if ur in honda tuning and (most likely) have a honda you want to fix up... be warned... do not go to friends... or do not go to friends of friends for possible hookups.... or you will pay the price.

I have an 89 crx si... power was good but not the best... I wanted more... so I saved up money... took a loan... and bought an ls wanting to go ls vtec... I had friends that said take it here and take it there... but I was hanging around w/ a shop who showed me thier awesome work. ON THIER OWN CARS... clean beautiful and the promises they made was great but not off the wall. I saw the work ... I liked it. they sold me on what they can do. they cost a bill more to install but they said they would make my engine bay niiiice. so i said ok.

got my engine
got my new clutch
got my new likage w/ motor mounts
got my tranny
got my new radiator...
what else was there?

it seemed like i needed parts that I never thought of, and most other shops didnt either.
they said the rebuilt tranny was rebuilt wrong (only thing changed was bearing case) they said spline was automatic... how... dont know... $500 + 650
they said wrong clutch... $150 + 150
charged me for axles 250 ea. + busted part before It was installed $15 (lifetime warranty at autozone no questions asked)
but they didn't tell me that I was using the wrong mount kit (I had b16) so I had to buy a crank pully $250 (thier excuse was my mounts were too hard so it was a rough ride... turns out crank pully was scraping cross member bar. cut half way into it.
tranny was hitting oem frame tranny mount.
and to top it all off... I believe that they stole my system. 2 500w amps and a 12 woofer. and busted my head unit trying to pull it out by the detachable face.

overall I paid 3500+ for the work that was to be only less than 2000
shoty work it was.

so far I found out...

missing bolts (fixed most of it myself)
shifter falls through the floor (fixed it myself) free
upside down distributor (needed new head afterwards) $487
wrong radiator cap $11
alternator was shot 250 (159 autozone lifetime warranty no questions asked)
used the wrong ecu (they used my old single cam)
"sold me a new throtle body" other one was busted because of idle problems. (turns out they sold me an automatic throtle body for b20) $250
never fixed idle problem.
both axles are have torn CV boots... promised they would be strong. 150 for new ones.
wouldn't let me leave w/ out radiator fan... so they said they had a racing fan... installed by 1 bolt... not ment for my car... bottom cut out... and radiator mounts bolted by one bolt so radiator is floating.

plus the ugliest install I have ever seen... missing wire parts... unplugged harness... loose bolts... didn't take off un needed parts ie. sensors,

banged the wrong part of frame for alternator... so I have bangs 8 inches long on my frame. and alternator barely fits. bout an eighth of an inch space between pully and frame... but lots of space before it because they dented 8 inches of the wrong space.

I found out all this in less than six months and im still finding out stuff. cut wires that's been taped +and- taped together touching.

how sh!tty can a job be...

this is not even half a$$ed... its worse...

so your wondering what shope is this...
this shop is called AK1
A = alpha
k= kenny
1=one
say that fast enough and you'll get the message.

I know it was my own stupidity w/ all the hints i've been thrown that they'll f@ck me over...

in the end I told them just get it running and get it out of there.
some bs man!

so in the end I know it was my own fault...
why am I whining about it... well its because I wanted to warn all those who love thier car and think they need a new engine...

remember... the lesson of the story... in short dont go to ak1 located in walnut, ca

ps... anyone have any tips on what I should do...???

 

Take it as a lesson in life and work on your own car.

 

damn man i'm so sorry to hear about that.

I had something kinda similar. I hired a guy a friend knew he was a great mechanic and bla bla bla. I needed a new clutch so he charged me $700 after he took off 25% because i had to help. Only to find out that when i left and he was putting everything together he rushed and didn't tighten the motor mount bolts and forgot to hook up the speedometer and the list goes on.

The engine mount bold flew off my car when i was coming home from work. It gouged the under body of my car pretty bad, and when i called him and left a message the next week his phone was disconnected

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RC000E &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Take it as a lesson in life and work on your own car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

****** w3rd

 

sorry to hear about it...

learning the hard way is the best way right???

btw...

when I bought my REX it actually had no engine... I felt good about installing my own engine (i've helpedinstall a couple b18's before and one b20 into an eg... not that hard) I felt good about it... ran sweet until its age caught up w/ it and started falling apart... this part.. that part... replace replace... so I decided... why not take it to a shop... who will get it done right and if anything goes wrong I'll take it back to them...

thing is that it was such a bad job that I never wanted to bring my baby back to them... I would have done a better job... I would have done a proper job... but it would have taken weeks that I didn't have. turned out it took weeks just to get it out of the shop.

 

bring em to small claims court...

 

can't... I thinked I f*d up and told them it was a *gulp* "bad" block. it wasn't stolen tho... so all can rest easy... but... it was still a "bad" block. but just because of that... I paid the price.. can't take them to court either.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RC000E &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Take it as a lesson in life and work on your own car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

^^ best post ever..

(been there, done that.. !!!)

 

Sorry man... got pics?

