A Different VRT Story
03-26-2007 | 12:28 PM
#1
A Different VRT Story
Let me say first that no one is paying me or asked me to post this thread. And it might be a bit long, so bear with me...
I had a JWT TT 530BB turbo kit installed by VRT last year. It was a partial sponsorhsip, and I will not reveal the depth of the deal but I still paid a fair sum of money - it wasn't free.
I have been running with that kit for a while now, and at the Redline Time attack at Buttonwillow in December, I had some turbo over-boosting issues, an oil leak and an exhaust leak.
I was worried about the over-boosting, and I took the car in to Michael at VRT to fix these issues. But I decided that a real fix, to give myself peace of mind, was to get a built motor. In addition, I decided to get a turbo upgrade to go along with the motor build, and make some serious power. That way, I wouldn't have to watch other cars pass me any more on the straights (not as many, anyway!).
Michael had the car for a while, since I asked him to use my same engine block since I wanted to keep the matching serial numbers on the car. Also, to keep my cams, plenum, etc. Once I got the car back, it had about 300 or so break-in miles. I flew to San Diego to pick up the car and to drive it back to Phoenix. I paid for these upgrades myself - it wasn't sponsored.
The car was GREAT! Power everyhere - it felt much stronger than with the 530BB turbos, even with a mild, rich tune for the break-in period. I drove it for about a week, every day, since I wanted to put some more break-in miles on it before the next Redline Time Attack at California Speeday (this was early February). And now I have a built motor with forged rods and pistons to be able to take the boost and abuse that I plan to give the car.
I was very excited about my prospects for this time attack. I had placed 3rd in class here before, and all I lacked was more power. Power to weight ratio was what beat me here last time. I also had some new aero mods that I thought wouldn't hurt either.
At the track on Saturday morning of the practice day for the time attack, Michael came and put a new tune (downloaded from his laptop) to my Split Second box before my first practice session. We took it for a quick spin down the road just to make sure it was working. A quick stab of the throttle in second gear spun the tires instantly. Phenomenal power and torque! I couldn't wait to get out on the track and try it!
I went out on the track for the first practice session. The track was very green, and with all the new power, I wanted to take it easy for the first session and just "feel" the car out. I did 1:22 on street tires without even breaking a sweat and without pushing the car hard at all (my previous best on street tires, without turbos was 1:20). This was going to be a great weekend! There were many seconds left to extract out there...
I had one lap where the car went into "limp" mode and I had to pull off, go back through the hot pits, turn the car off and restart it again. Then pull back onto the track. I only got in maybe one more hot lap, and the checkered flag fell. So maybe I got 6 or 7 laps in total for the session. But I was still feeling good about how the car felt.
On the cooldown lap I was checking my gauges - oil temp, water temp, oil pressure... oil pressure??? It was reading zero. ZERO??? I tap the gauge, thinking maybe it was stuck. No change. I give the engine a quick rev, thinking maybe the pressure was just low now that I was coasting around the track. No change. I look at the dash and I also have an idiot light on - no oil pressure. CRAP!!! I turn the car off quickly and coast to a stop, off of the track.
I am flat-towed back to the pits. The tow driver tells me that he needs to get back out on the track, saying that someone has put oil down all over the track. I tell him that might be from me, since I have no oil pressure!
We take a look at the car back in the garage - I am fearing the worst. Maybe a hole in the side of the block? It didn't feel bad when I was driving it, and I didn't hear any strange noises.
No holes in the block. No oil dripping. All the hoses and oil lines are in tact. Check the oil - plenty of oil. Well, it's not my oil on the track. What is going on? I find Michael to get some help and to try to diagnose the problem. He checks under the car, and gives me some re-assurance that there is no holes, and the car has oil, so that is a good sign. Bad gauge or sensor maybe? He asks me to start the car - "Are you sure," I ask? Yes, he wants to see if anything is leaking when the engine is running. We check. He asks me to rev the engine a few times. No leaks. I switch it off.
Michael goes to get his laptop, which has a diagnostic program on it. He plugs it into the OBD2 port. We turn the car on again and it idles fine. The computer isn't cooperating - the program isn't launching. We turn the car off again. Everyone is thinking it must be a bad gauge or bad sensor, since the car sounds fine and has plenty of oil.
Michael gets a flashlight, and looks into the top of the engine through the oil cap hole - no oil is splashing around. Not a good sign.
Michael asks me to find a local Nissan dealer to have them take a look. They will have all of the diagnostic tools there. We load the car back on the trailer and take it to Performance Nissan (a great dealership, by the way!). They squeeze me in even though they have another hundred cars waiting for service (literally). We put the car on the lift and the technician looks underneath. They have a new sending unit for the gauge, and even a new oil pump if I need it. The technician is surprised that they even have an oil pump in stock, since he has never heard of an oil pump going bad in a 350Z.
