Repair Shop Nightmare

[krs09]

So, I finally pick up my D from the repair shop that i've had it at for about 2 weeks now. In the past two week span I never got a call from the shop at all, although I did call them 3 times and talked to an assistant who knew very little and always told me to talk to the owner for updates and he'll call you back "he's knows more than me" I heard every phone call. I should mention that the appt was made to check out a starting issue hot and cold and a coolant flush while It was there. The owner assured me that that will be no problem and he quoted me about 230 fee to check out and "we'll go from there" so imagine my suprise when the next time I actually hear the owners voice is to tell me that they have a "good idea" on what is goin on with the car and my diag fee was now 1,090. Now they did do a little work 2 new belts, injector connector and battery cable terminal repair, all of which I never authorized. Little work for a 1,090 bill if you ask me. After a lot of arguing back and forth I got the bill dowm to 500 bucks just by stating the fact that I never authorized any addintional diag. Just a pain in the ass day , what a nightmare. So now im really back to square one and am going to find myself doing a lot of the work.

The one real question I have is what do you guys think of Special T auto?? Im going to need a lot of parts and the rebuilt parts look right up my alley. Worth the time or money? What do you think?


Vin#4870 - Custom interior sweet fuzy dash and stock everything else

[WelmoedJ]

I guess you caught one of the guys / shops that claim to know it all but actually only know about how to drain your wallet!
You didn't mention if you have any experience doing things yourself, but a lot of us started that way.
If you know how to change a belt, spark plugs etc. you're on the way up.
Even changing coolant would not be too hard to do it yourself: did those guys do that for you or "forgot" about it?

As there is only a few electronics in the car and most of it is mechanical stuff with mechanical issues, you should be able to figure out what's going on with the help of the more knowledgeable on this forum.
The electrical systems of the car are British (Lucas) and one saying is "Be home before dark".
That should give you a hunch where to start in case of electrical problems: connectors, fuses, relays.

As you mention a hot start problem: there are many sources this problem can origin from.
Usually the majority are vacuum or fuel related: think of vacuum leaks, non operational switches (ThermoVac, Idle switch etc) or fuel (mixture, pressure, accumulator, injectors etc).
If you search this forum for "hot start" issues you will find many threads and ways to resolve it.

Regarding Hervey's products the feelings are mixed, some have good experiences with his products (both new or rebuilt), some had bad experiences.
My personal experience is one of: most of his products worked for me (his baffle setup, 3 legged fuel pump bracket, stainless fuel lines and more).
The final decision where to purchase what you need however is always yours.

You have not mentioned your location, so its hard to tell you where to go.
However since you obviously didn't go to one of the DMC service points I presume they're not very close to you.

This may not be of much help, but I hope this will give you a point to start from.

[Delorean Industries]

So, I finally pick up my D from the repair shop that i've had it at for about 2 weeks now. In the past two week span I never got a call from the shop at all, although I did call them 3 times and talked to an assistant who knew very little and always told me to talk to the owner for updates and he'll call you back "he's knows more than me" I heard every phone call. I should mention that the appt was made to check out a starting issue hot and cold and a coolant flush while It was there. The owner assured me that that will be no problem and he quoted me about 230 fee to check out and "we'll go from there" so imagine my suprise when the next time I actually hear the owners voice is to tell me that they have a "good idea" on what is goin on with the car and my diag fee was now 1,090. Now they did do a little work 2 new belts, injector connector and battery cable terminal repair, all of which I never authorized. Little work for a 1,090 bill if you ask me. After a lot of arguing back and forth I got the bill dowm to 500 bucks just by stating the fact that I never authorized any addintional diag. Just a pain in the ass day , what a nightmare. So now im really back to square one and am going to find myself doing a lot of the work.

The one real question I have is what do you guys think of Special T auto?? Im going to need a lot of parts and the rebuilt parts look right up my alley. Worth the time or money? What do you think?


Vin#4870 - Custom interior sweet fuzy dash and stock everything else

I would highly recommend consulting myself or one of the DMC vendors on part quality and if a Special T part will work. There is a reason why most of will not install the majority of his components due to warranty and fitment issues. I know coming from a vendor it sounds one sided but you truly get what you pay for.

[thirdmanj]

I would highly recommend consulting myself or one of the DMC vendors on part quality and if a Special T part will work. There is a reason why most of will not install the majority of his components due to warranty and fitment issues. I know coming from a vendor it sounds one sided but you truly get what you pay for.

Agreed. If I could go "back in time", I'd have sent 1258 to Josh. He's one anal-retentive bastard, and one really wants that in a Delorean specialty shop.