 

Man, I'm really sorry to hear how they treated you. Damn, I hate that type of crap.

The best thing to do right now is to start getting your money back. Take photo's for evidence and get your car to a good shop in your area (I know someone should be able to recommend) and get repair estimates. Then take them to small claims court with evidence and estimates.

 

like i said they installed a "bad" engine... cant take them to small claims... I'd rather do the work myself...

im just mad because they made the swap a few months ago and still I get surprised on what **** went bad.

its my fault for not listening... im more venting and warning people of this shop. i fixed most of thier mistakes... but yea.. I took some... ill look for it later

 

I feel for you. I went through the same thing when I had my CRX painted. I went to a friends brothers shop they charged me more than $800 more than what they said they would. The quality was **** and not even a year later it is starting to rust out on places and paint is falling off and they are nowhere to be seen.

CRX Forum

 

unfourtunately even site sponsors have been known to do this consistently. I don't know of any shop in that area I would trust to work on my car and I've been to them all

if you love your car, buy a helms, save up for some tools and drink water not caffine and take your time, make a dedicated check list and keep all bolts and parts together

 

Bricks and home-made flamethrower. Nuff said.

 

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

The shop is called AK1
A = alpha
k= kenny
1=one
say that fast enough and you'll get the message.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll **** anyone..
Sorry to hear that....but like gator said try and take them to court.

 

What do you mean when you say bad block? Cuz if I say "it has a bad block" I usually mean that the block is damaged or unusable.
But in your case it seems maybe there is some shadiness(maybe an insurance job??) going on with it. In that case you should think about that when you have to swallow this bill.

It does suck though that these guys corn-holed you like that. I'm sure they would do it to anyone. to them

 

Sorry to hear that...
Almost the same story happend tome, one guy was doing swap and modiffication on my engine for abou year and a half and always found something missing or something wrong that need to be ordered so he had excuse why he wasn't workin on car...one day I got pissed of and tell him to **** off took all the things and parts and drove it to antoher mechanic which did my enginemodiffication and swap with all those parts that previus jurk had in amonth and half...The new mechanic did hell of a job...
Not to mention that if I would pu the engine that old mechanic prepair it would blow after turning the ignition on problems with pistons and sleeves...IDIOT mechanic who had no clue what he was doin'

I hope you'll solve all the problems quick and without tons of money...

CYA

 

sad story. took me six months to get even my swap done.. research everything on what will the swap need and involved.bought the parts and ask alot of people how much do they know.. then finaly.. el vap(danny) help me out.he refered me to one of his homie. good work too. nice clean and fast. took 2 days for my swap to complete.no problem everything works. lesson of the story is i guess dont be such in a hurry. try to get info as much as you can.patience is virtue.

 

This is why I do my own ****
can't trust anybody but yourself

 

The stereo was gone when u picked up the car? did they say "some1 broke in and stole it"? cuz THEIR insurance should cover that!

 

Next time, give me a 30 pack of Coors and a place to sleep and I'll do the work for you with ASE Certified Technician quality. - Darrell

 

yea sorry to hear what happened... i always hear story of those kind of rip off... i only go to people i know and now i am taking the liberty to explore and be a DIY repair man... i am learning a lot... my 2 cents for you is dont be scared to fix your own car... you will learn a lot.. just make sure you get someone (hint: befriend someone who knows cars)to watch and advise what you are trying to repair...

 

o btw post the addy of that ak1 shop here so we know which repair shop to avoid...

 

man... should have... but didn't ... shoulda woulda coulda... darell... too bad tho...

oh and the stereo... they claimed that the insurance only covers anything inside the garage... and anything outside is up for grabs... so yea... oookay!

yea... one part that was "bad"... not blown... and karma hits me like a semi vs a miata!

well... im one of those guys that when i have the money... I want it... and I want it NOW...

hahaha...

some people never learn!

oh well... still hoping that this is just a bump in the road... and not a police spike strip. hahaha... aiight

well I know to do my own ****...

but i have a little brother syndrome. he took over my tools, my garage, and everything that was mine in there. now I have no tools no garage... and all this for his little piece of **** pocket bike... that he f@cked around w/ so much that it doesnt work any more...

here's thier site...

http://ak1motorsports.com

sorry I forget how to make links...

 

Just updating this, if anyone wanted to know... 20 years later.

over the years I hear back from my cousin, I ran into the owner one christmas party my cousin was having, and he was like, "Hey Can you do me a favor and take that post down. I know it was you because it described the issue exactly." I knew I would rarely see him, so I said "yeah, for sure" and obviously, ignored it.

Then dude proceeds to tell me I still owe him for the transmission that he bought for me... "yeah, sure" was my reply. and walked away.

Later I found out that, he'd sold that shop and moved out to Ontario, Ca working on more european cars aftermarket scene. The family looks good, so I guess his business was great. this was over 8 years ago that it last happened, but I happen to remember this post, and looking it over, I felt that I should close it out for everyone.

Always thought, since I heard he changed "Scenes" that This post... My post... was a big reason why.