FI: we're not in Kansas anymore...
I was just wondering if your issue was the same mine. I remember having to cut the rear dust shields but that was minor. My front calipers sat too low and would grind on the top of the rotors, I figured a simple fix would be adding a shim of some sort under the caliper mounts to raise them up. I will eventually fix this so I can use the SPC shims again. If you can get the details that would be helpful. Thanks
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 2,282
Likes: 219
From: Alberta
Final Chapter...
Hey guys... first of all- Herr... I asked about the brakes but the guy who was working on my car didn't do the brakes- and that guy was gone on the days I was there. I'll keep hunting for an answer... sorry I didn't nail that one down for you the way I thought I could.
On a side note, the Cosworth got put in and looks great- It's not polished... which is the direction I thought I was going... but the more I see them the more polished I'm seeing. I don't mind tilting in a different direction and from what I've learned I can always change it up when I get tired of it.
The dyno runs went really well. The pro tuner from Intec went over the tune from MNR and said it was a bit rough but overall not bad. The load tables "weren't bad" but he touched them up enough to really tighten up that 1-2 shift. He was delighted with how the car responded on the dyno and remarked afterwards "I think this became one of my new favourite cars." Final numbers on my high boost setting (~18 psi) were 518/474 and my lower setting (don't recall boost) was a smoother ~480 / ~465 or so. I don't have the dyno sheets for the two runs yet but I'm sure they'll email them over when they have a moment.
Going over the border didn't go so smoothly, however. I'm still just shaking my head at how the whole thing went down- but basically the GF loves petchouli (an essential oil that is quite aromatic) and I guess when she stashed our passports in her purse a bunch of the stuff got on them. When we handed it over to the customs official at the border she started huffing my passport and inquired as to what the smell was. At the time, I thought she was talking about my exhaust. I told her it was the exhaust and that because I'd had my exhaust modified that it made the exhaust smell a bit more noticeably. She then started asking about what I'd had done down in the states and I told her about the tune. She asked how much that was and I told her- apparently you have to declare "services" as well as actual parts. When I told her how much, she asked for a receipt... which I had but wasn't sure where. Instead of hold things up she told me to pull over in the assigned lane and go inside to get further clarification.
Uh oh. (the following is the short version)
Anyway, they take a bunch of stuff out of our wallets and both the GF and I had pieces of ID and bank cards (neither of which, I might add, left our wallets the whole time we were down there) that tested positive for coke. Now, let me say this: Neither of us are involved in that kind of activity at all... ever. Imagine our surprise when it turns out the reason they're turning my car inside out is because they're looking for stashes of cocaine. AYFS?
2.5 hours later the guy calls me up for the 4th time and says "How much work have you had done down in the states?" I waffle a bit (a lot) and tried to steer the questions a different direction. This dude didn't buy any of it and kept pressing. Meanwhile he's typing down all the stuff I'm saying. He basically finished by saying "Anything about this story you're telling me that you want to change before I hit enter?"
Stupidly, wanting this whole thing to go away and thinking this was his last stab at me following an almost 3 hour witch hunt for coke involving a multi layered mind-4uck, I didn't reverse my story and just cough it up.
He hands over the receipt from Intec for 22k+ and says he's 99% sure that I haven't paid duty on any of that. At that point it was all over- he went through the process of seizing the car... and I got slapped with a fine / duty / taxes of 9k... which of course I had no choice but to pay.
This isn't a poor me story. I rolled the dice, tried to do something I shouldn't have and got caught. What's worse is against my better judgment I was lying my face off right up until the point where I didn't have any choice but to submit.
I was pretty happy back in August when I "got away with it" but stupidly forgot about the invoice I had tucked away in some cubby in the car... and it came back and bit me in the ***.
The guy was very thorough and professional about doing his job... he told me after "if you would have come clean when I gave you the chance, this would have stung a lot less." I replied somewhat acerbically that if he'd laid off the BS about the coke we could have come about this end a lot faster. He said "I was LOOKING for coke, and just now found this." I relented at that point and basically just dropped the bar of soap and let the shower sort out the rest.
