seldom hear complaints, maybe twice per year on average, because we operate fairly, firmly and honestly. Excuse the fact that I really don't know how to handle a complaint from someone that received free diagnostics, free recommendations and free consulting....

jrgordonsenior

I completely disagree. When someone's pissing on your reputation, your business, or your personal integrity you fire both barrels with 00. Jake kept his cool, he just countered point by point....

JDSStudios

+1

RallyJon

Unfortunately, it's a good deal more complicated than that. But you're right, it certainly seems like the right thing to do at the time, and it's very cathartic.