Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 22:14:32 -0400
Reply-To: Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject: Does GREG'S Import Motor's Suck?
VW Friends--
Most of you folks know I don't make a practice out of slamming anyone or
any business.
I am, however, on there verge of vigorously bad-mouthing a business for the
rest of my life, and want to know whether anyone else has had a similar
experience before I do...
The story--
We bought our 1982 Westfalia from an honest, Christian, retired Red Cross
Nurse; a kind-driving middle-aged woman who kept the van garaged for 10
months of the year, and shipped it to Europe the other two months to travel
with her teenaged-kids...(I am NOT making this up). Her kids had grown up,
and she hadn't used the van hardly at all for a few years.
The van had 92k on it when we bought it. The motor had been "rebuilt" at
79k, which didn't seem unusual to me, since the van rested and corroded for
10 months, then got punishing European mountains and highways for four
weeks before being shipped home and stowed again.
Overall, she spared absolutely no expense on the maintenance, and I have no
reason to believe she told the rebuilding garage to do anything less than
what the motor needed to be whole again.
Here is where things get a little fishy.
She had all the receipts, and the rebuild looked like a semi-typical
top-end job. I say "semi-typical" because it was done in an emergency...she
broke down in South Carolina. One of the pistons was allegedly burned
through due to detonation...but none of the others. Further, the receipt
states it was the #4 piston, which normally runs pretty cool. Also, there
was no evidence that the shop had the heads refurbished at all. One would
think at 80k after a piston meltdown, they would have.
On our purchase, the compression was 30-120-60-135, so we figured on some
burned valves, and knew we'd do a full rebuild. No big deal.
The receipt showed that the pistons and cylinders were all replaced with
new P/C, for which she was charged $420.35. The receipt also shows that she
was charged for connecting rod bearings $49.35. That would be pretty
standard if a piston had melted down from detonation. With the good deal we
got on the van, I figured the cost of a rebuild; and that the brand new P/C
combination would be reusable.
So, Sunday, with 101k on the van (approx. 22k on the "rebuild") the wife
and I snatched the motor out of the Vanagon, and striped it down. What we
saw was a surprise, and made me question the integrity of the shop that did
the work, and billed our little-old-lady PO $1,400 for her "rebuild".
I have disassembled and rebuild dozens of VW motors; at least two or three
dozen Type 4 motors alone. Here is what I observed, confirmed today by the
machine shop where I dropped the parts.
These are the original (100k) pistons, except one. The rings appear to be
original or used, as the gaps are around 2 millimeters.
The #1 and #3 intake valve seats are dropped, #1 nearly completely, leading
me to believe the assembler didn't even pull the valves to eyeball the
heads and see if the seats were okay.
On his re-assembly, he torqued a piece of trash into the cylinder top seal,
causing the seal to burn through and leak compression.
On two of the cylinders, the ring gaps were lined up in a straight line at
the top of the piston. (They should be spaced out at 120 degree intervals).
The oil scraper rings were installed with the expansion "springs"
overlapping, so that the rings didn't expand out from the piston.
The connecting rod bearings appeared to be original, not replaced as she
was charged. The part number trace on the back of each shell was clear on
the inside of the connecting rod, and the bearings were well worn.
ALL the pushrod tubes were replaced and she was charged $164.80 for these;
I have never seen replacing ALL the tubes to be necessary. Sometimes one or
two will be bent or rusty, but never the whole set.
He charged $9.92 in "Engine Paint" because he painted the aluminum fan
housing and cooling fan. (Why, we may never know).
The spark plug wires had numbers written on them in grease pencil, with
numbers that didn't correspond to the tin stamped numbers, but to the
grease pencil numbers the mechanic had written on the tin NEXT TO the
stamped number.
My conclusion is that the mechanic was an imbecile, and the garage owner
was a swindler.
Anyone who would put the screws to our PO is a scheming lowlife worthy of
living next to a chemical factory under some power lines in a burning
desert. Our PO is a sweet, if not mechanically-versed woman.
The work was performed on November 11, 1993 at GREG'S IMPORT MOTORS, on
Willow Creek Road, in Florence, South Carolina (803) 664-0880. Anybody have
similar experiences with this GREG'S crowd?
Thanks for confirming or denying my suspicions...
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett & Associates
www.bulley-hewlett.com
Cary, NC USA
888.468.4880 tollfree
