So i began looking at stage 2 kits about a year ago. Liked the idea but couldn't justify the price of parts + install. Well I luckily found an internship that paid very well this summer and put some money aside to and bought the kit around July 4th.

The day before, I called around looking for someone to install everything for me. Eventually i found a shop about an hour and a half away from my parents house that said they would do the install for $200. Made the appointment for a month later when my internship was done.

That day I made my way up and went to the service counter to check in. When I told them my name, they said there wasn't any information about the work I was having done. I told them I was having a stage kit installed and told them about the conversation I had had on the phone with the woman who made my appointment. He told me go ahead and wait in the waiting room and they would be done in a few hours.

I started watching a movie, and about twenty minutes in I got beckoned to the shop. Never a good sign. He said he had no idea who quoted me $200, but the install was going to cost well over $600. After telling him he can listen to the voice mail quoting me $200, he lowered it to $600. I said "whatever, just do it." A couple minutes later he said he doesnt even have to tools to be able to do it and I'm out of luck. Useless.

So I go home and called a place not far from where I go to college and make an appointment for today to get this installed. I rented a car from work so I wasn't stuck at the shop waiting all day and had my roommate drive my cobalt up. We dropped the Cobalt off and went and did a few things around Pittsburgh to kill time. About 4 1/2 hours later we headed back to the shop to see how progress was going. They were just wrapping up the reflash by the time we got there. I was asked to move my rental Camry out of the way so they could pull my car out. I didn't see the 3 foot tall pole in the middle of the parking lot for no apparent reason and backed right into it. I drive these rental cars all week long around a tight parking lot under works insurance without incident. I rent one for personal use for 6 hours and manage to hit this stupid pole.

The shop actually did a good job of buffing most of it out so they may have mercy on me about filing an insurance claim. Anyway, I got back in the Camry, my roommate got back in my Cobalt and we made the 1 1/2 hour drive back. The Cobalt performed flawlessly. I watched him do pulls all the way back to Morgantown. When we finally got back to the airport to drop off my car, i jumped in the driver's seat of the Cobalt to see what it was like. I was thoroughly impressed for the 1/2 mile that it lasted. I heard the most god-awful screeching sound coming from the engine. Pulled over and watched as my car started eating my serpentine belt. The pulley on the supercharger wasn't aligned correctly and absolutely ruined the belt. Luckily I broke down in a garage's parking lot and they took enough broke belt out for me to be able to make it home.

Now I have to try get ahold of the shop to figure out what we can do to fix this. The shop seemed reputable too. There wasn't a single vehicle there that wasn't boosted. Even so, it's still annoying that this happened when I got all the way back home and the shop had been closed for 20 minutes. Almost makes me wish I would have just left it stock.

 

Dammm. Lol. Should of asked here for help. Wish u lived closer. I would of installed ur stuff for 200$. Its so easy.

 

Yeah I did ask here if anyone knew anyone locally. Got a lot of recommendations but all the shops I tried either wouldn't answer their phones or were fully booked.

And yeah, the shop that did mine said it was pretty easy. But that was before it went wrong haha

 

couldve spent the 650 on hpt pro and uploaded a tune yourself and rented a pulley puller from zzp

sorry if im a downer

 

If i had the tools, garage, and knowledge to be able to do it myself I definitely would have. I got it done at a performance shop because its my daily driver and wanted it to be done right. Just got unlucky I guess

 

youre not the first. i have heard of stories much like yours when using performance shops. same exact situation too, where the hub wasnt quite pressed on enough.

i guess my mentality is different on such things. i cant trust anybody to work on my car. it eats at me

 

I know the feeling. I don't let anyone touch my motorcycles at all. Just my dad and I.

Never got into modding cars though so I never learned how to do such things. This is actually the first mod I've ever done to a car besides installing speakers and a head unit haha

 

I could have walked you through the install and saved ya a lot of money man.

Sorry to hear this.

 

Yeah there's a how to in the GM build book even lol. all you'd have to do after installing everything yourself with basic tools (sans a way to remove the stock pulley) was go get the tune flashed at GM or have someone tune ya

 

Yep ^

 

Yeah I'm sure I would have been able to do everything other than the tune and pulley myself, but those two things were the bulk of the cost of installing it anyway haha. It's not the money part that's eating at me. More the fact that I took it to a shop that does nothing but build Camaros and mustangs so it would be done right and now it's broken.

Crate Engine Depot is on their came though. Ordered the new belt this morning and paid for faster shipping. They called me shortly after and said they would use a different carrier to get it here a day earlier and it would cost half as much.

 

Sorry to hear this... Best of luck

 

Thanks man, appreciate it

 

You could have done the pulley to. Not hard.

 

Doing the pulley isn't hard with the right tools as Staged said.

 

Life lessons, I guess. Even a competent shop can mess up something so simple.

Good luck.

Did two of these installs with basic tools and the ZZP pulley tool without problems.

 

Yeah. It'll get fixed so there's no need to stress out about it I guess. Luckily the shop is being cool about it and agreed to fix the problem.

 

Update:

So I went back to the shop and diagnosed the problem almost immediately. Nothing the shop did or even the stage 2 kit did. The serpentine belt tensioner just had a bad bushing in it. You could move it side to side very easily with your hand. When I did my pull, it moved to the side and the belt slipped over the edge, causing the damage. It would have happened if I installed the stage 2 kit or not. Just happened to be a coincidence. They couldn't help me at that shop because nobody had the parts.

Drove straight to the dealership in Morgantown, had them overnight the part and got it fixed this morning. I finally got to do a pull without belt failure. Definitely glad I went with the stage 2 kit! I was nervous it wouldn't make a big difference but it's more noticeable than I thought.

Next step will probably be the GMPP clutch