Altered Atmosphere Motorsports Randall Mahaffey, Mike Mahaffey Mike McMahaffey Took my car for repairs. I authorized $399 for complete evaluation of repairs. They charged Waldorf, Maryland
On March 24, 2009 had my car towed to Altered Atmosphere Motorsports(AAM), 8011 Cessna Ave. Gaithersburg, MD by Mike Gilroys Towing.
Upon arrival I met with Jeremy Tibbs. I told Jeremy that I had already spent a lot of money to have the car repaired with little success and I did not want to spend a lot of money if they could not fix the car. Jeremy assured me they could get the car running. I told Jeremy the car had been in two other shops where they tried to get the fuel system to run properly. I gave Jeremy the receipts from the other shops and told him he could call them to enquire about what was done and they would respond. Jeremy told me they had a diagnostic service which included compress/leak test for $396 that would find everything wrong with the car. I told Jeremy the compress/leak test had been done two times before and checked out ok and I didnt think it needed to be done. A mechanic for AAM opened the engine hood and started looking at the engine. He said the engine was a 1994 model and some of the wiring was miss-routed. He checked the engine oil and said it was a half quart high due to gas in the oil indicating leakage from the cylinders. After talking to Jeremy for a while I told him if he thought the car needed the complete diagnostic check with compress/leak to do it.
On April 7 AAM sent me a sales order for $4307.09. It stated that the car had a 1992 ECU in it and it needed a 1994 ECU. The computer in the car is a 1993 as verified by the part number on it.
I rejected the sales order and told Jeremy that I only want the wires on the AFC to be wired correctly.
About April 14th Jeremy called me and said the car was running and I could drive it but it didnt have much power because the compression was low. Jeremy told me he would make an estimate to fix the compression. In the mean time to get a feeling for what the car was worth I went on line and found the same 3000GT VR4 with a completely rebuild engine and transmission for $8900.
Jeremy called back and told me he could fix the compression buy rebuilding the engine for $11,486.02.
I told him about the car I found on line and that I wasnt going to spend that kind of money on the car. I told him Id pick the car and drive it home. Jeremy then told me that maybe Id be better off towing the car. I told him I wanted to drive it. He then said I could only drive it in the parking lot and only if I disconnected the three front spark plug wires. I told him I was done spending money on the car and I would have it towed.
Jeremy sent me a final bill for $2813.93. I called him and Mike McMahaffey and questioned the bill because I had not authorized that amount of money to get the car running. They told me they would give me a Senior Citizen Discount of $100. They then said they would rebuild the engine for $7800. I tried talking to them several times explaining that I had not authorized that kind of work to get the car running smoothly and also that some of the charges on the bill seemed unreasonable.
I talked to Carlos from the Dealership in Waldorf and he said the car was running with the exception of not Idling correctly. Carlos also said the gas tank and gas line were cleaned and purged.
Mike Gilroy was witness to the conversions about the important of not spending a lot of money on the car and to only fix the wiring on the AFC to get the car to idle properly.