znasty

iTrader: (3)

Z1 Motorsports Poor Quality & Bad Service! (BEWARE)


I have owned Nissans for the past 12 years. 280 turbo, 240sx, 300ZX and now a 350Z. I have always heard Z1 Motorsports was a good shop for anything performance related to the Z’s. This is sadly not true! Simply put, they did a very poor job and want even own up to their mistakes and fix it.

Here’s the story,
About November last year at 41,000 miles on my 350Z, the motor started to knock. I had it checked out by the local Nissan dealer and lack of oil had caused the engine to start knocking. Ex-Wife had the oil drained while I was sleeping during our divorce, (I suspect). Any-way, I had to have the engine replaced and I figured if I was going to do it I would go ahead and do some things I wanted. I bought the motor and ATI ProCharger that was already installed from a member here on the forum and had it shipped to me. I bought a JP Aero Body Kit, A Fast Intentions Exhaust, RC Engineered 440cc injectors, and a UTEC Turbo XS. Then I started checking around to find out who I should let do the work. I heard Forged Performance was great and Z1 Motorsports was also a good shop. Since I had new the Z1 Motorsports name I went with them. BIG MISTAKE!!! I should have gone with Forged Performance.

Z1 gave me a quote of $2500 to pull the old motor and put the new motor in with the ATI ProCharger installed. That sounded like a pretty good deal to me so I dropped the car off in November 2006. Dyno would be $100 an hour more.

I DID NOT GET THE CAR BACK UNTIL May 26th, 2007. SEVEN MONTHS LATER!

The Body Shop, (Watt’s Collision) only took two weeks to install the body kit, hood and paint. They did a pretty good job.

While they had the car all they kept telling me was they were backed up and they had several cars in front of mine. When they finally got my car on the Dyno they said they could not get it tuned. They said I needed a better fuel pump. I then purchased a Welboro Fuel Pump for $150 plus labor to install. They recommended me to get the UTEC Turbo XS with Map sensor, ($800) because the Aeromotive controller could not tune the car with the 440cc injectors. They also advised me that it would be a good idea to get a valve body upgrade, ($650, shipping $150, labor $200) and a Tranny Cooler. Which I did. They said the ATI system needed a new belt and tensioner pulley which I also purchased for $250. I had them install a A/F Gauge and a Boost Gauge as well.

Now I wait in line again to get my car on the Dyno and then they tell me they still can’t get it tuned. The car was running rich and cutting out. They said they needed a game boy advance to tune the UTEC and that they had never installed a tuned a UTEC before. Now don’t forget they are the ones that suggested me to get it! After over 100 pulls on the Dyno, (16Hrs Total charged) they said they had it and the car was running good that I could come pick it up. They still had a few things to button up but it would all be done by time I got there because I live about 2 Hrs away.

Now after Seven months of waiting I was pretty happy to even see my car again. I picked the car up drove it home. I noticed it would run real rich at first and then level out. It also had a squeaking noise coming from the belt and pulley area that I figured must have just been the way a belt driven ProCharger sounded. After about three weeks the transmission failed. It started slipping. I had a new transmission installed locally for $2300. BOTTOMLESS PIT I TELL YA! Then the car started running rich all the time. I would be riding around 60-65 MPH and the car will start to stumble and just bog out. If I let the car idle for about 2 or 3 minutes and then rev the engine it spits raw fuel out the exhaust and leaves to puddles of fuel on the ground. I am to afraid to drive it because it runs like **** and now I realize one of the pulleys on the front of the car has a bearing squeaking that is going bad and I can’t tell which one.

I called Z1 and told them what it was doing and they admitted they had trouble tuning it and it would run real rich on them too but they thought they had it running good. The total I spent with Z1 Motorsports is over $7000 and I feel with over 16 Hrs on the Dyno and over 100 pulls I have paid them to install all these parts and tune it in already. I paid to have the car tuned in already and they did not get it tuned in but they want me to not only wait in line to get it back on the Dyno but charge me another $XX Hr to do it.

I put the car up on a lift and to my surprise found my exhaust sitting on the body of my car in several spot and a broken bracket that I had to have welded and get this they had zip ties holding some of my plastic together were they lost the bolts. They also did a real crappy job cutting out my plastic to fit the ProCharger in. It looks like ****. Oh and did I mention my hood will not close without putting all my body weight on it several times.

I am out of money and they car is sitting in my driveway un-drivable and now I have to find a way to get it to run right so I can sell it. I actually sold it but then it started running so bad that I just didn’t feel right letting it go that way. Now it want even stay running at idle.

Can anyone please help me!

Alberto

iTrader: (14)

Sorry to hear, so you talked to Z1 and they wont retune for you and fix the issues? Ive never heard of a bad experience there, but all shops make mistakes, its how they handle them that seperates the good from the ....

znasty

iTrader: (3)

I agree and they still could retune it and handle the issue properly but the owner want even talk to me.

