boostedGS

iTrader: (26)

I dropped off my car at a shop over 2.5 months ago to address my CEL (dropped on ~9/26/19). This is the same shop that installed all my Novel parts to begin with. When the car was dropped off, myself and one of shop guys did a walk around after I told him to take care of my car, it's immaculate, no scratches, new wheels, etc. He also did another walk around by himself after before going back into the office. For those wondering why it took so long, I assume they put my car on the back burner since they were working on their SEMA cars and other builds, it was barely completed on 12/6 and was told I can pick it up by Saturday 12/7.

It was raining in Socal on the day I picked it up, car was dirty, etc. I did a walk around of the car, looked for dings/dents/scratches and obvious curb rashes, and from what I searched for, everything checked out. One of the owner of the shop told me he had to move the car at one point from HQ to their other warehouse (their detailing location) and it was supposedly "stored in a safe location". Several days later when the weather cleared up, I washed my car and I noticed that there was a good amount of leaves/organic material in my trunk jambs (I never park under trees or near them), okay fine, not a big deal, I guess it was stored outside for a while. When I got to my wheels, I noticed both my rear wheel have about a foot long area where the bronze metallic/clear finish is completely missing and wiped off. The area is raw, the rest of the wheels feels nice and smooth with the finishing still present. Only thing I can think of is someone spilled brake fluid or something corrosive on my wheels and tried to wipe it off. My wheels were brand new with less than 200 miles going into the shop, and I'm 1000000% sure it was not there prior. This kind of damage I was not looking for when I did a walk around when I picked it up in the rain, so maybe some of you will say, its my fault for not catching it on the spot. I was checking for things that are easily noticeable; dents/scratches/curb rash/exhaust leak (since they did exhaust work).

I know it's a mission to install headers on our cars. The shop told me they had to "drop everything out, suspension/cross member/engine comes out, it's a 12+ hour job, etc. and its a pain in the ***".

But, at what part of the removal/install of headers/exhaust was it necessary to touch my rear wheels or even possibly bleed lines?
Did the shop take extra unnecessary steps in their procedure that caused them to need to bleed brakes?
(Any Lexus techs on here that can go through steps of proper procedure per Lexus repair manual?)

What sucks about all this situation is that I'm about to leave the country for a month and I don't have time to take off my wheels and access any other damage to my inner barrels (I opted for bronze inner barrel as well for the custom Work Wheels), but either way, my wheel finish is toast. I was told my Work Wheels, only way to "fix" this to the original way I ordered (gloss metallic bronze), is to order 2 more new rear wheels with that option. I already notified 1 of the owners of the company and he said its not his fault or the shops (the other owner has not replied to me yet). The sales guy that I left the car with and that did a walk around of my car twice before I left it there , isn't acknowledging that the car was in near-new condition, and he also said it not his (shops) fault. WTF. Okay, so at worse, I took an L on these wheels without any compensation from the shop (F that shop, after spending $20K with them, this is not the service I expected when I brought my wheels to their attention). My car was there for 2.5 months and a lot of things could have happened...

But I still want to know the procedure of proper install and what that shop COULD have done wrong in order for them to even need to be near my rear wheels and/or bleed brakes. I'm so pissed/irritated right now, only thing that's really keeping my head cool right now is that I'm about to go on a 1 month vacay, but to think I have to deal with this again when I get back next year is a *****.

chris07is

iTrader: (10)

Where was this? Since you’re local, you should’ve gone to Tommy at a. El Monte... damn sorry to hear that mate..
btw, the spring that I bought from you is still immaculate...

boostedGS

iTrader: (26)

This was at Bulletproof Automotive in Hawthorne. Yeah, next time I'll give him a call if I need something done, I only took it to BP again because they worked on it before and I had no issues with their service at that time and I was expecting the same. Haha, yeah, those springs were pretty much new, just installed on my car and sat in my garage until I uninstalled them and sold them to you.




