Ok, started looking into a tune 2 weeks before Woodward(i know its late to be looking for a tune but the car took a lil longer than expected)so was gonna take it back to lidio but he couldn’t get me in until the end of august and i was trying to make Woodward since i was registered for mustang alley, plus i was wanting to be a part of the mustang memories show in Dearborn since i was a part of last year and had a good time,
anyways so i called Watson since i knew they tuned and they are local to me plus they do all the work on the cobra jets so I figured I will try them out, so talked to Patrick and he said when the car is ready call him and he will get me in(sweet) so get the car back together call him up the week before Woodward and he tells me to drop it off on Tuesday saying they don’t see any problem with having it done by Friday in time for Woodward,
so Tuesday comes and try starting the car and have power but won’t start....wth.....so couldn’t figure out what’s wrong so i called Patrick and told him gonna have to wait till tomorrow, so later that day i figured out what was wrong i forgot to plug in a harness connector in the passenger fenderwell from a wire tuck i did on the car, no biggy plug it back in and car fires up no problem, cars running fine 0 issues even idles without me in the car (have video),
so next day comes me and my neighbor try loading it in his trailer and I just can’t get it up the ramp without it stalling out, so oh well get the ratchet straps out and get it loaded, get it to Watson and the car is just flooded couldn’t start it so me, my buddy, Patrick push it to the back of shop, shake hands say see ya in a couple days.
So Friday comes and i call in the afternoon and Kim said the car has issues they couldn’t get the car started so they worked on the ignition and found that there was a plug that was plugged into the wrong place so they fixed that and loaded a tune into it so they could move it around the shop and it started but it was popping, sputtering, etc....and asked me if i had the plug wires right, coils, etc...i said yes the car was running fine Wednesday before i dropped it off, so he said there’s no way it would be done that day, so he said Monday or Tuesday, ok
so i call Monday and he says couldn’t get around to looking at it he's backed up with work that was here before me so prolly not till later in the week, ok whatever.....so then my daughter had an infection in her face from a tooth so she had to be admitted into the hospital that day and would have surgery Tuesday morning which went well and we were there till Thursday afternoon, i didn’t call Watson during that time cuz it wasn’t important to me, so got a voicemail Wednesday from Patrick saying they had some time to look into the issues and they pulled the plugs and 4 were new and 4 were jet black and they found some plugs from the wire tuck that was wrong or not plugged in but the car is running and they weren’t gonna be able to get it on the dyno till later that week.....
so ok wasn’t worried about it at that time so i called Friday to get an update and talked to the secretary and was told everyone in the shop was gone to Norwalk for a race and wouldn’t be back till Monday so i got mad and told her I’m coming to get my car and was sick of hearing the B.S. from everyone so she said there’s nobody here and if i can wait till Monday to come get it....i said no i want it today! so she said she would have to call someone and make sure its ok.....so she called back towards the end of the day and said nobody’s calling her back and if i can wait till Monday....so i said fine whatever....
so i called Monday morning and talked to Kim and he said the car will be done today, i said fine that’s all i want is for the car to be done, so i wait till about 4 and call him back and he says the cars got issues, the alternator is smoking hot and he can’t get the MAF sensor to be happy where its located but the car made 523hp and i was like why so low....how many lbs of boost....he says i don’t know.....(now I’m thinking like how do you not know, lbs of boost should be one of the things that you remember) so he says well I’m not in front of my computer right now so let me call you back, I’m like wtf! ok....wait 30min no call....so i go there and he starts rambling on about the alternator and the MAF sensor(vmp hpx) which i knew might cause a small issue but it was last minute since i accidently ordered a aluminum MAF flange instead of steel so i had it welded on a 12'' long aluminum 3'' cold air intake tube and just put it in the fender well where my old lightning MAF used to be just to get all this done and get it to the tuner on time,
so i asked him if i should put it closer to the TB like i originally wanted and he said no he will make it work so then i asked him how is the cars drivability he said perfect smooth, so then i asked him why the hp numbers are a lil lower than expected and he said well it’s on a 91oct tune and he still has about 4 degrees to pull and what was my goals for the car? I said minimum 550-600 is what i was guessing, so he said well i didn’t know you wanted a 93oct tune so i will retune it to 93 and pull the timing out and you will easily hit 550...as it sat on 91 was 523/461, so he starts talking about all the issues they had on getting it started and whatever so i said that’s funny because i have 3 different videos of the car running just fine before i brought it here and by now there is a few others in the dyno room with us and the one young guy said oh really? and of course i had to show them the video and they just stood there like they didn’t know what to say.....and then Kim says well i can hear a lot of noise in the cylinders....so I’m like whatever so he said the car will be done tomorrow....and all he has to do is get the MAF happy and retune to 93oct.....
