[Dub Kllr]

Ok, so i thought i would give this shop a chance and take my STi for a simple pro-tune, but I ended up with the same problems as Mathias. First of all, I arrived there an hour early for my tune appointment and all the other cars had cancelled for the day so you would think my car would go right on the dyno and start with the tune, but no. The car still didn't make it to the dyno until 4:15 when I arrived @ 3:00. They started the first baseline pull and the car was spewing black smoke like crazy, running ridiculously rich and it didn't even spool up til like 6k. Hill got out and was like "Yeah, i think we should probably tighten up that wastegate." So they start to tighten up the wastegate like I told them they were going to have to do and then they start checking my car for "leaks". They do like 3 more pulls and the car seems to be spooling up fine now and getting progessively better when Hill just hops out and jacks the front end up and continues to "look for leaks". He comes back to me @ 5:45, 15 minutes before the shop closes and hands me a paper with a page long list of things wrong with my car, basically telling me there's nothing they can with it until these things are fixed:
-needs new o2 sensor(hard to believe with only 34k)
-needs all new gaskets on the headers/uppipe(sound familiar mathias?)
-needs new plugs(that's true)
-needs to be checked for metal on metal rubbing(ecu interpreting as detonation)
wastegate needs crimped in order to hold target boost(funny because it didn't boost creep or drop boost at on the way home in any gear)
-and check IC piping.
I asked him to give a rough estimate and he came back with $800 minus a retune. . F%$K THAT is all i had to say. This shop has now screwed over 3 of our HBG crew guys, me, steve, and mathias. ON TOP OF ALL THAT, they still charged me 400 bucks! 250 for an hour of tuning, and 150 for bullsh^ting around and "trouble-shooting". I would NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER take my business to them, I don't care if they said they can make you 1500awhp for 100 bucks, this shop is a disgrace. I'm actually going to look into taking legal action against them unless they refund me or offer me at least a free pro-tune. Just stay clear of this shop, especially if you have an STi.
-Shane
EDIT: this a copy and paste over from our local midstate forum, and im sure the local guys will vouch for me too. I mean, they blew up a car that was on the cover of super street(steve forestr's east coast playa issue), that's pretty bad.
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[Styxbowl]

So are those things that they listed as being wrong with your car actually true? Why would they say they were problems if they werent? I just don't get it. You say that your friends had issues with them, yet you took your car to them anyway. Then you say you're going to take legal action (for what I'm not sure), yet you say you wont take action if they give you a free Protune. If they suck so bad, why would you want them to work on your car again?

[WolfPlayer]

What's HBG?

I think what, ultimately, people are looking for is great customer service. If the car is untuneable, then it's wierd because it takes time to determine that the car is untuneable. That time is time that they are spending with the car to determine specifically what the problems might be related to. That time is money. Simple as that. Now, with that said, you came for a tune and you paid for a tune ... and all you got was a non-finalized tune with a list of things you need to repair. That is incredibly disheartening.

I am not saying this because I am a fan of agile auto. In fact, if you research my comments you will find that I am not a fan of a most tuning shops. However, at the same time, they are trying to run a business and they can't spend time on people's cars without charging money.

IMHO, shops should analyze cars before trying to tune them. Unfortunately, no client wants to pay an extra 1 hour of time to have their car analyzed before tuning. I wish they would. Ultimately, the shop should give the client the option of analysis before tuning. If the client says no - then it becomes their fault.

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[DjChieNa]

damn....and i have a scheduled protune with them in two weeks

[Seeing StaRS]

DjChieNa,

Don't worry about him. He's talking **** cause he's a little baby and his car is all hacked together...

[dailydriversti]

I feel ya.

I got my car protuned at 6k miles.

The shop that i used informed me that;

I had a cracked turbine housing.
A boost leak that they took forever to find.
That i needed some sort of a boost controller. (which i didn't purchase)

[DjChieNa]

Originally Posted by Seeing StaRS

DjChieNa,

Don't worry about him. He's talking **** cause he's a little baby and his car is all hacked together...

I'm not really worried about it. I know and have spoken to at least 20 people that have tuned their car at Agile with no problems. I'm just a little worried that I have currently about 49,000 miles on the odometer on the stock clutch and something crazy happens and I end up paying for their time staring at my car and not getting an actual protune.

[MrTransAm]

So if I understand correctly, you bring them your broke down problematic crap and expect them to be responsible for problems with the car.
Number one, it helps to bring them a reliable car to work on. You even said "they should have tightened the wastegate" Why the hell didn't you show up with your car ready to go? Lazy or just plain stupid? People like you are a riot, "Hey, my car needs help in running right, but don't even think of charging me to cure my ailments."
Jezz, are you for real? Hundreds of satisfied customers and there are bound to be a few not so happy, but come on? You're issues should be with your own ignorance about your car pal. You don't need a lawyer for a legal action, you need common sense installed in your brain.


Here's some toilet paper for ya dude.

[Seeing StaRS]

Originally Posted by DjChieNa

I'm not really worried about it. I know and have spoken to at least 20 people that have tuned their car at Agile with no problems. I'm just a little worried that I have currently about 49,000 miles on the odometer on the stock clutch and something crazy happens and I end up paying for their time staring at my car and not getting an actual protune.

