Hi guys, I'm looking to get my car looked at as I'm having a misfire issue and was wondering what's the best garage to go to in the scottish central belt.

I've heard of sitech are they any good?

Also a friend in work uses hypertech for his Subaru and he swears by them and i have read some good reviews on the rsoc website for this company also.

Anyone had any experiences with either of these two?

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

There is ava out at glasgow airport mate they fixed my focus rs after I had it at sitech.
Sitech didn't break it but had it on the rollers and suggested to me a few things it could be. If it wasn't them it would be the turbo.
Turned out to be a kinked vac hose to the dump valve.
Ava found it and fixed it in 2 hours. I was we'll chuffed.
Would take my car back to ava and sitech.
What car is it and what needs done.

 

as above what car?
as i'd recommend differant places for differant cars
hypertech are just a couple miles from me, i know Duncan that owns and runs it
they're ok with the jap stuff but not brilliant with fords etc in my opinion

 

whatever you do dont go near ace performance in carnwath. the guys an arse.

 

It's a 2009 focus st running at stage 3 level. The problem is that spark plug number 5 keeps burning. I've tried rs plugs and a colder denso iridium but to no avail. The plugs last about a month and then it starts to miss fire again and I have to stick new plugs in.

I took it to hypertech for a dyno run and it ran fine on the dyno, the guy was very helpful btw I would definitely recommend, but like you say they are more a Japanese specilast and I was looking for someone who deals more with fords.

I've heard mixed reviews about ava, some swear by them and other say that they are very hard on the car but I've not got any first hand experience with them.

I was thinking of sitech but now I'm not so sure.

 

[QUOTE=locum8;6315800]It's a 2009 focus st running at stage 3 level. The problem is that spark plug number 5 keeps burning. I've tried rs plugs and a colder denso iridium but to no avail. The plugs last about a month and then it starts to miss fire again and I have to stick new plugs in.

I took it to hypertech for a dyno run and it ran fine on the dyno, the guy was very helpful btw I would definitely recommend, but like you say they are more a Japanese specilast and I was looking for someone who deals more with fords.

I've heard mixed reviews about ava, some swear by them and others wouldn't go near them. Things like they are very hard on the car on the dyno etc. but I've not got any first hand experience with them.

I was thinking of sitech but now I'm not so sure.

 

Double post

 

how do you manage to double post the same post 11 minutes apart?

 

cry:

 

Tried to add additional info but didnt work

 

As I said mate ava was great with me.
Sitech do deal with a lot of st and rs cars.
Where you based about mate

 

Could also be mapped shit or a bad injector. Who mapped it for you

 

GI Motorsport in Kilmarnock do ST and RS tuning now and have Collins performer mapping etc.

Any technical stuff or problems like you are suffering they call my mate who is a Ford master tech, who knows these cars inside out. He had a 340bhp focus ST and now has a 420bhp Mk2 FRS. He's the guy id go to if I had your issues. He's on Facebook if you wanted to contact him, it's ARC Tuning, or his own Facebook, Andy Clotworthy.

 

not sure what AVA would be like with a ST or a RS, they are good with old escort turbos
but i've personaly had 2 bad experiences with them wit cossy's but a few good experiencies with rs turbos
either way they are very expensive and as soon as you dont want to be spending lots of money with them then Alan can be very unhelpful, but he is a very clever man who knows his stuff
i dont personaly have any experience with the big 5 pots so not sure where to recommend
heard good and bad about sitech also but more good so i'd prob go there
i dont know if performance hq in dalgety bay do them but if they do then they get my vote every time
i've never had a bad experience with them and never heard a bad word against them
and Russ is again a very clever knowledgable guy who can prob get to the bottom of it

 

Thanks for all the replies, it's good to hear first hand of people's experiences good or bad.

The cars running stage 3+ bluefin so I don't think it's that as it is quite a well known and widely used map.

I'm just looking for a decent garage who know there stuff and don't take a strop when I don't want to pay mega bucks for there time that's all. I was thinking around the £300 pound mark for a diagnosis is this resanoble or am i way off the mark?