[Michael]

Special T will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER see another dollar of mine. I will sell my car before ever buy anything from him.

If you need parts call up Julee at DeLorean Midwest. I have never dealt with Josh at DPI but I have read nothing but great things about him too. In fact I wouldn't hesitate to bring my car to him based on his reputation and other owners recommendations alone.

[Kenny_Z]

I like the parts I bought from SpecialT but shipping can be slow. I've got the clutch master/slave/stainless line and I've put about 3k miles in a year on them with no issues. I've got the fuel baffle change which works well. I did have an issue with the plastic coupler missing but John made good on that when I called him. I'm not sure about that baffle set up in a low fuel sitation on a hill though, it's all flat here. I also installed his fuse/relay kit.

I've purchased parts from DMCH and I think I got my accumulator fuel lines from DPI. No complaints from either vendor. I think Red had some work done at PJ Grady in the past (like pre-2001) because of some notes and parts I found. That might account for her overall good condition.

[Delorean Industries]

Let us know if we can help. We will be dropping a car in Philly next week at the latest and can offer pick up services or stop for tech support.

[DeLorean03]

As always, I will give SpecialTAuto praise in terms of their parts. In the nearly 9 years I have done business with them, they have been stellar in terms of parts quality. Shipping has been a bit slow lately, but man, 1 week for a part seems like next day shipping lately with some of the vendors, and I'll leave it at that. I'm just glad I live in the MidWest.

If you're going to order parts from SpecialTAuto and do the work yourself, you should be gold and good to go. If you're going to send your car to SpecialTAuto, I have no experience there, so I cannot comment.

If you send your car to a vendor or a specialty shop that services only DeLoreans but is not a subsidiary of DMCH, remember, you're getting what you pay for. It's not going to be a "catch all shop" at a low rate like most shops; DeLorean shops work on pretty much ONLY DeLoreans - there's a price on that kind of service.

Good luck to you with whatever decision you make!

[Delorean Industries]

As always, I will give SpecialTAuto praise in terms of their parts. In the nearly 9 years I have done business with them, they have been stellar in terms of parts quality. Shipping has been a bit slow lately, but man, 1 week for a part seems like next day shipping lately with some of the vendors, and I'll leave it at that. I'm just glad I live in the MidWest.

If you're going to order parts from SpecialTAuto and do the work yourself, you should be gold and good to go. If you're going to send your car to SpecialTAuto, I have no experience there, so I cannot comment.

If you send your car to a vendor or a specialty shop that services only DeLoreans but is not a subsidiary of DMCH, remember, you're getting what you pay for. It's not going to be a "catch all shop" at a low rate like most shops; DeLorean shops work on pretty much ONLY DeLoreans - there's a price on that kind of service.

Good luck to you with whatever decision you make!
So by grady and I both choosing not to join dmch owners get what they pay for by coming to us? Please correct me if im wrong in reading your statement.

[rothsean]

I think that if a shop can't diagnose the exact problem then there should not be any fee, period.

I will never take my car to a shop again either. I am not a mechanic but I am fairly smart and I have done a better job diagnosis and repairing my D than any shop, including DMC, has done. Any my price is right!

If you have a mechanical brain you can get enough info from this board and google sites to do all of your own repair work, assuming that you have the time.

I have had success just posting questions here and getting some good info.

Remember, most of these repair shops are just $15-$20/hour employees that jump from job to job, and at least half are drug users. If they can fix it, I definitely can, and better!!

[krs09]

I guess you caught one of the guys / shops that claim to know it all but actually only know about how to drain your wallet!
You didn't mention if you have any experience doing things yourself, but a lot of us started that way.
If you know how to change a belt, spark plugs etc. you're on the way up.
Even changing coolant would not be too hard to do it yourself: did those guys do that for you or "forgot" about it?

As there is only a few electronics in the car and most of it is mechanical stuff with mechanical issues, you should be able to figure out what's going on with the help of the more knowledgeable on this forum.
The electrical systems of the car are British (Lucas) and one saying is "Be home before dark".
That should give you a hunch where to start in case of electrical problems: connectors, fuses, relays.

As you mention a hot start problem: there are many sources this problem can origin from.
Usually the majority are vacuum or fuel related: think of vacuum leaks, non operational switches (ThermoVac, Idle switch etc) or fuel (mixture, pressure, accumulator, injectors etc).
If you search this forum for "hot start" issues you will find many threads and ways to resolve it.

Regarding Hervey's products the feelings are mixed, some have good experiences with his products (both new or rebuilt), some had bad experiences.
My personal experience is one of: most of his products worked for me (his baffle setup, 3 legged fuel pump bracket, stainless fuel lines and more).
The final decision where to purchase what you need however is always yours.