He removes the sensor, and a little oil leaks out. It looks okay, but it's hard to tell with these things.
Unfortunately, the technician doesn't have a mechanical pressure gauge to test with (he has one at home, of course, but not at the dealership). He asks me to start the car, but be ready to switch it off quickly. If the engine has oil pressure, oil will come gushing out of the hole where the sensor was.
I start the car... nothing... not even any more oil drips out. He tells me to turn off the car. My heart sinks... There really isn't any oil pressure. How much damage has been done to the engine?
I call Michael and tell him the bad news. We put the car on the trailer and tow it back to the track. I wait for Michael to get finished for the day and we are going to take the car back to San Diego. I will follow him there with my car.
Okay, you have waited patiently for all the build up... so here is the payoff:
On the way to his place, Michael calls me on my cell phone. He tells me that at this point, he doesn't know why the oil pump or whatever failed... He doubts that anything that his engine builder did would cause a failure like that. After all, I had put almost 700 miles on the car since I had picked it up. But, HE WAS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF IT. He said that he wanted me to be happy and satisfied with my car. He would build me a new motor - AT HIS EXPENSE. New rods, pistons, cams, turbos, everything. I just needed to pay for a new oil pump, or whatever part actually failed.
How many places would do that??? Michael has always been honest and straightforward with me, and has always addressed any issues that I have had, but this was really going above and beyond the call of duty. This was customer service at its pinnacle.
It took some time to build a new motor. I had planned to go to get it last weekend, but it wasn't quite ready, and I had to work during the weekedays. So what did Michael do? He towed it all the way to Phoenix and brought it to me himself!!!
Well, I got the car on Friday, finally. And it runs like a champ.
Michael has me as a customer for life with that kind of customer service.
THANK YOU MICHAEL!!!!
I had a JWT TT 530BB turbo kit installed by VRT last year. It was a partial sponsorhsip, and I will not reveal the depth of the deal but I still paid a fair sum of money - it wasn't free.
I have been running with that kit for a while now, and at the Redline Time attack at Buttonwillow in December, I had some turbo over-boosting issues, an oil leak and an exhaust leak.
I was worried about the over-boosting, and I took the car in to Michael at VRT to fix these issues. But I decided that a real fix, to give myself peace of mind, was to get a built motor. In addition, I decided to get a turbo upgrade to go along with the motor build, and make some serious power. That way, I wouldn't have to watch other cars pass me any more on the straights (not as many, anyway!).
Michael had the car for a while, since I asked him to use my same engine block since I wanted to keep the matching serial numbers on the car. Also, to keep my cams, plenum, etc. Once I got the car back, it had about 300 or so break-in miles. I flew to San Diego to pick up the car and to drive it back to Phoenix. I paid for these upgrades myself - it wasn't sponsored.
The car was GREAT! Power everyhere - it felt much stronger than with the 530BB turbos, even with a mild, rich tune for the break-in period. I drove it for about a week, every day, since I wanted to put some more break-in miles on it before the next Redline Time Attack at California Speeday (this was early February). And now I have a built motor with forged rods and pistons to be able to take the boost and abuse that I plan to give the car.
I was very excited about my prospects for this time attack. I had placed 3rd in class here before, and all I lacked was more power. Power to weight ratio was what beat me here last time. I also had some new aero mods that I thought wouldn't hurt either.
At the track on Saturday morning of the practice day for the time attack, Michael came and put a new tune (downloaded from his laptop) to my Split Second box before my first practice session. We took it for a quick spin down the road just to make sure it was working. A quick stab of the throttle in second gear spun the tires instantly. Phenomenal power and torque! I couldn't wait to get out on the track and try it!
I went out on the track for the first practice session. The track was very green, and with all the new power, I wanted to take it easy for the first session and just "feel" the car out. I did 1:22 on street tires without even breaking a sweat and without pushing the car hard at all (my previous best on street tires, without turbos was 1:20). This was going to be a great weekend! There were many seconds left to extract out there...
I had one lap where the car went into "limp" mode and I had to pull off, go back through the hot pits, turn the car off and restart it again. Then pull back onto the track. I only got in maybe one more hot lap, and the checkered flag fell. So maybe I got 6 or 7 laps in total for the session. But I was still feeling good about how the car felt.
On the cooldown lap I was checking my gauges - oil temp, water temp, oil pressure... oil pressure??? It was reading zero. ZERO??? I tap the gauge, thinking maybe it was stuck. No change. I give the engine a quick rev, thinking maybe the pressure was just low now that I was coasting around the track. No change. I look at the dash and I also have an idiot light on - no oil pressure. CRAP!!! I turn the car off quickly and coast to a stop, off of the track.