So... we come in here every now and then to learn a thing or two from other's painful experience... and let me say that with around 14000 views on this thread I've given people ample opportunity to learn valuable lessons at the expense of my vast stupidity. All very human things... but each time I tried to cut a corner or save a few bucks it's come back and hit me a lot harder than if I'd just done it right the first time.
The car has been a bit of a nightmare- the whole experience has really soured my enthusiasm for even driving it. I don't have any more extensive plans for modding it- I'd considered doing the heads but frankly I can't even handle the power I have now and it sounds like a HUGE pain in the *** to do locally. Even Intec wasn't too excited about what it takes (without pulling the engine) to just do cams and springs / shims.
Now is time to spend some money on cleaning up some of the cosmetic items that have been nagging at me... the bumper either needs to be adjusted or just scrapped in favour of something different. The paint needs some serious correction done to it so I expect to spend some money on that. A new windshield... RE-11s for the back (S-Drives were great NA... not so good off the dig with 500+hp)... And hopefully just learn to enjoy the car again.
Pics will follow soon...
On a side note, the Cosworth got put in and looks great- It's not polished... which is the direction I thought I was going... but the more I see them the more polished I'm seeing. I don't mind tilting in a different direction and from what I've learned I can always change it up when I get tired of it.
The dyno runs went really well. The pro tuner from Intec went over the tune from MNR and said it was a bit rough but overall not bad. The load tables "weren't bad" but he touched them up enough to really tighten up that 1-2 shift. He was delighted with how the car responded on the dyno and remarked afterwards "I think this became one of my new favourite cars." Final numbers on my high boost setting (~18 psi) were 518/474 and my lower setting (don't recall boost) was a smoother ~480 / ~465 or so. I don't have the dyno sheets for the two runs yet but I'm sure they'll email them over when they have a moment.
Going over the border didn't go so smoothly, however. I'm still just shaking my head at how the whole thing went down- but basically the GF loves petchouli (an essential oil that is quite aromatic) and I guess when she stashed our passports in her purse a bunch of the stuff got on them. When we handed it over to the customs official at the border she started huffing my passport and inquired as to what the smell was. At the time, I thought she was talking about my exhaust. I told her it was the exhaust and that because I'd had my exhaust modified that it made the exhaust smell a bit more noticeably. She then started asking about what I'd had done down in the states and I told her about the tune. She asked how much that was and I told her- apparently you have to declare "services" as well as actual parts. When I told her how much, she asked for a receipt... which I had but wasn't sure where. Instead of hold things up she told me to pull over in the assigned lane and go inside to get further clarification.
Uh oh. (the following is the short version)
Anyway, they take a bunch of stuff out of our wallets and both the GF and I had pieces of ID and bank cards (neither of which, I might add, left our wallets the whole time we were down there) that tested positive for coke. Now, let me say this: Neither of us are involved in that kind of activity at all... ever. Imagine our surprise when it turns out the reason they're turning my car inside out is because they're looking for stashes of cocaine. AYFS?
2.5 hours later the guy calls me up for the 4th time and says "How much work have you had done down in the states?" I waffle a bit (a lot) and tried to steer the questions a different direction. This dude didn't buy any of it and kept pressing. Meanwhile he's typing down all the stuff I'm saying. He basically finished by saying "Anything about this story you're telling me that you want to change before I hit enter?"
Stupidly, wanting this whole thing to go away and thinking this was his last stab at me following an almost 3 hour witch hunt for coke involving a multi layered mind-4uck, I didn't reverse my story and just cough it up.
He hands over the receipt from Intec for 22k+ and says he's 99% sure that I haven't paid duty on any of that. At that point it was all over- he went through the process of seizing the car... and I got slapped with a fine / duty / taxes of 9k... which of course I had no choice but to pay.
This isn't a poor me story. I rolled the dice, tried to do something I shouldn't have and got caught. What's worse is against my better judgment I was lying my face off right up until the point where I didn't have any choice but to submit.
I was pretty happy back in August when I "got away with it" but stupidly forgot about the invoice I had tucked away in some cubby in the car... and it came back and bit me in the ***.
