quattroworld

034 Motorsport - Review and PSA
Background:
The car was brought in to diagnose an overboosting issue. Customer states it may be 27psi, but 25 was the number he was seeing when tested in 3rd gear on the way over. There was no check engine lights occurring.*

The customer states there is a pinhole leak in one of the wastegate lines, and 034 insists in must see the car to opine on that being the issue. The turbos have approximately 20,000 miles on them since new.* The car is dropped off for service. 034 states that they had pulled apart the turbo inlet pipes, replaced the wastegate lines, and that upon first test drive at 034, the turbos failed.

Issues:
034 claims a bracket to the motor mount is broken (was recently serviced at a trusted shop, no issues were present at the time).* 034 is unable to provide evidence of the broken mount.

Turbos blown up in the shop after they work on the intake tract to the turbos.

034 denies responsibility, denies having worked on the intake tract on that side despite specifically saying they pulled apart the turbo inlet pipe to replace the seals on both sides before the turbos blew.* Customer receives advice from experts that the nature of the turbo failure is indicative of foreign debris causing the turbo to stop spinning (the nut came off and did significant damage to the impeller).

034 agrees to fix it at cost

The oil cooler mounting was described by 034 as unsafe (it was zip tied on).* 034 punctures the oil cooler shoves some cheap plastic tabs through it, and it hangs down too low.. As a result of the service, the power steering cooler lines are now hanging down below the bumper directly in front of the driver's side tire. This is a serious safety concern (fluid leaking onto the front tire if any debris is clipped as this is now the lowest point on the vehicle!), and was discussed with the service manager at the time of delivery.

034 states the overboosting is a result of the tune, requiring a full fueling kit.* Customer strongly objects, but 034 insists this is the issue, and is the only way to resolve it.
Headlight mounting tabs were sold on the premise that you could install them -- upon delivery, I am told that 034 could not install the tabs, yet the parts were included in the invoice.

Additionally, services were added to the bill that should not have been billed (e.g. diagnosing what happened to the turbos under 034s care -- this is part of your due diligence in resolving the responsibility for a failure directly in the area you were working, and not separately billable to the customer.* Even though this was explicitly mentioned before the service, the amount was on the initial invoice.

034 calls the customer states the water lines need to be replaced.* Customer agrees that if they are faulty, replace them.* The lines were not faulty, but merely aged.* Customer was not informed as to their proper condition.

034 claims the motor mounts are broken.* Customer denies this.* 034 insists that they must be changed and attempts to sell the customer on their motor mounts.* Customer refuses to pay for their motor mounts as he has had them fail on him in the past.* Original motor mounts were eventually reinstalled, and were in perfect condition.

034 didn't even custom tune or dyno the car

034 charges several hundred dollars in incidental gaskets and misc parts outside of the normal incidentals to a motor pull -- many of which were not approved by the customer despite the invoice stating they were!

034 charges 75-85 dollars an hour, claiming this is their cost.* They refuse to provide support for this figure.
they charge the customer approximately $6,000.

Service manager drives the car with the customer in the passenger seat, the boost hose pops off on the very first corner -- a clamp was left loose.
Customer receives car some 3 months after dropping the car off, the car throws check engine lights, the headlight is unplugged and parts must be removed to fish out the wire, the oil level is below the minimum fill marker, a brake caliper bolt snaps puncturing the wheel, and the car overboost the same as when he dropped it off.* Customer is unable to drive the car without issues, and 034 is unresponsive to the customer.* After a year, the customer floods the company with emails and phonecalls until he receives a response.

After implicitly calling the customer a liar and spending dozens of hours proving things to 034, they agree to repair the car and work on some of the routine maintenance items to offset the gauging identified above.

2nd service interval:
The misfiring is claimed to be a cam position adjuster and spark plugs.* They try to charge the customer approximately $1k more than competitor shops.* After providing them with a quote, they agree to match the price of the other shop, plus the cost for me to tow it.* They dyno tune the vehicle.* After another dozen or so hours of bickering with them they agree to not charge me anything extra if I'll sign an agreement that waives them of liability on their first service (customer objects to anything without seeing the vehicle first, but due to the extreme amount of time and stress already lost, he agrees because they were otherwise going to hold his car hostage for the repair bill).* Car is returned to the customer, the power steering lines are still hanging down in front of the tire.

034 refuses to work on the routine maintenance items because of the extreme wear to the rotors being indicative of racing, and refuses to work on suspension or brake items.

034 Did pay for return shipping on the vehicle to return it to the customer.

Conclusion:
I bring in a car to diagnose overboosting, I get the car back with the original issue unresolved, and additional issues that resulted as a direct result of the service, and am charged a ridiculous sum of money in the process. Then it takes over a year to get any response, despite several dozen phone calls, and several emails from me throughout this timeframe. Most of these issues were brought up repeatedly, including at the time the car was delivered. The company denies the claims, calls me a liar, and refuses to rectify the issues until threats of lawsuits and public shaming are made.* Another month goes by during the 2nd service, and comes back with the power steering lines still hanging down below the front bumper and in front of the tire.* 034 refuses to pay for another shop to fix the issue.

The amount of time, money, and stress invoked on the customer was beyond anything I've ever experienced.* The resolution was incredibly inadequate, and the amount of bickering and time involved to get them to do anything was unimaginable.* I recommend you avoid this shop at all costs.* I personally will never do business with them again; nor will my friends and driving buddies.

Historically, I have had issues with several of their parts within 5,000 miles of install, and 034 has failed to warranty any of them.* So this is not an isolated incident, at all.* The owner claimed he always warranties his work, but when I told him that I had multiple experiences, he backpedaled and said 'well some customers fell through the cracks'.

Search the forums, there are complaints going back from many forum members going way back.* Please, protect yourself from the pain that may result from doing business with these people.

I made some mistakes during this, obviously. But those lie primarily in not yanking the car out of there immediately and going to court. I tried to work with them to resolve the issues, and I deeply regret it. I wish I had audio recordings.

Final response from 034
034 responded with an overall disagreement, but didn't provide me any specifics on what they disagreed with (at least none based on reality or fact). I made this as factual as possible, to avoid misrepresenting anything. They say that if I agree to ship the car to them, again, they will inspect the car and consider doing additional work; well this just isn't going to happen, I know better now. If they respond with misleading statements as was discussed on the phone with them (and included in the email pasted below), I will happily respond and attempt to keep my part as unbiased as possible despite my outrage. Basically they threatened to slander me and paint me as a liar on the phone rather than trying to make amends (almost comedically they accuse me of going back on agreements (when the opposite is true), and argue the agreement I fought not to sign was exactly what I wanted -- I'll happily post email proof on just how dishonest their perspective is, but this is long enough as is). Here is their written response, uneditted:

It is disappointing that this is how you interpreted the service you received here at 034Motorsport.* I feel that we have made every effort to reconcile any issues that you brought to our attention, despite the amount of time that transpired from the original transaction.* We agreed to address issues within a defined scope which you later reneged.* We were willing to work with you and adjusted the scope and agreement, you authored the agreement and I listed both the items that we addressed and credits to be applied to your account as a part of said agreement; we even shipped the vehicle out to you free of charge.* I urged you to inspect the vehicle in person prior to shipment to verify all repairs were to your satisfaction and you declined.* We are happy to inspect and address issues*(if warranted)*that are in-line with the scope of the agreement if you are able to bring your vehicle to our premises, but cannot reimburse you any repair performed at other facilities and/or transportation and associated costs.