BEWARE OF RIPOFF PERFORMANCE SHOPS!!!!

Well let me stat off by saying, I am a 3rd party to all of this. So the work that was performed has not affected me at all. I was brought in later on to assist in rectifying certain issues. So this is some info from what a saw done to a certain individuals car.

Sooo, I receive a call from a buddy wanting some input since he knows I do alot of tinkering. Turns out after a quick 2-3 pull his car began to run rough and smoke. The symptoms he told me sounded alot like a vac leak to me. But he then started talking about blue smoke......

Immediately I thought, "crank pressure, rings, head gasket, bad......."

Oh did I tell you it was an STi?

So yes, turns out there was ALOT of blowby.......

So its one of a couple things all equaling bad. He pulls the engine and brings it to my place where I begin to tear it down. Im going to tell you the things I found on my way in....

AEM Meth kit.
Rather than a bung being welded to the charge piping, THE NOZZLE & HOLDER WERE WELDED TO THE PIPE!!! Oh my lord... and the weld itself looked like complete dogshit!



Turbo Intake Pipe
Ports rather than being sealed had bolts sat in them..... now ive done thing like this to just get it to run or something....but it always fit extra tight. It slid in and out with great ease. No clamp or anything.....

So into the motor we go. Intake manifold mounting bolts were not tight at all! snug but not at all tight.

I remove the timing cover to find oil wetness????? hmmm oil+timing BELT= not right.......
Upon further investigation I find one of the variable timing gear cover plates leaking... turns out 3 of the 4 bolts were stripped out and just sitting in there....... WOW....

Well, heads come off and it turns out the engine had suffered MASSIVE detonation in the rear left bank causing a large crack in the cylinder wall..




So he makes some calls.....oh did I tell you, he had this engine built, installed, and tuned by a so-called reputable shop located in DFW.

They work something out and back to the shop the engine goes.....


Now can anyone tell me why you wouldnt put an oil cooler on a 400AWHP car?? Well, this shop did NOT install it and actually told him he did NOT need it. (Owner didnt notice it missing til he got back home to install engine...)

Just thought you all should be reminded that all it takes to open a shop is money......not skill. Some people are willing to sharpen their skills on their customers cars....YOUR cars......


In trade for my help he gave me his AEM Meth Kit which this shop had originally installed for him.... So I removed it from his car and noticed lots of electrical tape with LARGE wads of something hidden within. I thought maybe fuses.....nope......

I didnt think to take a pic before I unraveled it but Im sure you can imagine what it looked like.
Notice the heat shrink.......not heated and shrunk??



Now basic wire repair 101........
When making multiple repairs within the same harness, splices shall be staggered to prevent increased mass/ hot spots / possible shorts...

And how much wire I was left to work with once I had cut the crimps at the compression point......



Unfortunately, without opening the controller and doing internal splicing I was unable to stagger my repairs......
Amazing how much tidier soldering and heat shrink makes things. (yes I shrunk it....)



What are your thoughts?

Btw, the customer informed me, after all was said and done he had paid out over $10K to said shop......

This is how a professional wouldve installed the nozzle btw

What shop was it?

Damn that shop blew ass. I do better stuff than that in my sleep lol.

Do I see motons on that car as well?? I see what looks like a moton shock reservoir in that last pic is why I ask..

How can we be aware of a ripoff performance shop if you don't tell us which shop it is?

Lol you put this place on blast, this is the 3rd forum I have seen this on.

It's a totally useless post without the name of the shop.

looks like KPE work

I was thinking the same thing..........

Hopefully this was'nt Awdtuning.

dsmgonzo wrote:

Hopefully this was'nt Awdtuning.

Quote off another site by the owner.....

Quote :

I'm the owner of the car that is being discussed. The company that did the work on the car was AWDTuning. In regards to the weld being in the condition it was in...the person who welded it said that they ran out of oxygen on the welder. There have been NUMEROUS issues that haven't even been posted in this thread and would take a while for me to write up...but have already been written on another subaru site. That motor was the rebuild from my stock motor failing and it only lasted 11k miles. I just wanted to hop in and say that I've spent alot of money with them and received nothing but sub-par work. Every time I have received the car, I've found something wrong and had to take it back to them to fix it. I also live 3 1/2 hrs away so it's not a quick drive. I have experienced nothing but problems with the said company and highly encourage straying away from them. I am not bashing them on here even though I feel like I have every right to...I'm just trying to prevent the extreme amount of stress for the next Subaru owner..or car enthusiast in general. And please don't think that I'm the only one who has had these issues...if you want to see all the issues others have had, please contact me via PM and I will send you links.

I read some replies and saw this link. Shit is crazy!
http://www.awd-tuning.com/awdtuning.html

Lol damn Im good, I went to a dyno day there last year. Did'nt supply many drinks lol.

I've never even heard of the shop.

Well your not really in to Subies John lol. Are ya?