mr poo

this is not a "i got scammed by" thread. i'm just posting my experiences and try to give you guys some lessons when it comes to dealing with other h-t members for expensive things. also i learned quite a few things about this swap.


there are many pros and cons when it comes to people doing work for you out of their garage

back around june, my automatic transmission started letting go. it was either sell the car, or swap the transmission, i decided to swap the transmission.

-i started getting quotes from shops, they either charged way too much, or never got back to me

-i started buying parts but realized i didnt kno how much to pay and also didnt have the tools/resources to do it myself

-enter username "HATCHI" aka Mike. he pm'd me from one of my WTB ads, and offered to do the swap for me. we negotiated a price, he seemed very knowledgable and had a lot of references (although the only ones i was able to contact only bought parts from him). he told me he'd done the swap around 10 times


June 17 (sat.) - i dropped my car off at his place. watched him take out the transmission. he seemed liek a super nice guy and worked very quickly also told me my axle was torn, so i went to autozone, got a new one, and he told me he'd put it in for free i leave after he tells me it will be done by tomm (i live about an hour away)

June 18 (sun.) - i give mike a call asking whens a good time to pick up, he says he's missing a part, will have to wait to buy it from honda tomm, fair enough

june 19 (mon.) - i give mike a call, he says he ordered a clutch line from honda, it will take a day to arrive new scheduled pick up on tues.


june 20 (tues.) - i pick up the car. take it for a test drive, there are some issues


1) car made squealing sound around corners (he tightned the hub that fixed it)
2) car didnt always start, made clicking sound (he thought it was the positive terminal of the battery loose) when the car did start up it seemed to lag more than before the swap
3) shifter and linkage were hitting my exhaust pipe, <U>he told me everything was oem</U> he said i needed lower hangers
4) gears were difficult to select (i figured it was due to the linkage and exhaust in the way)


despite all these problems i took the car home and paid him. he said i had his number, i could call him if there were any problems. up to this point, communication had been very great, my pms were answered usually within the hour and he always picked up my calls

driving the car home i knew for sure the shifter was unacceptable.





i told him and he said dont fix the exhaust, he'd send me a new shifter. so the car sat in my garage waiting for him to find a "free day" where he could drive an hour for me to install the shifter


for nearly a WHOLE MONTH. he stopped responding to pms, didnt pick up his calls, i got tired of it, jsut went to the exhaust shop to fix it myself. they cut the heat shield and lowered the pipe about an inch. money out of my pocket. they also told me they work on civics all the time and that shifter was DEFINITELY NOT OEM


so the car is now a little drivable, but that just brang up a new problem

the shift pattern is horrible! there is so much play in gears and its very notchy. i think thats the short shifter but we will wait and see.

i drove it around for a few days, and then one day my sister was backing it out of the driveway, and the idle started SURGING!! i figured it was because mike didnt change the intake manifold like you're supposed to. the car now idled at 4k RPM. i sent him a very mean pm

a once over of the engine bay revealed that one of the clamps for the intake manifold was missing




i zip tied it into place temporarily

he later pmd me back, told me he'd been busy with work and might be able to do it next sunday or monday. i told him i'd figured it out myself. i was ok with him having a lot of work, i just told him to please just send the shifter.

its been a few days, still waiting for it

and finally today. if you remember one of the initial problems was that the car clicked every now and then instead of starting up. now it doesnt start at all, luckily it stranded me in my garage where the car sits now. AGAIN.

*my starter before ALWAYS worked perfectly and my car ALWAYS started up like a champ before the swap


i searched h-t and it narrowed it down to the battery or starter. so i took my battery to autozone and they gave it back wtih a CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH

somehow the condition of my starter rapidly deteriorated after the swap. (he told me it didnt need to be swapped for a manual starter).


i pmd him, he did not reply, and i am not expecting a reply.


cliffnotes:: had an h-t member do a swap for me, lots of minor problems, communication poor after payment

in summary, if you're a little knowledgeable with cars you can maybe work out these problems, but if you're like my roomate who thinks automatics come with clutches, pay extra and have a shop do it for you. and take it back to them if somehting goes wrong.


so far it looks like im going to be spending around 200 EXTRA out of my own pocket to have these problems fixed. i dont know what else might go wrong

but here are some other issues i found looking in the engine bay




lots of extra sensors just left dangling



lost the washer on my aem intake, the bolt then fell off, i had to buy a new one



should that clutch line just be hangin there like that?



another pic of the clutch line, and possibly a hole that there should be a bolt in on the bracket?

i made this post hoping someone can resolve my issues, cuz i no longer have any faith left in mike to fix them for me. it seems he just got very lazy as soon as his check cleared and i need a working car.

so theres my experience, take it for what it is, help me out if you can, and good luck to the rest of you automatics in the future!

Luserkid

Sorry about your experiences man. That really sucks. That shifter from the looks of it isnt stock civic. Kind of looks like it could be stock integra which shouldnt seat that much lower. Something else is wrong there if it was hitting your exhaust. I put an integra shifter in my friends car and it never hit his exhaust.