Side note: Weeks after I dropped off my stock parts to them, when they were just about to schedule work on my car, I get a text saying, "we looked thoroughly through all your exhaust components and your headers are missing, are you sure you dropped them off? maybe you forgot" (The person telling me this is the same person that helped me unload all the parts and he instructed me to place all my parts on this pallet they had after I had asked where to place them). He was trying to place the blame on me as if I never brought them in the first place. After I called and chewed him out on the phone, he texts me saying, "oh we found it, it was right here all along". So much for "we looked thoroughly through all your exhaust components", "are you sure you dropped them off", etc. when there were only 5 pieces to begin with on that pallet.

One thing that stood out while talking to one of the owners, Avi, he mentioned "We can't lose couple grand on every customer, we only made couple grand from your Novel order" (Damn, how many times have you guys lost couple grand on customers? Seems like a lot to say that statement). This was in response to me because I was telling him sometimes as a business owner you have to bite the bullet and make things right with customers. In my case, one of his techs definitely ****ed up and isn't fessing up to this accident at some point under their 2.5 months of storage at their shop and should at least provide partial remedy (or full) rather than just tell me "I don't know what happened, its not our fault we never touched them".

I live and I learn. Next time will take a full video of whenever I drop off my car at the shop, as the rest of you guys should too.

BP (if you see this): How could you be so sure of "we never touched them" when you guys (Avi/David) are the same guys that tell me, "Let me check with the techs" every time I asked a question that's technical and related to process of repair. You guys most likely asked the techs if they ****ed up, but obviously they wont fess up, and the other other outcome to that is, "must be customers fault or was like that when it came in", since the techs denied messing up on the accident (obviously what was done). So much for the walk around done by David and myself to check for any damages if he's not going to even knowledge that a walk around was even done to prove my car's prior condition. Clear coat/color missing on 2 wheels on portions greater than 1 foot in length and several inches wide is something very noticeable on the sunny day I dropped it off if it was there (which it wasn't, they were brand new). This was not once mentioned or noticed before because it wasn't there. David and I did a walk around, and David also did another walk around by himself, which proved to be useless in my case. Two and half months at your location(s) is a long time and anything could have happened there. Being a customer that spent $20K, you should treat me better even if it means that the profit you made from me, will be lost. <This will only keep me as your loyal customer in the future, and I won't end up being another one of your negative reviews.

BossMoss

Two and a half months to fix the CEL??? Am I reading that right? That should be a ½ day job. How many miles were put on the car while they had it? Makes one wonder whether it was wrecked and repaired during all that time. Not sure how your wheel would lose half it's clear coat other than a poorly done repair job. There has to be more to this story. Just saying...

LoSt180

This is a common problem with Rays wheels honestly. Their tech is probably right that they didn't mess up your wheels, the guy detailing your car most likely sprayed it with wheel cleaner.

Here's a copypasta from an old Nissan Z thread when people were having the same problem with the finish "coming off" much like yours looks right now:

9tooSoarer

fwiw I was with him when he dropped off his RC-F at BPA and another homie. I can vouch that his car was pristine at the time of delivery. He is **** about keeping his cars clean.

boostedGS

iTrader: (26)

Yup, 2.5 months. At the time, they were busy with SEMA prep so I understand, but I still wasn't expecting all that time. Nothing else to the story on my part. I'm definitely missing something from their end thats why I'm asking as well. I was told it was going to be in a safe location for storage during all this time. During the questioning of wth happened to my car, he texted me my car was "stored on the side of the building". Lots of things could have happened during 2.5 months, especially on the "side of the building". I can't believe that's how they treated a car when the owner specifically mentioned the car is immaculate, has brand new wheels, doesn't have a scratch or swirl on the paint and also after requesting a walk around to verify condition; two walk arounds of the car was done by David. David isn't acknowledging this. This is what makes it more ****ed up. Fake walk around verification of car condition. Next time, I'll have to take a video of the walk around. I told them to pull up their surveillance from that day because it will show David doing 1 walk thru of the car with me and one by himself. (I would do the same thing to if someone was telling me their car is in show room condition with new wheels, paint doesn't have any scratches or swirls, body doesn't have one ding or dent, etc.)

