Really bad luck or scamming garage? Oppinions please!

[foxbodymuscle]

Will a supercharger cause a water pump failure?

Ok so here it is,
I brought my 1991 Mustang gt to a local shop to stinall an entery level supercharger kit from vortech and now I am racking up a huge bill from random failures....

What they installed :
Supercharger Kit 6 psi centrifugal
255lph hp fuel pump + filter
Synthetic oil + filter
24lb Injectors + 73mm C&L Mass air
Cost...$700..

Car stalls on cold start.
Check engine light turns on after the install, MAF and 02's throw flag....
They bumped timing to try to help?????

What "happened to fail"
The lower intake gasket is now leaking oil, they claim its not their fault b/c theres more pressure from the supercharger........ maybe.......hard to prove neglegance..
...$300................

They called me and told me for some reason the belt keeps slipping off, a day later they told me the water pump is DUMPING water. The previous over must have installed a new one b/c he said it looks new. It needs to be replaced and a majority of the supercharger kit needs to be uninstalled to do it......
Cost...Unknown......Expensive...


All these problems have happened instantaly after being @ their shop.
The car never had any oil leaks before, or any problems with the water pump.

Am I just DAMN unlucky/supercharger caused all these problems or do you think the shop is yanking my chain???

Thanks!!
Money is beyond tight at this point.

 

[Lawbreaker5.0]

i think it real hard for all those things to happen all at once. YOu need to verify everything that they say is bad by visiting the shop and having them point all the leaks out.

if your capable of typing on the internet i think you're capable of changing out a water pump.

the lower intake is a little harder but, if they're changing the injectors they should do the lower intake for cheap, i mean its litterally right there, it just takes like 15 bolts. No more than the cost of the intake gasket $15-25 and maybe 25 bucks in labor

 

[Bullitt347]

Lets see...........they have already installed the fuel injectors and the engine runs.........so to change the intake gasket the upper and lower intake have to come off. NOT a $25.00 labor bill. Also they never touched the lower intake gasket when they installed the fuel injectors and supercharger. There was also no reason to touch the water pump to install the supercharger kit. Sometimes **** happens. Was a "chip" supposed to be installed with the supercharger kit and it was not? And/or is the "chip that was installed (if one was) the correct "tune" for the combo? I would definitely go to the shop and take a look. I once went to do a intake manifold swap for a customer and one of the intake bolts broke during removal, it was corroded halfway through. The customer did not want to pay for the extra labor "because it was MY fault it broke". I had to explain to them that it would not matter if it was me, them or a fencepost that replaced the manifold, that bolt was going to break, period. They finally understood and paid the extra labor.
Even if the upper intake manifold were already off, you will not find ANY shop to replace the lower gasket only for only $25.00 labor. It takes more time to clean off the old gasket from the manifold and heads than it takes to unbolt the manifold and torque it back down. No shop would do it for $25.00 labor. If they did they would lose $ on the job big time, and you cannot stay in business doing work for almost free.

 

[Lawbreaker5.0]

Lets see...........they have already installed the fuel injectors and the engine runs.........so to change the intake gasket the upper and lower intake have to come off. NOT a $25.00 labor bill. Also they never touched the lower intake gasket when they installed the fuel injectors and supercharger. There was also no reason to touch the water pump to install the supercharger kit. Sometimes **** happens. Was a "chip" supposed to be installed with the supercharger kit and it was not? And/or is the "chip that was installed (if one was) the correct "tune" for the combo? I would definitely go to the shop and take a look. I once went to do a intake manifold swap for a customer and one of the intake bolts broke during removal, it was corroded halfway through. The customer did not want to pay for the extra labor "because it was MY fault it broke". I had to explain to them that it would not matter if it was me, them or a fencepost that replaced the manifold, that bolt was going to break, period. They finally understood and paid the extra labor.
Even if the upper intake manifold were already off, you will not find ANY shop to replace the lower gasket only for only $25.00 labor. It takes more time to clean off the old gasket from the manifold and heads than it takes to unbolt the manifold and torque it back down. No shop would do it for $25.00 labor. If they did they would lose $ on the job big time, and you cannot stay in business doing work for almost free.

don't get your pantie's in wad. jeeze, if your gonna spend a lot of money in a shop you would think that if the upper intake was off that they would replace the lower one for little to nothing. yes i know that they already put the upper intake on.

Let me pull my mitchell labor book out and see how much would it cost to R&R lower intake gasket with the upper already off........................ i can tell you if it takes you more than half an hour to pull off the fuel rail, lower intake and then clean the surfaces, and put it back on, then you need to get a new profession.

i work in a shop and i know how the estimate goes. if it says 1.5 hrs, then the average person takes 1.5 and most PROFESSIONALS can do it in under 1 hr. I'm not saying the customer doesn't pay for the whole 1.5 hours, because they do, its just the fact that your already there to do the work, why not do it right the first time.