I am flat-towed back to the pits. The tow driver tells me that he needs to get back out on the track, saying that someone has put oil down all over the track. I tell him that might be from me, since I have no oil pressure!
We take a look at the car back in the garage - I am fearing the worst. Maybe a hole in the side of the block? It didn't feel bad when I was driving it, and I didn't hear any strange noises.
No holes in the block. No oil dripping. All the hoses and oil lines are in tact. Check the oil - plenty of oil. Well, it's not my oil on the track. What is going on? I find Michael to get some help and to try to diagnose the problem. He checks under the car, and gives me some re-assurance that there is no holes, and the car has oil, so that is a good sign. Bad gauge or sensor maybe? He asks me to start the car - "Are you sure," I ask? Yes, he wants to see if anything is leaking when the engine is running. We check. He asks me to rev the engine a few times. No leaks. I switch it off.
Michael goes to get his laptop, which has a diagnostic program on it. He plugs it into the OBD2 port. We turn the car on again and it idles fine. The computer isn't cooperating - the program isn't launching. We turn the car off again. Everyone is thinking it must be a bad gauge or bad sensor, since the car sounds fine and has plenty of oil.
Michael gets a flashlight, and looks into the top of the engine through the oil cap hole - no oil is splashing around. Not a good sign.
Michael asks me to find a local Nissan dealer to have them take a look. They will have all of the diagnostic tools there. We load the car back on the trailer and take it to Performance Nissan (a great dealership, by the way!). They squeeze me in even though they have another hundred cars waiting for service (literally). We put the car on the lift and the technician looks underneath. They have a new sending unit for the gauge, and even a new oil pump if I need it. The technician is surprised that they even have an oil pump in stock, since he has never heard of an oil pump going bad in a 350Z.
He removes the sensor, and a little oil leaks out. It looks okay, but it's hard to tell with these things.
Unfortunately, the technician doesn't have a mechanical pressure gauge to test with (he has one at home, of course, but not at the dealership). He asks me to start the car, but be ready to switch it off quickly. If the engine has oil pressure, oil will come gushing out of the hole where the sensor was.
I start the car... nothing... not even any more oil drips out. He tells me to turn off the car. My heart sinks... There really isn't any oil pressure. How much damage has been done to the engine?
I call Michael and tell him the bad news. We put the car on the trailer and tow it back to the track. I wait for Michael to get finished for the day and we are going to take the car back to San Diego. I will follow him there with my car.
Okay, you have waited patiently for all the build up... so here is the payoff:
On the way to his place, Michael calls me on my cell phone. He tells me that at this point, he doesn't know why the oil pump or whatever failed... He doubts that anything that his engine builder did would cause a failure like that. After all, I had put almost 700 miles on the car since I had picked it up. But, HE WAS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF IT. He said that he wanted me to be happy and satisfied with my car. He would build me a new motor - AT HIS EXPENSE. New rods, pistons, cams, turbos, everything. I just needed to pay for a new oil pump, or whatever part actually failed.
How many places would do that??? Michael has always been honest and straightforward with me, and has always addressed any issues that I have had, but this was really going above and beyond the call of duty. This was customer service at its pinnacle.
It took some time to build a new motor. I had planned to go to get it last weekend, but it wasn't quite ready, and I had to work during the weekedays. So what did Michael do? He towed it all the way to Phoenix and brought it to me himself!!!
Well, I got the car on Friday, finally. And it runs like a champ.
Michael has me as a customer for life with that kind of customer service.
THANK YOU MICHAEL!!!!
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03-26-2007 | 01:11 PM
#8
so I bet being partially sponsered had nothing to do with the steller treatment right? jk
that's pretty cool of Michael and VRT, but can a regular everyday customer expect free engines if something blows up?
that's pretty cool of Michael and VRT, but can a regular everyday customer expect free engines if something blows up?
03-26-2007 | 01:37 PM
#10
You know...this is what I expect to hear about companies. Look everyone out there that hates on companies because of a few bad experiences is ridiculous. There is no way that any way one company can please every single one of their customers. Some people are going to have bad experiences and some are going to have good ones.
This is not my thread, but I am speaking from experience when I say that I have had great service from VRT...no sponsorship. At the same time I have had terrible service from another company that a lot of people on here love, but it is between me and them.
This is not my thread, but I am speaking from experience when I say that I have had great service from VRT...no sponsorship. At the same time I have had terrible service from another company that a lot of people on here love, but it is between me and them.
