You haven't mentioned price. That's an important consideration. But from what you have said so far, shop #3. They want to keep you happy. The other two know they may never see you again. IMO, personal relationships are very important.
Lou
Lou
What type of auto shop would you use to install headers/exhaust?
So, I've pretty much settled on the PPE headers and Joe Z exhaust intake/exhaust with some high flow cats in there as well (haven't decided wich yet). But my question is this.... I've asked around the area I live in Kansas City, and there are a couple of "performance oriented" shops that specialize in doing these type of mods.
One is geared more toward vettes and other similiar domestic cars but does a lot of custom exhaust work from what I can tell from their website.
The other is geared more toward turbo and supercharger set-ups for domestic and some imports as well but does have a dyno to do testing on. My third option is a specialty shop that does maily scheduled service work on luxury imports (mainly lexus, but does acura as well). This is were we have serviced my previously owned IS300 and current GX470 for many years as they have BETTER customer service and pricing than the Lexus dealership. This is also where I do plan on taking my ISF for regularly scheduled maintenance in the future. I have talked to all 3 places and all say they have done these type of installs but the latter obviously doesn't do it that often as it's not their main focus. The main service guy said "We like to do special projects like this every once in a while to keep things interesting."
Which shop would you guys lean toward?:
Shop 1: that rarely if ever has worked on a lexus. but does custom exhaust work regularly.
Shop 2: that probably has worked on Lexus cars occasionaly and is FOCUSED on perfomance aftermarket installs (but mostly turbos/superchargers) and has the dyno.
or..
Shop 3: Rarely does these type of installs but works on lexus primarily and knows my lexus MUCH BETTER than the other two shops and who will probably have higher priority making me a happy customer to guarantee future long term scheduled maintenace?
sorry this was so long! PLEASE GIVE INPUT!!! Thanks!
One is geared more toward vettes and other similiar domestic cars but does a lot of custom exhaust work from what I can tell from their website.
The other is geared more toward turbo and supercharger set-ups for domestic and some imports as well but does have a dyno to do testing on. My third option is a specialty shop that does maily scheduled service work on luxury imports (mainly lexus, but does acura as well). This is were we have serviced my previously owned IS300 and current GX470 for many years as they have BETTER customer service and pricing than the Lexus dealership. This is also where I do plan on taking my ISF for regularly scheduled maintenance in the future. I have talked to all 3 places and all say they have done these type of installs but the latter obviously doesn't do it that often as it's not their main focus. The main service guy said "We like to do special projects like this every once in a while to keep things interesting."
Which shop would you guys lean toward?:
Shop 1: that rarely if ever has worked on a lexus. but does custom exhaust work regularly.
Shop 2: that probably has worked on Lexus cars occasionaly and is FOCUSED on perfomance aftermarket installs (but mostly turbos/superchargers) and has the dyno.
or..
Shop 3: Rarely does these type of installs but works on lexus primarily and knows my lexus MUCH BETTER than the other two shops and who will probably have higher priority making me a happy customer to guarantee future long term scheduled maintenace?
sorry this was so long! PLEASE GIVE INPUT!!! Thanks!
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so do you feel it's not that imporant for an installer to be familiar wtih the lexus brand of car? Are you suggestingn I go to the shops and look at projects currently getting worked on or try to see finished products....? I'm such a newbie and know VERY LITTLE about cars so I'm not sure if I'd be able to detect quality from non-quality work...
Don't worry if they are or not familiar with the brand. Just look around, believe me you can tell! Also make sure you talk to who's going to actually do the work on the car.so do you feel it's not that imporant for an installer to be familiar wtih the lexus brand of car? Are you suggestingn I go to the shops and look at projects currently getting worked on or try to see finished products....? I'm such a newbie and know VERY LITTLE about cars so I'm not sure if I'd be able to detect quality from non-quality work...
Many shops down here in Miami say they are Lexus certified and dont know crap..
You get what you pay. Nothing changes when it comes to labor on installs..Doug
^^^^ thanks for all the input!!
Anytime.. Good luck...Doug^^^^ thanks for all the input!!
Love it!!!!
So I'll be picking up my car with headers installed now in a few hours.... They took two days to do the install, but didn't work on it the whole time... They are telling me it's going to be around 14 toal hours of intall and "book time" would be around that as well. I've seen on this forum and the CL one that typically shops were taking 7-8 hours of install time. The shop manager said he'd drop it to 10 hours... (at $100/hr). Am I getting ripped off? I'm not happy about the fact that it took them 2 days to complete and that's it's gonna be a few more hours than I anticipated. Also, they just now told me yesterday that they don't do welding there, so they wouldn't be able to weld in the cats I bought with the PPE headers into my exhaust! This is a month after I sent them detailed info on what in install entailed and the fact that this would need to be done... So, now I have to take it to ANOTHER shop, have my exhaust removed, and the cats welded in, etc, (will be using v-band clamps so i can remove cats for track days) which will cost me another 3-5 hours I'm sure! Ugh!
This is a month after I sent them detailed info on what in install entailed and the fact that this would need to be done... So, now I have to take it to ANOTHER shop, have my exhaust removed, and the cats welded in, etc, (will be using v-band clamps so i can remove cats for track days) which will cost me another 3-5 hours I'm sure! Ugh!
F'n around;29055 If I remember right said:I wasn't aware there was a way to get around dropping the engine...
So I finally was able to pick up my car today after the shop had it a total of 3 days to do the PPE Header install.
First, is that the car doesn't even go into first gear in auto mode. I can force it to go into first using manual mode ONLY if i'm moving between 5-10mph or so. (I can't shift into 2nd while not moving) It's NOT in snow mode btw.
Second, is that the CEL came on about 5 min of driving the car. The shop said that this would happen until the cats are installed, but I'm confused as I thought the PPE headers came with an O2 sim kit that avoided this issue even without cats installed and I haven't seen ANYBODY on here complaining of CEL after PPE header intalls. I asked the shop guy about the O2 sim kit and he didn't seem to know what I was talking about and said that it only came with an O2 sensor extension wire for the front O2 sensor. Did PPE not send what they were supposed to?
Third, is that the slip indicator light (orange car icon with wavey lines below) is on AT ALL TIMES! (this also occured about 5 min after driving the car.) They did reset the ECU BTW.
Fourth, is that they had great difficulty and reportedly spent 5+ hours getting the oil dip stick tube to fit... Apparently they ended up using the OEM tube. (but this concerns me that they weren't able to use/make the supplied one with the PPE headers work?)
Fifth, is that they put a DEEP jagged 2.5" scratch in my front left wheel on one of the spokes... WTF !?!?
I just had a wheel repainted a couple weeks ago that had been slightly damaged in a small accident I had 6 weeks after I got my IS F and the color is "close" but not exact and I'm not too keen on going this route either....
At this point I'm just overwhelmed and frustrated about all of these issues and need some guidance FAST!
Thanks in advance as always!!!
BTW the car does SOUND SICK and SEEMS QUICKER TOO at least!
HOLY CRAP!
What did they do!?!? Are they going to have to yank the whole engine again to fix something???
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