Hey everyone,
Since I have been called out, I'm going to do something I didn't want to do which is let everyone know what happened since I agreed on buying this car and today.
Sep 14, 2011
I find on Audizine a nice S4, judging by the cell phone pictures and the description, everything looked alright and it was what I was looking for.
Info given in the ad/on the phone:
2001.5 S4
~90k miles
Nogaro Blue Exterior
White leather interior
Mods:
K04/997 Hybrids
Aquamist Meth Kit
SSAC Downpipes
Stock Exhaust
KW V3 coilovers
Spec Stage 3 Clutch
Cone intake
Interior is mint and in perfect condition, exterior is in very good condition but has a small crack on tail light and the filler plate also has a crack on it.
Car was built by Pat (the owner of the car, using EPL's advise and supervision) and tuned by EPL.
The price was lowered $500 because EPL would not let the car go with their tune, which I was ok with, it was not going to take me very long to get the car to run good, we had tuned cars with this set up before and we had a pretty good base file.
I was also told that Stage 3 build had less than 15k miles along with the clutch, flywheel, timing belt, water pump and other TB components.
Seller sent me more pictures of the interior and exterior (cracked tail light and filler plate) that day and after I got the pictures I sent him a deposit to get the car off the market. He agreed on washing/waxing the car that following weekend and parking it in his garage until I came to pick the car up (Sep 23, 2011).
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Days go by, I was very excited to pick this car up, it was the most expensive/fastest car I have ever bought, lower miles, good condition, only needed a tail light and a filler plate, had very nice plans for it, I could not wait.
**
Sep 17, 2011
I find a nice SSAC exhaust for sale on this forum, it happens to be 30 miles away from the sellers house, it was almost new (was used for 2-3 days) I arrange everything so it gets shipped to Pat's home, and ask him if he could throw it on for me, he agrees to it but misunderstood me and thought I was talking about him driving to pick it up (~30 miles away) since I told him I would throw him some money, I ended up having the exhaust shipped to his house. Exhaust gets there and he puts it in the trunk.
I'm getting more and more excited about this, during this weekend I plan on driving from Stratford, CT to Ocean City, MD for H20i where J-Fonz Tuning will have a booth.
Sep 19, 2011
I call Pat, the seller of the car, since I was flying into LaGuardia and he was going to pick me up just wanted to remind him of my itinerary and talk a bit more about the car. Up to this point, the seller is very helpful and a pretty cool guy in my opinion. I asked him ''Hey dude, did you get a chance to throw the exhaust on?'' he replies ''Oh man, I didn't know you wanted me to put it on, I thought you asked me to go pick it up'' I replied ''Oh, my bad, I should of been more clear, it's alright no big deal'' seller says ''don't worry, I can throw it on tonight when I'm done with work''. We still had a couple days to get it done so I didn't care.
Sep 23, 2001 (Friday, the pick up day)
I fly into LaGuardia from Milwaukee, WI, Pat comes all the way from Stratford, CT to the airport to pick me up, it would of been a short drive without traffic but there was some traffic, he was there on time and picked me up on his nice white AVANT, I was very thankful, offered to buy him lunch and pay for gas numerous times during the drive back to Stratford, CT where the car I was purchasing was located.
During the drive I asked him ''Hey man, did you end up having time to get the exhaust installed'' he replied ''No, I have been busy with work, I started doing it this morning at EPL but didn't have time to finish because I had to pick you up'', I replied ''Oh well, what can you do'', I didn't care, I could get that done once I got to my house, but he offered to finish the job at EPL so I was like ''cool''.
He drives to his home first to pick up the title, while we are at his house, he offers me something to drink, I accept and get a bottle of tea. Pat was nice and went the extra mile to pick me up and be nice to me, he didn't have to do all this but he did it anyway and I thanked him 100 times for this.
We get to EPL and this is when things started going downhill....fast.
I get out of the white avant and I see 2 nogaros outside, I was like =0 Ohhh sickk =P (thinking, one of them is about to be mine!!!)
