I feel that others need to know what happened to my car at Powerhuas Performance in Gloucester City, NJ. I had work done on my 2009 Pontiac G8 GT with roughly 37,000 miles at the time. Just facts, tune and datalog files, pictures, & video.

Here is a list of what was requested. Dropped the car off on April 16th. It wasn't done in time. Actually picked the car up on the evening of the 30th.

• ARH Long Tube Headers and install
• Custom Exhaust work to connect headers to existing Borla X-pipe
• Circle-D 3200 stall converter and install
• H&R coil springs and install
• Roll fenders
• Powder Coat brake calipers
• Powder Coat my new wheels
• Order Hankook tires and TPMS
• "Performance" Alignment
• NGK plugs

Here is a list of problems

• Brake pedal to the floor. Rear calipers on wrong side(upside down). Air in ABS module.
• Passenger side of exhaust knocking transmission mount
• Drivers side of exhaust severely scraping
• Exhaust leaks
• Use of non stainless steel adapters
• Passenger exhaust pipe repeatedly falling off of hanger
• Exhaust tips out of alignment on both side, one side touching plastic diffuser.
• Strut Mount Knock. I was told afterwords that during the spring install the Bearings fell apart and rolled away on the floor and they where put back on the car. They did not inform me or offer to replace.
• OTR CAI (Over The Radiator Cold Air Intake) installed over radiator support which left the radiator free to flop around and the hood closed on it pinching the intake. Hood is now slightly out of place. But CAI undamaged.
• Stalled several times on cold starts. (never did this before)
• RPM surging.
• Converter locking and unlocking erratically.
• some shifts laggy.
• some shifts super hard.
• 3-2 downshift too hard. Chirped tires.
• Confusion in auto and sport shift when going WOT
• Slower in 1/4 mile with better weather, DA, and better 60'
• Four attempts to make adjustments to tune. Some things got better, some things got worse.
• Cracked paint on fender. However keep in mind that G8 paint is known to be thin. I'll give'em that one.

Video of me showing some symptoms.



Spreadsheet, datalog, & HPT

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_1...it?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_1...it?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_1...it?usp=sharing



Video from the Powerhaus youtube page. You can see the exhaust problems.



Pictures of exhaust.































They have made 4 attempts to fix the tune. I took a day off work to take them the car. Had to rent a car. They did replace a failed oxygen sensor for free. Also went for a few rides with me and datalogged briefly. Not sure how it was missed because our datalogs picked it up immediately. I've called and emailed them about the problems. They stopped responding to my emails. The last time I went to the shop to talk about it during normal business hours noone was there. I've called more then enough times but no answer. I was really understanding about it for too long. Four opportunities to correct the problems is more than enough.

What I've done since.

• Paid exhaust shop to fix the exhaust.
• Paid the dealer to purge the ABS module.
• New alignment after new strut mounts.
• Paid a tuner to datalog, load stock tune, and make slight adjustments just to get it drivable with the aftermarket converter. (Better at the track in worse conditions and a worse 60')
• Still waiting on phonecall for my wheels and tires.

 

Thanks for sharing, sounds like Powerhouse is just a total hack shop.

 

So the car had zero issues upon arrival? All the parts were right and hen all this happened? I don't know he shop but I call BS dude. You got this posted on a slew of forums and frankly it sounds like you want attention. I'd love to hear the shops take on this...

 

From many other forums....

Quote:
Originally Posted by m3ntal
We are here EVERYDAY from 9am-6pm. Often times way past 6pm...We are also here just about every Saturday. The only time we have been closed was for OCMD and it was posted. Also, I check the call log daily and have no calls from Mike! Incredible. No messages from him either! We sent him an email a few days ago to let him know that his wheels were done being powdercoated but still haven't heard back from him! Often times we would get 6-7 email responses from him a day but now he won't respond to any emails about coming to get his wheels?? Instead, we are being blamed for poor communication.

Who is this guy in OCMD with a cobalt ss that was tuned by us? To date we have only tuned one turbo cobalt ss and I believe it was your friend. We just turned up the boost and left a completely factory tune on his car?!?! I find that really hard to believe considering it made well over 300 whp.

Again, I offered you a refund on your tune if you were unhappy with it. Instead, I was accused of not being confident in our work. Why didn't you come in for your refund? What gives?

Also, you KNEW about your strut bearings being bad. YOU TOLD US YOU TOOK IT TO THE DEALER FOR WARRANTY WORK BUT THEY DID NOT WANT TO HELP YOU. Why didn't you ask us to replace them????? Again, this is just being used to discredit our shop.

We have modified and tuned many cars since opening and you are the ONLY customer that has complained about all these issues we created. I find that overly odd. 1998silverbird has had some kinda of personal vendetta with us since day one. I don't know what his problem is. He has actually made up things that were completely untrue like the time he said a certain blue z06 had a huge dip in power after we tuned it. Newsflash, it had the huge dips when we baselined it! We also have never met him or dealt with him in person so I'm having a hard time trying to understand why he is talking **** about Powerhaus every chance he gets!

