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-   -   What it takes to own a modded ride - Part II. The dark side! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifications-accessories/30275-what-takes-own-modded-ride-part-ii-dark-side-3.html)

the best advice. for example, i've always wondered why people buy a honda civic and try to make it a Ferrari. all the money spent in the process could have been used to buy maybe a 350z?

hope you get everything sorted out regarding your car soon.

rahul, thats really a good write up... i can almost feel the pain and heartburn you have undergone during the modding..hope everything comes back to normal...and when are you planning to do the turbo setup?

That might be because 1) Exotics will be far more expensive 2) Some might feel its boring running a stock car :)

I wonder, do all 'tuners' have access to the resources in terms of time and money that is required to do the R&D to responsibly tune other people's cars! Or is it like they learn on the job and likes of our McLarens pays.

Rahul, all i can say is ....Sorry that you had to go through all this! waiting to hear the complete story.. Hope your car is back to ship shape and take a breather for a while.. let the car take it easy too. Do a lot of research before you do your next proj. Get your designs right on paper first. Dont fall for any tuner hypes!

Raaahhuuuuuuullllll!!!!!!!! Read your article a little late bro. My car's already gone for further mods (engine internals). Work has already started:Frustrati . What yaar. Thoda din pehle yeh article post karta tha toh kya jaaata tha. Now I'm shivering with fear.:Shockked:

Rahul i wont think of modfying my car after having read your article!! btw can we know who was the tunner/mech??

Very good article there.. I do hope that the bright sides of modding overshadow the dark sides.

Also, Seems to me, these two points are contradictory. Whats the point of having an A.S.S, if they don't even do the basic checks required !! :Frustrati I remember one incident where our family vehicle was given for service - the A.S.S drained the engine oil out and forgot to refill it !! We found that out half way from M'lore to Goa and did the re-fill. But the damage seems to have been done and the engine seized on the return trip.

Firstly,Rahul, it's real sad to see you go through all this.It must have been really painful.

But hat's off to you to stil have the passion to go in for a Turbo setup

No one in the sane mind would try to convert a Honda to a Ferrari..
If you spent even 1/2 of the amount it costs to bring home a 350z to modd a honda.. it would be give the 350z a run for its money plus go an extra step and who knows the Ferrari might not look so fast nemore.

The reason why people buy a Honda and supe it up is cuz of the reliability of the engine, the readily avlbl parts for modding and the ability of the engine to outperform its opponent without much of a headache.


FYI: honda civics are so far are known to be amongst the best car's to modd/swap engines in the world.

Cheers,
Shrey


PS: this is just my opinion,I do not intent to hurt anyones feelings.

Yes, it is the tuner's/service guy's fault but I feel you could have avoided this situation.

A car is serviced every 5K-10K kms and anybody who is really concerned about his car would make sure that the job is done right.

I never leave my car at a garage during service. I sit there and make sure i see all the repairs and replacements being done on the car.

Anyway, now that your car is back to stock, you can start all over again, maybe limit yourself to stage 1 mods, concentrate more on the handling package and make sure u check everything before your car leaves the garage.

Shan2nu

hey rahul felt a little sad after reading this article,
i ain't a car techie, i am guessing this whole ball game of modding is totally depends on mech science & a lot of foresight.
keeping aside the huge dent in ya pocket & a major heartburn, i hope through this ya learnt a lot of technical things on car modification.
hope it pays off in the future.
Keep it together buddy!

What do you think the manual is written by a bunch of fools who call themselves automotive engineers and top of the line mechanics and work in the field for over 15 years.
Some cars have the engine designed to work on the lower quality of fuel and some require a grade, keeping in mind to which level in the market they serve the purpose too, and yes premium or high grade fuel will cause harm to and engine in the long run, that's why the munufacturer takes the pain of providing an owner's manual that gives you the required information with the does and dont's...

Why will any profit making venture tell you how they make there profit in short or long terms, Auto makers will always try to sell you the so called best to the price you pay. Because its you, who decides what you want, and they will put the cheapest things that will gain them their profit and give you the contemprery satisfaction.

