I;ll respond to the more detailed issues once moderators have cleaned the thread up
- only OP and trader to post, but for now here's my intitial response.
Except for a few minor parts including plug leads, throttle cable and gear cables, the major engine/gearbox/driveshafts/hubs assembly was sourced by the customer, from IIRC, a salvage yard in Nottingham.
The story I was told was that it was in a write off, and therefore could not be test driven.
It was delivered to me in a beaten up old van, with no means to remove the engine, but to be fair, they had remembered to unhitch their caravan before leaving.
The conversion was no different from all the others I have done.
Clutch hydraulics remained untouched since they are same parts and don't need replacing.
The customer wanted me to re-use the coolant so I drained 9 litres out of his old engine, and refilled just over 9 litres into the new engine.
It bled normally.
The loom had been butchered by the previous owner
â the alternator charge cable was more than 3 foot longer than it needed to be, all the plastics had been removed and the engine bay fan supply wire was fed by the reverse light supply!
There were multiple Scotchloks all of which were removed.
It took a day to get the car's wiring working correctly.
All of this was reported to the customer with photos to back up the text.
Car was run up to temperature several times in the workshop before being test driven for 2 journeys of around 5 miles each to confirm all was well.
It was then taken for MOT.
Round trip of around 24 miles including some motorway and sitting in town centre traffic.
At the MOT garage it was idling for around 15 minutes with no problems.
It passed with only one advisory for a sill.
The following morning I took he car out to set up the secondhand Blitz DSBC supplied by the customer.
Repeated hard 3rd and 4th gear pulls for around 30 minutes revealed the boost controller would not build any boost above stock 13psi.
Car ran perfectly.
I returned to the workshop, checked all connections and returned to the road for another 10 minutes of hard pulls.
No change, so returned to workshop.
Further investigation revealed the solenoids were not responding correctly when pressure was applied to the boost sensor.
So car had been out on at least 5 occasions.
It had encountered stationary traffic, high speed motorways, repeated hard pulls and performed perfectly.
It had been started and run up to temperature on at least 4 or 6 occasions in the workshop, again without fault.
After I had collected the customer from the station, we went out for a test drive together for about 20 minutes.
Again the car performed without fault.
The only complaint was some minor exhaust smoke at idle and tyres rubbing the rear arches.
The smoke was most likely turbo, but we agreed it was nothing to do with me as I didn't supply the turbo or the engine.
The tyre rubbing was sorted by simply removing the spacers that the car had arrived with.
I also pointed out one other issue
â a leaky driveshaft oil seal that I had already reported on the phone, and the customer had declined to have replaced.
As far as I was concerned, here we have a car that was no different to all the others.
A completed turbo conversion and running correctly in all respects except for a couple of minor issues
: a smoky turbo and a faulty boost controller
â both parts supplied by the customer.
Now we come to paying the bill.
Bit of background
â the customer had added on all sorts of other work whilst it was with me e.g.
new struts, top mounts, discs, pads, gauge faces, boost gauge etc.
so to enable him to track costs, I had been emailing him 2 detailed WIP
(work in progress) statements
â one for the conversion for which I had quoted
£1000 max.
, and one for all the other work requested.
He was well aware of the totals as only a few days ago he had declined to have the leaky driveshaft oil seal replaced due to going over budget.
The day prior to collection I emailed him 2 fully itemised invoices
â exactly as per the WIP
(work in progress) statements
â one for the conversion for
£980 and one for all the other work.
The second invoice totalled
£1800 for which he had already paid two instalments of
£400, leaving around
£1000 outstanding.
So added together with
£120 owing for a couple of cash paid parts, total was about
£2100.
Now, bear in mind that:
a) the customer had received regular statements
b) the customer knew the balance owed a few days prior
c) the customer had viewed the invoices sufficiently and found a
£20 ARB bush kit inadvertently charged for twice
So, back to paying the billâ¦
Invoices were added together, total announced same as were in the emails sent the day before.
And guess what!
He couldn't pay it!
He claimed he'd made a mistake and didn't realise how much he owed, and only had
£1250 available.
Really?
And I was born on Pluto.
He phoned his Mum
(or was certainly talking to his phone), and she refused to help.
I got an hour's worth of excuses
â it was the drugs messing with his head
(not sure whether prescription or from the gym), just moved house, bad back, long day travelling etc.
Then we go through the aggression stage, and when that didn't work back to the sympathy claim.
Blah, blah, blah.
To cut a long story short, the smell of BS was getting overpowering so I simply advised him that without full payment the car was going nowhere and he was welcome to a lift back to the station.
There was no way I was going to be able to sue a resident of Scotland, whose only earned income is a bit of undeclared
"work in the gym", so the car was going nowhere.
In desperation, he offered me his Rolex watch as security on the basis he would pay me the balance within 14 days.
I accepted.
And we left the workshop in separate cars.
It was bang on 6pm.
I had a call an hour later to say the car was overheating and the clutch wasn't working properly
â it supposedly had an intermittent fault.
But he confirmed there was no fluid leaking from underneath, and no steam rising from the radiator cap.
I told him to get the car recovered to me.
He said he would call me back.
I had a message at 10pm to say he was home.
So 4 hours to drive 250 miles.
Sounds about right.
Another message Sunday evening saying car now completely broken down.
Called him Monday.
Advised him car has full return-to-base warranty on all my work, plus all parts supplied by me guaranteed.
Told him if he came down with car I'd work on it while he waited.
He advised me car mysteriously driving much better
(it was completely broken down the night before!)
Suggested he went for a drive a good 15-20 miles from home and phone the RAC.
If they find car in a condition that can't be driven, they'll relay to garage of his choice.
He agreed and said would call me back.
He did call back.
To say instead of doing what I suggested, he decided to call them, and they want
£500 to transport car.
Doh!
And that's where we are at.
I have no idea if the car has any faults.
But I do know it was fine down here.
I also know he doesn't want to pay his bill and I know he was really pi$$ed he didn't get his own way.
I know he was not happy about the smoky turbo and faulty boost controller, and I know he avoided getting the car back to me.
Furthermore, when the car suffered simultaneous sudden clutch failure and overheating
(that's REALLY unlucky) only an hour away from my workshop, most people would have called out the RAC, returned to the workshop and given me loads of abuse on the phone?
But instead, he drove the full 250 miles home.
This is the 43rd turbo conversion I've done and I've never experienced anything like this
â car working perfectly for 70+ miles of mixed driving, and then suddenly developing all sorts of issues.
But then I've never had anyone travel 250 miles to collect their car with no means and no intention of paying their billâ¦
