MAC Autosport - Coming across sketch again....

Eclipse · Postby **Eclipse** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

~Barn~ wrote:I don't even know where that part is located. Should I be able to open up the hood and see it, topside?

You feel like wrenching on this for me, Eric?

follow the intake to the turbo.. boost solenoid is mounted on top of the turbo, has two hoses coming off of it, both going down to the actuator.

I had many problems with my stock solenoid as well. There is an easy way to check and see if the solenoid is bad or not. Remove the solenoid, making sure to note which hose goes on which nipple..one 10mm nut holds it on. There is a wire connector connected to it, remove that..Put power to one side and ground the other, you should hear it click.

see that thing with the 2 yellow wires coming off of it? Thats your boost solenoid. Yours wont be yellow, thats my hackjob...

Eclipse · Postby **Eclipse** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

this photo shows the 2 hoses coming off, and going down to the actuator

tbot · Postby **tbot** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

Dude, thats what I had you look at that one time when i called you up and you had to pull over. But Eric's pics should help out a lot!

~Barn~ · Postby **~Barn~** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

They do help, but I'd be remiss to not say I'm a little apprehensive about starting to pull things out myself, and do troubleshooting. The car actually still "runs" now, but with my luck, I'm afraid I'd end up bricking it in my garage, and then have to get it towed to Groove. =\

I know... a bit of a defeatist attitude, but I'm already so burnt-out over this whole mess, I just want somebody with actual skills, knowledge, and a shop to do the work in, to help sort me out. Who knows if there is even that (alleged) new boost solenoid in there!

But really, I can't think this is going to be hard to solve. Right now, the engine just sounds asthmatic and limp. Before when I stepped on it, I took off like a bat, and the engine was WOOOSSSHHHH!..., and PSSSSSHHSSSTT!.... from the intake and BPV.

Now I floor is, and it sounds like an old man is snoring. And it actually feels like a 4-banger. I have to think somebody at Groove will find the true cause.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

wow that looks almost exactly like the solenoids on my rx-7. the only change is the plug, lol. things don't fall so far from the tree.

The way I always check them is with two ways. first like ocd says. the second is pulling the hoses and you should be able to blow through it one way with the power off and the other with the power on. One way to check these is with a little 9v battery.

datsun_d · Postby **datsun_d** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

~Barn~ wrote:Fair enough, but they could have stated that in the beginning and I wouldn't have minded one bit. Instead, they tried to play their "everything is cool" routine, and so goes the abortion of this story. So while what your saying is valid, it still doesn't discount anything and everything that I've stated about MAC. I mean seriously.... Why even take the job, if right from jump, they know it's going to be something inconvenient to them?

And really... It's not that hard to bypass those Interlocks. Even Adam himself told me (after he finally called Smart Start), that there is a couple plugs that you can unhook, that defeats the system. The car operates like normal at that point.

Not too big of a sideache to make some good money off of me, and have a continued loyal customer, I don't think. (?)

I do understand your frustration and I'm not placing blame on anyone, I'm just saying sometimes a different perspective can help make sense of things. I do understand that 300.00 is not chump change to you and me, but when compared to some of the big spenders at a speed shop that's pennies. From a business perspective (again not trying to be a dick, and not knowing what's in MACs garage right now, just a theoretical situation) if you have customers paying you to build balls out race cars and are spending thousands with you, they would probably get priority over a driveability issue on a car with an interlock. And while an interlock is not hard to bypass, when you bypass one you have to make a call to the company, let them know you are disabling the system and provide them with a slew of info (average time for this in my experience is at least 45 minutes of phone time) then the tech actually has to disable the system and hook it back up when finished (again not a huge deal but it is an extra step). I will tell you that managing a shop and keeping every body happy, techs and customers, is no easy task and I've never known a single speed shop to have a quick turn around.

~Barn~ · Postby **~Barn~** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

Well... I won't argue the point anymore. But I think we're kind of talking about two different things here. To put it in more far-fetched terms, every fire that a Fire Dept. gets called to, is important to somebody. Whether it's a 2 bedroom HUD home, or the Capital Building, there are very tangible things at stake to the people involved.

Now what you seem to be trying to do here, is justify/rationalize the experience I had, against the other type of clients that MAC deals with, and that's not a fair comparison. It's not even fair to suggest it, and here's why:
If the problem I presented to them was not within their scope of important work, I can't help that, and so be it; it's their shop. But what could have been helped, was THE DEGREE OF HONESTY AND PROFESSIONALISM with which they dealt with me.

Being on the backburner sometimes, is part of life. Having the cook tell you the whole time, that you're gonna be the first thing into the oven though, is quite a bit different.

And Datsun.... to your comment about my $300 being a minor deal compared to what they can earn, I agree, but keep this in mind... $300 is what they charged me. Not something I negotiated. And on top of that, they charged it to me, and they DIDN'T fix things. They could have charged me $2300, and if I would have been returned a working car again, with a legitimate and professional explanation of what they did, and why it took the better part of a month, I would have been a perfectly content (if not mildly broke) customer, but I can promise you that we wouldn't be having this conversation.

