GabeS14

(Link to each user's profile will be shown the first time you see each of their names)

As some of you that know me may know I blew my first SR, about 2 years ago. I still knew very little about the motor so I took it to a shop that was recommended to me.
The shop was ran by
Terry Henderson (drift buffet-land-ho etc)
and
Ernie Fixmer(team Rotora-D1-and currently works local shop)

They charged me $900 to pull the engine and tell me what was wrong with it.
Eventually, they called me to tell me I had a blown engine and needed to rebuild or replace, my decision was to rebuild it.
I was charged another $2800 to rebuild to stock specs, adding a head gasket and head studs. Noteworthy, as well, now that I look back on this is that I am STILL not sure that I got the Power Enterprise head gasket, and ARP head studs that I was apparently charged for..
I was promised a strong running engine that they would guarantee.
On the day I went to pick up my car, while on the phone with them they warn me that my car sounds like a Subaru?
I asked if they intended to fix it, they continuously argued that my tuning must be bad, and that is why it wouldn't drive well. My argument was that I have a Jim Wolfe tuned ECU that ran very strong before the blown engine, if the engine was rebuilt, why wouldn't it run strong now?
I decided I would take the car, buy a Power FC to have it tuned again, wondering if the ECU had gone bad or if maybe they had fucked up something else. A few months had already passed, and I needed my car to drive, and they promised they would look at the car again if I needed it...
My car ran like shit for almost a year, thanks guys!

During that time I took it to 2 shops and even had Steve Shadows come to my place to look at it, but no one could find out what the issue was.
Steve actually got close, he said he knew it was Timing, but even after adjusting the timing it still ran weak. He recommended I get it tunned properly on a dyno, which I still plan on doing soon.
After buying the power FC, I took the car back to Ernie Fixmer 2 more times and he played with the timing, continued saying it was my tunning, and on one occasion even tuned my Power FC for me(base tune) but the car still ran weak.
I called Terry a few times, but never got answers, so eventually gave up, Ernie couldn't make it work, and Terry was less than reachable.
At this point I had gotten to know Luis (Luisgonz) from Zilvia, and he promised me he would take a look at the car.
I showed up at his house early in the morning, and he got to work, checked vacuum lines, wiring, cleaned it all up, and then moved on to under the valve cover, where immediately he noticed that the timing alignment marks were off... WAY off.
The timing was so retarded that the car could never run right, there was no acceleration. I had actually mentioned this to Ernie and Terry a few times, (about the possibility of it not being at TDC) I had read up about it.
I just want to say how most "tuners" when dealing with timing issues don't wanna get down and dirty, trying to do the minimum possible money and getting paid the maximum possible money for it.
How can a shop that deals with SR's on a daily basis miss something like this?(this is one of the most important things to watch for when assembling the engine)
I just don't get how there could have been such negligence and disregard towards my car, even after having gotten paid big. money.
$3800 to rebuild a motor to stock specs? Look, I know I got ripped off, and the worst part is that they probably didn't even rebuild the motor, probably just swapped out a different one and didn't even bother to make sure it ran well.
Everyone knows that with the money I paid them I could have bought a whole new motorset!
Terry Henderson and Ernie Fixmer - THUMBS DOWN, based on price and quality of work.

I just want to give HUGE thumbs up to LUISGONZ ...this man knows his shit, and charged me next to nothing to fix the issue, I highly recommend him to anyone in/near Los Angeles.
Fineline tuning (his in-house business) is the way to go

Just to clear up, my comments on disregard do not apply to Steve, he just was not able to find the prob at the time. He'd only had about an hour to look at the car, but his track record is well known.. I will still probably be going to him to do my dyno tune soon.

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kensreliableb18b

wow, that sucks man. well, all i can say is, you win some and you lose some. and you def. lost this time. but hey, one of these days you'll probably have a girl wearing a bikini walk up to you at a gas station offering to suck ur....

PRADOgy

Now i know who not to go to..

d1 driver or not ..lol

these things need 110% attention.. something so simple and small overlooked and caused such big issues

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jimmytango00

^ Word! Seems like most mechanics dont care aslong as they get the paper.

exitspeed

His FS threads seemed shady to me too from the word GO. But people were all, "Do you know who this is?!" Like I know everyone in the world that drifts. Some people on here don't follow drifting.
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luisgonz

I know there are alot people that say if it looks shit, Do it like the same way.WRONG. Just because your ugly You'll never have sex.

I think most mechanics think in that way. Ask anyone that knows me Im really anal, But I dont play for that team.

jimmytango00

sure luis... i know you hang out at "anal peak"

Luis does pay attention to detail though and you dont pay till its running correctly.

