Hi all,
Would like to share with you an unfortunate incident I had last month at Wai Heng Exhaust Specialist in Setapak. Please note that my comments are not meant to harm the reputation of anyone mentioned here. I’m just stating the facts (supported with pictures) as I see it. Readers, you be the judge.
I’m driving a Toyota with a 1JZ-GTE engine. 2.5 liter twin turbo straight six, auto trannny, 3” exhaust piping with centre bullet and straight through local made muffler. The exhaust note (or rather exhaust drone) is killing me. So I explained my situation to Weng and he recommended that I use an S-flow muffler (FGK but imitation) since I have an auto tranny. Will cost me RM400.
Therefore, relying on his professional advise, I proceeded to make an appointment for the next day and proceeded to Wai Heng in Setapak. The foreman there then recommended that I change my centre bullet also since the current bullet that I have is no longer doing its job. Apparently the fiberglass has already burnt off (@%#&! I just had that bullet installed 2 months ago). Will cost me another RM280.
Everything went ok but there was no testing of the muffler’s note on my car. Just welded it on straight away. Well fine, I guess they know what they are doing. Seems confident to me. Read on…
My nightmare started when they wanted to lower my car from the car jack. The jack jammed. There was hydraulic fluid leaking from the jack to the floor. I was told that it was a rather new jack. Seems new though. While the foreman contacted the car jack’s technician, I relayed my situation to Weng. Was given the assurance that he will sort it out. Waited about 3 #%$&$%^ hours for the technician to arrive.
When the car jack technicians arrived (2 of them), I don’t see them bringing any tools. After some futile attempts in fixing the car jack, I guess they resorted to using ‘brute’ force. They had to borrow 2 portable car jacks from other auto shop nearby as they did not have any of such tools. And guess what, they were looking for other things which they could use and decided to use exhaust piping to hold my car up while they release the locking mechanism on the car jack in the attempt to lower my car. (see figure 1)
To cut the long story short, they managed to remove the locking mechanism and then whacked out the exhaust piping holding my car up (using another pipe) which resulted in my car dropping a good 2 feet (free fall style) before the car jack could hold it up (I guess there is still some life and some hydraulic fluid left in the car jack) and then slowly reaching the ground. (see figure 2 & 3)
My reaction? I was mad! Totally not happy when my car dropped. What would happen to my chasis? Mind you that’s a heavy engine I have. The car jack technician seeing that I was not happy quickly told me that there is no problem to my car. I asked him if he is going to pay if something goes wrong? Again, I was told that there is no problem. The foremen also told me that there is no problem because my suspension system can handle the drop. When he said this, I knew he didn’t see what happened because it was not my suspension system which cushioned the drop, it was the car jack holding up at the 4 points on my chasis which held the car after the 2 feet drop before my car was lowered to the ground.
For personal health reasons (according to Weng), Weng could not answer my call so I sms’ed him my dissatifaction. Again, Weng obtained information from his foreman and sms’ed me that my car suspension can handle the drop. Boy, they have no idea what they are talking about. When I sms’ed him if his foreman is willing to guarantee that my car is ok? No reply from him.
Don’t the car jack suppliers have a fail safe method of bringing the car down in such an event instead of resorting to such brutal treatment to the poor car (and poor car owner)? I am totally dumbfounded at the way the technician handled this. It’s a bad reflection of Powerrex (the car jack brand).
And to top it all, my exhaust problem was not solved. Slightly more solid sound but no quieter and the exhaust drone is still killing me. In fact, my wife and mechanic commented that it is louder than my previous setup. After requesting for a discount I was given RM30 discount for the whole drama. RM30??? I wasted my half a day waiting for my car to be brought down. And the journey down was very harsh for my car if you ask me. Car lovers would probably understand how I felt. I don’t know if there is any damage to my car for now. Only time will tell.
So after using the muffler for a week or so, I changed back to my previous muffler (at another exhaust shop of course). Could not bear with the noise. And yes, my previous muffler is indeed quieter. But still not good enough. It’s the drone that bothers me. Oh well. Now I have an RM400, one week old muffler sitting in my house! #$%&.
Ok, the exhaust sound and car jack jam episode aside, my experience in dealing with Weng was quite pleasant. I do believe in giving credit where due. He did respond to my queries on exhaust and gave recommendations based on his knowledge. But on the flip side, everybody is nice when things are going their way or when there’s business opportunity. It’s when things go wrong that changes everything.
This post is not intended to be a personal attack on anyone mentioned above. I just felt that everyone could have handled this situation much much better relieving me, the car owner of the heartache of having his car put under such stress and not to mention the RM650 wasted and problem unsolved.
Readers, you make your own conclusion and I do hope that all drivers will not have their beloved car subjected to such unfortunate incidents with car jacks.
