Russ Jerome
10-28-2011, 04:24 PM
Working 6 days a week sometime 14hr days I dont have time as a mechanic to go inspect owner advertised vehicle, tried the Carmax thing.
Wanted a 2002-2003 Bugeye WRX wagon, there asking price of $12k was in the area for a 93k mile car, not a bad price at all. A selling point was Carmax's gaurantee the chassis has not been crashed and they will stand behind it fully for 30 days, cool I bought it. A week in I get cylinder misfire codes in rain, freeway speed. Clear the codes and monitor misfires and inj cycles, its the coils. Watch the codes come back repeatedly. Call ahead and alert them I would like to come in, warn them they may want to get coils in hand.
Coil on plug 2003 Subaru system known to fail at 100k (car has 93k), no inj codes, no comp issues per idle, load and inj duty cycle per cylinder. Drop car off on a thurs, wife is given a loaner car. They call you daily with "updates", nothing realy to update as they have not done anything other than swapping coils around trying to get misfire codes to return. Duplicating what god does with high metal rain water is impossible we are given the car back the next tue (they didnt believe me when I said it needed a passenger window switch a week earlier so it sat there waiting on switch, the switch I found in stock at both Subaru and Oreilys). Punch line leaving? We filled the loaner car back up with fuel as requested while my WRX that had a full tank of fuel was given back with 3/4 a tank!!!!
Ok so you know what happens last foggy saturday right? Misfire codes on a few more cylinders. Again I call and say the "coil on" car is getting misfire codes when damp out. I clear codes sat and drive in rain on Sunday.....amazing cylinder misfire codes!! Ok so the car has been at Carmax Wauk both yesterday and today and I get the "daily update" call. "Hi this is dude from Carmax, my technician has not gotten the code to come back and wants to swap coils". ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME???? The time it takes to actualy swap coils now twice is more labor than the cost of coils? So Im left to believe they do not realy employ a technician but a yard guy with an OBDII code reader clearing codes or simply have not pulled a plug after seeing the labor involved in doing the actual diag.
If we were talking about an LS motor I would swap coils all day, swap plugs and hell inj numbering them all in different cylinders but this is a no brainer given the platform and its historical issues with coils at 100k. I dont need my OTC/Genisis scanner, my infa red heat gun or my 100k tool box to diag this the first thing my wife said was "You need to put plugs and coils on that car of yours the CEL comes on when I drive it in rain". So I have sourced out coils, can get 4 high end coils shipped to my door for $350 with liftime gaurantee, followed by a letter to my buddies at the WDMV on a dealer selling cars that wont pass emisions and need to flag future repairs related to FEPA madates done in the shop. This is exactly why real mechanics get a bad rap, a "service dep" who obviously has no clue on MPFI motors or elec vs mechinical diag, fundamental testing I could talk anybody thru over the phone.......should have spent 10k on a owner sold car :(
Wanted a 2002-2003 Bugeye WRX wagon, there asking price of $12k was in the area for a 93k mile car, not a bad price at all. A selling point was Carmax's gaurantee the chassis has not been crashed and they will stand behind it fully for 30 days, cool I bought it. A week in I get cylinder misfire codes in rain, freeway speed. Clear the codes and monitor misfires and inj cycles, its the coils. Watch the codes come back repeatedly. Call ahead and alert them I would like to come in, warn them they may want to get coils in hand.
Coil on plug 2003 Subaru system known to fail at 100k (car has 93k), no inj codes, no comp issues per idle, load and inj duty cycle per cylinder. Drop car off on a thurs, wife is given a loaner car. They call you daily with "updates", nothing realy to update as they have not done anything other than swapping coils around trying to get misfire codes to return. Duplicating what god does with high metal rain water is impossible we are given the car back the next tue (they didnt believe me when I said it needed a passenger window switch a week earlier so it sat there waiting on switch, the switch I found in stock at both Subaru and Oreilys). Punch line leaving? We filled the loaner car back up with fuel as requested while my WRX that had a full tank of fuel was given back with 3/4 a tank!!!!
Ok so you know what happens last foggy saturday right? Misfire codes on a few more cylinders. Again I call and say the "coil on" car is getting misfire codes when damp out. I clear codes sat and drive in rain on Sunday.....amazing cylinder misfire codes!! Ok so the car has been at Carmax Wauk both yesterday and today and I get the "daily update" call. "Hi this is dude from Carmax, my technician has not gotten the code to come back and wants to swap coils". ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME???? The time it takes to actualy swap coils now twice is more labor than the cost of coils? So Im left to believe they do not realy employ a technician but a yard guy with an OBDII code reader clearing codes or simply have not pulled a plug after seeing the labor involved in doing the actual diag.
If we were talking about an LS motor I would swap coils all day, swap plugs and hell inj numbering them all in different cylinders but this is a no brainer given the platform and its historical issues with coils at 100k. I dont need my OTC/Genisis scanner, my infa red heat gun or my 100k tool box to diag this the first thing my wife said was "You need to put plugs and coils on that car of yours the CEL comes on when I drive it in rain". So I have sourced out coils, can get 4 high end coils shipped to my door for $350 with liftime gaurantee, followed by a letter to my buddies at the WDMV on a dealer selling cars that wont pass emisions and need to flag future repairs related to FEPA madates done in the shop. This is exactly why real mechanics get a bad rap, a "service dep" who obviously has no clue on MPFI motors or elec vs mechinical diag, fundamental testing I could talk anybody thru over the phone.......should have spent 10k on a owner sold car :(