Bradan Mondial T major service.

Ted,

My reason for posting these photos is not to hint at the fact that your car is "rough". The photos are to clearly show the current state of your car’s condition. I want the condition of your car to be abundantly clear by using detailed photos so this saga does not continue. When you receive your car back and you notice some new chip or scratch, we want you and everyone else on Ferrari chat (since your car issues are now so very public) to know what we are and are not accountable for. These photos show the current condition of your car.

You swore the chip was not on the front of your car when you inspected it. After doing so much work on your car, I was not even going to bother arguing whether or not I was at fault. I may be too easy going at times which unfortunately and obviously comes back to haunt me when people take advantage. I did not chip your gas cap. You asked me to take care of it while I was fixing the ding on the front of your car. Burning paint? Look at all of our detailing threads that show us taking sand paper and multiple stages of compound to a car and never once has there been a complaint of burning. The truth of the matter is you inspected your car in a Manhattan show room, an indoor showroom in the middle of winter no less, designed to make any car look good. You never drove the car or saw it outside. You just responded to my email that your car did not leak at all before I serviced it and when you inspected it in a show room. In my PPI to you, I stated multiple engine leaks, most of which will be resolved by gaskets replaced during your major service. Reviewing photos of the engine before we started show this as well. Again, this is not a blame game but a resolution to an unhappy customer. You are clearly very concerned about your car and expect perfection. I have respect for that and can appreciate it being a car guy myself. At the same time, my reputation that I care very much about has been dragged through the mud. So it’s now time to hear the other side of the story.

In my original estimate to you, I suggested replacing the rear main seal. I removed the transmission and once I saw it was in good dry condition, I removed it from your invoice. I told you it was not leaking and ate my labor time removing and reinstalling it. It is now leaking 4,000 miles later. Any mechanic on this site will see that there is oil dripping from the weep holes on the engine. A leak was a major concern on the front of the engine. A mechanic told you it could be something easily fixed by tightening an oil drain. You never mentioned this on the site leaving everyone under the assumption that Bradan is to blame from our major service job. Photos have been posted showing all replaced seals and gaskets bone dry. I just spent 8 hours removing an engine to make sure I'm not missing anything. If I'm wrong, I'm clearly stepping up to the plate and leaving it open to the public to see.

 

Engine removed. So far no signs of leaking.
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The front main seal, bearing, and the back of the crank pulley have been inspected and there are no signs of leaks. There is nothing left to inspect. I did see a drip of oil hanging from the front of the motor when it came in, no denying that. The crush washer looks wet in the photo for the drain plugs. Perhaps it's running from there and just hanging from the tip at the front of the engine. I'm not upset that I removed the engine or shipped the car across the country for no reason at my expense. It's finally an end to this ridiculous saga.
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As of now, this is no longer a warranty claim as all parts replaced by Bradan are not leaking. Taking the high road, I will not bill Ted the time it took to remove the engine and diagnose the issues. However, I do think he should take advantage of the engine being removed and do the oil drive bearing update and SR tensioner pads. After seeing what a failing bearing did to a 348 engine we are working on, I really take Helms’ words seriously and recommend no one passes on this update. I think the oil pan could possibly have a slow leak since it's in the same area and everything else has proven to be dry. During the bearing upgrade, the pan is removed and re-glued so it's killing two birds with one stone. There is no doubt in my mind that the rear main seal is leaking and should be replaced with a newer style F355 seal. All additional labor will be billed as if it was done during a major service.

 

It's not rough. The car is in really good shape for it's age.

 

Normally a rear main seal and clutch job would go hand and hand. On most cars the flywheel bolts directly to the crankshaft with the rear main seal behind it. On the Mondial T motor they are on opposite ends of the transmission. To gain access to the clutch you remove the rear cover. To gain access to the Rear main seal you must fully remove the transmission. Some photos to help explain.
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We did at the request of Ted. Customers have the option to have projects posted online or sent via email.

 

At what point is the customer wrong? Our name has been dragged through the mud. I lost 2-3 days worth of work for free. I removed un-broken parts just to discover that the customer is wrong. I told Ted to put the car on a lift even at a local gas station and take a bunch of photos. He did not and asked me to pick up his car to take care of the remaining issues. He was told it could have been a simple fix. He just assumed it was not and demanded I pickup the car. Do you understand how much time, reputation, and money was lost over this? Very serious things have happened from these accusations. All of these issues turned out to not be my fault and simply additional problems to his car. It reaches a point when you must stand your ground and fix your damaged reputation.

Let's go ahead and rehash the TOB. Ted had my cell phone number his entire trip. After driving around our area for a few days, he called me noting his clutch felt odd. I told him it must be the TOB and he decided to continue with his trip. He was never stranded with his daughter and made it home fine. A new TOB was sold to him at cost and we agreed to split the labor. The difference was to be mailed to me. I finished my end of the deal.

Ted's engine was covered in oil and it was difficult to determine where it was all coming from. Once I slipt the transmission and engine out, I found that it was bone dry. A new rear main seal is roughly $300 with a few hundred in labor to access it. How do you ask somone to spend nearly 1k on something that is not broken with all of the other money being spent? Your analogy of doing a full major and reusing valve cover gaskets is not accurate. The seal is not removed or touched in anyway when removing the transmission to see it's condition. And it is unrelated to the clutch area.*

No, I did not. If you look at a comparison photo of the front cover bearings, you can see Ted's car has the updated style. I will not go out on a limb at this point and say something is in good condition and leave it alone for obvious reasons. If the smaller bearing behind the cover fails, he will lose his engine. I will stress that I did not replace it because he has the correct newer bearing installed. But, we cannot see if they did the job correctly and replaced the bearing behind it.*

I could not reproduce his slow down lights but will keep trying and diagnose it when the car is back together.*

I make notes to all customers about their car's condition when it arrives. 99.9% of the time these remain completely private. Dated photos before I service each individual's car leaves no room for argument.

There is nothing left to argue or point fingers at anymore. We have to close this car up correctly, recheck everything, and hopefully Ted enjoys a drama free 2012.
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Joe,

I thought your remaining question was who posted the thread? I answered this for you. Since you are never going to stop posting and trying to find a new angle, I will simply explain how things work to you.

The commodity I sell is time. In exchange for my time, I offer a service that is billed at $115/hour. The amount of time plus parts is the total that Ted spent. I have proved that Ted has received what he has paid for with detailed photos. Regardless of what he has spent, Ted's car now requires more of my time (and parts) which I can sell to him at $115/hour (plus parts). This is a simple business concept. How many views this thread has and how much money Ted has already spent are completely irrelevant pieces of information.

Just because I am a small business owner does not mean I can be pushed into offering my services for free to make someone feel better.


Whether or not Ted or any of his affiliates would like to accept it, the quote below illustrates exactly what is happening right now....