Well people are always asking me about my Eagle Talon and what exactly happened to it and why did I sell it. Well I’ve decided to tell the story the way it happened over the 4 months I owned it. Nothing will be left out and I will do my best to remember everything as it happened. This is long and isn't something you should start to read unless you have the time.

It started with my Silver 2000 Eclipse. It’s been on lease since 1999 and my lease is up in November 03 and I was already over my miles. In 2001 I became very interested in DSM’s as it seemed to be a great platform to build a nice street car without dropping a ton of money. In 2002 while getting on Route 9 I saw a gray talon at the Speedy Muffler shop located on Hartford Rd in Farmington. It immediately caught my eye.

On the way home from the store I decided to pull in and check it out. The car didn’t look bad at all. It did have two dents. On the front driverside and passenger side fenders. Wasn’t too concerned considering when you are so amped and want something the smallest or even the biggest things don’t seem all that important. So I check the for sale sign and it says 1200. I said to myself damn what a great deal. I go over to Speedy and it’s actually an employee’s car. Of course you think someone who works at a shop must have done everything right with the car.

So he comes out and starts it up. He says “It runs great but recently its been making this weird noise. I can still get it up to 120 no problem though” The car starts to idle surge. Granted I had no idea what idle surge was prior to buying the car so I figured it must be an easy fix don’t see why not. So I ask him if I can test drive it. He says sure and gladly gives me the keys. Of course I was all excited to drive a DSM and a turbo, having driven the 2000 eclipse for so long. I couldn’t believe how quick it was. I immediately jump on the highway and head over to the local DSM shop located in Newington.  I bring it over to have it checked over so that I don’t get screwed with a car that might have a bad motor and such.

We pull it into the garage and the manager there looks over the motor. He immediately points out that the car is idle surging and raises it up to find a leaky transfer case. He points out that there was a t-case recall and that I could probably get that fixed for free and to use it as a bargaining tool. Very helpful I must say. Even told me the color was one of the rarest of DSM’s. I guess they didn’t make all that many Gray talons. So I bring the car back to the guy at Speedy and tell him I will give you 850 for the car. I explain it has a surging problem and I’m going to have to get it fixed not to mention the t-case is leaking like crazy and the front panels are both dented and rusting. He says 900 and that’s my final offer. As excited as I was, I said sold.

I left thinking boy this guy just got rooked. I honestly thought I had the deal of a lifetime. I mean come on turbo AWD dream machine, what a sucker that guy was. So I went home and told my parents the great deal I made and headed back to speedy to pick it up. The car was idle surging all over the place. (Idle surge is when your cars rpms bounce all over the place from 2000rpm to 1000rpm, 2000rpm to 1000rpm..you get the point. It’s annoying.) It didn’t faze me because I had finally got a DSM like I always wanted.

The reason I bought the talon was I had planned to trade in my 2000 in Nov of 03 to buy an EVO VIII but came to the sad reality that it would be way too much money so figured Id buy the talon and build it up the way I wanted too. I had also acquired a job with the DMV repairing the photo license equipment and would have to drive all over the state and with the miles adding up it seemed like the thing to do. My parents were all for it and happy with the decision I made.

I don’t have the exact dates anymore as some time has gone by and I can’t remember nor choose to really remember. I know I picked up the car sometime in mid July so will go with July 10. I bought the car on July 10th and on July 11th I registered it at the New Britain DMV. I was excited to finally be able to go places. My friend Amber came over and I took her for a ride. We went over to Best Buy in West Hartford to find a radio for the car. The kid had yanked his out before I took the car so I needed some sort of tunes.

There was one thing that I did notice upon driving the car the first time. Minus the idle surge you could hear a loud exhaust leak coming from under the car near the driverside. I will explain that later on but just a note. So I’m heading back to my house with Amber all excited to show her the car and how it just simply moves out of its own way and I see smoke coming from the driverside tire. Now mind you this was 6pm and I had somewhere to be with the other car at 7.

