cisco
» CMF Member
I'm a bit disappointed today.
Approx 2 weeks ago I noticed my custom radiator had another leak. Coolant has been visibly leaking on the ground slowly and now the overflow bottle was dropping in level. I dropped over to Jake's to show him. Note: This is the second time its sprung a leak, and its a brand new custom radiator to suit my car.
He said he was flat out and to bring it back in 2 weeks then he would organise for it to be fixed under warranty by the radiator guy who made it for Jake.
2 weeks was today. I rang up and asked to book it in to be fixed. I've had to top up the radiator with water because the overflow bottle was now empty as more had leaked. He was typically flat out and told me the name of the radiator shop and to go there directly to ask them to fix it under warranty. Could have simply told me this 2 weeks ago, but anyway.
I dropped in at the radiator place. They weren't all that helpful, but I understand where they were coming from. He stated that they made the original radiator to Jake's specs for a fixed price and weren't aware later on that it needed to be further modified to avoid colliding with my turbo dump pipe. The guy advised me that because one side of the frame had been removed to clear the dump pipe, that it wasn't strong enough and its going to warp and continue to leak whileever its like this, even after repairing it each time. I told him from my perspective that I just paid for a brand new custom radiator and I expected a solution that worked, I didn't pay for half of a radiator - so I asked him if it was physically possible to make a radiator that would suit my needs? He didn't want to comment without checking with Jake what kind of arrangement could be made because he didn't want to be out of pocket.. He asked me to tell Jake that they won't do it for free and see what Jake wanted to do about this.
I rang Jake back and explained the situation. I was told because it has been "14 months" since my car was completed, its now out of warranty and that he wasn't prepared to pay for it. He was happy to remove and re-fit the radiator for free, but expected me to pay for the repair cost of modifying and strengthening the radiator by the original radiator guys. He then said but he is busy for 4-5 weeks, and so he can't really fit and re-install it for me anyway, so feel free to do it myself. As if this wasn't disrespectful enough (I have spent approx $10,000 at Jake's, I've brought 5 or so cars there for a dyno day, I've given him a good write up on this web site (now to be removed - stupid idiot)), I was helpful and offered to remove and re-fit the radiator myself. I offered that and then argued that its not for me to pay more for repairs to my brand new radiator which still doesn't work. I also explained that the car has only been completed for 11 months, not 14! I got the car finished back from Jake in September last year, so he had the dates extremely mixed up. This web page even shows it (29 Sep 2004): http://www.micra.com.au/monster-rebuild.php
Before I was about to explain to Jake that as part of this whole turbo conversation fixup that I paid lots of money for, the radiator was included and it still clearly leaks repeatedly and the radiator shop advised that its not a sufficient design, well Jake spat the dummy and told me in a big breath of words something like "ok
I'll bloody pay for the thing, I don't care" and hung up on me.
Crazy I thought to myself. Here I am, having offered to remove and re-fit a faulty part which was part of the work they should have done properly the first time, so I've already been nice and offered to help them out while they were busy - "imagine your average soccer mum offering to remove and re-fit her broken Toyota Tarago's radiator because the mechanic said he was too busy.. yeah right as if that's acceptable.". And I'm being as calm and polite as I could possibly be, then he still can't handle it and spits the dummy.
Its just ridiculous. I wish I never spent a cent in that place. He suffers from a problem of not finishing off the original work he takes on properly, and is all about getting the next 10 cars through the doors. As an existing customer, my original job isn't even completed properly.
I won't be going back, not even for tuning, Jake and the whole way he manages his shop angers me, and the number of stuff-arounds that he puts me through isn't worth the stress and anger.
So effectively, I still don't have a completed tidy turbo conversion after spending $10k and him having the car for 12 months.
Approx 2 weeks ago I noticed my custom radiator had another leak. Coolant has been visibly leaking on the ground slowly and now the overflow bottle was dropping in level. I dropped over to Jake's to show him. Note: This is the second time its sprung a leak, and its a brand new custom radiator to suit my car.
He said he was flat out and to bring it back in 2 weeks then he would organise for it to be fixed under warranty by the radiator guy who made it for Jake.
2 weeks was today. I rang up and asked to book it in to be fixed. I've had to top up the radiator with water because the overflow bottle was now empty as more had leaked. He was typically flat out and told me the name of the radiator shop and to go there directly to ask them to fix it under warranty. Could have simply told me this 2 weeks ago, but anyway.
I dropped in at the radiator place. They weren't all that helpful, but I understand where they were coming from. He stated that they made the original radiator to Jake's specs for a fixed price and weren't aware later on that it needed to be further modified to avoid colliding with my turbo dump pipe. The guy advised me that because one side of the frame had been removed to clear the dump pipe, that it wasn't strong enough and its going to warp and continue to leak whileever its like this, even after repairing it each time. I told him from my perspective that I just paid for a brand new custom radiator and I expected a solution that worked, I didn't pay for half of a radiator - so I asked him if it was physically possible to make a radiator that would suit my needs? He didn't want to comment without checking with Jake what kind of arrangement could be made because he didn't want to be out of pocket.. He asked me to tell Jake that they won't do it for free and see what Jake wanted to do about this.
I rang Jake back and explained the situation. I was told because it has been "14 months" since my car was completed, its now out of warranty and that he wasn't prepared to pay for it. He was happy to remove and re-fit the radiator for free, but expected me to pay for the repair cost of modifying and strengthening the radiator by the original radiator guys. He then said but he is busy for 4-5 weeks, and so he can't really fit and re-install it for me anyway, so feel free to do it myself. As if this wasn't disrespectful enough (I have spent approx $10,000 at Jake's, I've brought 5 or so cars there for a dyno day, I've given him a good write up on this web site (now to be removed - stupid idiot)), I was helpful and offered to remove and re-fit the radiator myself. I offered that and then argued that its not for me to pay more for repairs to my brand new radiator which still doesn't work. I also explained that the car has only been completed for 11 months, not 14! I got the car finished back from Jake in September last year, so he had the dates extremely mixed up. This web page even shows it (29 Sep 2004): http://www.micra.com.au/monster-rebuild.php
Before I was about to explain to Jake that as part of this whole turbo conversation fixup that I paid lots of money for, the radiator was included and it still clearly leaks repeatedly and the radiator shop advised that its not a sufficient design, well Jake spat the dummy and told me in a big breath of words something like "ok
I'll bloody pay for the thing, I don't care" and hung up on me.
Crazy I thought to myself. Here I am, having offered to remove and re-fit a faulty part which was part of the work they should have done properly the first time, so I've already been nice and offered to help them out while they were busy - "imagine your average soccer mum offering to remove and re-fit her broken Toyota Tarago's radiator because the mechanic said he was too busy.. yeah right as if that's acceptable.". And I'm being as calm and polite as I could possibly be, then he still can't handle it and spits the dummy.
Its just ridiculous. I wish I never spent a cent in that place. He suffers from a problem of not finishing off the original work he takes on properly, and is all about getting the next 10 cars through the doors. As an existing customer, my original job isn't even completed properly.
I won't be going back, not even for tuning, Jake and the whole way he manages his shop angers me, and the number of stuff-arounds that he puts me through isn't worth the stress and anger.
So effectively, I still don't have a completed tidy turbo conversion after spending $10k and him having the car for 12 months.
