For the past month or so my '07 MS3 had been making a strange sound when starting it up cold. This isn't my car but mine made a pretty similar sound.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV6AXcAhotM
Every mechanic I brought it to shook their head. Since it didn't seem to affect how it drove, I just let it go. One day I was near a dealership (there aren't many where I live) so I figured, wtf... I'll see what they say. At first they wanted to charge me $80 just to check it out (and they wonder why we hate them) but I convinced them not to be such dicks. Within seconds they knew exactly what was wrong (VVT actuator) and a few minutes later I had a quote of $1200. yeah... that's what I said.
So... I made some calls to other dealers and got roughly the same price. I then called my friend who has a nice shop and does all my maintenance work. Told him flat out this might be too much to handle and that if he couldn't do it not to worry... He's one of those guys that'll bend over backwards for you. I'd obviously prefer to give him the business but I realize there are certain limitations. He assured me he'd be able to do it. It didn't hurt that his price was a $150 less so I brought the car in.
That was a week ago. At first they didn't have the right tool and had to special order it since none of the dealers would let them borrow it. Then there was a special bolt that had to be ordered.... An now the F'in engine just isn't running right. Needless to say, big regret on my part. I'm not mad at my friend... mostly because he's my friend. I would've tore him a new one if he wasn't! haha He probably should have looked a little more carefully at it first but whatever. Right now my biggest concern is whether or not this car is going to be 'right' once I finally get it back. All the tinkering that's been going on may have an affect elsewhere... I don't know. The car has 100k miles on it and I baby the s*** out of it. My goal is to get another 100k miles out of it so I'm a bit worried... What do you guys think? I've already made this concern clear and told them not to rush it...
If there is ANY silver lining to all of this it's that I may finally get my TMIC powder coated. Side question here but... $150 a good deal for this? As luck would have it, there's a shop literally next door that does this kind of thing. I have an ETS that I bought from a member on here. He taped the damn thing up so there were tape marks all over it. Ugly as hell but works perfectly. I'm thinking black... I saw someone else did that a while back and it looked pretty sweet. Any reason to worry about it somehow affecting the flow?
Thanks guys....
Every mechanic I brought it to shook their head. Since it didn't seem to affect how it drove, I just let it go. One day I was near a dealership (there aren't many where I live) so I figured, wtf... I'll see what they say. At first they wanted to charge me $80 just to check it out (and they wonder why we hate them) but I convinced them not to be such dicks. Within seconds they knew exactly what was wrong (VVT actuator) and a few minutes later I had a quote of $1200. yeah... that's what I said.
So... I made some calls to other dealers and got roughly the same price. I then called my friend who has a nice shop and does all my maintenance work. Told him flat out this might be too much to handle and that if he couldn't do it not to worry... He's one of those guys that'll bend over backwards for you. I'd obviously prefer to give him the business but I realize there are certain limitations. He assured me he'd be able to do it. It didn't hurt that his price was a $150 less so I brought the car in.
That was a week ago. At first they didn't have the right tool and had to special order it since none of the dealers would let them borrow it. Then there was a special bolt that had to be ordered.... An now the F'in engine just isn't running right. Needless to say, big regret on my part. I'm not mad at my friend... mostly because he's my friend. I would've tore him a new one if he wasn't! haha He probably should have looked a little more carefully at it first but whatever. Right now my biggest concern is whether or not this car is going to be 'right' once I finally get it back. All the tinkering that's been going on may have an affect elsewhere... I don't know. The car has 100k miles on it and I baby the s*** out of it. My goal is to get another 100k miles out of it so I'm a bit worried... What do you guys think? I've already made this concern clear and told them not to rush it...
If there is ANY silver lining to all of this it's that I may finally get my TMIC powder coated. Side question here but... $150 a good deal for this? As luck would have it, there's a shop literally next door that does this kind of thing. I have an ETS that I bought from a member on here. He taped the damn thing up so there were tape marks all over it. Ugly as hell but works perfectly. I'm thinking black... I saw someone else did that a while back and it looked pretty sweet. Any reason to worry about it somehow affecting the flow?
Thanks guys....
