Matt Harwood

I would, and do, highly recommend Phoenix in Watford. Why? - Because Mark is a genuinely qualified mechanic. Proud and conscientious about his work. There are plenty of other decent traders around though. Don't be put off too much by all this. Look for the more longstanding ones.

You need to splice into the wire that now feeds your speedo, (converted to MPH), and run that down to the cruise ECU, which is located under the drivers side dashboard, to the left of the steering column. Find the pink wire, cut it, and connect the ECU side to the wire you've just spliced into the speedo feed cable.

He's never really been on here. He's been around for a long time though. He was probably the only Supra specialist running when I joined here in 2001.

Well done to Leon!!! - C'mon Kev, your turn to catch up now!

My work here is done

Reading between the lines, this could very well be the place to find them now...

I could be reading that wrong, and I hope that's not a dig at my comments so far. The reason I'm making my thoughts known now, is because for the past year, I've seen so many people with their cars that are their pride and joy, being bitten by appaling workmanship that has caused so many problems. As I've already said, the last time I backed up one of their previously f*cked up customers who had been treated appalingly, I got shot down by their fanboi squad, some of which have admitted that they have very little technical knowledge and were, IMHO, therefore unqualified to comment. But comment, they did... It's so frustrating just sitting back and knowing that people are having their cars bodged up and people are getting ripped off. Tom is only one of many people that have lost faith in Supra ownership since dealing with Turbofit. I KNOW there are more. Some of which were, at one time, loyal Turbofit supporters.

Perhaps Trigger has them as spares to maintain his original broom (Only Fools & Horses) - Oooo, even that could be appropriate!

These are the people we use to deal with minor body repairs. They're in Parkwood, Maidstone Colin Lamb Ltd. 01622 840084. I can't vouch for anything more than small repairs that I've seen them do, and they're certainly OK. Never seen them do anything bigger, but might be worth a chat with them...

Perhaps they upgraded from walking sticks to broom handles!

They used it to block if the idle/air control valve. It shouldn't be blocked off. If converting a car with a MAP sensor, (all JDM Supras), it simply needs a small air filter.

LOL, the best way would be, to know what you're talking about and not talk crap about stuff you don't know. To find out how to fit stuff properly and concienciously as if every car were your own. To not let cars go out knowing they have problems. I spent 5 years as a trader on here. I didn't get it right every time, I'm sure. I'm human and I do/did make mistakes, but I'll go out of my way to rectify those faults, and I would not let a car go knowing there's a fault. I enjoyed working on these cars and still do. I always tried to be friendly and courtious to my customers, but not at the expense of doing something badly. There are pleanty of other traders on here that do good work. they get it wrong sometimes too, but they don't get it consistantly wrong, and as far as I'm aware, most other traders manage to rectify their own problems. Sorry Matt, I've just re-read this post and it sounds a bit stroppy!. You know me, it's not meant to be.

I'd like to point out that I have no personal grudge against Sam or Greg. I'm sure they're really nice people, and probably real Supra enthusists, but IMHO it should have stayed that way. Enthusiasts. Their business plan wasn't bad with the social scene etc, but the skill and knowledge just wasn't there. But I also want to make it perfectly clear that neither myself, Ian, Terry, Alex, Tom, or anyone for that matter were vindictively trying to ruin their reputation. I will only make a comment if I feel something is not right, and could cause problems for others that may not know what's right or wrong. The errors they made weren't small ones. In many cases they were massive! And it's not just a recent thing. These 'mistakes' were highlighted over a year ago. The first one I saw was ToyotaToms Supra. The cock-ups on this car were so horrendous, they lead to Tom spending thousands more on the car, and eventually selling it as he'd lost all heart in Supra ownership. In brief, here's a list of a few things that I had the 'pleasure' of seeing over the last year or so... 1, E-manage wiring that was absolutly appalling. Not only the wiring, but the lies that went with it, claiming that the E-manage was faulty. - They knew that because they'd 'tested' another one in it's place. - This could never be the case as the main power wire wasn't connected to a 12v source!!! (two other wires connected to the wrong pins also!) - And this was on a Fields harness!!! 2, Ridiculously huge T3 to T4 adapter that left the turbo mm away from a fibreglass bonnet 3, Several studs missing from head/manifold. Obviously they were too awkward to get to and weren't needed??? 4, Lots of bodged wiring, including an amazingly extended AFR gauge loom that ran from the clock opening, down the passenger side, through the passenger wing grommet, back along the bulkhead and down the drivers side inner wing to the exhaust. - And it didn't work properly, despite being 'checked'... 5, Silicon oil breather hoses mm away from the turbo. (Fried Supra anyone?) 6, EGT probe left disconnected and coiled up in the engine bay. 7, Turbo clocked off to one side, meaning the oil return was never going to function properly, and would lead to very short turbo life expectancy 8, A breather hose routed along the rear of the engine bay that was getting crushed whenever the bonnet was closed... That wouldn't be so bad, but it wasn't even needed. It was connected to the Idle Air Control Valve, and routed around to the turbo intake.... this is ONLY required on MAF equipped cars, which Toms wasn't... 9, When asked to remove the above pipe, TF decided to block off the IACV with the end of a walking stick!!!! 10, Replacing a perfectly good HKS SSQV with a 'high quality' XS Power thing that was fitted so nicely that it had started rubbing and wearing its way through the radiator fan shroud. All that was just on Toms car. June/July last year. Since then, I have seen more poorly/incorrectly mounted turbos, more walking stick ends, extended cables using bloody bell wire and not a drip of solder in sight, turbos that have only been tightened properly in one corner, leaving the rest to wind themselves out, appalling attempts at DIY exhaust systems, and not a gasket in sight, wiring to injectors bodged and connectors cut off.... There's plenty more, and I've not mentioned the shocking atrocities that I've heard about on some of their battery reloctaions, or auto to manual conversions.... As I've already said, I didn't say it before because I knew I'd get shot down again. However, as I said at the start, it not a personal thing against Sam or Greg, and in fact, if Sam has really lost £300k, then I feel really sorry for them both, and honestly wish them better luck in the future. I've said my point, and that's it from me.