Pat goes ahead and starts the car to pull it into the shop (EPL) and install the exhaust, I hear the car and it sounds like a semi, didn't even think the exhaust was hooked up, the thing just sounds like shit, I was like whatever, new exhaust is going in soon =P
At this point I'm just sitting in EPL, admiring their work and cars, super excited and in a very good mood. Pat puts the car on the lift and is about to lift the car up when Tony shows up and gives me the dirtiest look, I was thinking, whatever, he might be having a bad day, I approach him to introduce my self and tell him how much I admire his work and that I hope one day J-Fonz Tuning will be at the point where EPL is right now. He doesn't say a word to , he tells Pat to get me out of there and that I was not welcomed there. So Pat and I get the car off the lift and drive the car out of the shop, at this point, I get in the car and I see the windshield wiper paddle hanging, holding on by a cord, pixels in the cluster are 100% gone, cables and lines that go to the meth controller hanging all over the place (carpet, and around the clutch and brake pedals), the meth kit gauge holding on the dash with a zip tie to one of the defrost vents, #4 button on the radio missing, no floormats, carpets have brown stains and the white leather seats have literally grease on them, along with the arm rest, also the leather boot for the shifter is sagging and missing the plastic piece that holds it up so you can see the shifter. After seeing all these defects in the ''mint interior'' I see the AIRBAG light on and check engine light ON. I go to unlock the doors to take a look at the back seat and the doors DO NOT unlock with the key, you have to unlock them manually and the trunk you have to use the key to unlock (very annoying), you also can't unlock the driver's side back seat's door from the inside. I was not told anything about all these problems, and I had to find out my self while he was standing right there, I wasn't very happy with all this, especially since it was raining and it was very very hard to turn on the wipers, after all, I was thinking ''ah, it's not what I was expecting but nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of work, hopefully, I can lower the price a bit and it will be alright''.
When we were leaving EPL ,he said ''I know a place that will do the exhaust for cheap and we can grab something to eat'' since at this point it was around 1 PM. I was cool with that and I was fine , he made a couple phone calls to get estimates and drives to a couple of shops. While we were driving, I kept asking questions, like, ''Why does the car sound like shit if it has a stock exhaust on?'' he replied ''Oh, I started it taking it off this morning and one of the clamps is almost all the way off'' and ''Dude, it smells like oil, I'm pretty sure the valve cover gaskets are leaking'', he replied ''Oh no, I just replaced them'' it's just some oil that's been sitting there for a while from when I blew my oil filter gasket'' along with other lies about the interior defects.
We drive to the first shop, we get out of the car and realize, the car has NO fog lights, both front and rear bumpers have visible scratches and the lower balance on the euro bumper has been cut to fit bigger exhaust tips I assume? Whoever did it, did a horrible job, they didn't even sand it after they cut it so there is chunks of plastic behind it. I was like ughhh this shit sucks, seriously, the $6000 S4 I bought a year ago with 170k miles was cleaner than this but whatever, I was there already so what was I going to do?. This shop tells us they can't touch the car because it has no cats, so we drive to an other shop that Pat knows in what it seemed a bad part of town... =/ (while I had 12k cash on me)
In this shop he asks to put the car on the lift so we can throw the exhaust on real quick, him and I (both) start working on it and I then realize one of the clamps has a huge hole in it (reason why the car sounded like shit) and that those clamps had not been touched in a while and they were on there tight. Times goes by and by 2PM I realize I was supposed to meet with a customer at ~3PM (while the car is still on the lift) to flash his ECU with a Stage 3 - file for the set up that was being installed in this customer's car, he is a member here and he might chime in if he sees this, so I tell him ''Hey, this happened, do you just want to come here, I can just flash it here, it will take 5 min''. He arrives to the shop while the car is still on the lift and I tell Pat what I'm going to do (have in mind I had not driven the car yet at this point and it was close to 4PM), he says, NO, NO, NO, not until you don't pay me for the car so I said ''ok, whatever'' (I didn't want to make this guy wait any longer as he had been there for about 1 hour already) I give Pat the money and lower the price $200 since he left out so many details. We go over to his car and I open the hood, to find out, the hood shock was blown and the hood DOES not stay up, so I take the EPL ECU out and hand it to Pat and I said ''here is the ECU that was here, I just don't want you think I'm doing anything weird'', I put my customer's ECU in the car and tried to flash it but it was chipped, I could not get it to flash, so whatever, my customer is late to work but he didn't seem to mind, he apologizes for taking my time and leaves. I stay at the shop, we lift the car back up again to get a new exhaust clamp on and replace the one with the huge hole in it ($20 I had to pay) and try to seal some leaks with some black stuff his friend brought. We wait and lower the car, as we get it out of the shop, I said, hey, let's go to EPL and get my luggage out of your car (white avant), the floormats, spare key and paperwork for the Stage 3 build and I will be on my way, that way, you can get a ride back to your car. Pat then says ''Tony does NOT want you around so we can't go there, my buddy already went there to get your luggage and is on his way back'' (at this point is around 5 30 PM and I'm in some ghetto place in CT). Pat then agrees on shipping me the floormats he promised, the spare key and the paperwork and I take off since I had to drive to Ocean City, MD that night to be at H20i next morning.
