THECRAIGMEISTER

I live in Casper WY and drove to Denver to Rocky Mountain Corvette to have LG longtube headers installed, an Elite Engineering Thermal Abs tunnel plate and have a tune done to recalibrate the computer for the headers and my Vararam CAI. After the parts were installed on the car Alex owner of Rocky Mountain Corvette was doing the tune. I asked him about a dyno tune and he stated that his tune would be so close for the minor mods I had that I wouldn't need it!! I figured that this is a Corvette only shop so they should know! I reminded him I wanted the skip shift eliminated. When he finished I paid and left. First shift skip shift engaged. I turned around and went back. He said "woops" and rehooked up his laptop. I left again when he was done. Still had the skip shift. So the third time when I left not only did I have skip shift but I could only shift from 1-4 no matter what? Went back and he hooked up his laptop and then drove the car and brought it back. I left and the skip shift was gone. I did some spirited driving to hear the sound from the headers and it was better but I figured I would want it to be louder soon. I fueled up and smelled a burning smell from the car. Figured it was still the headers burning in. On the way home my console was getting so hot it was almost unbearable. I couldn't believe it after installing the tunnel plate to eliminate the heat? That along with the 24-25mpg cruising at 80 in 6th gear made me wonder if something was wrong? When I got home 300 miles away I still smelled a weird burnt smell and my CEL came on. Code was for cat efficiency failure I later found out. A code that Alex was also supposed to turn off!! I didn't drive the car until the Flowmasters I ordered came in. I went to my local mechanic to have them installed and when he lifted my car I went under to inspect. I couldn't believe what I saw! The connectors for the rear o2 sensors were resting against the high flow cats and were melted into a burnt mass. I saw that instead of using any kind of wiring retainers the mechanic at Rocky Mountain Corvette just pinched the insulation from the wires under the heads of the bolts to the tunnel plate. The tunnel plate was installed upside down also. The thermal shielding was facing up? The instructions were in the box and common sense would tell you that the reflective shielding would face the cats not the console!! Two of the clamps were loose on the exhaust! I couldn't believe it! I drove 300 miles to a Corvette only shop to make sure these mods were done right and it was worse that high school auto shop! So I paid to have the connectors repaired and the tunnel plate fixed etc. All this made me think that maybe the tune was off? I mean after having LG longtubes, a TB spacer and a Vararam CAI installed I should feel more power. It seemed the same or less than before plus my fuel mileage was way off and the console got so hot it made my leg really uncomfortable! I had talked to one of the Corvette club members here previously and he had went to Corvette Connection in Denver and had his car dyno tuned. He said they were great. I called them and spoke to Rich Lenhart the owner of Corvette Connection and told him my story. He told my to bring my car down right away the next day which was a Saturday and they would make time to check it out!! I drove down there and again got 25mpg. I arrived and Rich checked me in and introduced me to Thomas who would be performing my tune. Rich showed me around the shop and told me about some of the projects they were working on. One of them was working on Rich's 1000hp 9.8 second vette!! I was talking to Rich when we heard Thomas laugh? Come to find out the "tune" that Alex at Rocky Mountain Corvette did was nothing! The only change that was made to my computer was the skip shift! Talk about an expensive skip shift eliminator! It cost me almost $500 just for the "tune". My air fuel ratios were so off that before strapping the car into the dyno he added 10% across the board. After 9 dyno runs Thomas dialed in my car and I gained approx. 30hp over the tune that was done at Rocky Mountain Corvette. Thomas and Rich kept me informed during the whole process and explained what was going on. I could tell that they really knew what they were doing and took pride in there work! When the work was finished and I thanked Thomas for the work and Rich for making the time to help a new customer and future repeat customer!! I left the shop and did some spirited driving and I could definately feel sop difference! I know that 30+ hp isn't alot but that combined with better throttle response made my car feel much faster! I fueled up hit the reset button on the average fuel economy and hit the road. 300 miles to go. I noticed my average mpg seemed to be much higher than normal. When I had some miles on it it seemed to steady out at around 37mpg. I couldn't believe it! I also noticed that my console wasn't hot at all. Felt about the same as it did when I had my stock exhaust. Must be from not dumping all that extra fuel into the cats!! I drove the whole way home stopped at a rest area once and when I pulled off I-25 onto my exit in Casper I checked my average fuel economy for 300 miles and couldn't believe what I saw. It read 35.1mpg. I had the ac on the entire way as it was 99 degrees that day and drove into a headwind and crosswind. Amazing what a good tune can do by real professionals!! I am thoroughly impressed but the work that Corvette Connection in Denver did for me and by the same token completely disgusted by the negligence and poor work done by Alex at Rocky Mountain Corvette. The best advertisement is word of mouth and I tell you if you are considering getting some work done on your corvette you better think twice before letting Rocky Mountain Corvette touch your car for anything!! I wouldn't even get my oil changed there!! I am sure there are many good shops out there but I am a very satisfied customer of Corvette Connection and will go back when I need more work done!!

xlr8nflorida

I would demand your $ back from RMC.