The light turned red and I gun it. Damn now it smells like oil. At this point I had gone roughly ¼ mile from Best Buy and I live roughly 4 miles away. Suddenly my oil light pops on. All I could think was damn I need to make it home. The guy who worked at speedy must have had 12 quarts of oil in the trunk. So I decide to add some oil. I add some oil and start going again. More smoke starts to come out. By this time I have gone 2 ½ miles. I’m almost at the home stretch when the oil light kicks on and the car rolls to a stop. Now I’m so stressed with the car because the idle surge was bad enough. So of course in goes more oil. By this time I am completely out of oil.

So I make it to the home stretch. If you’ve ever been to my house its one of the hilliest roads in New Britain to say the least. So I give it gas and up one hill, by this time the car is making some weird noises. Not good ones by any means. Before I go any further it was probably my stupid fault for driving the car any further then I did but hey we all do stupid things in life and well that was one of mine. So I get roughly a ¼ mile from my house and the car dies going up hill.

Since adding oil seemed to make the car go I ran home and left Amber in the car. I never realized how far a quarter mile is when you’re running. So I get home and tell my dad what’s going on and that I need to get some oil and go to my car. He says what happened. I explain that I really have no idea but when I add more oil it seems to work. So we head to Mobil and I grab some oil and head back to the car. I add the oil and fire it up. I think I moved 3 feet. By this time it’s now 6:30 and I need to get on the road.

I say screw it I will just leave it on the side of the road and come back to it after I’m done with my prior arrangements. So Amber and I get in my dads car and head back to the house. Get ready and leave. I get to where I need to be at 7:10 which wasn’t bad considering it’s a 40 minute drive and I left 20 minutes before I was due there.

So my mom calls being the sweet woman she is and tells me she called Triple A and they are going to come and tow it. She wanted to know where I wanted it towed. I said the DSM shop in Newington. About 2 ½ hours later I get a phone call from my mother. This is what she says, “Hey the tow truck guy has to go get a flatbed tow truck cause when he tried to pull it, and it just dragged the back wheels.” I said are you even kidding me its AWD and it says it right on the damn car. I was ripped. She calls me back a little while later and says it’s now at the shop. The owner gets on the phone and says Kev you need to go after these guys. They towed your car on a fwd tow truck and could have ruined the suspension and shifted the motor causing you to bend valves, etc etc.

I was like ok I will look into it. I guess the tow truck guy was rather new to the business. FYI The towing company is Story Bros Towing out of New Britain which I refuse to use now. So this is where all the major problems start. (And you thought I was almost done.) So I file a complaint with Story Bros. and they say they will look at the car. They come over to the shop and take the car to their shop. The date is now July 14, 2002. Three days later they call me and simply say there is nothing we can do we did NOT cause the damage. There wasn’t much I could do after that although some people said I should have sued them but the fact of the matter is I didn’t have triple A on the car and my mom said she was in the car so had it gone to court it would have proved that Triple A should have never been there to begin with although the tow truck driver should have known cause it said All Wheel Drive right on the car.

So I was pretty pissed and asked that R&M tow the car back to the DSM shop. My dad says to go ahead and have the shop work on it and see what the damage is. I was still pretty heated and after calming down a bit my parents agreed to help me get the car fixed and would pay half of whatever the damage was. My parents were very helpful throughout this whole mess. So on July 20, 2002 I went down to the shop where they were pulling the head off. Sure enough some bent valves and one of the pistons had knocked pretty hard. All in all the motor was spent. Sweet 900 dollar nightmare had officially started.