You have not mentioned your location, so its hard to tell you where to go.
However since you obviously didn't go to one of the DMC service points I presume they're not very close to you.

This may not be of much help, but I hope this will give you a point to start from.


No, of course im not really near anyone that really knows what there doing at least fora decent price. Im a service advisor at a chevy dealership so i knwo how service billing works and this shop just tried to screw me and i guess he thought he caould charge me whatever and id pay it. WRONG!.. Although a trip to PJ's(3.5 hrs away) may be in order down the road or anyone else i can find in the area. In the "diag" i did find out a few things i need

- fuel accumulator
- control pressure regulator
- new coolant hoses
- coolant pipe and otterstat switch (PO welded my pipe shut)
- all 4 calipers
- idle control motor
- thermotime switch
- throttle return assm (replaced the top large spring, looks like i need the attached to the arm closest to the switch)
+ a few other little things

Not too bad for a car that has been sitting for 20 years and was sold for a good price. It does runa nd drive but now i seem to have a overheaing issue and the shop said "they cant do a coolant flush". Great..

[krs09]

Let us know if we can help. We will be dropping a car in Philly next week at the latest and can offer pick up services or stop for tech support.

You are the best. It would be a dream to have you look at it but with my latest fiasco im tight on budget right now. We will have to get together and I can become your best customer.. Where in Philly are you going to be around??

[Jimmyvonviggle]

Let us know if we can help. We will be dropping a car in Philly next week at the latest and can offer pick up services or stop for tech support.

Sometimes it pays to just send the car down to a recommended vendor to take care of the more difficult things. Look at all the hassle and money you paid for these guys to play with your car and still nothing. They probably spent the 2 weeks driving it around and having fun.

I would take Josh up on his offer.

[DeLorean03]

So by grady and I both choosing not to join dmch owners get what they pay for by coming to us? Please correct me if im wrong in reading your statement.


My statement was meant as a positive compliment towards any shop whose primary expertise was the repair and restoration of DeLoreans. I would assume yours and Grady's shop qualifies as such.


Given the following Grady has had and the one you're quickly gaining, I would be a fool to say something negative without any knowledge, background story, investigation, understanding, or history of either of your companies.

It's a positive compliment. Hope that clears things up.

[Ron]

It does runa nd drive but now i seem to have a overheaing issue and the shop said "they cant do a coolant flush". Great..Man, this gets "better and better" -- A "mechanic" that can't do a coolant system flush (the right way), belongs in a Jiffy Lube...if that. You can't even trust the "diag" really...

It's getting me POed and I don't even know you...:boxface:

========

Sounds like you have access to all of the tools you need, except maybe the right fuel pressure gauge -- jump on it, as said, the members will help (or I'll ban their arse ;-).

[Shep]

Remember, most of these repair shops are just $15-$20/hour employees that jump from job to job, and at least half are drug users.Wait wait wait, where the hell did this "at least half of all auto mechanics are drug users" BS come from? This is quite frankly an asinine statement to make without anything to back it up, and this has not been my experience in the slightest. I'll agree that generic auto mechanics tend to screw things up more than they help, and have experienced this myself the hard way, but that's no excuse for making baseless ad hominem attacks like this. If you have some reliable research to back this statement up, I'll gladly concede, but I refuse to believe 50+% of auto mechanics use drugs without any evidence whatsoever. Some of my best friends are auto mechanics, so I find this statement quite offensive. (And for the record, none of them do drugs.)


No, of course im not really near anyone that really knows what there doing at least fora decent price. Im a service advisor at a chevy dealership so i knwo how service billing works and this shop just tried to screw me and i guess he thought he caould charge me whatever and id pay it. WRONG!.. Although a trip to PJ's(3.5 hrs away) may be in order down the road or anyone else i can find in the area. In the "diag" i did find out a few things i need

- fuel accumulator
- control pressure regulator
- new coolant hoses
- coolant pipe and otterstat switch (PO welded my pipe shut)
- all 4 calipers
- idle control motor
- thermotime switch
- throttle return assm (replaced the top large spring, looks like i need the attached to the arm closest to the switch)
+ a few other little things

Not too bad for a car that has been sitting for 20 years and was sold for a good price. It does runa nd drive but now i seem to have a overheaing issue and the shop said "they cant do a coolant flush". Great..Considering they tried to charge you over a grand and did work you never authorized, yet still charged you $500 for the whole thing, I wouldn't trust a damn thing they say. I'm sure they forgot to mention you needed muffler bearings since those disintegrate after a few years :rolleyes1: Honestly, don't let them lay another finger on it. Get your D out of that hellhole, take it back home, ignore everything they said, and do your own diagnosis. The calipers aren't available anymore, and I find it hard to believe that it runs and drives fine yet still needs all four replaced. Pads or rotors, maybe, but the calipers? How the hell does it drive if none of them work, exactly? Or a better question: how does it stop? They're nickel-and-diming you, and considering their blatantly illegal behavior, I'm sure much of what they recommended is not necessary at all, but you wouldn't know the difference if they did it all at once because they got it running, so who's going to know?