The different perspective you're offering is all well and good, and I do understand it. The problem though, is that all the failures here, and all the points of contention that I have, we're all avoidable.

Even in the busiest, and most hectic & chaotic of environments, a few short moments of communication, and real honest candor, can make a world of difference. And this is where I think you and I are having our disconnect.

~Barn~ · Postby **~Barn~** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

And not to belabor the point, but there have been other instances where MAC has failed in the exact same fashion. Without going through the hoops of finding and linking you to the various theads, I'll just ask this quick rhetorical...

You ever called a business, and ordered something, and pay for it over the phone?

Have you ever had said business not call you back when the "something" arrives, so you can go pick it up?

Take it from there.....

datsun_d · Postby **datsun_d** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

Like stated previously I'm not taking sides and not trying to defend anyone. Obviously I'm an outside party and not aware of all of the circumstances. The main point I'm trying to get across is that dealing with a speed shop is not like taking your car to jiffy lube, speed shops tend to work on long term projects, having been in the car business my entire career I've come to expect delays and pushed deadlines from certain places, i.e. machine shops, body shops and speed shops. While this can be frustrating these places offer services that cannot be preformed at shops that have a 1 day turn around. Again I'm not defending your experience I'm simply saying that you as a customer should know what you expect and who can deliver, in short unless MAC installed your turbo system and tuned the vehicle I would not be going there for a driveability issue. Again I'm sorry about your experience and not trying to defend anyone, just trying to give you an insiders perspective so next time you have a better experience.

dommo_g · Postby **dommo_g** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

datsun_d wrote:Like stated previously I'm not taking sides and not trying to defend anyone. Obviously I'm an outside party and not aware of all of the circumstances. The main point I'm trying to get across is that dealing with a speed shop is not like taking your car to jiffy lube, speed shops tend to work on long term projects, having been in the car business my entire career I've come to expect delays and pushed deadlines from certain places, i.e. machine shops, body shops and speed shops. While this can be frustrating these places offer services that cannot be preformed at shops that have a 1 day turn around. Again I'm not defending your experience I'm simply saying that you as a customer should know what you expect and who can deliver, in short unless MAC installed your turbo system and tuned the vehicle I would not be going there for a driveability issue. Again I'm sorry about your experience and not trying to defend anyone, just trying to give you an insiders perspective so next time you have a better experience.

While everything you said may be true, I think it's completely irrelevant to his complaint. If MAC wasn't interested in taking the job, they should have been up front from the get go.

datsun_d · Postby **datsun_d** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

oh well, I must not be illustrating my point clearly enough. I'll just leave it at that.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:14

datsun_d wrote:oh well, I must not be illustrating my point clearly enough. I'll just leave it at that.

I understand the point you're trying to make...essentially he took his car to the "wrong" shop, or he should have expected it to take a long time.

The problem is, MAC could have turned the job down! Or at least been upfront about everything. Like the previous example Brandon so eloquently put, every fire bell at the fire dept is important to someone.

Customers pay the bill at just about any business, including speed shops, machine shops, body shops, and mom & pop lube shops. While it may not be a "glamorous" job for a tech to go troubleshoot a drivablitly issue with a car they're not familiar and with an interlock, too bad, the tech is getting paid and the customer is paying the shop.

The other problem is this isn't just about a poor time table run by MAC, but also Brandon was lied to, there was confusion on parts, and they attempted to get him to pay for services he didn't need (i.e. dyno tuning, but why wouldn't MAC, it's their bread and butter and essentially pure profit margin).

A couple months ago, I was considering MAC to install a full bushing kit in my FD. I never have shops do anything on my car, except for jobs I flat out don't want to do, like a bushing job. I'm glad I decided to not take the FD to MAC.

dommo_g · Postby **dommo_g** » Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:14

datsun_d wrote:oh well, I must not be illustrating my point clearly enough. I'll just leave it at that.

Not at all. You make very true, valid points. I just think that in this situation, some actions are unacceptable. Not just for a speed shop, but for any business. Things like honesty, professionalism, courtesy and making sure customers are properly matched with your services should be priorities for any business that relies on customers to keep the lights on. That's most businesses last time I checked. Consumers have the right to have high expectations when they spend their hard earned money, whether it's $300 or $3,000. Especially true in times like these when people have less money to throw around and have to be picky about where they spend it. Good customer service should be important to everyone. Seems like MAC is living off of their reputation for the past several years. A lot of guys really don't care if they get treated good, or if their business is appreciated. As long as they get their car hooked up, and get those bragging rights, it's all good. I don't know a lot about MAC's non-retail operations, such as race car building or anything like that, so maybe they don't really NEED retail customers. I feel bad for Bill if Nick ever leaves that place and starts his own shop. Actually, I wouldn't. That would probably be a benefit for the tuner community.

Oops...sorry for the rant.

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:14

I would definitely be one of the people following Nick to the new shop if that ever happened.

MAC Autosport - Coming across sketch again....

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