Cheers.
Would like to share with you an unfortunate incident I had last month at Wai Heng Exhaust Specialist in Setapak. Please note that my comments are not meant to harm the reputation of anyone mentioned here. I’m just stating the facts (supported with pictures) as I see it. Readers, you be the judge.
I’m driving a Toyota with a 1JZ-GTE engine. 2.5 liter twin turbo straight six, auto trannny, 3” exhaust piping with centre bullet and straight through local made muffler. The exhaust note (or rather exhaust drone) is killing me. So I explained my situation to Weng and he recommended that I use an S-flow muffler (FGK but imitation) since I have an auto tranny. Will cost me RM400.
Therefore, relying on his professional advise, I proceeded to make an appointment for the next day and proceeded to Wai Heng in Setapak. The foreman there then recommended that I change my centre bullet also since the current bullet that I have is no longer doing its job. Apparently the fiberglass has already burnt off (@%#&! I just had that bullet installed 2 months ago). Will cost me another RM280.
Everything went ok but there was no testing of the muffler’s note on my car. Just welded it on straight away. Well fine, I guess they know what they are doing. Seems confident to me. Read on…
My nightmare started when they wanted to lower my car from the car jack. The jack jammed. There was hydraulic fluid leaking from the jack to the floor. I was told that it was a rather new jack. Seems new though. While the foreman contacted the car jack’s technician, I relayed my situation to Weng. Was given the assurance that he will sort it out. Waited about 3 #%$&$%^ hours for the technician to arrive.
When the car jack technicians arrived (2 of them), I don’t see them bringing any tools. After some futile attempts in fixing the car jack, I guess they resorted to using ‘brute’ force. They had to borrow 2 portable car jacks from other auto shop nearby as they did not have any of such tools. And guess what, they were looking for other things which they could use and decided to use exhaust piping to hold my car up while they release the locking mechanism on the car jack in the attempt to lower my car. (see figure 1)
To cut the long story short, they managed to remove the locking mechanism and then whacked out the exhaust piping holding my car up (using another pipe) which resulted in my car dropping a good 2 feet (free fall style) before the car jack could hold it up (I guess there is still some life and some hydraulic fluid left in the car jack) and then slowly reaching the ground. (see figure 2 & 3)
My reaction? I was mad! Totally not happy when my car dropped. What would happen to my chasis? Mind you that’s a heavy engine I have. The car jack technician seeing that I was not happy quickly told me that there is no problem to my car. I asked him if he is going to pay if something goes wrong? Again, I was told that there is no problem. The foremen also told me that there is no problem because my suspension system can handle the drop. When he said this, I knew he didn’t see what happened because it was not my suspension system which cushioned the drop, it was the car jack holding up at the 4 points on my chasis which held the car after the 2 feet drop before my car was lowered to the ground.
For personal health reasons (according to Weng), Weng could not answer my call so I sms’ed him my dissatifaction. Again, Weng obtained information from his foreman and sms’ed me that my car suspension can handle the drop. Boy, they have no idea what they are talking about. When I sms’ed him if his foreman is willing to guarantee that my car is ok? No reply from him.
Don’t the car jack suppliers have a fail safe method of bringing the car down in such an event instead of resorting to such brutal treatment to the poor car (and poor car owner)? I am totally dumbfounded at the way the technician handled this. It’s a bad reflection of Powerrex (the car jack brand).
And to top it all, my exhaust problem was not solved. Slightly more solid sound but no quieter and the exhaust drone is still killing me. In fact, my wife and mechanic commented that it is louder than my previous setup. After requesting for a discount I was given RM30 discount for the whole drama. RM30??? I wasted my half a day waiting for my car to be brought down. And the journey down was very harsh for my car if you ask me. Car lovers would probably understand how I felt. I don’t know if there is any damage to my car for now. Only time will tell.
So after using the muffler for a week or so, I changed back to my previous muffler (at another exhaust shop of course). Could not bear with the noise. And yes, my previous muffler is indeed quieter. But still not good enough. It’s the drone that bothers me. Oh well. Now I have an RM400, one week old muffler sitting in my house! #$%&.
Ok, the exhaust sound and car jack jam episode aside, my experience in dealing with Weng was quite pleasant. I do believe in giving credit where due. He did respond to my queries on exhaust and gave recommendations based on his knowledge. But on the flip side, everybody is nice when things are going their way or when there’s business opportunity. It’s when things go wrong that changes everything.
This post is not intended to be a personal attack on anyone mentioned above. I just felt that everyone could have handled this situation much much better relieving me, the car owner of the heartache of having his car put under such stress and not to mention the RM650 wasted and problem unsolved.
Readers, you make your own conclusion and I do hope that all drivers will not have their beloved car subjected to such unfortunate incidents with car jacks.
Cheers.
