Caveat Emptor: "Roman Jevicky" junkyard off Santa Fe

[dubseven]

Just a heads up for anyone that does business with salvage yards.....

I bought a used 1.8T passat longblock with 70k on it for $1400 from Roman - right near that Cold War Remarketing place and "hotline auto salvage" - note that they are separate businesses and this should not reflect on them....

Anyways, it had a cracked oil pan, and a good size nick in the crank pulley - two things I really should not have ignored - but I decided to take Roman at his word since I really, really needed a motor, and he assured me the motor was good, that he had inspected it, and that he would refund my money if there was an issue. Lesson learned.

Long story short, I got home and started to tear it down. Bearings were damaged, and I found out the timing gear had sheared off the crank when I attempted to turn the motor over, and the timing belt/gear spun without the crank. So the valves are damaged as well. I brought the motor back to Roman, and after 2 hours of arguing, he refused to take the motor back, saying that the timing was off, and repeating about 100 times that he had tested the motor and the timing was on the mark etc etc, and insisted that I in some way had screwed with it or swapped some parts out and that I was trying to somehow rip him off or cheat him - because the timing came back and was off - but as I said above, the timing gear SHEARED off the crank...

In the end I was able to get $350 from him, and left with an extremely poor taste in my mouth. Trying to now piece together parts to put this thing back the way it was supposed to be - waiting to find out if the crank is bent as well from the machine shop, but either way, as you guys can well imagine I am taking a nice bath on this one.

[Tiesto]

Lesson learned indeed I hope.

[Richard]

Lesson learned indeed I hope.

Maybe I am missing your point, but can you tell me how this is a lesson learned? Unfair/dishonest business practices do not deserve anybody's business, and its reviews such as this one that help insure that we as consumers do not have the same fate.

[LampyB]

sorry to hear that man, what a terrible situation. sounds like he was just trying to pass the buck along to you without taking responsibility for receiving the bad engine. what a deusche bag.

[Richard]

Any word yet?

[dubseven]

Nothing yet.

Turns out I got pretty lucky, machine shop is helping me out a lot on the labor, and so far only have had to replace timing gear, 3 valves, head gasket, main/rod/head bolts, and main bearings. Looks like the crank is OK.....

[S4ced_induction]

Hello
I am just curious if you installed this engine yourself or did you have a shop do it? My guess is that you tried to do it yourself or paid a hole-in-the-wall shop to do it for you. I highly doubt that this situation went down exactly how you described. I and friends of mine and other shops have literally bought hundreds of parts from him and have never had any issues whatsoever. The one time I thought it was going to be an issue, Roman instantly remedied it. I am so pleased with the service that he has given me and other shops that I would never give my business to anyone but him. He is a very smart and honest person and will gladly help anyone out as long as they are ethical. If you had a bad experience there, then you are probably one of those people who likes to screw over people to get stuff for free. Anyone reading this, please take in consideration that I and hundreds of other people greatly outnumber the one comment that you have made against a great small business. If anyone reading this would like true stories of how many times Roman has helped me when I was in a tight pinch, please message me. I don't mean to be rude, but It really pisses me off to see good people like him trashed because of either a misunderstanding or true stupidity. Thnak you! Vorsprung Durch Technik ALL DAY!!!!!!

[mikehawk666]

I've bought numerous parts from Roman, and I send alot of ppl to him. While I've never bought an engine, the parts I have bought have been quality, and when I return parts he has no problems. Situation sucks for the OP, but Roman is a good guy.