Avoided Disaster Thanks to GREAT shop in MN - Corvette Forum : DigitalCorvettes.com Corvette Forums

aklim · 02-17-2013, 02:33 PM

Friday night, I towed the Vette up to Hitech Motorsport to get some investigative work done on the Vette. I have been losing oil pressure at WOT. That and breaking AC brackets and shredding belts. Mr Goodwrench was doing his best head-scratching act. For a few months, I have heard some light squeaking in the Ford Excursion and it sounded like the wear tabs on the pads. Figured I would fix it when I got back.

Somewhere about midnight when I was a few miles from my motel at Elk River, I hit the brakes and heard a scratching noise. Oh (O%$#O@@! I felt the truck and trailer being unsteady. Pulled over and smelled something burning. Limped it to the motel and checked in. It had to be the front right caliper locking up which trips the ABS. Found an O-Riley and waited till morning. Come morning, I went to Hitech and right outside the motel was O-Riley. Got 2 brake calipers, 2 caliper brackets and 1 jug of Dot 4 fluid. Life is good. Surely I can find someone to fix it.

Got to the shop about 0930 hrs. Talked to Bart about my Vette and asked if he could fix my truck so I can go 400 miles home. They had a tight schedule but worked me in. Well, apparently the brakes were fine. It was the Ford Excursion hub that gave way. Brian got the truck on the hoist, got me a new hub and fixed it. ALL ON A SATURDAY MORNING. By about 1:30 in the afternoon, I was on the road. Charged me about 2.5 hrs which I thought was more than fair seeing as how they had to heat out the studs on the wheel hub. Also I got to watch how Brian works. Talk about being anal when working. Studs were wire wheeled and anti-seized and appropriate lubricants used on all the surfaces like I would do it, mating surfaces all cleaned thoroughly.

I have had Brian do work for me before when I cannot diagnose it and Mr Goodwrench gives me that blank stare. He has always come thru. I would HIGHLY recommend this shop. They are are a full service shop and do everything in house.

Note, I have no ax to grind here. Just an extremely satisfied customer.

crowvet · 02-17-2013, 11:45 PM

Refreshing to hear a positive post on a shop. You wont get as many comments as you would have if you slammed them

raidmagic · 02-18-2013, 05:38 AM

That's really cool that they went out of their way to help you like that. On a side note, you have to drive 400 miles to find a shop that can competently work on your car?

aklim · 02-18-2013, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raidmagic

That's really cool that they went out of their way to help you like that. On a side note, you have to drive 400 miles to find a shop that can competently work on your car?

Unfortunately so. I ran out of ideas on how to fix the oil pressure dropping to about 20 psi a few seconds after WOT and nobody could fix it. Also I was unable to get any traction for fixing the pulley and I also wanted to get something adjusted in the ECM programming.

rollingthunder88 · 06-10-2013, 08:19 AM

Wow, always good to hear about a competent shop, which is kind of sad!!! I, thankfully, have a guy 5 miles away who is fair, honest, and a good wrencher!!!

ddregehr · 06-10-2013, 10:37 AM

When you are ready to blow your C4 (no pun intended

), you need to check out Doug Rippie Motorsports in Buffalo, MN.

http://dougrippie.com/ He can take things to a level that you can only imagine!

avengeusa · 06-10-2013, 05:38 PM

so what was the oil pressure issue caused by

aklim · 06-15-2013, 04:11 PM

We eliminated all the usual stuff but short of tearing it apart, they felt that it was ok to run till it breaks and fix it during rebuild. Apparently the pressure wasn't where it was preferred but was acceptable till rebuild time. We checked all the oil points for pressure and they were right where it said it was.