Dude, so long as your car isn't a hacked together piece of ****, you've got nothing to worry about. Besides, "dub kllr" has got his facts all ****ed up and distorted. He posted about this on Nasioc too. Look where its getting him:

Thread titled: I arrived at a tuning session w/my car in a bad state and I want to ***** about it
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...1#post18413223

LOL at the whiney baby n00b

[Insane06STi]

What I would suggest before accusing anybody of anything is to take your car to a local expert, i`m sure some of your buddies can take a look at the list and tell you if it is indeed needed. 800 is small beans if you want your car to run right, remember you gotta pay to play.
Oh yeah, I AM an Agile fanboi.

[Agile Auto]

First off, I would like to say how disappointed I am to hear that you feel that your service was subpar. I certainly feel that we did everything in our power to help you get the bottom of your car's issues. There are times that as a tuner I have to decide, for your cars safety and for our shop's name, not to continue with tuning. I always hate to have to do that to someone but our feeling is that fixing the problem and having to come back for tuning is better than blowing your engine because of pre-existing mechanical issues. This car was absolutely one of those cars. There were just too many problems to get a solid tune out of the car in the condition that it was when it was here yesterday. Sure I could have tuned you but the results would have been terrible and you would have had to come back to retune the car once you got the pre-turbo exhaust leaks fixed. We were actually trying to save you time and money as I told you at the time.

There are always two sides to every story so let me tell our side:

The customer arrived one hour early and all our techs were busy with long term jobs so we waited until the customers appointment time to pull the car around to the shop. The car was strapped up and making passes by 4:15. 15 minutes is the standard time it takes to setup the dynapack. It's not a roller dyno... You don't just drive on and strap it down. We performed the installs that you had asked for and started trying to tune the car.

We started off with steady state tuning as we always do to tune the intake calibration and immediately it was clear that his primary o2 was bad. The car had a p11xx code for a faulty primary and the o2 reads at full lean any time load is applied to the car. We checked the primary o2 reading against our Motec wideband and sure enough, the primary was done. We informed the customer that he would need a new o2 and he still wanted to progress with the tuning. Once I had adjusted the intake calibration so that the car would not have to trim or add fuel, we moved on to power runs.

We did a single power run and at that point it was clear that there were greater problems. The car made boost at 6k on a turbo that should have 100% of it's boost by 3400rpm. I told the customer that we would have to tension the WG actuator to get the boost to come on normally. This isn't a service that we provide for free. If we had built the car or done the turbo install, all of that would have been done before the turbo ever went in the car. We adjusted the actuator and now the car makes boost more like it should, but it was still clear that there was something holding back the turbo from spooling.

I pulled the front pods off and jacked the car up to inspect the exhaust manifold and sure enough there are 2 carbon deposits and lots of exhaust puking out from the head to manifold joint. Pre-turbo exhaust leaks need to be fixed prior to any tuning. That's standard.

Because I felt bad for you, I made you a full list of parts and issues that needed attention so that you could fix all the problems and bring me a car that actually ran half decent the next time (I had made you a list of issues when you showed up 4 hours late for your last tuning appointment two weeks ago and only half the problems had been corrected when you arrived yesterday). I did have to charge you for a small amount of trouble shooting. We do this for a living; we have bills to pay; the customer is certainly not sponsored. We're busy enough that we cannot hand out charity work.

If you need your car every day and you don't have time to deal with mechanical problems then you need to have a professional do the installs. I cannot and will not warranty work that was not done by us and parts that were not purchased through us (or not even recommended by us). A lack of mechanical aptitude on the part of the customer/installer will not be covered under warranty, period.

Again, I'm very sorry to hear that you feel unhappy with our service but we believe that you received the top-notch quality service that we are well known for. As always, if we create a problem, we fix it, but this car's problems were certainly not a result of anything that we did or didn't do. When a customer books an appointment for the dyno we have to assume that everything on the car is in good working order. The customer even signs a contract stating that the car is in good working order, which this car clearly was not. We did everything in our power make the car run properly but in this case there were major mechanical problems that needed to be dealt with prior to any further tuning.

Dub Kllr:
If you feel that legal action is warranted than by all means do what you feel is right. We have nothing to hide and welcome your legal inquiry. We served you to the best of our ability. If that's not enough for you, than by all means find another shop to handle your problems.

-Hill
www.agileauto.com

[bluesubie]

This is why i love agile auto... i havent had my car tuned by them and if i run into trouble like this i want them to tell me all my problems just like hill has just explained, i dont want a shop to lead me on like there are no problems at all then my motor blows and im screwed..HILL YOU ROCK.

[1SICSTi]

I'm from HBG (Harrisburg, PA) and got my STi ProTuned @ Agile Auto by: Jeremy and couldn't be more pleased with everything--The entire Agile crew were very nice and got my car done in about 2hrs. I was under 300hp and about 309tq until they hooked up the GM Boost Solenoid--the car moves now. Sounds like if the car was smoking on the first pull there was something wrong with the car before the tune. All I know Agile Auto is the is one of the BEST EAST COAST SHOPS--Best Bang For The Buck--AGILE AUTO ProTune

Thanks guys--I'll be back soon
Jeremy and Hill will tune your STi GREAT--Just make sure it runs OK first

[Agile Auto]

Thanks for the support

[bluesubie]

LOL cant help but laugh, sorry about your luck though dude..