Common problem only on Rays wheels? It doesn't matter that my wheels aren't Rays, but are Work Wheels, but corrosion doesn't discriminate.

Blame my detailer? Definitely not him. I'm my own detailer.

Also, even if this damage was not done by something header/exhaust install related, someone still damaged my wheels while under their care and I'm disappointed on the way they handled the situation. It's a common thing to happen; shops messing up wheels, etc. I just didn't think it would happen at a shop that people speak highly of, a shop that I spent $20K at. I took an L. I just wanted to share my experience and wanted to see if any mechanics on here can put their 2 cents in on what actions could have caused them to be near my wheels IF this was some how repair related. Maybe they took a route that may have caused them to need to bleed lines, etc. (relating to BP telling me they "dropped the whole cross member/suspension/engine out"). <<Is this even necessary to that point to install headers?

The damage looks like something was spilled because there are small spottings here and there, and it appears to be wiped off in a side-to-side fashion. On some parts I can see the fine lines/scratches the towel made on the raw metal after the coating vanished.

Ricardorc

iTrader: (3)

Sorry to hear that sir, I would be pretty upset as well. It almost looks like they used a heavy duty go-gone to remove whatever was spilled on the wheel
have you tried using rubbing compound or polish with a small buffer to see it comes off?

good luck with this sir! Hopefully they will take ownership of this issue.

good vibes to you sir !!

Mingofish

A standard header install has nothing to do with brake lines. Just the front sub frame has to come off and the motor dropped down a bit to get clearance.

Really nothing to do with wheels. All 4 wheels can stay on during install.

fwiw I got a bad vibe from BP years ago when I tried to buy some parts from them. Felt the bad juju and went else where to spend my money.
They think their poop don’t stink since they’re one of the big boys in So Cal.
Either hound the crap out of em and blast their social media, or call it a loss and go on vacation.

Personally I’d get all 4 wheels repainted by a quality shop and call it good.

boostedGS

iTrader: (26)

Thanks. No point in compound/polish as the clear coat, bronze metallic is gone. I would only be polish the bare metal.

I consider this a full loss on my end as Avi, one of the owner is denying it, the sales guy is not acknowledging the walk thru he did twice because I requested it and told him my car is immaculate, no scratches on anything and it has brand new wheels, the other owner Ben, ignored my messages that he read.

^Thanks for that confirmation. I asked my Lexus advisor as well and his techs also said the same thing. But if this isn't the case, something still happened under 2.5 months of their care that they should take responsibility for rather than to brush me aside like they did to my car.

I could get them redone, but I paid extra and waited long for this custom finish through Work Wheels. Also, this is a 1 piece wheel so the whole wheel would have to be powder coated 1 color which defeats the purpose of paying extra for the bronze finish on wheels and gloss black faces. Oh well, I learned from this mistake. I'll probably list them up for sale when I get back.

Good thing you didn't give them your business, they don't deserve it. They work with so many Japanese companies, it's time for them to learn about Japanese customer service. I'll definitely be leaving reviews on every forum I'm on when I get a chance, especially on the Nissan forums which I'm sure they're big on. They probably dont care about my review on the Lexus forums as Avi told me I'm one of the very few Lexus customers.

LoSt180

I think you missed my point here. Rays, Work, Volks, etc have special coatings on them that can be damaged by wheel cleaners. Your wheel looks like something was sprayed on there then wiped clean.

The shop probably tried to detail your car for you since they've had it for so long. Go check out "their other warehouse (their detailing location)" that you mentioned earlier, and if they have any wheel cleaning chemicals there, that's most likely where your wheels got messed up.

BossMoss

You, sir, are a trusting soul. So unfortunate that they took advantage of you like this. If it was my car, I would have said no to the 2+ months wait and asked them to call me when they had time to do the job (or gone elsewhere). I'm not trusting enough for someone to hand onto my car that long with no work being done. Having said that, I also have custom ordered rims that were scratched by a local shop that I asked to install my SS brake lines. The difference is that when I discovered the scratches during my next wash, the shop owner immediately accepted responsibility and paid for the repairs. That will bring him boatload of good karma. Of course, all shops have insurance for this sort of thing as well.