GoodOl'S13

LUIS is very "anal"

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infinitexsound

That sucks over priced...I feel really bad for u man..luis u like anal? j/k

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Ernie

When I find Earnie, I'll let you know what he thinks!

From my experience, if the timing was off by that many teeth, the car wouldn't run at all.




Which brings me to my next point. I have years of experience working under the hood with hundreds of satisfied drivers, and like you've posted, yes, I've tuned "super tuner cars", as well. Which doesn't take from the fact that I like to work on ALL cars, from your SR to my wife's CA; even to the mkIII supras I'm currently tuning at the shop. The shop, which by the way, is still in the same location that you brought your car to two years ago. I've been here for 5+ years, and not planning on going anywhere soon.

My "super star drifter" attitude? I don't know what you've heard about me around the industry, but if anyone has had problems with anything I've done/said, this is the first I'm hearing of it. I know I'm not perfect, but I thought people would have had the decency to approach me about a problem if they were offended in any way. Just for the record, I was not born a pro drifter or into a race family or into the drifting industry by "luck"; I have thousands of hours on the streets and under the hood of my old and new cars, just like most of you. So if you're just loosely tossing the "super star" and "douchebag" label around, I encourage you to at least hold one conversation with me about my roots before making that decision to continue to do so.

I don't normally post on forums; mainly because I'm busy ensuring that the work I do is up to par with my customers' expectations, as well as pushing the limits of industry standards, but I heard about this post from my wife, who in turn heard about it from a friend. And I felt that before any of you pass judgment on myself or my shop, give me the decency to hear what I have to say... There are always two sides to every story:

First of all, I'm not here to "defend" myself; I just don't think it's right to slander anyone's reputation without even trying to rectify it with them personally. I have no recollection of you "talking to me" about working on your car, and that I "don't want to work on it"? I love working on cars. And if I had truly made a mistake on your car, as you claim, I would have done everything in my power to make things right in order to retain and preserve the reputation that I and my shop have. Regardless of what you post here, the fact is that we haven't spoken to each other after you left my shop satisfied (to my knowledge) with the services that we had agreed upon (except for a text I RECENTLY received from you about a part you were looking for).

You may have come into contact with Terry during these past 2 years. Let me just make you aware that Terry is no longer associated with EF Madness, as he has made the decision to move on to other business ventures (Drift Buffet, drifting in China, etc).

Now, the facts about your incident: The WRX comment was simply referring to the loud decibel exhaust. Your car came into the shop with a blown motor. I replaced the engine and made it run on the power fc, which was what we discussed and agreed upon. I put nothing but the best available parts in your engine (as I do with all my customers); S14 tensioner (not S13), timing was by the book when your car left. I specifically told you that it wasn't fully tuned, and that you were responsible for the custom fine-tuning (in order to accommodate your larger turbo and cam settings, different size injectors, air flow meter, etc.) which was not agreed upon as my shop to fix your car "to stock". I gave you several ecu tuning options, and you chose to keep the base map from the power fc. I warned you of the implications involved in doing so, and that you would eventually need to have it professionally tuned on a dyno.

I work on cars. I work under the hood. I'm a driver. I'm a mechanic. My wife, my current partner, and my friends will be the first to tell you that I'm a hell of a better driver/mechanic than a businessman. I currently still do not handle the money aspect of this business; it's handled by my new partner. So if you think I "ripped you off", then it should have been discussed with me at the time, in the past, or even now before causing this stir. I had not even had the thought of having "ripped you off", because, again, you had left satisfied with the services provided that was discussed prior to working on your car.

So now that I presented the facts, here is my opinion: I feel like there is something that you're leaving out; these events just don't make sense to me. I worked on your car almost 2 years ago, and this incident is just now surfacing? If it was a problem, you could have come to my shop anytime within these past 2 years or gotten a hold of me somehow. I would speculate more on this, but will glady do it in person or in private. But just know that my personal opinion on this matter is that something definitely does not add up.

Just for the record, I'm not "shady" or just here to "make a buck". If that were the case, I'd have been packed up and gone a long time ago. I'm here because of my passion for the sport and sharing it with people that have the same love (and yes, this means that you are free to come by the shop anytime to see for yourself).

If you need to discuss matters in more detail, please feel free to contact me at ernie(at)erniefixmer(dot)com or simply come by the shop. I rarely frequent forums (like I said before), so it would be safe to say that I don't check messages on here.

Thanks for your time,

Ernie "Super Star Douchebag Shady Drifter to Steal Yo' Dolla" Fixmer

irax

I don't think its right to post a review of a shop that did something for you 2 years ago, good or bad. People change, business change, things change constantly. It is really hard to step away from bad rep no matter how long ago it happened, even if it is false. I mean how many shops have open and closed in the past 2 years? Since clearly EFMADNESS is still the spartan of clutch kicking, that says something about him and HIS business.

honestly 3700 on a rebuild including the tare down and inspection is still a good price.