Jay'Z

iTrader: (118)

Theres nothing we could do.. My only recommendation and the best advice youll recieve in your life is.................. Go to FORGED PERFORMANCE and see Sharif........ Problem Solved!! Hell make it right and he is a tuning GOD.. Bottom line!!

znasty

iTrader: (3)

Here are some pictures of the car. She is a looker!

I am Selling the car. I have around $36,000 in invested in the car.

I am asking $27,000 as is right now! If anyone is interested.

Alberto

iTrader: (14)

Your missing your battery cover....

Cube

iTrader: (7)

I agree, hack job on the engine cover.

This all sounds a LITTLE BIT familiar...

Too bad you can't take jonb's advice since you don't have any money left (you forget that part jon?)

And as Alberto said, you're missing the battery cover which sucks because same thing happened to me, but that shop found it and replaced. Honestly I feel for ya, and I know how you feel in that you wish you'd never gone to them...

znasty

iTrader: (3)

I'm not missing the Battery cover. The battery was dead and we had to take it off to jump the car off. It does look good with both of them on at the same. I need to take some new pictures. Those are about a month old.

Julian@MRC

iTrader: (28)

A gameboy advanced to tune a UTEC???

znasty

iTrader: (3)

That is what they told me. I have also herd that from some other people on the forum that it is the best way to tune with the UTEC.

Julian@MRC

iTrader: (28)

You tune their DTEC fuel computer with a gameboy..The UTEC you tune with a LAP top..unless there is a feature I am unaware of,but this in news to me..

doug

iTrader: (5)

just to be clear... Z1 Motorsports is not Z1 Performance.. because it appears Z1 Performance is in NY and Z1 Motorsports is in GA .. you might confuse a couple of Z1 Performance customers

NA&CH

iTrader: (74)

+ a couple.

Sorry to hear about your experience

Chris

350Z84

iTrader: (5)

Thank you for that. When he said Z1 I was just thinking of Z1 performance. Glad to hear it's not them.

znasty

iTrader: (3)

It is not Z1 Perfomance. It is Z1 Motorsports in GA.

Nexx

iTrader: (41)

maybe thats why they couldnt tune it properly?

350Z84

iTrader: (5)

13SECZ

iTrader: (4)

You should take the z1 sticker off the window...


sorry bro..i too have had bad experiences with perf. shops...even if you get good reviews..its still a crap shoot...need to learn to do this crap myself.

russell@z1

You brought us a automatic 350z with a bad motor that the oil had never apparently been changed in (ever) along with a used incomplete ATI procharger kit.

We put another used stock engine in the car and piece together what we already consider a much less than favorable FI kit including ordering a bunch of obscure pieces from ATI. No doubt it took a long time, we stay extremely busy and your project was missing so many pieces that we worked on it in between other ongoing jobs. Contrary to the tone of your post, we did not suggest anything or try to sell you anything that you didn't need. The car was tuned on our dyno (with a laptop) and the car was running well. We drove it around for quite a while with no problems. You came and picked it up and drove it and didn't mention any problems then.
We have the dyno charts that I assume were shared with you showing the A/F ratios were with-in the proper range.

As far as the other issues go, feel free to come to the shop at your convenience and Skyler (our service manager), Josh (the technician that worked on the car), and myself will be happy to go over each and every one of them with you. I already disagree with holding us responsible with several of the items you mentioned but we won't go into all those details here. Come to the shop and we will work it all out.

If any of the issues are related to parts we supplied or our workmanship we will take care of them right away. I've already asked that Skyler convey all of this to you. I was under the impression that he had. I apologize if he has not.

znasty

iTrader: (3)

WOW! It's nice to finally almost talk to you Russell. I've asked to speak with you several times since I started having problems with the car. Skyler informed me that you would not talk to me that I had to go through him.

Let's start with the incomplete ATI ProCharger. If you are talking about the missing fuel pump that comes with the ATI system you are correct. That is all that was missing.

The car was not running well when I picked it up and I was told by Skyler that you did not put but a few street miles on the car since it was dynoed so I should take it easy and listen out for any noises or weird behavior by the car. When I picked the car up it was around 9:00pm on a Saturday night and you are closed on Sunday. When I called Skyler after picking the car up I told him it was running rich and he said it was running rich on yall as well and he didn't know why. I'm sure you did catch the dyno on the car in limits at one point in time but that doesn't mean the car is good to return to the customer. Skyler told me several times that yall had it running right and then it would go extremely rich or extremely lean. The part was put back together like ****. I’m not going to sugar coat anything. The quality of work that your shop performed on my car was crap.

I like the fact that you are acting like the car was just a pain in the *** and you were glad to be ride of it but it was running good when it left your shop and now it's just on me.

Of course the parts are all working good, they are all new. The problem is not the parts it the tune and the quality of work. You wouldn't even talk to me until now and the only option your shop has came up with is for me to bring it back to your shop and yall will cut me a deal on the dyno time to retune it and I will have to wait until you have time to get to it.

Come on! You can't be serious! I spent over $7,000 at your shop and the best you can do is, bring it back to us and we will charge you more labor to do the work you have already paid for.

How about you give me a call and work something out! I'm the customer remember!