Those loose sensors that you have in your hand should have been cut off for a cleaner look. There sensors for the auto transmission to shift and what not. There not needed anymore.

Thats weird that he said your auto starter could work in an auto to manual. Ive done plenty and always had to use a manual starter due to mounting points. And from you saying your starter doesnt work anymore since you got it back leaves me to believe A. he replaced it with one that was around his garage/shop and told you it was still the auto one, or B. Used a piece of wire that he shoved into the auto plug to let the car start and that is coming out.

What ecu are you using? If you didnt swap out Manifolds did he drill and tap for your IACV? Or are you still on 3 wire and auto ecu (aka you have a code).

That clutch line needs a bracket which is not there. The clutch line will be fine the way it is. If it really starts to bug you start looking for a bracket.

Not all garage mechanics treat people like this. Garage mechanics are the same as shop mechanics minus the shop. Rent is very expensive along with tools to just open a shop. Me for example im waiting til i have enough resources to start renting a shop but for the mean time my garage is my shop and has everything i need to do what i do. Youll get the same experience with bad shops and good shops. So please dont think all "garage mechanics" are bad at what they do. Majority of the big guys start out of there garage.

mr poo

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Luserkid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Thats weird that he said your auto starter could work in an auto to manual. Ive done plenty and always had to use a manual starter due to mounting points. And from you saying your starter doesnt work anymore since you got it back leaves me to believe A. he replaced it with one that was around his garage/shop and told you it was still the auto one, or B. Used a piece of wire that he shoved into the auto plug to let the car start and that is coming out.

What ecu are you using? If you didnt swap out Manifolds did he drill and tap for your IACV? Or are you still on 3 wire and auto ecu (aka you have a code).

</TD></TR></TABLE>


o yea for sure, i never meant to put down garage mechanics in general, just listing my experience

-he told me auto and manual starters for 96-00 civics were practically the same and didnt need changing


- when i was at his place he told me he'd put in auto manifold and if it started surging he'd replace it with a manual. later he told me he did replace it. but is there any way i can check?

- he put in a manual ecu for me, i get no engine codes

philosofy1

if your very picky like me, you should of done the work yourself. it's really not hard to do a auto-manual swap. as for the guy doing the swap, well i'm pretty sure your not the only one he does work for so he was probably in a rush to do more cars. as for spending a additional $200, save it and do the work yourself, it's not that hard.

Luserkid

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mr poo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
- when i was at his place he told me he'd put in auto manifold and if it started surging he'd replace it with a manual. later he told me he did replace it. but is there any way i can check?

- he put in a manual ecu for me, i get no engine codes</TD></TR></TABLE>

I looked over your pictures again and you do have a manual intake manifold:



See that sensor next to your blue arrow. Thats your IACV and that makes it manual.

mr poo

ok thanks man

do you know if manual and auto starters are diff?


i wish there was someway i could get the car down to socal (if i could even get it to move), then you could give it a once over for me, any plans on coming up to norcal anytime soon?

Luserkid

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mr poo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok thanks man

do you know if manual and auto starters are diff?

</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Luserkid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thats weird that he said your auto starter could work in an auto to manual. Ive done plenty and always had to use a manual starter due to mounting points. And from you saying your starter doesnt work anymore since you got it back leaves me to believe A. he replaced it with one that was around his garage/shop and told you it was still the auto one, or B. Used a piece of wire that he shoved into the auto plug to let the car start and that is coming out..</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ill look through my garage is i find an auto starter ill take a picture of the both and show you the difference. I think i threw them all away though.

mr poo

im now in the market for a new starter, i think i'll turn this thread into an ongoing project

mr poo

recieved the new shifter in the mail

and just purchased a new starter

Compaq888

Sucks about your experience. But you could have the same stuff happen in a repair shop. On my last car my pinion&rack was on it's way out and I took it to a place where I do my smog checks. They replaced the rack&pinion but they bent and ripped and scratched everything around that area. Some parts were even missing.

Never going there again.

When I bought my civic I went to a dealer so they can do an oil change and check if there was anything wrong with it. They gave me a whole list of stuff that was broken on the car and needed to be replaced. My grandpa looked at the car and only one of those things needed to be fixed. I almost payed $700 like an idiot.

I'll be taking my car to a different place if major work is required or I'll fix it myself. Having owned a nissan taught me auto mechanics a lot because it broke down constantly.

mr poo

UPDATE

thanks to username INSTRUMENT he was able to point out some things im missing.

it turns out i'm missing a TON of brackets. i won't know for sure until next week but thats what it looks like as of now.

heres the thread for reference

https://honda-tech.com/zeropost...28499

mr poo

UPDATE

just had a new starter installed today. fixed the startup problems


will have the new shifter put in tomm

also found out the transmission put in was from an dx. not an ex.