The guy was very thorough and professional about doing his job... he told me after "if you would have come clean when I gave you the chance, this would have stung a lot less." I replied somewhat acerbically that if he'd laid off the BS about the coke we could have come about this end a lot faster. He said "I was LOOKING for coke, and just now found this." I relented at that point and basically just dropped the bar of soap and let the shower sort out the rest.
So... we come in here every now and then to learn a thing or two from other's painful experience... and let me say that with around 14000 views on this thread I've given people ample opportunity to learn valuable lessons at the expense of my vast stupidity. All very human things... but each time I tried to cut a corner or save a few bucks it's come back and hit me a lot harder than if I'd just done it right the first time.
The car has been a bit of a nightmare- the whole experience has really soured my enthusiasm for even driving it. I don't have any more extensive plans for modding it- I'd considered doing the heads but frankly I can't even handle the power I have now and it sounds like a HUGE pain in the *** to do locally. Even Intec wasn't too excited about what it takes (without pulling the engine) to just do cams and springs / shims.
Now is time to spend some money on cleaning up some of the cosmetic items that have been nagging at me... the bumper either needs to be adjusted or just scrapped in favour of something different. The paint needs some serious correction done to it so I expect to spend some money on that. A new windshield... RE-11s for the back (S-Drives were great NA... not so good off the dig with 500+hp)... And hopefully just learn to enjoy the car again.
Pics will follow soon...
Last edited by Eno; Oct 24, 2011 at 10:58 PM.
Registered User
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 480
Likes: 33
From: Canada
Hey guys... first of all- Herr... I asked about the brakes but the guy who was working on my car didn't do the brakes- and that guy was gone on the days I was there. I'll keep hunting for an answer... sorry I didn't nail that one down for you the way I thought I could.
On a side note, the Cosworth got put in and looks great- It's not polished... which is the direction I thought I was going... but the more I see them the more polished I'm seeing. I don't mind tilting in a different direction and from what I've learned I can always change it up when I get tired of it.
The dyno runs went really well. The pro tuner from Intec went over the tune from MNR and said it was a bit rough but overall not bad. The load tables "weren't bad" but he touched them up enough to really tighten up that 1-2 shift. He was delighted with how the car responded on the dyno and remarked afterwards "I think this became one of my new favourite cars." Final numbers on my high boost setting (~18 psi) were 518/474 and my lower setting (don't recall boost) was a smoother ~480 / ~465 or so. I don't have the dyno sheets for the two runs yet but I'm sure they'll email them over when they have a moment.
Going over the border didn't go so smoothly, however. I'm still just shaking my head at how the whole thing went down- but basically the GF loves petchouli (an essential oil that is quite aromatic) and I guess when she stashed our passports in her purse a bunch of the stuff got on them. When we handed it over to the customs official at the border she started huffing my passport and inquired as to what the smell was. At the time, I thought she was talking about my exhaust. I told her it was the exhaust and that because I'd had my exhaust modified that it made the exhaust smell a bit more noticeably. She then started asking about what I'd had done down in the states and I told her about the tune. She asked how much that was and I told her- apparently you have to declare "services" as well as actual parts. When I told her how much, she asked for a receipt... which I had but wasn't sure where. Instead of hold things up she told me to pull over in the assigned lane and go inside to get further clarification.
Uh oh. (the following is the short version)
Anyway, they take a bunch of stuff out of our wallets and both the GF and I had pieces of ID and bank cards (neither of which, I might add, left our wallets the whole time we were down there) that tested positive for coke. Now, let me say this: Neither of us are involved in that kind of activity at all... ever. Imagine our surprise when it turns out the reason they're turning my car inside out is because they're looking for stashes of cocaine. AYFS?
2.5 hours later the guy calls me up for the 4th time and says "How much work have you had done down in the states?" I waffle a bit (a lot) and tried to steer the questions a different direction. This dude didn't buy any of it and kept pressing. Meanwhile he's typing down all the stuff I'm saying. He basically finished by saying "Anything about this story you're telling me that you want to change before I hit enter?"