Well turns out the reason the car would not hold oil was because the oil filter backed off. A known problem with some DSM’s. Who knows had I stopped driving the car the minute I noticed the oil leaking I may have saved the car but hey that’s neither here nor there. So it was time to decide what exactly I wanted to do with the car. Now mind you I knew little about cars as we all do when we first start out. My options were have the motor rebuilt which would cost me 1600 or have a JDM motor put in which would be 1200 for the motor. The JDM motor was really talked up by this shop like it was the greatest motor ever. I was even told the motor had 225hp STOCK!! (Later to find out in Japan it does cause they have different restrictions unlike the states.)

So I decided to do the JDM motor. I sit down with the shop owner and go over some numbers. He says to me well lets see now would be a good time to do a tranny if you want one as well as a clutch. I said sure why not lets do it all in one shot so I have a killer Talon. I also said Id like to have the TurboXS RFL, and various gauges. I was officially excited about the car again although it was going to eat at my pockets big time.

The motor finally came in around July 30, 2002. It was now time to wait for the shop to install the motor. Couple days went by and I stopped by to see how the progress was going. I was told, “Well man it looks like you need a new down pipe. Its pretty cracked, and your driver side axle is spent as well.” That explains where the exhaust leak was coming from near the driver side tire. I asked how much that would cost and I was told 35 for the down pipe and 70 for the axle. I just said go ahead and do it up. About two weeks went by and I stopped by. They said the car will be done this weekend. So I continued to wait. The weekend came and the car was complete. (August 4, 2002 I’m guessing)

I was pretty excited to pick it up. My excitement came to a halt when I started it up and had IDLE SURGE!!!!! I asked them why I had idle surge. Turns out they use all the stock electronics and throttle body. They stated you paid for a motor swap and that’s what we did a motor swap. I was shocked and said to myself whatever. Drove the car home pretty excited to have my car back on the road. I installed the RFL BOV and thought the car was crazy nuts. I had just coughed up roughly 3500 for the motor and various parts yet the car still idle surged. My next goal was to fix the idle surge which I was told was most likely a bad ISC motor in the throttle body. I immediately hit up the DSM trader and found a guy in Altoona PA who had one and said he’d send it to me for 80 shipped. That was for a complete tbody which isn’t really that bad. Sent the money and was waiting for him.

I made an appointment with Papa’s Dodge to have my transfer case fixed since it turned out there was an outstanding recall on it. The car sat at Papa’s for about a week since they ordered the wrong t-case and gave it to someone else. Once it was fixed I figured Id swing by the shop just to say hi. As I come over the hill near the shop all my dash lights come on and I coasted into the shops parking lot. Ran in and told them something popped and the lights came on. I pop the hood and they find a belt missing. I guess the alternator belt snapped off. Hmm I think someone may have tightened it to much. They charged me for an alternator belt but not the labor. Not sure why I had to pay for the belt since you’d think that came with the motor swap but didn’t matter wanted it fixed.

Well a couple days went by and I was putting around in my TSI trying to decide what I would get next for the car. My dad wanted to go for a rip with the JDM motor in. I head up the street and nail the gas. Pop goes something and all of a sudden I hear what sounds like a semi truck but its not it’s my car. The down pipe breaks. I say to my dad, I think it’s my down pipe. It must have broke. At this point I was losing my patience with the car. So I head down to the DSM Shop again. Explain what happened and tell him I want another down pipe. Well I wont get into how many times the DP’s kept breaking but it happened 2 more times till I got sick of the nonsense and started looking for an exhaust. I found one locally on the trader. Was a full 3inch Buschur Exhaust for 500. Turns out the guy who was selling it was Shawn Bald someone I already knew so he made me a good deal and I picked it up.

I knew the Buschur exhaust wouldn’t break since it was stainless steel. Upon inspection while removing the down pipe I discovered that the DSM Shop missed the bolt on the back engine mount which was causing my motor to move like crazy thus breaking the down pipes. It all made sense now. I told them about it and they replaced the bolt. A day or two after the bolt was replaced I notice the car was starting to hesitate at low RPM’s. I of course bring it back to the DSM Shop. I leave it over night and they call me to tell me my injectors are dirty and they need to be clean. So I of course ok them to clean the injectors. Another 70 bucks.

