In the market for a heart transplant - TB45E

[martyn]

If you can get the parts then I will get them to you, my father -out-law lives in Gabs and is at Broudhurst motors, so Im sure we can sort something out for you. The dealer that shafted you, take a look at the consumer counsle they might help, also try helopeter.co.za and let rip

[Kagiso II]

Make official complaint to the Motor Industry Ombudsman -- give him all the facts and sommer ad picts and names of witnesses.

Give me teh name of that co .. i am in a bloody mood, i go blixm the oke :-)

[Tinus lotz]

Were did you get the motor from ????
Mr folskenk in swazi land is stripping a 4.5 so mabe you can get some bits from him.....give them gas about the service and stuff you pay to get it done and then they give the work to a appy on your acc not cool !!!!!!!

[Kalahari Safari]

Tinus,

I was following a lead for an import from Japan which was done through EAS (Express Auto Spares) a company that specialises in import motors and gearboxes.
The work was done by Alpine Turbo, ths guys who originally developped the supercharger system for the TB45 and funny enough, they claimed having done 2 weeks of work by the chief mechanic - that in 3 working days .

I was in touch with Jeanne Volschenk initially for the aircon condenser I now need to replace, but now he does not reply anymore

[Tinus lotz]

His internet is not great so send him a pm he will get back to you can't you just recore the broken one?

[Peter Connan]

Have also had some bad experiences with Alpine, but Dennis's racing buddies get great service...

[Kalahari Safari]

@Tinus,
We try to repair, the A/C guy is going out of his debth to weld it up, but re-core would need a similar size generic cooler.

@ Peter,
Gave Alpine the ultimatum of coming to the party or publishing the story on all forums and customer support agencies, so I wait for the final reply, the story is ready!

[Kalahari Safari]

Okay then, no luck with attention from the Alpine guys.

I tried to speak to them nicely, but Andy Bush is beating around the bush and tries to put the blame on others so I am very unhappy with the delivered service.
Here a list of what panned out after I collected the vehicle (in order of importance):

1) The aircon was not working as the "chief mechanic" has managed to rip the condensor apart, just mounting the water radiator on top to camouflage the damage. It was clearly visible that the engine must have banged into the condensor when removing and lifting it out.
Repair failed, I had to get a replacement. Alpine Turbo now claaims that I have removed the vehicle before they had a chance to fix it properly!!
Consequently refuses to re-imburse for my costs of repair.

2) Before I could start off the workshop I had to get the tappets adjusted as at least two of them were out of specs and noisy. 3 hours and R 500.00 later I was on the road, just to top up the engine oil level by 1.5 Lt at the filling station 10 kms from the workshop.

3) Engine sump guard was not put back on the vehicle but remained at the Alpine Workshop. Justification: We wanted to fix it when the aircon is repaired. Comments: They never even attempted to do so.

4) On closer inspection I found the engine mount loose, could turn the nut on top of the mounting point by hand with no efforts. All the hydraulic pipes normally fixed by brackets on the chassis frame were loose and the brackets missing. The electrical wiring (battery to starter cable) were loose and chaffing on the steering rack.

5) By driving the vehicle at slow speed and changing direction there is a clanking sound (heavy movement) from underneath the footwell. Still have to find the source of it, but suspect further loose nuts and bolts.

6) There are some vacuum hoses (3) which are not connected and hanging lose in the engine room.
Two of them from inlet manifold ending in the void (blocked off)
One further from the fuel return valve on the injector rail - hanging lose.
Still have to find out where to connect them.

My assessment: Don't ever consider using Alpine Turbo Developments http://www.alpineturbo.co.za/index.htm for any works on your vehicle, (I've used them twice before) as they are taking advantage of you and don't stand up for their faults and fuck-ups.
Andy Bush insists that he was DOING ME A FAVOUR for a job he has accepted as such and made me pay R 23'000.00 to swap an engine supplied by a 3rd party and move their own supercharger from my old engine. Testing included in the bill, but tappets noisy etc.

In retrospect: Andy Bush has insisted he will only touch the vehicle when the replacement engine is delivered to them (happened on a Tuesday).
He charged me 30 hours (by his chief mechanic) for the job. I collected the vehicle in above conditions on Saturday from the engine suppliers.
Chief mechanic (!) any first year apprentice would have more pride in the job done.
Ah, and "yes", they charged me the regas of the aircon - on a ripped apart system.

What can I do from here, I am rapidly loosing the battle?

[Tinus lotz]

it does not seem as if they worry about workmanship ect >>>>so they are not going to worry about having happy customers .......
i think you are ether going to sit with a long legal battle or just get it sorted by some one else ....
have you had a chat to graham cumming ? the vacucum pipes ect not in place might give engine wrong readings and make some big broblems with the motor
imho i would get the car to someone like graham that knows it back to front let him check it fix the lose stuff and then take the photos and report to them and see what they say
you dont want to brake yet another motor or do some harm to something else like gearbox or powersteering ect . at least he is close to dasteck ,SAC ect so they can check the motor after to make sure it all works fine .
if someone starts a motor and doesnt even check the oil level i would be very worried about anmout of boost feuling ect

[Peter Connan]

A sad story indeed.

I am afraid that in my dealings with them I have also come of second best, although not to the same extent, and I doubt you will be able to get anything further out of them unless you can find a harreg@t local lawyer who has a sense of public duty.

Even the fraudulent labour charge can probably be explained away by saying they had three guys on the job or something like that?