At the same time, allot of people who do get a bad review will go on to say that they would of handled it if the person let them know how they feel about what happened at the time. Ernie is the one of the few people that I know is truly a man of his word. But because I know you mean it Ernie doesn't mean that others do. I'm sure Gabe, that if this was happening right now and not 2 years ago Ernie would resolve the issue.

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fromxtor

^^ Maybe where your from, but I can get any SR rebuilt out the door for $1900-2000 here w/ upgraded HG, ARP studs, pistons and rods. You can buy an S14 blacktop motorset for less than $3800 for christ's sake.

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GabeS14

I dont mind at all earnie posting in here please dont attack him for that,

as long as its ok with the mods...

Earnie, I never said you were a douch bag, but this is the point
I came to you on several occasions called you telling you I knew somethign was wrong with the car..
#1 the car did not have a larger turbo when it left your car!
#2the car left your shop(ef madness) with the jim wolfe ecu which is perfectly tuned
#3 when i called you to look at it the frist time after the build you adjusted the timing a bit and stated it was my tunning, even though i told you it couldnt be because it was runnign on the same tunning before
#4a month or so later when i called you up again to insist that you look at the car again cuz it still didnt run right...you said you would have to CHARGE ME to look at it since you were at a new shop
#5 I do feel like you let my down by allowing me to take the car running shitty even though you were unaware of why.. i feel like you should have dug back in deeper to find out..
#6 whenever i asked you about the possibilities of being the vvtc or internals(stuff i had read up on) you told me that i couldnt beleive the stuff i was told online.wich makes sense, but at teh same time you shoudl have looked into or maybe thought about..


so basically i trusted you with my motor when i had almost no knowledge about it, and i was let down.
and now that it was fixed by a friend thta actually dug ina nd lsitened to what i told him though it might be and others told me too he found it and fixed it .

you know i am not the asshole type you could totally call me and ill always treat you with respect.like I always have!I just felt the need to express how i have felt for the last 2 years!

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GabeS14

for the record i never said you treated me with disrespect or wth an attitude, on a positive note you were always a very nice guy.and easy to get along with I have no personal beef with you ..only the part where my motor didnt run right after paying what i did!wich is on a pro level.

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luisgonz

Well thats what it was at. Next time I can take a photo of something like to see for yourself. Im just saying what it was at, So Im not attacking you.

Mtndrifter14

Any mechanic whether d1 or not that lets a car leave their shop running shitty is a bad mechanic IMHO.

jimmytango00

^+1


Ernie, you cant say that it wasnt off by that much,Luis got it running correctly and you werent able to two years ago. I personally know luis and i can tell you that all his cars run tip top shape so if he say's its off by 3 or 4 teeth, thats a fact!! lol haha. No but seriously luis wouldnt make up such shit and he got it running correctly so......


Im sure the guys on here who've gotten work done by him can vouch that he knows his shit.

GabeS14

Thx for all the input,
Ernie has contacted me directly and I am satisfied.
+1 for that.
he also offered his services free of charge if necesary which I think is awesome!

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DALAZ_68

yup...i can agree 100%

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kensreliableb18b

i think what ernie was trying to say is that in his experience, if it were off by that much, the car wouldnt even run. with that being said, with the mods on the engine and a basemap powerfc, running rough is nothing out of the ordinary until it was tuned properly. who would have thought the teeth were off? and by that much. stop the hate.

slw240sx

if a car isn't running right then you try to diag it. with a cam being off 3-4 teeth, that thing should have been nearly impossible to time. that right there would have me checking the mechanical timing over and over again. hell i normally check mechanical timing 3-4 times after doing a cam change or head gasket. its just something i would rather assure was right once then have to do it again.

mistakes happen though, and in busy shops things can be over looked, even by the best of them.

Jon

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GabeS14

I agree with both you guys, I know Ernie knows his shit too, Like he told me when he spoke to me on the phone he was sure of what it was, some times the most experienced person can also make mistakes.
So when he called me and said this himself, It sorta gained respect back!
thanks for your input guys.

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exitspeed

It is not actually. It is against forum rules for the reviewee (I don't think thats a word even) to reply in their thread.

I will however allow his reply as I felt it was very well put. I won't allow this to turn into a debate or a thread about what was actually wrong with the car. This is a REVIEW thread, and this is it.

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PRADOgy

This here is called responsibility..
owning up to your mistake,or even if it wasnt u still leave the customer satisfied, therfore future business

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