After having the injectors clean I’m on my way to the Pike when I hit a red light with a Benz. I was pretty excited as I hadn’t really had any races yet with the car. So light turns red and I get on it (no launch cause I didn’t really know the car just yet) blow him away when suddenly I see a HUGE puff of smoke. I pull over and all of a sudden there is oil everywhere under the car. I look and tada oil filter has once again backed off. This time I knew better and shut it down.

The funny thing is the guy in the Benz stopped and gave me a ride to where I needed to go. Good guy. Anyway I called Sean Waterman to come help me get it running. He showed up with Brian Booth and we laughed at the issues I was having. Brian said he had just had his motor rebuilt by a guy named Aaron Victor and it was coming out mint. First time I had ever heard of this name. So I asked about him and they said he knew anything and everything about DSM’s. Of course I thanked Sean for not telling me about this guy sooner. So I bought a filter and some oil and the car was back on the road.

I set up and appointment to meet this guy Aaron Victor. By this time I’ve lost track of dates but I believe it to be sometime late late August. I bring it down to Aaron and he pretty much told me strait up that JDM is well I don’t want to speak for him but he didn’t speak highly of it. He stated that what it is, is pretty much a junk yard motor from Japan and that the people over there know they have to get rid of and beat the crap out of their cars before they get rid of them. He pointed out various things that just seemed to be a mess. The coil packs chilling in the middle of no where. So I told him Id let him know what I wanted done and bring it back to him. I even talked about dumping the JDM motor and doing a rebuilt motor. (Note to anyone its better to have a motor rebuilt because it’s new. Never go JDM because you don’t know for sure what your getting bottom line)

So I headed home pretty excited to know there was another option out there besides the one I knew. I think I may have gotten about 2 miles from Aarons when my car died and strolled into a package store right off of Route 6 in Bristol. I had sworn to myself anymore problems with this car and I’m selling it so you can imagine how upset I was when this happened. I immediately call Aaron and tell him the car is dead again. He comes over and checks it out. Only thing we could find out of the ordinary was the tranny seemed to move when I pushed the clutch in. So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place since the DSM Shop would probably fix it since it hadn’t been that long since the engine swap.

Just a side note that I forgot. I was able to get two champagne fenders from a buddy GSX. All I had to do was tow the remains of his car to the dump for him. It was a pretty good deal since I was able to get a guy I met from a near by tow shop to tow it for 30 or so bucks. I later painted the fender gray to match the car. It was an easy fix since I planned to have the car painted over the winter.

Anyway I call up the shop and tell them about the tranny problem and they say to have it towed in and they will take a look at it. I call my mother and some how through a miracle of God she gets me added to Triple A over the phone. I’m now a AAA Gold member…woo hoo going to need it for this car… haha. By now this is a joke and I believed everything I had ever heard about DSM’s was true. They do nothing but break. So the car goes to the shop again. After a week of sitting in their lot they decide to bring it in. I guess they were really busy and didn’t have a lot of time to look at it. (IMO if someone gives you almost 4 grand to work on a car you should make time to take it in and look it over especially if it’s your fault) After putting the car on the lift they find a HOLE in the tranny!!!!! Yes that’s right a hole in the tranny that I spent 500 for.

This is where things got hairy for me. (Ok maybe things already were after all the problems I had) I ask them what could have caused this and they say to me, “Well to be honest the only time we have seen something like this was the car being launched hard.” I felt really awkward as if they were trying to say that I beat on my car which was not the case I didn’t even have it for more then 3 weeks come on. So we make an agreement that I would pay for the labor which was roughly 250. All my friends said I shouldn’t be paying for a penny since it obviously wasn’t installed correctly the first time. I didn’t want to argue so I said whatever and gladly paid the labor. At this point the car was up for sale as I was sick and tired of all the problems I had run into. Could no longer enjoy the car and just wanted it fixed and sold.