Frankly, if I owned that shop, when you announced that you were major league OCD about your car (as we all are) and wanted a double walk around, I would have asked you to bring it back when I had a day to get the job done rather than keep the car for months. Way too many potential for mishaps. The longer it sat and collected leaves and dust, the less care they took with it because it would have looked like it was poorly cared for.

Regardless, what a major PITA. I hope they lose a ton of business as word gets out. And I'm seriously bummed for you.

Roche

I had this same issue at the Lexus dealership. Brought it in for a warranty battery replacement, they had it for 2 months because of battery backorder. When I picked it up there were swirl marks in the paint. I am super ****, it's a 2015 and almost exclusively lives in my garage. All washes have been done by me, by hand, and I told them not to wash it when I dropped it off. They even made a note on the keytag "no wash" which was crossed out when I picked the car up.

When I got it home I found pine needles and small bits of pine cones in the trunk mouldings and under the edge of the hood. Basically they left it out in the back of their lot (where the pine trees are) so it must have gotten covered in sap and tree poop, and then they had to clean it to get all that mess off the car before I saw it, even through I specified not to wash it, as I do every time I have taken it in. I would have rather they just left the car dirty and let me clean it myself, or better yet, protected it from damage in the first place. All I ever got was an apology from the service adviser for washing my car when I asked them not to, which makes me sound like a huge baby for complaining that they had the audacity to do me a "favor" by washing the car for me before pickup. The service manager finally gave me a call back after a couple days but I couldn't even handle talking about it, I was so pissed off. At that point I was just trying to get over it and had already spent hours detailing and waxing the car to try to mitigate the marring.

The swirl marks are really minor, it just sucks so much when you keep a car in showroom new condition for 3 and a half years, and then have that vanish from one visit to the dealership where you bought the car.

I'm guessing the exact same thing happened to you. They stored it outside, forgot about it, then tried to clean it up so it didn't look like hot garbage when you picked it up, but ended up doing more damage cleaning it than you would have done if they had just left it for you to deal with. They probably had enough expertise not to hurt the paint, but didn't realize that the wheels had a different finish, and just grabbed a regular wheel cleaner, which ended up corroding parts of the top coat.

Lammyyy

Similar experience here with BPA! Didn't really like their customer service when I spoke with them about getting some parts...

I haven't heard very good things about them as of late either so definitely a shop to avoid!

boostedGS

iTrader: (26)

You are most likely right on that!

Kudos to that shop that resolved your problem! Definitely good karma for them! I hope BP Auto loses a lot of potential business.. this is definitely not how to treat a customer that spend some money there.

^Yup, you and Lost180 may be right on that. But why only the rear wheels? They didn't learn from their mistake after 1 time, but had to make the same mistake again? hahaha. If that's the case, they are all idiots.

Only other explanation I received from a Lexus tech was that, if these guys are that incompetent and completely dropped out my cross member (which is not necessary at all for headers install) and all components out to install headers, then a brake bleed would be necessary assuming they took apart everything, disconnected brake lines, etc. If this happened, they possibly squirted out brake fluid in rears while bleeding and got some on the wheels, and tried to wipe off. The front wheels wouldn't have this problem since the wheels would have been removed, so when bleeding, no wheels are present to be damaged. Bulletproof Auto (Avi one of the owners) did say it will be an easy 10-12+ hour job, maybe they did do things the long and unnecessary way. Avi did tell me, "if this was a GTR, no problem, but since were not experts on Lexus".

But either way, it's definitely one of ^ these explanations that caused the damage, and they should have taken of my car and resolved this problem.

I also contacted Ben Schaeffer, the other owner via IG, after this happened, he read my messages but did not reply. Couple days later, he posted a picture of a $10,000 bottle of whisky he is drinking. I guess flossing the expensive whisky he is drinking is more important than taking care of his customers.

Lucky for you your car never went there. Horrible customer service. Glad you took your money elsewhere!