Warranties For Halfcuts

[Danny]

sad to see so many ppl got problems with engine transplants.

vestax, true, half cut shops mostly 1 month.

as for purchasing from anyone, it all depends on what are the terms and representations given or agreed upon by both parties. For example :-

Case 1 - No warranty given. Full amount is paid. If got any problems then it is the buyer's fault. I think everyone will agree on this.

Case 2 - 1 or 2 month general warranty given for faulty parts - if no specific parts are mentioned, then by legal intepretation ALL parts should be replaced. Whether it is likely to wear out or not is not relavant, since the warranty given is general & covers everything.

Case 3 - 1 or 2 month warranty given for faulty parts - specific parts only, then when those specific parts are faulty, it should be replaced by the seller. (I think this is the fairest to agree upon for both parties ie. should write down what parts that are actually covered).

In the end, it all depends on what you and the seller agree upon ie the agreement terms. All other factors are not important as these are the only things binding both parties. So, if you happen to be in Case 1, then really bad luck. You have nothing to back you up except if you can proof verbally there was a cheating case.

 

[vestax]

well to tell u the truth , gaskets & seals are cheap , just that the workmanship is expensive , so best advice change those stuff before transplanting so it will be less hassle . since you had mention what ever parts is faulty you should be able to claim from the owner , right now you had mention gaskets & seals right ? so the owner should pay for the parts , workmanship is not included cause , you claim for the faulty parts only , so that sounds logic to me . asking to pay for the workmanship as well , i do not agree on that . cause basically if you buy a halfcut , once the engine is in , say if the engine is faulty u`ll get a replacement , but then labour to take out the engine and fix it back you have to bare with it , get what i mean ?.

 

[Danny]

in most cases true. Very unlikely that the warranty will cover workmanship unless the problem is due to workmanship and it is your own mechanic doing it for you.

That's why as an advise for new forumers who are thinking of engine transplants, in the ideal situation make sure you ask the seller to write down what is covered and what is not (or you can draft out something yourself and ask him to sign). So when something does go wrong, you know who is responsible for what. Get everything sorted out at the beginning to avoid complications.

There are exceptions to the rule when something out of the ordinary happen. For example, in some cases you pay part payment (eg 30/40/50%) & the balance when the transplant is done, provided there are no faults to the parts that you have bought. In this case, when some parts is found faulty and the seller refuses to change the part for you, there is a dilemma. What to do in this case?U see, many complications can come out if there is nothing written beforehand. If both parties are giving each other hardballs, you are faced with very bad practical solutions:-

1. Take out everything and pass it back to the seller? Then how about those parts that are replaced, and what about the workmanship? Since it is the seller that refuse to honor the agreement... should he pay for everything? Also if you take out everything that you have replaced ie gasket, seals etc, what is the seller going to do with the engine, it is useless already without those parts.

2. Get an engine block from another source and have it registered yourself. This will incur extra workmanship and parts cost. Who is the one responsible to bear?

vestax, most people say that it is better to change all the parts before you transplant. I tend to agree with this. There are also some that say transplant first and find out if any parts need to be changed, due to the fact that the parts you are changing may not be new, problems may occur because you are putting 2nd hand parts to replace. So, which one is a better solution?

 

[vestax]

i had a good & bad experience with the conversion i did . well as for my case , before transplanting the engine , i had consult some users in the forum , i had seek advice from them , all had mention to budget more , and standby atleast 1k for emergency use . so if anything goes wrong i still can get the stuff fixed .

but i didn't listen , i didn't have the budget , so ngam ngam i pay for the conversion and i had no money left . so once i got my car , that month it self i`ve been in & out from the workshop , problem's pop out here & there , 1 after another . basically i had my clutch , timing belts change . thats all . so first prob was overheating , second brake jammed up , braking not that good , clutch clearance prob , aircond compressor and etc etc . but lucky my engine didn't die on me .

all those happen on my warrranty & after warranty time frame , but then i didn't bother to ask for replacement , so i had slowly touch up the engine , what suppose to be change i did . i don't want to ask for replacement cause its soo much of a hassle , going in & out of the workshop in the end ur using used stuff and will break down after a short time . might as well wait till u got a sump of money get it change , new unit .

so when people suggest , to change this change that before putting the engine cause to aviod double work in future and cheaper workmanship , cause your doing everything at once . yes obviously you can take a gamble without changing those parts and then touch up slowly , like what im doing right now , but when driving , im always in fear cause i know those parts that are not changed yet may fail anytime so to be on the safe side change those critical parts when doing the conversion . anyway just sharing my experience .

 

[stormlcc]

Can u guys recommend a good half cut shop near Tmn Chempaka or Old Klang Road? I'm looking for RB20det. Thanks!!!

 

[Danny]

It's best to ask your trusted mechanic to look out one for you, otherwise you might run into the same problem I had ending up buying a faulty engine. At least you know one person to avoid buying from, Martin Fouker.

 

[DJ-EVO3]

Oh.. many things r going on here... hm.

At least u guys are ok.. u have a place to go back and deal with them..

I don like to mention the name of the shop.

My work shop closed while the transplanting my car.. I was the last customer.

Of course I had some of problems after convertion and I had to pay myself all

the costs without any discounts from unknown workshops..

