[BonzoHansen]

If the only changes are exhaust side, well, that is kind of weak.

But I can understand a dealer (and a lot of non-dealer places too) not wanting to work on modified cars – 8 out of 10 end up being nothing more than money-losing PITA jobs – ones that come back over & over again. It might be hard to believe, but some cars that get modified have other problems or are otherwise done incorrectly (bad grounds, vacuum leaks, removed parts, poor ecm edits, bad aftermarket parts, etc.).

So the tech ends up spending way too much time chasing bugs. Even if they charge the owner for every minute they work on it (and most people do not like being charged for 9 hours diagnostic labor), the business (and tech) are still losing money – especially if there are other jobs to do. Plus, the more they charge you, they more the own all the problems with that car. It is very often a no-win proposition. If I am a tech and have a choice, I’d rather do 4 brake jobs in the time I would spend on a modified car.

Yes, I know you’re thinking ‘a good tech would be able to fix it’. Well, in theory, right. But if the car ends up being a PITA, that tech knows he is losing $$ from his paycheck.

Hell, that is what your tech did. He spent enough time on it to realize he didn’t want to lose anymore paycheck looking at it and pawned you off on the dealer. He was just nice about it. I never liked attitude some guys offer in that situation - you are trying to spend money with them.