Did somebody say "litigation"? Regards, *NM*

I took my car in a couple of weeks ago (Here in Ft. Walton Beach FL) to get the front bumper repainted and the car detailed. I made a mental note of the mileage before I left, but didn't take a photo. I went back today to pick the car up, and there were some major issues. The check engine light is on (OB2 scanner says cylinder 4 misfire and a couple of others), and the car won't go into gear. You can smell the burnt clutch from about 10 feet away, and it slides in and out of gear without depressing the clutch. The car will not move other than to push it. I notice there are 60 additional miles on the odometer, but the owner swears (I don't believe him) that the car was never driven. I spoke with the local sheriff and he told me there's nothing he can do and that I need to go to small claims court. The shop owner tells me he will not release the car until I pay him for the work he did. I was able to get a local Porsche mechanic (Mark from Mark's Autowerks here in town) to take a look at it and he agrees that the clutch has been recently abused, but thinks there could be additional damage. We won't know until we can get it on a lift and take a look.

I'm hoping no one has had a similar nightmare, but if they have, what course of action did you take?

Your Porshc edealer should be able to access the computer and see if the car was driven and see over revs and such. Not sure, but it may have sme way of determining date etc.

Good luck anyway

Steve

Steve
Guards Red 1999
I'm not a race car driver, but I play one in 2nd and 3rd gear

car (the GTO) rather than every time I took in to have it serviced be a lunch time play thing for the buttheads at the dealer.

Not sure what you can do. In my case I had a tracking device in the car, installed but forgotten, but remembered it after I picked up the car and smelled the clutch and the fuel low light was on. After downloading the data I found the tech had taken the car out for a joy ride during his lunch break and hit speeds up to 90mph on city streets posted for 35mph.

Should have taken this right the local police department. But I tried to deal with the dealer and its service manager. Big mistake. I was told lie after lie after lie. Finally I threatened the dealer with this: You owed me reasonable skill and experience and care in servicing my vehicle. I can prove (tracking data) that the car did not receive this and in not receiving this the dealer's actions consituted consumer fraud. My offer was the dealer refund the service charge (couple of hundred dollars -- I had the car in for a preventative early transmission/diff fluid change) so I could take the car and have the fluid changed again. The work order had the wrong fluid listed but the dealer claimed it was just old software. But I used this as a lever to get the refund.

Before this I located a GTO expert at another dealer and he told me the car likely suffered no real harm and I may have even had him look the car over. I can't remember now. But it was at this dealer the 2nd incident happened (the lot monkey hotrodded the car around while I had it in for some warranty work) and I confronted the dealer's manager but the dealer went out of business before I could do anything. I traded the car in for a Cayman S shortly after.

Anyhow, in your case the shop owner is going to stick by his claim the car was not driven. Was the mileage noted on the initial invoice/work order?

Unless you can show the car's condition and mileage before and after and in a way that it would hold up in small claims court you're likely to be disappointed.

I like the idea of having the on-board computer overrev counts read. But what this will give you is at best weak proof the car received mistreatment and as to when is open for argument.

In the shop owner's defense he may not have been aware of the abuse. I believe the management at both dealers where my GTO received abuse were unaware of it but I'm sure the other techs were aware. The second dealer's manager seemed quite interested in what I had and I got the impression he might have acted upon it had he not gone about of business.

You might consult with your area's consumer fraud department or bureau of automotive repair and see what you might learn.

But a problem you have is what damage or loss have you suffered? Unless the car's a smoking hulk or the clutch disc is dripping molten metal it is likely the court will not see any damage. The check engine light and misfires might have not been due to any mistreatment but may have come on anyway. Or the car might have been subjected to extremely damp conditions and the misfires were due to damp coils.

I feel for you I really do but I'm not sure what recourse you have.

But I should note that everytime one takes his car in for any service he must note the body condition -- take pics! -- and make sure the correct mileage is noted on the work order and keep a copy.

Kind of funny, but the GTO's work order had a 20 mile error and coupled with the low fuel and hot clutch I was furious and I wanted to know why the car was driven 20 miles. I got all sorts of lies and goofy explanations. But then I remembered the tracking device and downloaded the data and found the car had been driven just a couple of miles. But in analyzing the speeds, stops, and starts, I was able to retrace the path the tech took when he took the car out. It gave me no pleasure to note the broad strips of fresh rubber laid down from a few stop signs.