Driving the car I realize EPL wanted their tune so I call Pat and he tells me ''it's alright I guess'' so I continue to drive on I-95, at this point was driving to New Jersey to pick up my friend Josh and head to Ocean City from his house, while I'm driving the car, I keep noticing more and more that it sounds like complete shit because of all the exhaust leaks (they are getting fixed tomorrow), it's raining really bad and I keep getting stuck in traffic, this broken wiper paddle is really bugging me, it was hot so I turn on the AC and boom! Crazy oil smell!!! The passenger's side valve cover gasket is leaking, bad!!!!! and guess what? The car starts to overheat, not sure if it's because I'm stuck in traffic or because I turned the AC on or just both but the temp gauge needle is at the stripe after the center so I rolled down the windows and turned the heat on to help the car cool off (either way, the car should of never overheated). The car was no pulling hard at all, and it would not rev past 4000 rpms, then I realized it must of been on EPL's base file or valet file or something.
So at about 11 at night I finally make it New Jersey and pick Josh up, while at his house, we put my spare ECU in and flash our base file on it, we also check for codes and we get N75 valve short to ground, EGT sensor Bank 1 and Bank 2 short to ground and some rear o2 sensor code. Great, I really feel ripped off now. We also can't get the car to boost past 6psi...while all this is happening and we are driving to Maryland I keep thinking, this piece is probably not even Stage 3... f*ck (I had to receipts or anything to prove it was).. at this point I'm just hating the car already...then we do some testing and logging and realize the meth kit has a fail safe that when meth level in the tank goes below certain point, the N75 ''turns off'' so your wastegate duty cycles only go up to 0%, so we fill it up with meth (it was completely dry) and we started to boost past 6-7 psi. This is a nice feature, and it would been nice to know, this just proves how much the previous owner knew about his car or how much of an idea he can have on tuning/flashing or ''stealing software'' like he claims I did that day.
So on the base file, we actually get the car to Ocean City, MD boosting past 7psi with no codes and in better condition already since Josh took the time to tuck the cables and lines that went to the meth controller so we wouldn't accidentally rip them out since they were just laying around the clutch and brake pedal and door jam! S4 made it ~400 miles (overheating and leaking oil through the passenger side valve cover gaskets)
Sat 24, 2011
We wake up and go to Walmart to buy some oil, it was low on oil, the oil smelled like gas, was really dirty and the car had this weird ticking sound coming from the top of the engine, almost sounded like a bad cam chain tensioner, so I add the oil and drive to the show (less than 6 miles), we are at the show with the S4 parked at our booth all day, at about 6 PM we decide that that was enough and start picking up to go DT (to what people call the strip) we get on a very small high way while the car was still warming up, speed limit was 55mph and I was just driving, no pulls, no crap like that, I just wanted something to eat, we get off the high way and turn left, I downshifted since I had to slow down for a light, and everything was fine, I'm in 2nd gear, drive to the next light (this is at the strip I believe) and I stop (red light), take the car out of 2nd and I felt something weird when I took it out of 2nd, sure enough, after that 1st and 2nd were GONE!
So after this guys, my trip became a night mare, I could not believe it, I tried messing with the shifter and nothing so next day Sunday I just drove home, the car made it with out issues but I noticed everytime I turned on the AC it would overheat (temp. needle would go to the next line over the center) so I had the heat on my whole way here. At this point, Pat is telling me that I broke his car and that it never overheated and I'm lying.
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So the car is parked at my house for about 1.5 weeks, I find a freshly rebuilt transmission locally and I take the car to the shop to get the transmission swapped, the oil changed, that noise (coming from the top of the engine) checked out and the exhaust aligned so it wouldn't touch the bumper.
**
Oct 10, 2011
I get a call from my mechanic, he tells me the swap is done and to come over because he wants to talk, then tells me that the timing belt has cracks on it and it sure as hell has more than 70k miles on it, both valve cover gaskets are leaking and that I should replace the driver's side cam chain tensioner to get rid of the ticking sound.
So I did valve cover gaskets and while I was at it, I did the cam tensioner and now the car seems to be trouble free. It's getting new control arms next week and a couple other goodies. Car is parked and has not been driven since, front end is getting pulled off this weekend to get a new water pump, thermostat and timing belt in there.
While the car has been at the shop, I have called and txted Pat to see if he would please at least send me the spare key, nothing else, I was just asking for the spare key I paid for, he has been ignoring me until today. Today I made a claim with paypal to get my deposit back ($300), I don't want the money, I would much rather have the key and paperwork, he thinks I'm a scammer because of this but I always treated him respectfully and the only liar that doesn't follow through what he says here is him.
Thanks everyone for listening to both sides of the story and giving me a chance to explain everything and I hope the story shows that I did not buy this car to ''steal software'' from EPL or do bad things. Also, no, I did not race this car once, and I haven't yet.
I think the only liar here is Pat, he tried to screw me over a few times but it finally back fired on him.
Also, mods, I'm sorry for starting a new thread but I had to give my side of the story, you can lock this also, I do NOT want to start a fight that's why I kept this crap off audizine but everyone needs to know I'm an honest person and not a thief or a scammer.
Thanks again,
GWerks
Originally Posted by mmxruffryder15
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