Aint a car techie either, but I follow a simple process here. And yes this is my personal experience. If I dont know what I am getting into, then I wont get into it. Simple as that and I guess mcl has already stated that in one of his points.

Hope the car is restored soon buddy!

Rahul, if I were you, i would drop all mods and go to Stock, maybe a free flow at the max. Try to iron out the problems one by one ,get the reliability back and then proceed gradually.

Also, regarding the gear oil missing, were you charged for the same when you went for servicing ? If not, then probably it wasn't looked at and you should have reminded them, but if you were charged for it and it was not put, then that is wrong.

Rush, memo, if this battle doesn't turn out to be a personal war I don't mind everyone listening to the other end of the story as well.

Mohnish, I am not aware what you have heard or from whom. Last I know my tuner "denied" the fact that it was his unprofessionalism that lead to most of the issues on my car. I think if my words were taken seriously when I brought up these issues I would have suffered a far lesser damage (monetarily & emotionally) than I have now. When I brought up some of these serious issues just before they went out of hand, the reply I was given was "So? What should I do if your car is not working properly? Go get it rectified from whomever you want or do it yourself if you know what is wrong." That attitude IMO is totally unacceptable, I have paid my hard earned (and my dad's to some extent) money in getting the work done. I think it was that day that I decided to call it quits with this particular tuner. My opinions were discarded, even to the extent that people laughed off my sincere feedback saying "I know nothing" compared to their knowledge. End result, I was right all the while. Classic example of over-confidence overriding the feedback of the lesser knowledgeable person.

Infact, I too would love to hear the other end of the story and clear out a lot of misconceptions that are being spread about me, my love for my car & some habits of mine which are most often than not blown out of proportion to suit others descriptions, whims & fancies. Makes for a good story telling.

Guys, I thank you all for your support. Needless to say, this will not be the end of my modding spree. Though I will from now on be careful about what I intend to do with my car. And do it right, the way I want to rather the way someone thinks you should.

I do not think it would right to name the people involved with this project (you can PM for the names if you are really interested). The last thing I want this thread is to turn in a personal war, each trying to prove the other wrong. Also, I don't expect you guys to believe my end of the story at all since my credibility is at stake when compared to that of my tuner. Many have told me openly that "We don't believe your end of the story". I am quite fine with that. Like they say "One will realize the pain only after burning their own hands".

Completely agree with you Shan. I have always followed this trend all my life till I met this person whom I trusted so much that I considered him to be my idol. Infact, I looked upto him as my mentor, who would help me learn a lot of things. I trusted him blindly (after quite a long stint with him being just friends). If I look back at it now, I think anyone in my place would have done the same. There are still a lot of people on this very forum whom I know will still have blind faith on that person and will continue to do so.

I do not want to prove anyone wrong or take revenge against the person by trying to mod my car again or showing the way it should have been done. What I want to do is to correct my mistakes, and mod to satisfy myself. To please my own hunger for more power. The way I want to. Good thing I learnt from this fiasco is to not to hurry into things. Or get carried away by the temptations. I will henceforth, check every work carried out on my car personally and never leave it unattended.

My sincere suggestion for all you guys out there is that "If your mech says he is not comfortable with you hanging around while he is working on your car immediately walk out of that place". And never ever fall for the line " Don't worry I'll handle it".

Also, this thread is not to deter you lot from modding your cars or bikes. This is to educate you all to do your homework, know what you want, how much you are willing to spend on it, what kind of reliability you expect, ask a few knowledgeable people and reconfirm your doubts.

I have often come across this statement that "Tuners hate a customer who has been to almost all the tuners to get work done on his car or bike". I have often witnessed people mocking such people. Truth be told, I don't see anything wrong. Mostly, they too might have faced such issues that I have and gone to someone to correct them like I have.

Yes, I had infact given my owners manual to the mech and asked him to follow every detail instructed in it for the 3rd & 4th services. Yes, I did pay for the services, but somewhere down the line I think things were overlooked (like it always happens in any Indian garage). I don't think any part of the service manual was referred to going by the fact that neither gearbox oil was checked or the fuel filter was changed according to the manual. I somehow have a funny feeling that just the preliminary checks like fluid levels etc was checked wrt to engine, radiator etc.