Even funnier, I had a sneaking suspicion something might happen and I actually parked (I was in the Boxster) on a side street and watched the car being serviced. I got tired of sitting there and left just about break time. If I had stayed a few more minutes I would have seen the car go out and if I had followed it -- and I would have -- I could video-taped the abuse.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

I got a call this morning from the shop owner . He told me he found out one of his employees did take it out hot roding and drove it so hard they broke the transmission and had to tow it back to the shop. He's agreed to pay for the full repairs whatever they might be, and we'll go from there. I'm still not happy, but at least the shop owner told me the truth and is taking responsibility.

Though judging by the owner's initial reaction (which could have been "I don't know about anyone taking your car out but I will look into it.") he is probably just trying to avoid litigation.

owner. His employee let him down.

Regardless, press to have the car repaired and repaired right.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Porsche transmissions are very, very robust - they are extremely hard to damage. They are not fragile like Ferrari and Lotus transmissions.

Which means that the employee in question must have done something INCREDIBLY stupid and has no business operating ANY motor vehicle. Period.

He deserves to lose his job over this.

1998 986 Turbo-Look Cab
172,000 Miles
Dilithium Crystal Supercharger

paid the price early on the engine is also damaged and may exhibit symptoms from this even fail soo as well.

Thus, I think gettting the DME overrev counts read out ASAP is very important to know if the money shift was made.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

The Durametric tool ($287 for the simple version) will give you the data regarding revs and at what engine time in the past. In this case it would possibly show over-revs in the most recent past; hard to argue!
Think this a worthwhile investment if you cannot get someone else to lend you theirs and "sacrifice" one of the 3 cars available for this one.
Otherwise, a dealer or a independent with the right tools will of course do it as well and you may be better bring it to your choice shop rather than the local "shade-tree" mechanic doing mechanical work for this body-shop......
Nils

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

So here's where I stand right now. The shop owner wouldn't let me talk to the individual who drove my car, but I got the details. The kid took it out of the shop over the weekend and took it drag racing about 45 Miles north to Crestview (which would explain most of the 60 addition miles). He drove it so hard he blew something, and then paid to have it towed back to the shop to try to cover it up. The shop owner has agreed to cover 100% of whatever damage is found (I got it in writing) and it's now sitting at Porsche of Destin waiting to see what we can figure out. The first impression of the dealer mechanic was the clutch for sure, and most likely the flywheel, but I should get more details in the next 48 hours. They said they'd hook it up to the durametric machine as well, and are charging me (which will be billed to the shop owner later) $120 for a full inspection of the car.

Tires, CV joints, transmission, flywheel, brake pads, brake rotors. And I wouldn't sign anything saying he's in the clear when the initial repairs are done. Who knows what else has been damaged?

smart to get everything in writing and having the shop owner claim responsibility even though of course it was an employee that did this not the owner himself, is very good on your part.

My guess is the clutch and possibly the flywheel will be found in need of replacement. Unlikely the CV joints and brake hardware suffered much. The tech can give the half-shafts a check for excessive play and perform an inspection for any signs of CV boot or bearing distress.

What probably kept the damage down is the clutch let go.

After the clutch/flywheel are taken care of insist the most senior tech at the dealership take the car out for a thorough road test. I would advise you to ride along as a passenger to experience the car first as a passenger to better focus on the car's behavior while someone else drives, then you can take the car on a test drive with the tech as a passenger if he feels it worth the time.

If the tech finds nothing wrong then chances are your test drive will find nothing wrong either.

Be sure the test drive is long enough to give the engine controller time to note any problems and set the check engine light. I don't think it will find anything amiss but better safe than sorry.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

I'm in Panama City Beach and wish I could recommend a shop to you for any future work but right now I cannot. Sorry for your problems as it makes it really tough to trust folks. For what its worth, Kudos to the shop owner for being a stand up guy. I'll bet that if you ever take your car back there for future work, it will take place without incident.

dghii
2000 Boxster S 6speed 112k miles