If you want a professional other than yourself do to the work, there's two places near your area I recommend: PJ Grady's or DPI. If you want an official DMC dealer to do the work, DMC Midwest is another option, but they are further away from you than PJ Grady's and DPI are. I have heard great things about all three places, so I am impartial to each.

[krs09]

Wait wait wait, where the hell did this "at least half of all auto mechanics are drug users" BS come from? This is quite frankly an asinine statement to make without anything to back it up, and this has not been my experience in the slightest. I'll agree that generic auto mechanics tend to screw things up more than they help, and have experienced this myself the hard way, but that's no excuse for making baseless ad hominem attacks like this. If you have some reliable research to back this statement up, I'll gladly concede, but I refuse to believe 50+% of auto mechanics use drugs without any evidence whatsoever. Some of my best friends are auto mechanics, so I find this statement quite offensive. (And for the record, none of them do drugs.)

Considering they tried to charge you over a grand and did work you never authorized, yet still charged you $500 for the whole thing, I wouldn't trust a damn thing they say. I'm sure they forgot to mention you needed muffler bearings since those disintegrate after a few years :rolleyes1: Honestly, don't let them lay another finger on it. Get your D out of that hellhole, take it back home, ignore everything they said, and do your own diagnosis. The calipers aren't available anymore, and I find it hard to believe that it runs and drives fine yet still needs all four replaced. Pads or rotors, maybe, but the calipers? How the hell does it drive if none of them work, exactly? Or a better question: how does it stop? They're nickel-and-diming you, and considering their blatantly illegal behavior, I'm sure much of what they recommended is not necessary at all, but you wouldn't know the difference if they did it all at once because they got it running, so who's going to know?

If you want a professional other than yourself do to the work, there's two places near your area I recommend: PJ Grady's or DPI. If you want an official DMC dealer to do the work, DMC Midwest is another option, but they are further away from you than PJ Grady's and DPI are. I have heard great things about all three places, so I am impartial to each.

Your tellin me, I took the car home when I got them down to 500. Wanted to make sure they didnt do anything else with it.. Well they told me I needed rear calipers cus the parking brake wasnt working (the ratchets broke) and I discovered the front calipers where bad when I seen the front wheels smoking after about 10 min of driving (the wheels were soo hot and when I push the car in neutral you can hear a squeak up front) i bet there hanging up. Thanks for all your guys help.

[dmc6960]

An just to thow this in there as well... The parking brake is a separate assembly from the rear calipers. Oh, and the are no ratchets on the parking calipers. That is on the pull handle. AND odds are its not broke. More likely the cables have pulled out of the retainer. A quick removal of the carpet trim around it could tell you for sure.

[TTait]

As far as Hervey - his parts are as good, or bad, as whoever makes them...

If they come from Bosch or a bona fide parts manufacturer, they should be okay. If its something he has had rebuilt, or manufactured locally - run away. Hervey has no eye whatsoever for quality control, he does not offer instructions, and gets defensive if you even suggest something is wrong.

On the other hand, you will get really superior quality and service from Josh, Rob Grady, DMCMW, DMCNW and DMCEurope. Houston is solid too, but the aforementioned guys will really go out of their way to take good care of you and make things right.

Your local kick ass vendor is PJ Grady on Long Island - unfortunately he is more than 100 miles away so you can't get AAA to send the car up there for free. You could drive 50 miles or so north and then call AAA from the parking lot of an Amtrack station, have then take the car up to him the rest of the way and then head home on the train...

Tom

[dmc]

You already tried to take the cheap way out to fix a special car.
Maybe you need to reprioritize.

[Mike C.]

You already tried to take the cheap way out to fix a special car.
Maybe you need to reprioritize.


That's the beautiful thing about hindsight, DMC... If KRS09 knew that his car wouldn't be fixed and he would be over-charged, do you honestly think he would have still taken his car to that repair shop? I bet you the shop owner did what alot of shop owners do that aren't familiar with D's... and that was convince him he could diagnose the car. When you are not familiar with the DeLorean world, it is VERY hard to find reputable people to work on your cars. So lets try to help our new friend KRS09 in getting his car repaired PROPERLY, instead of making suggestions on a situation he's already upset about.