Stupidly, wanting this whole thing to go away and thinking this was his last stab at me following an almost 3 hour witch hunt for coke involving a multi layered mind-4uck, I didn't reverse my story and just cough it up.
He hands over the receipt from Intec for 22k+ and says he's 99% sure that I haven't paid duty on any of that. At that point it was all over- he went through the process of seizing the car... and I got slapped with a fine / duty / taxes of 9k... which of course I had no choice but to pay.
This isn't a poor me story. I rolled the dice, tried to do something I shouldn't have and got caught. What's worse is against my better judgment I was lying my face off right up until the point where I didn't have any choice but to submit.
I was pretty happy back in August when I "got away with it" but stupidly forgot about the invoice I had tucked away in some cubby in the car... and it came back and bit me in the ***.
The guy was very thorough and professional about doing his job... he told me after "if you would have come clean when I gave you the chance, this would have stung a lot less."
So... we come in here every now and then to learn a thing or two from other's painful experience... and let me say that with around 14000 views on this thread I've given people ample opportunity to learn valuable lessons at the expense of my vast stupidity. All very human things... but each time I tried to cut a corner or save a few bucks it's come back and hit me a lot harder than if I'd just done it right the first time.
The car has been a bit of a nightmare- the whole experience has really soured my enthusiasm for even driving it. I don't have any more extensive plans for modding it- I'd considered doing the heads but frankly I can't even handle the power I have now and it sounds like a HUGE pain in the *** to do locally. Even Intec wasn't too excited about what it takes (without pulling the engine) to just do cams and springs / shims.
Now is time to spend some money on cleaning up some of the cosmetic items that have been nagging at me... the bumper either needs to be adjusted or just scrapped in favour of something different. The paint needs some serious correction done to it so I expect to spend some money on that. A new windshield... RE-11s for the back (S-Drives were great NA... not so good off the dig with 500+hp)... And hopefully just learn to enjoy the car again.
Pics will follow soon...
On a side note, the Cosworth got put in and looks great- It's not polished... which is the direction I thought I was going... but the more I see them the more polished I'm seeing. I don't mind tilting in a different direction and from what I've learned I can always change it up when I get tired of it.
The dyno runs went really well. The pro tuner from Intec went over the tune from MNR and said it was a bit rough but overall not bad. The load tables "weren't bad" but he touched them up enough to really tighten up that 1-2 shift. He was delighted with how the car responded on the dyno and remarked afterwards "I think this became one of my new favourite cars." Final numbers on my high boost setting (~18 psi) were 518/474 and my lower setting (don't recall boost) was a smoother ~480 / ~465 or so. I don't have the dyno sheets for the two runs yet but I'm sure they'll email them over when they have a moment.
Going over the border didn't go so smoothly, however. I'm still just shaking my head at how the whole thing went down- but basically the GF loves petchouli (an essential oil that is quite aromatic) and I guess when she stashed our passports in her purse a bunch of the stuff got on them. When we handed it over to the customs official at the border she started huffing my passport and inquired as to what the smell was. At the time, I thought she was talking about my exhaust. I told her it was the exhaust and that because I'd had my exhaust modified that it made the exhaust smell a bit more noticeably. She then started asking about what I'd had done down in the states and I told her about the tune. She asked how much that was and I told her- apparently you have to declare "services" as well as actual parts. When I told her how much, she asked for a receipt... which I had but wasn't sure where. Instead of hold things up she told me to pull over in the assigned lane and go inside to get further clarification.
Uh oh. (the following is the short version)
Anyway, they take a bunch of stuff out of our wallets and both the GF and I had pieces of ID and bank cards (neither of which, I might add, left our wallets the whole time we were down there) that tested positive for coke. Now, let me say this: Neither of us are involved in that kind of activity at all... ever. Imagine our surprise when it turns out the reason they're turning my car inside out is because they're looking for stashes of cocaine. AYFS?
2.5 hours later the guy calls me up for the 4th time and says "How much work have you had done down in the states?" I waffle a bit (a lot) and tried to steer the questions a different direction. This dude didn't buy any of it and kept pressing. Meanwhile he's typing down all the stuff I'm saying. He basically finished by saying "Anything about this story you're telling me that you want to change before I hit enter?"