So the DSM Shop planned a CCDSM meet to be held at the shop. I thought what a great way to sell the car. So I cleaned up the car after getting it back the SAME day as the CCDSM meet and I put signs all over it stating it’s for sale. (It worked out perfect the shop was able to get the tranny put on that night and finished it up the morning of the CCDSM meet) The mods on the car at the time were, new timing belt, boost gauge, air fuel gauge, apexi turbo timer, buschur exhaust full 3inch exhaust, JDM motor, RFL BOV, act 2600 clutch, newer tranny, and walbro fuel pump. I figured Id aim high first and started the asking price at 5500. Now keep in mind I had already dumped close to 6500 into this car after the motor swap and various repairs. I thought the price was rather fair considering what I had spent and the money Id never get back.

(Something I left out regarding the idle surge. I ended up getting an ISC motor from my buddy Shawn Bald who I also got the exhaust from. The guy in Altoona never sent me the throttle body. I will add the story of him at the end.) So the idle surge was fixed with his ISC.

So the day of the CCDSM meet came and I had made arrangements with a few people to check out the car. Everything went well and had a few interests. So the meet was about over and I figured Id run home show my parents that the car was fixed. I drove home, not sure why till this day, and I get out to see a puddle on my driveway. It wasn’t raining just so you know. I immediately get in the car and back out leaving the car in the street. As I walk up the driveway to my surprise is a HUGE puddle and drop marks all the way down the driveway and up the street of something. Boy was I pissed.

I get my jack and lift the car. What do I find but a BIG hole in what looks to be the tranny. I called up the shop and said listen there is another hole in the tranny. They say to me I cant be serious. I say well yes I’m very serious. They tell me to have it brought down and they will look at it. At this point I’ve given up all hope in this car and I’m so pissed right now that I call Aaron Victor and ask him to come take a look. He gladly says yes. So I head back there and pick him up with my mom’s car. He takes a look and sure enough big hole in the bell housing of the tranny.

I said a lot of things about the shop that may not have been right but you know what some was true. I felt that I had really been had as far as the work done on my car went. The car was towed back to the shop where it sat for quite a while. Upon inspection of the car it was decided that the bell housing was shot and they agreed to do the work for free since this was now the second time there was a hole in the tranny/bell housing. In the meantime I had decided to lower the price and I took off the exhaust and sold it for 650. Cha ching operation get some money back was under way. I dropped the car down to 4400. My goal was to make 5000 back and take a hit of 1500.

A few more weeks went by. I was told by the shop they would have to work on my car in the off hours because they weren’t getting any money for the repair. I was pretty shocked at that to be honest. I mean if someone drops almost that much money into a car and its still not running right due to installation error how can you not do your best to get it fixed ASAP. But at this point I was more then disappointed with my experience at the shop that I just sucked it up and waited.

Late one Friday night I went down to see how it was going. The guy said pretty well it will be ready for Saturday. (Saturday I was to drive the car to a kid in West Haven who said he wanted it and had cash) He says a little bad news though. The passenger side axle is beat. I said what’s new. I called up Aaron and he was able to get me an axle last minute. Brought it to the shop and he put it in on Saturday morning. He finishes some odds and ends and lowers the car. He goes to start it and nothing. Hmm. So he charges up the battery thinking it might be dead since the car sat so long. Still no go.

We somehow get it started by pop starting it thinking maybe its flooded now since we tried to start it so many times. I run it through a car wash trying to make it look nice for the guy in West Haven. I park it and my dad shows up to follow me down to West Haven. I get in and it starts up woohoo. So we head down to West Haven and we get close to the exit and I lose 5th gear. Car will not go into 5th. I pull over and tell my dad. He says just keep going. So I continue to head down to his exit and lose 4th. Not looking to good. I pull off the kids exit and into a gas station. I turn off the car. I wanted to make sure it started again. Would you believe it didn’t start? As I try to start it the kid who is going to buy the car shows up.