KRS09,

First, I see you are a newer member and would like to welcome you to the forum. Im sorry to hear about your issues with your car. You are in luck, because the D world is full of a lot of competent people who spend their days working to keep these cars running right, as well as making modern day replacements for out of date or unavailable technologies.

I'll start with your original inquiry... Special T Auto, now also known as deloreanautoparts.com. As with any parts companies, you will hear good and bad stories about a vendor. There are some people that have had stellar service with John, and there are other persons that have had issues with his products and were not happy with his service. OVERALL, John Hervey DOES have a pretty positive reputation in the DeLorean community. You need to be understanding with John in the respects that he is a one man show. He has help doing things like packing and shipping, but from sourcing of parts, to filling orders, answering phones, emails... he does it all himself.
Do his parts work and fit? Yes, but this is also a subjective matter. He does have some great aftermarket parts that do work with the DeLorean, however they are NOT OEM, if you are a stickler for things like that. My personal car did have parts from Hervey on it, including his clutch slave cylinder, master cylinder, and remote bleeder system, and they worked FLAWLESSLY. My brake rotors came from him, and they worked FLAWLESSLY. However, i am a do-it-yourselfer. A lot of shops do not want to take the risk of installing 3rd party sourced parts because they do not want to be held responsible for the installs if the part fails, which I can understand.
Are his parts as good as OEM? Again, I had ZERO problems with his fuel accumulator as well. My car was extremely reliable and went all over Florida while I had it, and it did so with no major issues. Some of his items (like his seat covers and carpet for instance) were not to my personal preference, and I went with an alternative vendor... but others have ordered those parts from him and liked them.

I would say that as far as parts for your car, the MECHANICAL bare bones parts, I would have no issues using John Hervey parts.

Of course your other option is www.delorean.com, which once again I have never had an issue with when it comes to getting parts, ordering parts, etc. I personally ordered a majority of my parts from the Florida branch so they got credit for it, but it all ships from the Houston location and got to me in excellent time and condition. I have ordered parts from Toby and Misty up at NW, the Swingles at Midwest, and ALL have given me above and beyond customer service.




Now, with that being said....



DeLorean shops and reps

I will give you my opinions on the shops offering D service. Sometimes you get lucky and find one of those mechanics that remembers DeLoreans and can work on them successfully. Most of the time, however... well, you know the outcome... people talk a big talk. We do have some amazing options.

I see you are in the PA area, so you are not horribly far from PJ Grady (www.pjgrady.com). Rob is one of the nicest, most knowledgeable guys in the game today. He's old school delorean and can probably put his nose to your exhaust and tell you your front tire is 2psi too low! he really is a pro when it comes to D mechanics. You should have no concerns taking your car to him. He has helped me out over the phone as well.

You have the tried and true DMC family of shops. Yes, you would have to ship your car to them, but once again, you have a lot of knowledge coming from the people and their extended locations who are keeping the car alive. Of course, reviews vary from person to person, but overall their record is consistent... I had a windshield replaced at their Florida facility, and I had ZERO complaints. It was a clean, fast transaction and install. No issues. They even corrected the mistake made by a glass company that got cold feet after starting the process!!

Then you have the shop that I like to think of as the young gun, which is Josh at DPI, who posted earlier on this thread. Josh is the newer player in the game, but has had nothing but rave reviews on his work, communication, and his desire to help people out who are in the same situation as you currently are in... the ones who have had their cars screwed up by B.S. mechanics. I dont remember a single story of someone not being satisfied with the work he's done on their D's. If I were in the market for another car, I would have no issues sending my car to him at all, strictly based on reputation.



Then, of course, there's DMCTalk. We can always help you troubleshoot your car, so if you do decide to go the do-it-yourself route, you can save yourself some headaches and hopefully get it fixed quickly.



Best of luck to you! I hope this helps.


-Mike

[rothsean]

Wait wait wait, where the hell did this "at least half of all auto mechanics are drug users" BS come from? This is quite frankly an asinine statement to make without anything to back it up, and this has not been my experience in the slightest. I'll agree that generic auto mechanics tend to screw things up more than they help, and have experienced this myself the hard way, but that's no excuse for making baseless ad hominem attacks like this. If you have some reliable research to back this statement up, I'll gladly concede, but I refuse to believe 50+% of auto mechanics use drugs without any evidence whatsoever. Some of my best friends are auto mechanics, so I find this statement quite offensive. (And for the record, none of them do drugs.)