so it is now Tuesday and i call in the afternoon and he says he got the MAF as good as its gonna get but when i pick it up go have the car aligned (I changed over to a tubular k member and coilovers, etc..before taking it to Watson...) and bring it back to him for a half of day so he can drive the car and adjust anything if needed, so i said well you tuned for drivability on the dyno right...he said yes and it drove fine but he likes to drive them after to make sure he dont need to change anything....so i said ok i will be there...so i got there and met with john Philips and he took me into the office and showed me the bill and it was 1875.00 and i about passed out, i said why so much, Patrick told me 2-4 hrs so I’m thinking 800 max to pay so john said that they made things cheaper by only charging me for 6hrs dyno time and 9hrs of diagnostic time instead of 9 dyno and 6 diag....so i said that’s crazy and said well i can’t pay this and told him why wouldn’t someone call me when it got over 4hrs and made me aware of the price issue or even asked me if i wanted them to even diagnose the issues cause i would have said no i will take the car back home figure out what’s wrong and bring it back instead of paying someone 85hr....and he said well this is what happens when you have a car tuned and that there is people that come there and pay 5times more than my bill.....
i said well this is not the first time I’ve had a car tuned before and he said oh yea who did i use before...i said lidio at alternative and he said yea i know who he is so i said i got there at 8am he had to fix a small fuel leak add a boost a pump and add a mafia to my car and i was out of there at 11:30am the same day and my bill was under a thousand dollars.....so john said well i guess he isn’t into making money...lol....whatever i said.....so anyway he said he would talk to chuck Watson and see what he could do and get back to me the following day.....so next morning call and talk to chuck well my wife did at first cause she was beyond pissed off about the whole situation so she got done and i got on the phone and told him my side of the story and he told me that his guys said i was lying and gave them permission to work on my car and blah blah blah....and said they had to work for 4hrs on the ignition and that there was problems with my o2 sensors (which nobody told me about)and about the price he said the car was worked on the dyno for 3hrs but sat on it for 9 so that could have been money he was making on someone else’s car....
i said so what that’s my fault that they left my car unfinished on the dyno....not my fault. But he did agree with me on that the car shouldn’t have been there for 2 weeks, it shouldn’t of even been brought there until they were ready to work on it, that someone should have called and let me know about the cost that was building up, so he said he could knock the price down to 13?? and i said that’s still too much so then he got kinda mad and said what do i expect to pay...i told him i shouldn’t pay more than 800 but i said 1000 bucks.....he went on about having to pay his employees and he is taking it up the rear on this and etc.....so he said come get your car.
So went there and paid and john gave me an envelope with my paperwork and started the car and loaded it on the trailer and noticed my wideband pegged at 20 and lean so don’t know what that’s about...whatever at this point and get ready to leave and look in my envelope and have nothing about dyno info, etc....so I’m like WTF.....go back in and tell john i don’t have any of my dyno info so he then gets me a copy of a dyno sheet that says 527/466 and i ask did he tune to 93 and he said that’s all he could get out of the car and walked away.......so now i just leave because I’m ready to fly over the counter and do something I’m gonna regret later.....get halfway home and notice it doesn’t say anything about boost, a/f , etc.....nothing so i call john back and tell him i don’t have any info about the dyno so he took my email address and said he will email me the file.......wait almost 4 hrs and call back to see what’s going on and he doesn’t answer so the secretary asked if i wanted to deal with someone else i said let me talk to chuck Watson
so I’m waiting and then john gets on the phone cussing and swearing and telling me he will take care of it and to not call back don’t call chuck and pretty much hung up on me, so now I’m pissed and my wife over hears him cussing at me and says f this calls the credit card company and stops payment to them and tells them the whole story and they agreed with us. Then she called Watson back and told the secretary to relay the message to chuck that she stopped payment on the card and if he wants to know why to call her back.....haven’t heard a word since.
So i took the car to Pete’s house and did some looking around on the lift and he noticed the twisted to all hell wideband sensor and have a small oil leak at the back of the pan but not their fault...i hope....and showed Pete the printout of a thread on svtperformance.com on 8-25-14 about some tuner codes...so maybe they didn’t know what they were doing and was searching the internet....so after i left was gonna go get the cars alignment done at belle tire in Woodhaven but they were closed so went home (which from my house to Pete’s and back is maybe a half mile) pull in my driveway and that’s the last time it ran......popped fuse at the battery in the trunk changed it went to start again and popped again....so thats where im at right now. Still never received any dyno info on my car as of 5:04 pm 8-28-14
So my experience with Watson racing was very poor......no communication skills what-so-ever.....maybe someone has had better luck but this is just my own personal experience.[/
