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Cheap Mechanical Work

johnnyc85

By johnnyc85,
in New South Wales

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coakman Enthusiast

coakman

Posted
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I do not recommend anybody use this guy. Unless you hate your own car.

I'm a big believer in praising somebody when they do an excellent job and telling the world about it afterwards, but unfortunately Johnny doesn't fall into this category.

I had a lengthy list of things I wanted done with my car but decided to test him by getting him to do a few basic things first. John fitted front and rear swaybars to my R32 GTR quite a few months ago. After his first attempt the bars were knocking, and the car had to be taken back to have them adjusted. After his second attempt, while attempting to test drive my car, John claimed the car 'just wouldn't start'. The car was taken to Hills Motorsports (a FANTASTIC bunch of guys, and very knowledgeable about modified cars) who verified that the engine was badly damaged, and would need to be rebuilt. There was very little I could do to pursue the matter, so I paid for my $11,000 engine rebuild and took it like a (much poorer) man.

However, once the rebuild was completed, the car could be driven again and I was still getting irregular, hard knocks from underneath the car. So I get it put up on a hoist to see if the problem can be located. It didn't take long, and was quite astonishing to see.

I have included photos for those of you who enjoy a good laugh. When fitted, the swaybar bushes had been overtighted to the point that they looked like flattened tennis balls. They were totally distorted and torn in some places because of this. Also, a number of the components required to correctly mount the bars had not been used (washers, etc...)

Swaybar.jpg

Swaybar1.jpg

Swaybar2.jpg

Swaybar3.jpg

This was extremely concerning, poor quality work, and reminded me for some reason of 'A Current Affair'. If something as simple as fitting a swaybar was botched by John, imagine how much more complicated tasks may have been completed?

Repairs to this joke cost me an additional $143 ($110 hours labour and $33 for new bushes) as I was not willing to return the car to Johnny after seeing what poor work had been done. I did contact him regarding compensation of the $143, but he was neither interested in seeing the photos provided, the deformed bushes, nor assisting with the repairs payment. He was nice enough to call me a 'f*cking p*ssy' though.

I'd like to remind everybody that Johnny technically falls into the category of being a 'backyarder' and, as such, probably doesn't have insurance for any of the vehicles he works on. If something were to happen to your car during repairs (including test drives) you'll be paying the bill yourself - just like I did.

One other thing. John did claim to have worked at a number of the more 'well known' tuning shops in Sydney. As additional precaution, anybody considering using him may want to do a background check on his work by ringing some of these shops and asking what he was like and why he's no longer employed with them. If he's got nothing to hide, then he shouldn't have a problem with this.

I'd hate for anybody else to get burnt like I did.

In short, I recommend you stay away. You get what you pay for. He tries hard, but doesn't seem experienced enough to be doing his own work without supervision.

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johnnyc85 Collaborator

johnnyc85

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lol.

as previously stated to cameron aka.coackman, i did say that the car needed to come back to me after the engine got rebuilt.(mind you this is a car that had not had the timing belt replaced for an unknown amount of years, hence the fact that the tensioner bearing shredded and skipped a few teeth on the belt causing the engine to smack valves on pistons, as soon as the car was started on my driveway WITHOUT me ever driving it.)

i was more than happy to rectify and if need be replace the bushes at my expense, as i stated to cameron aka.COCKMAN but without letting me know at that time,two months later decided to ring me for a bill that he had not seen coming,and i had no idea about.

now, im sure everyone elses cars that i have worked on, has been a happy and pleasing adventure from both parties,i was expecting this to happen one day as everyone can see now A:why you should keep an eye on your service and maintenence scheduals and B: DONT BUY A SHITTER.

cheers.

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coakman Enthusiast

coakman

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lol.

as previously stated to cameron aka.coackman, i did say that the car needed to come back to me after the engine got rebuilt.(mind you this is a car that had not had the timing belt replaced for an unknown amount of years, hence the fact that the tensioner bearing shredded and skipped a few teeth on the belt causing the engine to smack valves on pistons, as soon as the car was started on my driveway WITHOUT me ever driving it.)

i was more than happy to rectify and if need be replace the bushes at my expense, as i stated to cameron aka.COCKMAN but without letting me know at that time,two months later decided to ring me for a bill that he had not seen coming,and i had no idea about.

now, im sure everyone elses cars that i have worked on, has been a happy and pleasing adventure from both parties,i was expecting this to happen one day as everyone can see now A:why you should keep an eye on your service and maintenence scheduals and B: DONT BUY A SHITTER.

cheers.

...and use professional, experienced mechanics who know what they're doing.

I have absolutely no interest in calling you names, and your reply still doesn't explain how something as simple as fitting swaybar bushes was done so badly.

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turbo_brian Community Regular

turbo_brian

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Wow, nice work by Johnny there, any other customer 'testimonials'???

As for Hills Motorsports, I have my own issues with them, they supply parts to a repairer I am using and they are SLOW AS F*CK, and Mark tells me "It will be there Monday morning", then Thursday a week after, it is finally being packed in the car and taken over. I hate arseholes lying straight to me, if it's not going to happen, tell me and I wont have a problem, but if you say it's going to happen, make it happen.

Anyway, best of luck with the GTR, and I would be more than interested in other genuine testimonials for this 'cheap mechanical work' as well.

B.

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coakman Enthusiast

coakman

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Posted (edited)

I recommend we keep on topic - John's quality of work.

The only reason I posted here was just to make anybody else aware of the experience I had with him.

Cheers!

Edited by coakman
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