Well your friends are the 50% that don't. I have a friend that owns a shop and his biggest problem is finding employees that are not pot heads. Gallup Poll data from 2010 showed that 50.2% of auto mechanics had used 4.25mg of a drug combination within the previous 3 months of the survey. In addition, the FAF had some great data that showed the ATR was definitly out of line with the LBC, and THAT my friend proves that the point I made before in the previous post is clearly 100% accurate, 50% of the time.

Besides, I was having trouble diagnosing my D last week so I puffed out to fatties and I had clarity like you would not believe. I then proceeded to fix it and it runs fine. BUt when I sobered up it ran like crap. Must be the ATR/LBC ratio.

[krs09]

That's the beautiful thing about hindsight, DMC... If KRS09 knew that his car wouldn't be fixed and he would be over-charged, do you honestly think he would have still taken his car to that repair shop? I bet you the shop owner did what alot of shop owners do that aren't familiar with D's... and that was convince him he could diagnose the car. When you are not familiar with the DeLorean world, it is VERY hard to find reputable people to work on your cars. So lets try to help our new friend KRS09 in getting his car repaired PROPERLY, instead of making suggestions on a situation he's already upset about.


KRS09,

First, I see you are a newer member and would like to welcome you to the forum. Im sorry to hear about your issues with your car. You are in luck, because the D world is full of a lot of competent people who spend their days working to keep these cars running right, as well as making modern day replacements for out of date or unavailable technologies.

I'll start with your original inquiry... Special T Auto, now also known as deloreanautoparts.com. As with any parts companies, you will hear good and bad stories about a vendor. There are some people that have had stellar service with John, and there are other persons that have had issues with his products and were not happy with his service. OVERALL, John Hervey DOES have a pretty positive reputation in the DeLorean community. You need to be understanding with John in the respects that he is a one man show. He has help doing things like packing and shipping, but from sourcing of parts, to filling orders, answering phones, emails... he does it all himself.
Do his parts work and fit? Yes, but this is also a subjective matter. He does have some great aftermarket parts that do work with the DeLorean, however they are NOT OEM, if you are a stickler for things like that. My personal car did have parts from Hervey on it, including his clutch slave cylinder, master cylinder, and remote bleeder system, and they worked FLAWLESSLY. My brake rotors came from him, and they worked FLAWLESSLY. However, i am a do-it-yourselfer. A lot of shops do not want to take the risk of installing 3rd party sourced parts because they do not want to be held responsible for the installs if the part fails, which I can understand.
Are his parts as good as OEM? Again, I had ZERO problems with his fuel accumulator as well. My car was extremely reliable and went all over Florida while I had it, and it did so with no major issues. Some of his items (like his seat covers and carpet for instance) were not to my personal preference, and I went with an alternative vendor... but others have ordered those parts from him and liked them.

I would say that as far as parts for your car, the MECHANICAL bare bones parts, I would have no issues using John Hervey parts.

Of course your other option is www.delorean.com, which once again I have never had an issue with when it comes to getting parts, ordering parts, etc. I personally ordered a majority of my parts from the Florida branch so they got credit for it, but it all ships from the Houston location and got to me in excellent time and condition. I have ordered parts from Toby and Misty up at NW, the Swingles at Midwest, and ALL have given me above and beyond customer service.




Now, with that being said....



DeLorean shops and reps

I will give you my opinions on the shops offering D service. Sometimes you get lucky and find one of those mechanics that remembers DeLoreans and can work on them successfully. Most of the time, however... well, you know the outcome... people talk a big talk. We do have some amazing options.

I see you are in the PA area, so you are not horribly far from PJ Grady (www.pjgrady.com). Rob is one of the nicest, most knowledgeable guys in the game today. He's old school delorean and can probably put his nose to your exhaust and tell you your front tire is 2psi too low! he really is a pro when it comes to D mechanics. You should have no concerns taking your car to him. He has helped me out over the phone as well.

You have the tried and true DMC family of shops. Yes, you would have to ship your car to them, but once again, you have a lot of knowledge coming from the people and their extended locations who are keeping the car alive. Of course, reviews vary from person to person, but overall their record is consistent... I had a windshield replaced at their Florida facility, and I had ZERO complaints. It was a clean, fast transaction and install. No issues. They even corrected the mistake made by a glass company that got cold feet after starting the process!!

Then you have the shop that I like to think of as the young gun, which is Josh at DPI, who posted earlier on this thread. Josh is the newer player in the game, but has had nothing but rave reviews on his work, communication, and his desire to help people out who are in the same situation as you currently are in... the ones who have had their cars screwed up by B.S. mechanics. I dont remember a single story of someone not being satisfied with the work he's done on their D's. If I were in the market for another car, I would have no issues sending my car to him at all, strictly based on reputation.