Vette X 3

Sounds like you got ripped off, but unless I missed something I thought the first shop insisted you didn't need a tune because for the "minor mods" you hade, you didn't need it? He told you you didn't need a tune (which was obviously false) but why did you pay $500 for a tune the owner told you up front he didn't recommend and didn't do? Did I miss something? Other than the skip shift, I would expect your tuning to be stock as he said he wasn't going to do it? If he tuned it, he would need a dyno and I would think you would have been there to see it done so I dont follow why you paid him for an edit. Glad you got it right- there is another shop north of Denver that screws people the same way. Be glad you didn't find them either.

Bill

Z-07 freak

cv67

A dyno is a nice tool to have when tuning but its not necessary unless you dont want someone putting miles on the car datalogging it .

pennstatefootball

wow sounds like you had a nightmare....


I had one too with a shop in NVa. Entered their shop with a PERFECTLY running car and wanted them to take off the Plenum / TB and cam covers to get them powdercoated. When I left I had an oil leak and idle that stuck @ 2000 RPM, but the Motor "LOOKED" incredible. (too bad somebody else did the powdercoating)

Gotta love shops that have great attention to detail and customer satisfaction!

ccmano

.... and why exactly is this posted on the ZR1 forum? I didn't read anything about a ZR1.

I've been in the car business a long time and no business has a perfect record. If we assume for a second that this story is true, I'd say Alex needs to make things right. I have personnally done business with him and find this to be considerably out of charactor. He has a fairly substantial following in the Denver area that is very happy with his work.

I also suspect..

Jagdpanzer

Checked out Elite Engineering web site and they don't list any tunnel plates for C4s. They only have them for C5 and C6.

Jeffvette

He has a C5 or C6. he is just posting everywhere to alert people.

Z-07 freak

ccmano, when did you move away from Denver?

lite blue

Cliff notes?

ccmano

Got transfered first of the year to Chicago, not a bad place but it's not Denver...

Aurora40

or maybe some paragraphs? It's very hard to read.

4DSZR1

Regardless what you suspect... I like reading this these posts, makes us all better consumers. buyer beware

ckulchar

ztheusa

Without paragraphs that is just too hard to read.

Tom400CFI

Because even though he doesn't the "super rare-exotic" ZR1, a ZR1 is still a Corvette. All Corvette owners might want to know about an event like this. Are only ZR1 owners allowed to post here??

MUSHMEAT

I have been to Corvette Connection with my 90 ZR1, Car would not pass emissions test. They threw various parts at it, in the end they could still not get it to pass. I went to another mechanic who got it to pass with a full tune up , she ran great after that and passed with flying colors. only cost me about 1/3 of what Corvette Connection charged for there work. They also said I needed a new clutch but 9000 mi later it still seems fine to me. I was not impressed with Corvette Connection. just my .02

ccmano

If you READ! at the top of this forum it says "ZR1 Discussion" which to me means you can own anything you want but this forum is for the dicussion of ZR1's. That's why there are umpteen different forums available here at CF. By your rational there should only be one!

There is nothing in this guys post about a ZR1, he doesn't even own a C4.

As for his allegations, they may very well be true, I don't know. But your reaction is exactly why these types of charactor assasinations don't belong here. By virtue of this one post you have made up your mind that this shop is a scam artist working to rip off all his customers or at best incompetant. I personally know this not to be the case because I have done business with this shop (and Alex) many times.

Anytime someone goes this far out of their way to malign someone who can't defend themselves I become suspicious. If this allegation is even true the poster would be better off confronting the owner of the shop rather than spouting off here.

I suggest to the moderators that they shut down this thread before it get's out of hand.

Tom400CFI

You are the one who needs to read.

I said nothing about the validity of the story, just that he has every right to post on this board. A ZR1 (as "special" as it is) is a Corvette, and needs tunes and service from "Corvette tuners/shops". Th OP's post is as valid here as anywhere...if it's a true story. Sniping him for posting on the "members only" ZR1 board is the only reaction that doesn't belong here.

The whole story MAY be BS. But he posted about a Corvette Tuner/Shop, and this is a Corvette board. There MAY be a (ZR1) 'Vette owner that lives in CO that appreciates the input...'cause I don't think that there are a lot of "ZR1-only Tunner/Shops" in Colorado.