Wonderful!!!! I explain how it was flooded this morning and it should be fine in an hour or so. So he helps me pop start it… LOL Ok done laughing. So we drive it to his house and guess what….. NO THIRD. Did I mention I also have no reverse? So the kid goes to start it and it starts up. I’m pretty nervous about him driving it but not much more I could do except cry maybe. So he drives it and gets on it…. He loves it. So we go to turn around with my dad behind us still and no reverse. At this point my dad says forget it you can’t sell him that car like that. So we push it and he drives it back to his house but on the way we lose ALL gears. Not even 1st. So I’m ripped now. I call up the DSM Shop and tell them that I think the tranny is shot again.

This is what I hear. “I don’t know what you’re doing to these cars. We don’t have time to deal with it right now. Bring it by and will get to it when we can.” So I call Triple A and think what the heck I might as well give Aaron a call maybe he can tell me what’s wrong. I explain the situation. I ask if maybe the clutch cables could be loose and he says that the only place the cables bolt up are on top of the tranny. I look and sure enough the bolts are not in. The guy at the shop forgot to tighten the bolts. They aren’t even there. All of a sudden the kid who was going to buy the car points them out near the wiper just chilling there. I asked the kid if he had any tools. Using an adjustable wrench I put the two bolts in. TADA fixed.

Of course the kid didn’t want to buy the car and I can’t blame him. I wouldn’t buy a car someone had to push start either. So I cancel Triple A and head home when I hear a pop getting on the on ramp. Pop the hood to find the BOV popped off. I guess they also forgot to tighten the bolts on the bov adapter. I was done with the car and ready to drive it off a cliff. I brought the car to Newington and parked it on my friends’ yard. The car ran strong now but I could no longer enjoy it there had been far too many things gone wrong.

I was able to sell it to now my buddy Nick for 4400. I gave him all the paper work for the repairs which totaled well over 6500 bucks. He was happy and so was I. I ended up getting 4400 for the car and 650 for the exhaust bringing my total money back to 5050. I ended up with 50 bucks more then planned so I was ready to start shopping. As you know I got the GSX for 4400 a complete swap of what I made off the car. I guess it was meant to be. The rest is history.

On a side note Nick had no problems with the car till about 3 months ago when the tranny one again suspiciously broke. He brought it to Aaron upon my advice too. Turns out the bell housing was once again messed up. After inspection of the tranny install he found wrong bolts used as well as the tranny not being lined up. (My friend believes it could have been due to the flywheel being cut incorrectly.) There was also a protective cover that was missing from the bottom leaving the tranny open to debris. It cost Nick almost 1200 I believe to get the tranny fixed perfectly. The car has since been sold by Nick and he has move on to better things. I wish the person who bought the car the best of luck.

So for those who don’t want to read the whole thing here is the cliff notes:

Bought car for 950 bucks.
Had the following go wrong:

3 Broken down pipes
Dirty injectors
Missing motor mount bolt
Alternator
One crack tranny
One hole in bell housing
Two missing clutch bolts
Idle surge
Two busted axles
Misc repairs

Total spent on car before sale: 6800 (Bad investment)

Moral of this TRUE story: What you think might be a deal may not always be the case. If someone says a place is bad don’t go there. Research before you buy something and don’t do things on impulse.

As for the guy in Altoona with the throttle body. He gave me some song and dance about the throttle body saying it was shipped via a company called Dunkel services. I gave up believing him and filed a complaint with the FBI Internet fraud division and called the local law enforcement in Altoona, PA. I guess the captain going to his house made him stop playing games and a week later I got a brand new carbon fiber EGT gauge since he never really had any throttle bodies. I then sold it for more then the t-body was worth. To bad this whole process took over 4 months!!!