REVscene Automotive Forum - Scammed $5250 from Evo Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Iron Chef

This is my story of how I got scammed for 5250.

It all started when I was in the market for a 98spec ITR motor swap. I ended up going to Evo garage. I spoke with the owner David the owner. He said he had a line on a 01 USDM ITR motor swap that he was rebuilding and would be for sale when complete.

I asked what the history behind this motor. A customer of his had a 01 ITR that had problems with excessive oil consumption. The owner decided that he wanted to do a 98spec motor swap and he would take his old motor swap as trade. The nature of the rebuild was a re-ring with original usdm pistons, oem bearings and seal kit. When the motor came in I inspected it and noted that 1 exhaust valve was replaced with an aftermarket valve but other then that the motor looked mint.

He was asking 4200 for the motor swap in pieces, I would assemble the the motor. I offered 4000 and paid him for the motor cash on the spot and took it home that day.

Immediately after installation of the motor swap the motor was smoking on cold starts and immediately my bumper was covered with black soot. It was clearly evident because my car is white. I informed him of the situation right afterwards and I didn’t was to come to any conclusions because I was not done break in and there was the possibility of my exhaust being contaminated and it was clearing it self out. After 3000km of break in it was clearly evident this motor was consuming a lot of oil. It was consuming 1 litre every 800km.

I at this time I started to eliminate out side factors that could cause this such as rich air/fuel mixture causing oil dilution causing excessive consumption.
-My vehicle reaches operating temp in 3km
-As per my wideband O2 sensor , AFR’s where where they should be 14.5ish cruise 12.8ish WOT
-I replaced my cat with another unit to rule out contamination causing black soot on my bumper
-I ran a chipped p28 with stock itr basemap for 500km to eliminate faulty ecu with no change
-I ran a vented valve cover and eliminate pcv system causing too much crank pressure
-leak down was 4% in all cylinders

At 6000km I had eliminated all outside factors that could cause black soot and oil consumption and based on the symptoms such as smoking on cold start and smoking on decel I was convinced that the valve seals were at fault. I went back and discussed things with him and he had agreed to replace valve seals under warranty. When I picked up the car he had informed me that the machine shop had mixed up the exhaust valve seals with the intakes.

Afterwards the visible signs of of smoking were gone but my bumper was still going black and it was still consuming about 1L/1100km. I tried several different weights of oil

I had spoken to him after the valve seal replacement and he said he would talk to the machine shop. I got back to him a couple weeks later and he said that the machine shop said that Honda said that 1L/1000km is acceptable level of oil consumption. I will take issue that this statement. That specification is for a motor that is well with in its service limit when everything is all broken in and loose. This spec doesn’t apply to a motor that has just been rebuilt to oem specs. If done right this motor should be as good as an brand new motor and I don’t know of any brand new motor consuming 1L/1100km with under 10000km. and covering my back bumper with soot after 200km of driving. They were basically saying nothing is wrong.

I went to a track day and after that the level of soot build up on my bumper went down but consumption was about the same. After that I was doing routine maintence and a plug inspection and noted that cyl 1 had heavy build up of carbon. There was defiantly something wrong with this cylinder. I went in with a bore scope and noted that the top of piston 1 was visibly wet.

I went back to evo garage and told him the situation and that this is not acceptable. You could argue that excessive oil consumption could be normal for these engines but you can’t argue that for it to happen in 1 cylinder is. He spoke with the machines shop and we had agreed that I would pull the motor and send it back. The machine shop was in Winnipeg and he would cover the cost of the shipping which is 500 dollars.

I went ahead and pulled the motor and when I pulled the cylinder head I had noticed that the back side of the intake valve and ports were moist. Oil seems to making its way past the guides into the combustion chamber. Condition of the cylinders were good with no signs of scoring, glazing or anything of that nature.

When I dropped the motor off I had inspected the motor with david to show him my findings. And I would just leave it with him. This was in Dec 6 2010. I called him on Jan 4th for an update and he informed me that he was going to Japan for a month and he will call me when he gets back. That’s nice having 2 months of down time for my car.

So this is where it gets really good.

He calls me Feb 7th and informs me that he received information that I ran a chipped ecu and that’s what’s causing my oil consumption and he will not cover anything under warranty. He then informs me that the machine shop will re rebuild my motor at a discounted rate of 1000 + 500 shipping to bring it back from winnepeg. So at this point I’m a little wtf. I asked him if the machine shop had located where the consumption was coming from and he said that they didn’t. They also didn’t find anything wrong with the cylinders and everything measured up ok. If they could find anything wrong I sure as hell wasn’t gonna pay them 1500 to rebuild it again.

I was thinking this was a big miss understanding so I go down to the shop on the following Monday Feb 7th to try to figure something out. When I get there he was clearly not in the mood to talk and basically told me to f**k off and if I want my motor back its 1500 dollars and that the motor is already rebuilt and on its way back. At this point now I’m really wtf. So I later find out that while he went to Japan for a month he wasn’t in contact with the machine shop and they just went ahead and rebuilt the motor with out anyone’s authorization. You can’t just go do 1500 worth of work with out my consent and just expect me to pay. He going on to say that I’m f*cked because I bought the motor with no receipt and he could easily say that he never sold me a motor and theres nothing I could do about it. At this point I’m pretty much dumb founded but with out the motor here theres nothing I can really do but wait til it comes in and deal with it then.

2 weeks later I call him and he informs me that the motor is here. I head to his shop and basically inform him that at this point there is no reason to prevent me from boot f*cking him in the head and taking my motor back. Its at that point he wants to be reasonable and decides to take off $350. I decide to cut my losses and pay him 1250 and take my motor with no guarantee that anything is going to be fixed but aleast I’m not held at the mercy of him.

saw this on another site.