Here is a private message from bottlefed:


"Powerhaus Performance
We are just clearing the air with what your acquaintance is saying to bad mouth our shop when he has not had any first hand experience with us.
And as for reference you did bad mouth us publicly on facebook, which is your opinion you are entitled to. But Jeff was using your vehicle as a direct complaint against us that is the only reason your situation was brought up.

As for the 23* set across the timing table, I am not sure at what you were looking at because this is your timing table in the car when it left our shop. And we did pull extra timing in case you wanted to up the shot.

:screenshot of tune here:

May 9Kevin Garretson
well from here on out Im out of this. I do not know whats going on or why jeff is shooting his mouth off. I knew you and mike were trying really hard to figure out what was going on and jeff made it increasingly difficult. That timing table is nothing like what I saw when we pulled up the tune, so i dont know what had happened. Bottom line, Im out of this any future posts or anything that goes on Im not involved in, Ive told jeff to let it go several times already. I wish you guys the best."

Who is pulling the tunes from these cars? Is it the same person? Sounds like a possible conspiracy to me considering Roshan sent a screen shot of Kevin's car and it was nothing like what Kevin said he pulled from the car. Also, MGM GT has seen Roshans tunes in multiple cars and notes that the Red G8's tune is completely uncharacteristic of all the tunes he has seen. Something awry is going on here with the "mystery tuner" pulling maps from these guys that are all freinds. There has been DOZENS and DOZENS of happy G8 customers with custom tunes by Powerhaus. Hmmm...

@uncko macko

You say we weren't there May 22 at 12:19pm....is it possible that maybe we were at lunch that day during lunch time??

Also, I know for a fact Roshan sent you an email a day after the wheels showed up to our shop to let you know that the wheels were in and that since your credit card was denied twice for the last bill that we would need to run it again. Anyway, your wheels are here! We would love it if you came to pick them up along with your new tires. We are there Monday-Sat 9am to 6pm. Sometimes we go to lunch and eat though.

We tried to do everything for Mike to satisfy him. He came in multiple times complaining about his shifts and Roshan tried adjusting it for him based on his complaints. Roshan went for a test drive with him to see how he could fix it. I went for an hour long test drive with Mike and the problems couldn't be replicated. The exhaust did rattle a bit in the last 10 mins. When we got back from the test drive I dropped what I was doing and pulled a car off the lift to inspect it. I still think there is a possible problem with the torque converter but the tune is still being blamed. We have had 20+ g8s come through the shop in two months and no one BUT Mike has voiced any complaints. I am 100 percent confident the engine tuning aspect of the tune is good. We tried to help him in every situation UNTIL we saw his group of friends bad mouthing us on facebook. That was the last straw unfortunately.

As for the rear calipers being on the wrong side it was a simple mistake. The bleeder nipples were on the bottom instead of the top. I fixed it on the spot for him.

One of his ABS wires came loose for some reason and it was throwing a code and I had the alignment shop fix it for him while it was there. I was billed for it and did not charge Mike a penny.

Mike called me one day and told me his lady friends water pump blew up on her Mazda CX7. I took that car in the very next day and sourced parts for it even though I was booked for the next couple days and fixed it for her.

ALL of the delays that happened were solely because of the powdercoating which I had no control over. 1998silverbird just makes it out to be Powerhaus' fault for being slow or incompetent. You should see some of the projects that we have completed with very happy customers.

Yes he spent nearly 6k but a MAJORITY of that was in parts and powdercoating. Not to mention his friends tab for the Mazda was on there. Our prices were super fair for all the installations. I think we charged $100-$150 to make his existing exhaust fit up to his new headers which was not an easy task. It was also tig welded together. Many hours spent trying to get parts that weren't meant to go together to work because he did not want to buy the proper X-pipe for his headers.

1998silverbird,

You say we haven't returned any of his calls or emails but that is 100 percent untrue. Mike just said he hasn't emailed or called in the last month. How could I return a phone call if he hasn't called? I check calls every morning. Emails go straight to my phone...but none from Mike. We answer every phone call that comes through unless we are on the dyno and literally can't hear anything. I am wearing ear protection when the dyno is going. If I missed your call I am truely sorry. I have checked the caller ID and haven't seen anything on there.

You truly think our tuner doesn't know what hes doing? He has tuned countless 1000+ rwp cars. A LOT of cars he has tuned has gone 10's or faster. 135 mph+ in the traps....all tuned on OUR MUSTANG DYNO.........1000's of LS motors at his previous place of employment. He has had proper training and schooling in tuning. He is focused and knows how to troubleshoot problems. Hes one of the best in the industry.

I just find it odd that out of all the cars that have come through the shop the only complaints and bad mouthing are from a group of friends. Literally. I do not understand it. Please link up any other complaints about our shop from other people besides your group of friends that all had their tunes pulled by some person "that wishes to remain anonymous".

This will be my last message here on out. To our customers that are happy with the service and results please post positive things and thank you for your support.

Just so you have both sides of the story...

 

It freaking sucks.. Its a good thing to let the whole LSX community know your experience.

 

If you want to actually form an opinion of powerhaus, look at anyone else that went there. Read on tech or g8board about all the people that had great experiences. I know of plenty of personal friends that went there and had great results. Not just 1 Internet post