On a car like a Maxima to replace the powersteering pump belt, you have to take off the alternator belt. Now if a customer is paying to replace the PS belt that says .5 (for instance). Are you gonna charge them another .5 for the alt belt, even though its already off,........ NO... Same concept here, with a slight mod. i'm saying an extra 25 bucks plus parts is not a big deal when the upper intake is ALREADY OFF.


i have a hard time believing that putting on the supercharger and running a measly 6 psi is going to blow a lower intake gasket out. What did they do through it on a dyno after intial start up?

So in this case the lower was probably already leaking and they did a shiasty job looking things over before they started and now they are pushing it off to the customer.

If your gonna defend a shop like this then please pm me the shop address that you work at so i, my friends and my family can avoid it at all cost.


To OP. Take it home and put the parts in yourself. its not that hard,buy the haynes or chilton book and there is people out there on forums and such that will help you get it on. Then take it to a tuner.

 

[wythors]

Please note that the engine has been reassembled and run, so they're not "right there". Removing the lower would require taking the entire top half of the intake back off, along with all the associated BS required of it.

 

[ShortThrow50]

the entry level starter kit does not require a tune brand new. it comes with everything so its ready to roll. I think what happen to you is coincidence. I dont think its the shops fault. To be honest, the kit is Very easy to install even for a beginner. it comes with detailed instructions and you could have done it yourself in 1 day. Anyway, how is your lower intake gaskets leaking oil? there are no oil passages through the intake. unless your talking about the end rail where you use silicone. Are you sure you didnt blow your pcv valve out and your blowin oil out of there? I had that problem when i installed a 10 psi s-trim on my car. The pressures WILL do that unless you come up with a solution.

 

[FORDBOY1516]

+1

 

[Bullitt347]

Please note that the engine has been reassembled and run, so they're not "right there". Removing the lower would require taking the entire top half of the intake back off, along with all the associated BS required of it.

What he said! (and what I said....I think!)

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

Cars are a bitch. Plain and simple.

 

[bubba-dough]

Had you ever been to that shop before? Were they recommended to you? How is their rep?

Its hard to say exactly what happened for sure. It could all just be bad luck and coincidence. There are times when you fix one thing and 5 other things break. Just my experience from today with my dd (I smelled oil - pcv had popped out, while I was fixing that I seen coolant coming out of my ac drain....heater core is obviously leaking. Then I noticed the serpentine started coming apart. Then I cleaned the inside of my car and went to get out - driver's inside door handle broke). Its frustrating.

 

[parrish5o]

When you work on a car you do encounter a certain amount of "Murphy's Law" but what you are going through seems a bit excessive. It is really hard to find a shop that you can trust that does good work. If you do find one they stay wrapped up and it takes forever for them to get to your car and it costs you out the butt. The best thing by far is to be able to do the work yourself. I had to learn the hard way.

 

[2000xp8]

Any shop doing a supercharger install for $700, isn't charging enough.

The meter used should not be a C&L.

Intake gaskets blow out all the time when superchargers are added to old cars.

The water pump sounds coincidental, not sure how someone damages a water pump during the install of anything.

 

[mob]

If the supercharger install is done, I wo uld say have them give you your car back, and you fix what ever is wrong with it. Things do go wrong, sometimes its hard to believe they all go wrong at once, but sometimes it happens. Especially if you just threw a supercharger on it.
It seems like the only thigns wrong with it are real simple. You can do the work yourself for 100 bucks TOPS including all parts, gaskets, etc.

Do you have another car to drive? A few hours here and there will get a water pump and lower intake gasket done in a few days.

And if your putting a lower intake gasket on in 30 minutes your not doing something right. I hope you spend ATLESAT an hour cleaning the head surface and intake surfaces. Thats not something I would skimp on. If you work at a shop, sure its someone else's car who gives a hoot right? When I did the lower intake gaskets on my car a week ago I spent about 2 days on it because I had another car to drive and I spent as much time on it as I could to make sure everything was clean and done right. If your really trying to get it done I could see you having the old on off and new one on in a couple hours though. But taking off the upper intake is a couple bolts and your done, everythings dry. Once you start removing the lower intake bolts your entering a whole new project.

Like some other people said, only way your intake can be leaking oil is the end rail. I would ask them to give you your car back, and pay for the supercharger install. That way you can take it home and inspect everything yourself and see what it really needs. At least go to the shop and try to see where the intake is leaking oil, and where the water pump is leaking, I doubt they purposely made your intake and water pump start leaking, that would be more work than its worth. Thats how these cars are though once you finish one thing, its another, and the fact you have some boost running through it is gonna make it a little worse.

 

[1991notchbackLX]

hah, here's a question nobody asked... how many miles were on the motor they installed the supercharger on?? things go bad when you start throwing boost at an older motor that's never seen boost before, you gotta pay to play, that's the bottomline, and an unfortunate fact of life if you enjoy the car hobby