Sadly there were some problems occured after fixing it.. damn... ;)

There was a Runner who deals with those things to solve the problems..
(buying a parts and send the car to work shop)

my radiator hose's whole was broken, so I needed change radiator with 2

hoses..... and second hand radiator

I paid RM90 for clean out whole radiator just that day... ;)

The worst thing was one of the rim came off.. but lukily my whole car didn bang

the ground but it sit and held by the rim which came off.... I need to change the

disks which already got skimmed few days ago and my brand new AXT brake

pads as well.. with same time.. and paid for my rim get repaired

at RM240 ;) (4 wholes)

For those radiator and disk (with nuckles) replacing work man ship was RM350. ;)

(Story of another work shop after my work shop closed)
It's not far away from this happen.. there was another problem.

I changed my whole brake pads in another work shop as my old work shop

closed but soon I found a problem.

they fixed my rear disk brake pad too tight or something.. when my tire work

shop jacked mt car to change tires. I just simply turn the rear wheel..

and it seemed bit jam.

I went to one of well known work shop in sunway.. ( I can't simply trust any

workshop anymore.. it was one of expensive shop) they found it and said previous

workshop who install this was wrong..so I had to change

brand new AXT rear brake pad.. because only one side of the pad wore out.

And this well known shop found my timming belt fixed not tightly.. I had to

pay for RM1++ of the money for re-tune it..... I was really getting fed up.. but it's

not end of the story...

The mechanic from my first work shop broke my middle Timming belt cover

and I had to buy missing parts from half cut.. My runner got me that

and cost me around RM230... ;) and when all those things done..

He brought my car to alignment shop and did alignment and install camber nuts.

It changed me around RM350... ;)

I felt that this runner chargne me bit expensive.. but I had no idea that wether

it's right price or not... but he strongly insisted himself that it's friendshipt thing

but not just for a big business... I decided trust him.. but.. I wasn happy with

those prices he charged me..

There was another bad case there is a guy called Climent who took my JPJ

registration money and disappeared.. Last time I fully trusted my first workshop

and gave them my money and documents for inspection.. However

they did an unexpectable thing that they gave my

full amount of money to him.. actually he is not a JPJ runner or anything but..

just kinda middle man.. I'm going to make a plice report and see what they

can do about this but... I hope he should know KL is not that big place...


wow.... what a long story.. anyone has worse story than mine?

I guess I can send this story to magazine or something.. they will surely pick up

my letter and who knows they give me some gift or something.. ;)

 

[TiBuN]

Wow, DJ-EVO3, really a long and eventful journey for your transplant. But I'm sure the experience will allows you to act better on your next conversion (if there's any) ;)

My workshop is in Sg Buloh, he give guarantee for 6 months. One major problem is after 2 months of use I observed leaking fuel tank (which only aware after cornering - can see a trail of fuel on the ground). So he got that fixed FOC by changing a new fuel tank. Don't flame me for only observing this after 2 months, actually 2nd day already know liao, but I was not local. :D Touch wood that the car is still fine after 9 months of use. :D

 

[vestax]

sorry to hear that dude , i also don't trust any workshop actually , and nowdays all parts are been purchase by myself before asking any workshop to fix , cause all this so called well known workshop tend to charge more on the parts it self and + the labour which equals a bomb , but then sometimes emergency purpose no choice but to get it fixed in some workshop , so i had to scout for a few workshops before doing the repairs , and some major repairs , i had to gone to a family workshop , which i had to tell the mech to do this & that and help him out with which part to take out before accessing the major parts and tell him how to modify the stuff and send the stuff to the machine shop , and the out come its much better then sending to a workshop which you won't know what the hell the mech is doing and later screwing up the engine . :lol:

another workshop i went is in old klang road , which i took out my engine and had done some repairs on the wear & tear parts , i would say the price is reasonable and the workmanship is not bad , just that they don't have enough workers . workmanship wise i would say there are many other workshops better then some of the well known workshops in town , just that they stay low :lol: , so you have to keep scouting .

 

[CcL]

so i guess my mech is alright with transplant...
after hearing all your horror stories i suddenly feel so much more relief
always thought my mech charged a lil higher price on certain stuff
well not him... his wife!!

i brought him to see my halfcut and start it on the spot he say OK and i payed the deposit. he took donkey mths to do my transplant. coz i was the 1st doing this kinda transplant. wasn't too please but what can i say?? after got the car, of coz there are many imperfections. my mech didn't give a definative "warranty" period. however for months after i got the car, i would go back for wateva problem that crops up. he did most of it FOC... so thats 2 thumbs for him :D

 

[Danny]

and if u find a good workshop don't announce it to the whole world, then sooner or later it'll be overbooked and overpriced not to forget workmanship quality will also suffer in most cases.

 

[speedking]

wei...dun so stingy la :P

 

[antugile]

Just to share my experience,

Now using Charade De Tomaso 1.6 (a) after transplant from 1.0 manual.

what I can advise to you all guys is if you want to buy hakat engine better find a mech who expert and usually do the transplant, coz the can know which engine are good or not, afte r7 month of changing the engine the thing that faulty from that engine is just the water pump, that happen pun after 3 month of using it.

dont just simply go to hakat and buy it if ur not expert in engine, because hakat ppl only want their stock to be cleared and does not care whether its OK or not, let ur mech look for it, like me, my father is a mech and he's more to engine specialist, untill now the engine runs smooth like wind, no noice comin from engine bay nor inside my car, not using any additional noise reduction laye, only satndard manufacturing..I just provide the $$ to him and he do the searching for half cut, install it & wiring it & what do i do is just wait n see.. :D ..by the way my father workshop is at cheras baru jalan 16, infront of Pusat Jagaan Org2 tua...only small wooden workshop...workmanship, you can guess it coz im not complaint anything regarding the engine and its still smooth untill now.

:D satisfied customer and son.

 

[xbalance2002]

Thanks for the info!!!!!!!!