Then, of course, there's DMCTalk. We can always help you troubleshoot your car, so if you do decide to go the do-it-yourself route, you can save yourself some headaches and hopefully get it fixed quickly.



Best of luck to you! I hope this helps.


-Mike

Thanks for all your help and info Mike. I know you guys are the best. Yeah and clearly dmc is not soure what he is talking about. I work at a dealership so i know you get what you pay for. The only reason i took my car to this shop is because over early years of working at this dealership ive seen many D's at this shop so i assumed they could handle it. I saw a D there as recent as a week ago so i thought is was in the clear. Well so much for that. The shop is a high end shop ( you only see high end collector and muscle cars in the garage ) and i really cant say they dont know what they are doing as far as work its just trying to spend my money without telling me is what rubbed me the wrong way. As a shop when you do that you know have no leg to stand on. Only owning D for a short period of time i can say there is no "cheap way" and i knew that buying one. Ive wanted this car for 20+ years so its gonna take a lot more than a pain in the ass to stop me from getting this car right and showing people how sweet THIS car can be..

[Shep]

One thing to keep in mind that may or may not have occurred to you: Special T Auto produces parts, but does not do any repairs as far as I can tell. That being said, I have no experience with them directly or indirectly, so I cannot speak to the level nor quality of their products, nor will I provide input to that effect. Simply pointing out that they do not service D's; they simply make parts for them.


Well your friends are the 50% that don't. I have a friend that owns a shop and his biggest problem is finding employees that are not pot heads. Gallup Poll data from 2010 showed that 50.2% of auto mechanics had used 4.25mg of a drug combination within the previous 3 months of the survey. In addition, the FAF had some great data that showed the ATR was definitly out of line with the LBC, and THAT my friend proves that the point I made before in the previous post is clearly 100% accurate, 50% of the time.

Besides, I was having trouble diagnosing my D last week so I puffed out to fatties and I had clarity like you would not believe. I then proceeded to fix it and it runs fine. BUt when I sobered up it ran like crap. Must be the ATR/LBC ratio.That doesn't prove a damn thing until you post a URL from gallup.com that links to the poll they conducted. I tried the following google searches, and nothing popped up for any of them on the subject:
- Illegal drug use 2010 (for only pages on Gallup.com) (https://www.google.com/search?q=illegal+drug+use+2010+site%3Agallup.com)
- drugs (for only pages on Gallup.com since 2010) (https://www.google.com/search?q=site:gallup.com+drugs&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:1/1/2010)
- drugs 2010 (for only pages on Gallup.com) (https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Agallup.com+drugs+2010)

Then I decided to quit focusing on only Gallup.com and try googling the numbers you provided:
- Gallup 4.25mg 50.2% (https://www.google.com/search?q=gallup+4.25mg+50.2%25)
Imagine my surprise when your post is the only post on the entire internet that has those numbers in it, without searching for any key words, just numbers and the word "gallup".

Then I decided to figure out if Gallup EVER did a poll on drug use with 4.25 mg of any drug whatsoever, so I googled around for it:
- Gallup 4.25mg (https://www.google.com/search?q=gallup+4.25mg)
And guess what? 31 irrelevant results. Oh, and your post, yet again.


Nice try, but making shit up only makes you look like an idiot. Until you post a verifiable link from Gallup.com, I'm calling bullshit.

[andy blackmon]

I have owned my can since Jan of '82, in these 30 years I have gotten parts from all of the vendors. I have never had bad service or parts from any of them. As for John Hervey he has alway given me good advice on how to fix my car, and I have never gotten a product that did not do what it was meant to do. I would not hesitate for one minute to order parts from John , however when my car needs work that I can't do I load that baby up and send it to Houston, and they have always fixed it right and at a fair (not cheap) price. I do not mind paying a fair price for good service. I have made no effort to keep my car orignal but I have made a great effort to keep it in great shape with all the newest upgrades, and I am proud to say the my car 03513 is one of the best Delorean out there.

[rothsean]

One thing to keep in mind that may or may not have occurred to you: Special T Auto produces parts, but does not do any repairs as far as I can tell. That being said, I have no experience with them directly or indirectly, so I cannot speak to the level nor quality of their products, nor will I provide input to that effect. Simply pointing out that they do not service D's; they simply make parts for them.