Stupidly, wanting this whole thing to go away and thinking this was his last stab at me following an almost 3 hour witch hunt for coke involving a multi layered mind-4uck, I didn't reverse my story and just cough it up.
He hands over the receipt from Intec for 22k+ and says he's 99% sure that I haven't paid duty on any of that. At that point it was all over- he went through the process of seizing the car... and I got slapped with a fine / duty / taxes of 9k... which of course I had no choice but to pay.
This isn't a poor me story. I rolled the dice, tried to do something I shouldn't have and got caught. What's worse is against my better judgment I was lying my face off right up until the point where I didn't have any choice but to submit.
I was pretty happy back in August when I "got away with it" but stupidly forgot about the invoice I had tucked away in some cubby in the car... and it came back and bit me in the ***.
The guy was very thorough and professional about doing his job... he told me after "if you would have come clean when I gave you the chance, this would have stung a lot less."
So... we come in here every now and then to learn a thing or two from other's painful experience... and let me say that with around 14000 views on this thread I've given people ample opportunity to learn valuable lessons at the expense of my vast stupidity. All very human things... but each time I tried to cut a corner or save a few bucks it's come back and hit me a lot harder than if I'd just done it right the first time.
The car has been a bit of a nightmare- the whole experience has really soured my enthusiasm for even driving it. I don't have any more extensive plans for modding it- I'd considered doing the heads but frankly I can't even handle the power I have now and it sounds like a HUGE pain in the *** to do locally. Even Intec wasn't too excited about what it takes (without pulling the engine) to just do cams and springs / shims.
Now is time to spend some money on cleaning up some of the cosmetic items that have been nagging at me... the bumper either needs to be adjusted or just scrapped in favour of something different. The paint needs some serious correction done to it so I expect to spend some money on that. A new windshield... RE-11s for the back (S-Drives were great NA... not so good off the dig with 500+hp)... And hopefully just learn to enjoy the car again.
Pics will follow soon...
But your situation is the worst I have ever heard! Sorry to hear but great story none the less. Your car has now been through a hell of a lot!
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 2,282
Likes: 219
From: Alberta
Yeah... it was a real shocker but I've moved on and learned a couple of valuable lessons from it. The next time I go down I'm cleaning the car first... before I leave I'm throwing out every receipt and when asked I'm going down to visit some friends and maybe doing a little shopping.
To be blunt- I have NO freakin idea what the 4uck NAFTA is and how it applies at all to anything that happened to me. I'm trying to get acquainted with the specifics- because it makes no sense to me how we have free trade and yet I paid duty on services?
If anyone could explain how I would be held for every penny on that receipt from Intec (2 receipts, actually)... maybe you could chime in?
To be blunt- I have NO freakin idea what the 4uck NAFTA is and how it applies at all to anything that happened to me. I'm trying to get acquainted with the specifics- because it makes no sense to me how we have free trade and yet I paid duty on services?
If anyone could explain how I would be held for every penny on that receipt from Intec (2 receipts, actually)... maybe you could chime in?
Sorry to hear about the border crossing woes! 
Just experienced my own issues with the 5AT related directly to faulty calculated load reporting by the stock ECU (either because of a recent reflash or Haltech upgrade, probably the latter affecting MAF values...). Anyway, ensuring calculated load was a 100% and making sure that the base fuel schedule at least roughly represents actual load is important for the 5AT even with a standalone system. Even with a Haltech, I am reliant on the MAF and stock ECU to provide the TCM with appropriate data to keep line pressure adequate for managing the torque going through the transmission.
Just experienced my own issues with the 5AT related directly to faulty calculated load reporting by the stock ECU (either because of a recent reflash or Haltech upgrade, probably the latter affecting MAF values...). Anyway, ensuring calculated load was a 100% and making sure that the base fuel schedule at least roughly represents actual load is important for the 5AT even with a standalone system. Even with a Haltech, I am reliant on the MAF and stock ECU to provide the TCM with appropriate data to keep line pressure adequate for managing the torque going through the transmission.
