Subaru Forester Owners Forum banner

LIC Motorsports, Novato - great service, thanks Adam & Noah.

6K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  LICmotorsports 
#1 ·
Found these guys by searching these forums for recommendations.

Yes, Novato is a little further from me (I'm close to Walnut Creek) than some of the Hayward shops which were also mentioned - but I was intrigued by the good things which I read, and their no-BS website... (hmmm, they even have indicative pricing there for the major maintenance items)

Anyhow, called in on Tuesday, made an appointment for today for a 105k service and spent the day hanging out with Adam & Noah.

Turns out that sometimes what you read is true - they are both great guys with a super clean, organized workshop. They stock most parts on site, and when it turned out that I needed a hard to find part - it was ordered, delivered and fitted in a matter of hours - no extra charge (in fact they saved me some $$ by getting a perfect used part).

A couple of things to note: these guys are passionate about Subarus, and they really know their stuff. They drive 'em daily, (their whole family drives them), and the guys have their kick-ass race car in the shop... *drool*.

So, was it worth the drive across the Bay ? - Absolutely. My return trip home in my newly serviced XT was fantastic - it felt tight, no squeaks, rattles and best of all I wasn't bleeding from the wallet.

These guys run a great shop, and deserve the support from the community - I will be spreading the word to all the owners I know.

I'll be using them exclusively from here on in for all of my XT's needs...

Disclaimers: I have no affiliation with LIC Motorsport - I am merely a really fussy owner, who has had many cool cars, and plenty of experiences with second-rate dealerships and shops. When I find a good shop, i feel it my duty to give props to the owners, to keep them in business as long as possible.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Adam and Noah are the only people I'll trust with my car for work I don't want to tackle myself. The new shop is awesome, they know their stuff and are great people to deal with. Noah can get you anything you want for a good price too, and their advice is priceless. LIC FTW.

Stan
 
#3 ·
Can't say enough good things about LIC... they are the only shop that touches our cars.

Hand them the keys and rest assured that they will treat your Subie as if it were their own, do uber-conscientious work, and get things done right the first time - every time. Oh, and I can't even recall how many times they have talked us OUT of doing something that they believed was unnecessary... For example, I was recently under the impression that my Brembos were in need of a rebuild. We were looking at a $1k job - but Noah advised us that it was unneeded.
 
#6 ·
I think Silke summed up our feelings on this place.

It's the only place I can think of to take our vehicles. Even the ones they don't want to see there (SVX). Once it shows up, they treat it with the love and respect of one of their own...oh wait, it WAS one of their own until we bought it.
 
#7 ·
And this is why I'm a LIC customer for life...

This morning Roo and I were headed to San Jose on business when Subed started acting weird. Coming off boost after passing a car on the 280-bahn he suddenly started to buck and the CEL started flashing and then came on solid. Roo steered him into the rightmost lane and took it easy, and soon after we exited the freeway on our way to Stevens Creek Subaru (Roo is currently doing some outside sales for them and wanted to check in). Ryan (parts manager at Stevens Creek) was nice enough to track down a Select Monitor and pull the code for us: P0340 - cam position sensor bank 1.

Stevens Creek didn't have the part in stock, so they sent us to Carlsen Subaru in Redwood City to pick it up. We nursed Subed along by staying out of boost on the freeway, A/C off, and shifting into neutral at every intersection and red light to prevent him from stalling, as he was now hiccuping and backfiring on the freeway and idling rough on surface streets.

After picking up the CPS we headed to the nearest performance shop, which happened to be Auto HQ in Redwood City. Their tech was nice enough and installed the part in a reasonably short amount of time, but made a big deal about having to perform a procedure to maximize the ignition advance multiplier in order to make the ECU learn faster, which he said was only taught to Subaru factory-trained, ASE-certified Master Technicians like him. I'm sure he was talking about the old Vishnu trick, so we politely declined. He then reset the ECU and went for a road test, and everything seemed fine.

We paid the bill ($108) and Roo and I were on our way, but as soon as we accelerated onto the freeway, the all-too-familiar bucking routine started again. :icon_confused: We decided to cruise homeward, hoping to stop by LIC Motorsports on our way. We figured the issue was something other than the just replaced sensor, and ran through a number of possible scenarios while white-knuckling it up 19th Ave and through the City, trying to keep Subed from stalling at the stoplights. Jumped timing, fueling issues due to bad fuel pump/fuel filter, bad gas, MAF failure... the possibilities were plenty.

Eventually we made it to Novato and pulled in at LIC Motorsports. Adam was busy troubleshooting another customer's car, but we didn't mind waiting since we got to hang out and shoot the breeze for a while. We were the last customers there when Adam pulled in Subed and started datalogging and investigating the problem. The code he pulled was still the same as before - P0340. It took all but 20 minutes until he came back with the news... Auto HQ's factory-trained master technician had installed the cam position sensor on the wrong side! :shake: Evidently he wasn't aware that "bank 1" refers to the side where cylinder #1 is located. The faulty sensor was on the right, not the left! AHQ had replaced our good sensor and left the faulty one in place.

Adam simply produced another CPS (borrowed from another car in the shop) and replaced the bad sensor, then ran Subed through a series of diagnostics again. This time it was evident. As he was revving the engine, I could tell the difference by the exhaust fumes - it was the same, familiar, rich smell that Subed normally emits, and that was noticeably absent before.

Everything checked out fine in the end - Subed is a happy camper again and back to his old self, boosting and accelerating smoothly. LIC Motorsports once again saves the day! :biggrin:

Moral of the story: If stranded while out of town, tow back to LIC!
In all fairness, Auto HQ fessed up to their mistake and will refund us the $108 charge for the faulty install tomorrow.
 
#14 ·
Very glad that Adam had the good sense to check the steering ratio before installing the rack on Slynki yesterday... otherwise we wouldn't have known that the rebuilder screwed up until after the fact. Good looking out!
 
#15 · (Edited)
Took my car in last week for 30K service and new front rotors and pads. Noah (Adam too) talked me through how to better monitor how much oil my engine (136K miles) is using up, and the type of oil which would better suit the current state of the engine, especially since it was at least 1.5 quarts too low (yikes) when i brought it in. He also painted black the new brake bracket i had installed, after he saw that i had painted my calipers and brackets black (underneath all the brake dust). He gave me a thorough run down of various things he noticed and things i should keep an eye on. LIC always take great care of their customers and their cars, and this visit strengthened my recent resolve to take better care of my car and make it last. This is why i do not think twice about taking my car there. and yes, Noah is always super fast in responding to emails. Can't recommend them enuff!!

and oh, my front brakes feel fantastic (centric rotors, stoptech street performance pads), and after the 30K service, feels like it's got a new lease on life, woohoo~!
 
#17 ·
A+ Shop

Went to LIC due to Silke's recommendations. Great shop and great guys. Even though I was the PITA customer not knowing which brake pads or fluid to choose from...I just went with their recommendations. They were super fast and very thorough in showing me what was done and explaining what to expect with the new brakes in comparison to the old OEM setup.

The brakes work great.

Great job guys!
:woohoo:
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top