The times I've had to endure Matt ranting and raving at home over people that can't see the wood for the trees. Whenever I've asked him why he doesn't tell people EVERYTHING he's seen/rectified he has just asked what would be the point-once the PR machine is in action all hope is lost. The thing I have never got is that I have witnessed appalling workmanship in our workshop with other club members looking on, shaking their heads in disbelief whilst Matt tries to figure out wtf they have done because it's been so bad-then the same club members book their cars in to have work done with Turbo Fit. Chantelle (Not necessarily Matt's opinion ) Edit-Of course I forgot, they make tea and give you food- it may have cost you thousands but hey-a good day out nonetheless!

In our cases the cc company always sends us a letter telling us that the customer has a dispute against the transaction. We then have a time limit to send any proof that the customer actually made the transaction. The main time we used to get them-yes THEM, was when we took telephone deposits for things like tinting (we have to pay the tinting guys if the customer doesn't show for their time and costs of travelling to us). The customer wouldn't show and then reclaim the deposit back and of course we had no way of proving anything. There have been claims against us however that we have had proof of, we still get paid by the cc card company so I have no idea how they deal with the customer on those ones. Needless to say deposits for anything now, the customer has to come into the shop and pay cash. Chantelle

Put it this way, I've seen work from most traders, and in some cases, I've had to re-do, or tidy some of the other traders work, but it was never very much. Loose cables, RLTC dat files that weren't set up right, that type of thing. The corrections I had to do for TF, were usually booked in for a whole day. If not more in some cases. they were never 'minor' errors. After about the 5th one, I'd stopped saying "Oh my god!"...

I tried to raise an issue last August after seeing the absolutely appalling, and I mean shockingly bad workmanship carried out on ToyotaToms car, but I got completely flamed by a select few people on here that wouldn't hear a bad word said about them, and in fact, tried to have a dig at me implying that I was 'stirring trouble' because of the people that I associate with on here. I have since seen plenty more examples of their handy work, and most, if not all of it has been of a low quality. However, I never posted it up as I didn't want to be seen as starting another trader war. And besides, their cock-ups were eaning me money when I had to rectify them! This was all before the dispute resolution section was started. Hopefully, people will be able to spot a pattern emerging much sooner now, and hopefully the likes of this and Max GT will be a thing of the past.

What model Clifford do you have? - You probably don't need the cable...

I'm gonna start caling you "Mr Filch!" (Ref. Harry Potter books) That shouldn't happen. Check the bonnet switch. You may find it's barely making contact, and it could be situated in a water channel. When it rains and water flows along it, it may just conduct enough to trigger the alarm. That's just very over sensitive ultrasonics that need adjusting.

Sounds like it's been set up too sensitive. The alarm WILL cause problems if you put anything near the proximity sensor. Obviously your proximity sensor is under the centre console, which is a fairly common place for them. If it causes you too much trouble, it can be mounted in the roof, (assuming you don't have an Aero). Personally, Cliffords are my personal favourite. They can be complicated, and you will benefit from fully reading the instruction book. However, they do need to be set up fairly acurately for each individual car, and it's not easy to get it right first time, every time. If it's not right, don't be afraid to take it back to the dealer.

That's about the size of it.

No, once the car's battery is flat, the remote will become useless. The way they work is, the main control unit for the alarm is fitted to the car and it takes all it's power from the cars battery. If the car's battery is flat, the alarm cannot operate in any way. The only part of an alarm system that is 'self powered' is the siren. The only way to turn off a siren once power is lost, is to apply power to the car, so that the reciever board in the alarm system has power again. This will then allow the alarm and the siren to 'talk' to each other, and you can then use the remote control to fully disarm the system.

LOL, The alarms are designed with a good 12v power supply in mind Chris. A battery going flat whilst the alarm is armed, will cause the alarm to trigger from it's own internal battery, because it 'thinks' that a thief has disconnected the main power supply, or cut the siren cable.... Ideally, if you're likely to have a car for a period of time long enough for the battery to go flat, (or the customers car has a duff battery that flattens within a couple of days), disarm the alarm and disconnect the battery. When you re-connect the battery, 'some' alarms will sound when power is re-applied, so just make sure you have the remote keys to hand. They generally only misbehave if they're misunderstood!

Actually, that's not correct. Faye has a 1997 facelift aero.

LOL, I've got an RTA, (Real Time Analiser), that would probably be able to take an input from a det can mic. If you can make your car drive cleanly, I can monitor the resonant frequencies of the engine generally. Then, LOL, if you can make it det it's knackers off, we can find the offending frequency!