That doesn't prove a damn thing until you post a URL from gallup.com that links to the poll they conducted. I tried the following google searches, and nothing popped up for any of them on the subject:
- Illegal drug use 2010 (for only pages on Gallup.com) (https://www.google.com/search?q=illegal+drug+use+2010+site%3Agallup.com)
- drugs (for only pages on Gallup.com since 2010) (https://www.google.com/search?q=site:gallup.com+drugs&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:1/1/2010)
- drugs 2010 (for only pages on Gallup.com) (https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Agallup.com+drugs+2010)

Then I decided to quit focusing on only Gallup.com and try googling the numbers you provided:
- Gallup 4.25mg 50.2% (https://www.google.com/search?q=gallup+4.25mg+50.2%25)
Imagine my surprise when your post is the only post on the entire internet that has those numbers in it, without searching for any key words, just numbers and the word "gallup".

Then I decided to figure out if Gallup EVER did a poll on drug use with 4.25 mg of any drug whatsoever, so I googled around for it:
- Gallup 4.25mg (https://www.google.com/search?q=gallup+4.25mg)
And guess what? 31 irrelevant results. Oh, and your post, yet again.


Nice try, but making shit up only makes you look like an idiot. Until you post a verifiable link from Gallup.com, I'm calling bullshit.


Cool, good research. I have to admit, I just sent you on a wild goose chase. Sorry, but it was kinda funny. It is probably more like 10-20% that use drugs, simply because that is probably the percentage of the population that uses in general. I just made those numbers up and LBC is Long Beach California, ATR is an airplane and not sure what else there was.

Anyways, Brecksville Ohio eh? I went to Parma high school in the mid 90s but live in TX now. How many D owners are there in the Cleveland area?

[Shep]

Cool, good research. I have to admit, I just sent you on a wild goose chase. Sorry, but it was kinda funny. It is probably more like 10-20% that use drugs, simply because that is probably the percentage of the population that uses in general. I just made those numbers up and LBC is Long Beach California, ATR is an airplane and not sure what else there was.Well played. It's good to know my Bull-O-Meter still is quite accurate though. There's only been once in recent history that I can remember it giving a false positive, but even then it was quite debatable and there wasn't any strong evidence either way on it, so that was more of a stalemate.


Anyways, Brecksville Ohio eh? I went to Parma high school in the mid 90s but live in TX now. How many D owners are there in the Cleveland area?I don't know any personally, but I have seen two down in Akron driving around (one with dealer stripes and one without), and there is one that resides in a garage not too far from where I live. I have heard one in North Royalton, but haven't seen it personally. I'm sure DPI Josh could give a better answer to that one, since I'm sure he deals with many of them (more of a regional thing since he's the only shop within reasonable driving distance).

[Dangermouse]

Congrats on you both; rothsean for laying out the line of BS and EDMF for firstly taking the time to do such detailed research and secondly for taking it so well that it was in fact BS.

Though I'm surprised this line didn't tip you off "and THAT my friend proves that the point I made before in the previous post is clearly 100% accurate, 50% of the time."

:smokelot:

[DMCVegas]

... THAT my friend proves that the point I made before in the previous post is clearly 100% accurate, 50% of the time.

http://scentsofself.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/sex-panther-cologne.jpg

[Shep]

Congrats on you both; rothsean for laying out the line of BS and EDMF for firstly taking the time to do such detailed research and secondly for taking it so well that it was in fact BS.I've been in many, many situations on other forums where some members cite random numbers and figures as evidence without any proof other than "because I said so", and most times they don't back down, even when it's obvious to everyone and anyone that they're lying their asses off, even making themselves look like fools in the process. Rothsean on the other hand admitted he was bluffing, so no harm no foul as long as everyone's on the same page. :wink:

When he mentioned a Gallup poll back in 2010, I knew something wasn't quite right, so I tried to find this study to see if the data was misinterpreted (e.g. decimal point off, legitimate prescription medication studied, etc.). Then I couldn't seem to find it anywhere, so that piqued my curiosity, and I had a hunch it didn't exist at all. I was able to find a study on that one drug that is illegal except for medicine in California and opinions on who thought it should be legal everywhere for all purposes, and that study was done in 2010, but it only broke down the demographics by job category (e.g. IT, medical, blue collar, etc.), not by specific job type. And even then, milligrams seems much too small to describe that particular one. I tried multiple permutations of Google searches, and finally got as basic as the ones I linked to, not being able to find anything, so I called his bluff.


Though I'm surprised this line didn't tip you off "and THAT my friend proves that the point I made before in the previous post is clearly 100% accurate, 50% of the time."I actually thought this was another way of reiterating that same made-up statistic that 50% of mechanics allegedly took drugs, which would mean that for every mechanic studied, that statement would only be accurate 50% of the time, which can be rephrased into the line you quoted.

[AirmanPika]

I'm just going to chime in and say that I've had no issues with any of the stuff from SpecialT or whatever people want to call it these days. Sure on occasion shipping is slow but the parts I've always received have worked flawlessly...and I've bought quite a few.