This is a good read...the story began with a trip to the dealer...only to be told the actuator is not RPM-based but rather functions based on load and temp and blah, blah, blah...

My original follow-up email to the dealership:

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To Whom It May Concern:

Today I stopped by, admittedly without an appointment, to discuss service I had two weeks ago on my 2001 Acura CL-Type S. I had been in two weeks ago to have my front bumper repainted and also to have my Intake Manifold Runner Control (Bypass valve actuator) looked at as I believed it was malfunctioning. The IMRC is an obscure part and most people I have spoken to at your dealership do not even know where to find it under the hood. This is understandable given the complexity of today's cars. However, as an enthusiast and educated consumer, I DO happen to know about this part and its function. This part controls the dual-stage intake found on the Type-S models of CL's and TL's. If it is malfunctioning, one experiences performance losses in the mid-RPM range (approx. 3800-4100). A simple, yet seemingly little known, test to see if it is working is to rev the engine to the appropriate RPM's and you can literally watch the IMRC actuator "flip" to open the dual-stage intake. It is as easy as that. If it doesn't flip, it is broken. If it does, then it is fine. Yet, despite my insistence on this parts function and ease of diagnosing the problem, your service staff has tried to circle around the problem and repeatedly said they would "call technical support" without even giving me the five minutes of courtesy to show them the actuator is broken. Open a new (or used) Type-S's hood, rev and watch the actuator flip. Open my hood and, oops, nothing.
I have been in contact with tens of other Type-S owners who have had their IMRC's replaced due to malfunction. Many of these owners had to go through the same time-consuming ordeal of educated their service departments. I almost feel like it was a pride issue for your service manager to try and prove me wrong. He tried to "educate" me on how the part functions when I had to describe it's location in the engine bay to him several times. Today when I stopped by, he would not even meet with me. The gentleman at the counter said he was in a meeting. When I asked if I could wait, he said the manager would not see me today. Is it normal to ignore clients? I fail to believe he would not have five minutes to meet with me AFTER his meeting. The gentleman at the counter would not even give me an appointment with the manager for a later date until I insisted repeatedly. I was hoping to develop a good relationship with your dealership as my wife and I are in the market for an SUV this fall. This experience seems highly irregular and unprofessional. Your website says you pride yourselves on service and I feel that statement may be misleading. The following is a link to information and a video of the actuator in action.

http://www.geocities.com/~gamesmgr/chod/acura/#Driving6

I hope you don't view this email as any kind of threat. I sincerely believe your dealership does care about maintaining relationships with clients. When walking about the floor, your sales department was very nice. I do, however, have an issue with being treated like an ignorant consumer. Is it so unbelievable that I may know something about my car that is elusive to the service department? I look forward to your response.
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This was their reply (I x'd out the names to protect the innocent):

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I apologize for not being available to see you yesterday, I had a lot of items on my agenda. It also appears xxxxx was being a little uncooperative, which in retrospect was not justified. In reference to the intake manifold runner control on your CL, you are correct about it's function. It is solely RPM dependent, and does not rely on load or temperature. The reason for our denial of this fact was due to incorrect information given us by the technician who "checked out" the system on your CL, who obviously in hindsight neither checked it or it's prescribed function. Disciplinary action has been taken. It is very difficult to do our job properly if not given the facts.

We are going to assume the actuator has failed (as opposed to the control unit or pem). If you would like to set an appointment to properly diagnose or repair, please respond with desired date and time and we will preorder the part. I once again apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxxxx

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Isn't that some shit... I followed up with a date for repair and was a whole lot nicer so they don't go and f**k something else up just to spite me.

 

Very well written. Forceful and yet tactful . At least the dealer acknowledge their mistake. Good luck with the repair.

 

disciplinary action has been taken. lol

 

And I though only american dealers were bad. I went in a Chrylser dealership when I had my 300M. Same dealer I bought the car from. I wanted a tranny flush, I was at 15K miles. The 300M had a differential, & part of the 15K mile service in the manual was to change this fluid too. When I picked it up the service guy said they flushed it, & the car didn't have a differential so they didn't do that. I explained to them that this car did. They said no FWD car had one. I looked at the guy & said I'll come in with my service manual & show you. When I went to pay I noticed the amount of trans fluid looked low. When I got home, I looked at that manual, marked the page with the differential, & checked how much trans fluid was supposed to be used for a flush. It was 3 quarts higher then the fluid they charged me for. Meaning they didn't do a flush, even though I paid for it. A few days later I went back, showed the guy the differential, & commented about the flush. He got the guy who worked on my car. He came out & admited he "though" this car didn't have a differential. But he denied not doing a flush. I showed them how much fluid was supposed to be added for a flush. They had "no clue" They took the car did the service right, I I watched them flush the tranny free of charge of course. Never went to that dealer again.

 

Dealerships really are having a hard time finding competent technicians these days.....

In my area, it is not uncommon to see dealership "A" techs pulling in more than $100,000/year.

I guess there are not enough younger guys interested in learning the complexities of today's cars. At the same time, the "old timers" in the business don't want to learn the new technology. So now we have limited qualified people that can basically name their price.

 

"Hey Bob, you're not getting your coffee break this morning. Consider yourself disciplined! Oh, just take an extra long break this afternoon instead."

 

Nice work!!

Which dealership is this again? Lynnwood?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tom2
[B]Dealerships really are having a hard time finding competent technicians these days.....

In my area, it is not uncommon to see dealership "A" techs pulling in more than $100,000/year.

I guess there are not enough younger guys interested in learning the complexities of today's cars. At the same time, the "old timers" in the business don't want to learn the new technology. So now we have limited

WEll put
nobody wants to do a job where they get their "hands dirty" anymore. try getting a plumber or electrician for a small job

not enough young kids going into this field. its interesting that as cars get more sophisticated, i would think computer oriented kids would love the car tech field

 

No, this was the Bellevue dealership. In retrospect, I may have been a little harsh on them. I guess this website got me pumped up before driving over to the dealership. Then again, my reaction to their comments/actions did seem to fit the situation at the time.

As far as Acura of Lynnwood in concerned, I'll never give them any of my business again...but that's a different story.

 

Excellent and elloquent communication!

I'm glad that you were able to "convince" them that we "consumers" may know a thing or two about the products we obssess over!

 

MAJOR KUDOS!!



This should be archived!

(and Acura should generate a TSB so the techs can start makng this an easy fix!)

 

good work, my friend Bellevue is not bad.. but i always go to the southcenter one for oil changes..

 

Great work. Sometimes it takes a different approach to really communicate with people.

 

That's why it is important to build a good relationship with the dealership before the problems start. That way you can call "Bob" on this cellphone while he's actually in the meeting, he recognizes your caller id, steps outside, "Hey what's up Pete?", "Bob, could you stop over at the service bay for a second, won't take five minutes...." .........


Good job on the letter.

 

Actually, I had developed a good relationship with Ron Tonkin in Portland but then moved to Seattle. I was working with Acura of Lynnwood and had them do my major services, oil changes, purchase and install of headers and H&R springs, and repainting of my front and rear bumpers. In others words, I spent hella lot of cash there. Then they cheaped out on a front bumper repair that I PAID to have them fix and then refused to fix it again for free (even though they said they had corrected the problem). I spend $2000+ in their service department and they won't even admit they messed up my paint job (which would have been <$50 for them to fix). I'm a dentist, and when somebody comes in and spends alot of cash, I throw shit in for free. If I dont' please the customer completely, we sit down and work it out. That's good business. Acura of Lynnwood lost good business...and alot of potential referrals from me.