I'm a bus mechanic to trade so I've never really used a garage as I have only bought bolt on mods and have been Able to fit them myself but I've got limited knowledge when it comes to the tuning side of it so that's why I would like someone who knows a what there doing to have a look at it

 

I think 300 is reasonable for a diagnosis. Few hours on a dyno should show up a fault.

 

Little updated guys!

Well I phoned sitech to try and get it booked but the guy didn't seem to interested in it to be honest. First thing I said to him was I wanted to book it in then for some reason he passed me on to another guy who just kept on asking have you tried this, have you tried this, have you tried this etc then I was suddenly cut off. I'm not slating them or anything but from this experience I don't think I'll be using them any time soon.

So I removed the injectors to get them flow tested as this was the only thing I hadn't tried and took them up to hypertech along with the melted spark plug. They had a look at them and flow tested them and they where all ok and i had a talk with Duncan and James and they told me to bring the car up and they would take a look at it.

I would defenetly recommend them as the service received was excellent and the were very willing to help and even checked the injectors for free So I took the car back to them and it turns out that numbers 2 & 5 valve guides are leaking oil into the cylinder causing detonation with only 24000 miles on the clock

So the cars getting booked in in a couple of weeks to get fixed.

 

Shit news that mate. If its been well serviced I would be taking that up with ford even if its out of warranty. That's a fucking joke man.

 

Tell me about it!

Ive not contacted the dealers but I don't think I'll get anywhere anyway as there not the easiest to deal with at the best of times and also it's been modified so I don't think they would touch it. Car is regularly serviced so I don't understand how it's happened, just luck I guess. I'll just be glad when it's fixed as I've had this problem for about 6 months now and have tried just about everything else so fingers crossed.

 

Fuk that's not a lot of miles on an engine for the valve guides to be leaking on 2 cylinders , the thing with trying to get the dealers to pay is unless its been dealer serviced they'll try and blame you for using the wrong oil or something

 

It was just a thought. As my work van had a new gearbox put it. It had done just shy of 100k. The diff was whining. It was a Renault though. Renault paid for the full thing except the clutch even although the van was 40k almost out of warranty

 

i would still give it a try. let them make their excuses on a 24000 mile engine and then take it up with trading standards.
youve nothing to lose except having to pay a large repair bill.

 

How do they know its the valve guides? have they had the head off or the manifolds off mate?

 

They had a fibre optic camera and they put it down the boars and the pistons where soaking wet. So they done a compression test to rule out the rings and all the readings where good so they took of the intake plenum and put the camera down the manifold and you could see that the bottom of the guides where wet and you could also see a trail of oil running down side of the guides.

It was a wired one though as I haven't been using any oil and there was no smoking from the exhaust and the car was running great apart from a very slight vibration at idle.

 

Sounds strange that mate would think if they where leaking you would think it would be smoking.

 

Hope it's not from Arnold Clark, eek

 

Got it from Evans Halshaw, I was told by the salesman that the guy traded it in for an rs after covering only 5000 miles in 1 year!

 

the warranty for renault comercial vehicles is 100k or 3 years
the cars are 60k or 3 years

 

while your there tell Duncan to hurry up and finaly get that YB built for that 3dr thats been lying for ages up there,
and tell him he'll be getting Brycey's 3 dr up for a shot on the dyno in the next couple months(he'll know what you mean)
tell him your a friend of Mark Bryce and he'll do you a good deal

 

Will do mate! Who's is the 3 door anyway? It's sad to see it lying outside next to all those dead scoobys.

 

It is now mate but mine was only warranted till 60k new stuff is 100k

 

sitech didn't want to know when it came to a fault finding exercise lol

they are good at bolting on new parts mind

 

nobody i know, its been there for ages
Duncan keeps saying he'll get round to it shortly

 

i worked for them in 2006, it was 100k then
i now run a garage that runs a fleet of hire drive vans with loads of renaults(unfortunately),
still 100k now as we send them back all the time

 

Fair doos mate can only go on what they told us and we have had to pay for stuff to be repaired cos they said warranty was only 60k. Will maybe look into that

 

Fuckin hell that's bad news mate ! Mine is sometimes a bit lumpy on idle - I've got some RS plugs to go in it