300zx Drift Car Update

Was just asking.

Your reply threw me... wasn't expecting that reply.

 

I agree Chilli as per my earlier post re flame war. Its just like I said it would be two different stories and both parties think they are right, however UAS did take on the job and charged some 7k to modify/repair/sort the previous issues with the car and given the recent events at the shop it has been very hard for them to do just that, however they do run a business and charge a premium price for the so called zed specialist knowledge so as JP said in a post maybe the car should have been turned away in the first instance or it clearly explained to the owner what they can expect from the results. It is extrememly difficult to go over work done by others as we commonly get it with a/c systems in buildings in town but we are the specialists in our field as UAS are with zeds so I think what Thunder is saying re the tune etc is justified to a point, the guy forked out 7k on his car and by the sounds of it it isnt much better than when it went there. Communication is key here guys first seek to understand before being understood. When Ben gets back I think he will need another holiday. I think it should be followed through and resolved at the end of the day word of mouth advertising and repeat business is key here guys

Ben is great at what he does but is not a wizard he does get stumped on things and may not know why the car does what it does short of pulling the engine and checking it out/ rebuilding it again. I had an idle issue with my car which idles high after my power fc install it hasnt been recitified yet as we dont know exactly whats causing it and will no doubt cost many hours of labour at $98 per hour so have opted to live with it for the moment. It may be a simple case of enough money was spent and UAS did all they could for $$ spent.

That was quite a speil Lloyd (ps still trying to get 3 minutes around the corner to see you about those turbos just have no time hhhhrrrrr) Will call you in the next day or so)

 

i would have thought the sensible thing to do do early in the piece when the specialist workshop realised that this job was going to be a lot more involved than initially expected, (which being a specialist workshop, it should have been realised) they would have called the customer and laid on the table the prospect of him being up for a lot more dollars than previously discussed, that way at least the customer knows what to expect and can make a decision on whether to go ahead with the work, or take the car back and try to sort it himself, as far as i am concerned no workshop has the right to do any work other than what has been requested and if extra work needs to be done then the workshop is obliged to get in touch with the customer and get the OK to do it.
cheers

 

Yes you are correct BHP I think thats what happened to a point however the end result was less than desired by Greg. The problem is now UAS has touched the car and racked up quite a large bill on it so they have part ownership of the faults with the car. They charged to do the work and maybe threw in a set of hex bolts here and there but have charged for all the work nonetheless so have a duty somewhat to ensure the work they did is satisfactory and warrants the high cost. (duty of care clause)I think from what I have read Greg feels a little ripped off given what was done and the high cost for the results acheived and it seems both parties are working slowly toward some sort or resolution pertaining to this matter.

J

 

Couldn't have said it better, Lloyd

For the parties to continue to slug it out here is only hurting everyone.

I can't see any resolution whilst it is slugged out in public like this

 

Over$7000 and no result?

Sheeesh....thats harsh

 

Until I posted on here I have received no satisfactory answers to my simple questions, and even then, most are still unanswered.

It appears John knows nothing about the car until Ben gets back from holidays, maybe this is why I have not received any answers that make sense. When does Ben get back from holidays?

Does anyone else know whether the missing hose on the e-boost needs to be blocked off or whether it is left open for a reason???? I left a couple of packets of vacuum block offs in the car to seal vacuum leaks and it only takes 5 seconds to push one on. Look at the picture, does it need to be blocked or is it left open for a reason?

John, the car is a Drift Car so it will live on the track. You rang and told me it was ready to pick up and I got billed for 2.5 hours of dyno tuning plus another 5.5 x $150 of dyno time which one would assume involved at least some adjusting along the way. There was no mention that the car could not be driven.

If someone rings me after 2 months and tells me the car is ready to pick up, I like everyone else, would assume you toss me the keys and I hop in and drive it away.

This car has still not been on a track and is lucky to make it to the end of the street and back.

John, there are not many virgin cars out there from 1989, someone else has worked on the majority of them prior to you, and some of their work would also be bodgy by your standards.

Forgetting the fuel system, as you had already disconnected ours and installed your own. The only thing affecting your ability to tune the car was the turbo pipe popping off which we fixed in 15 minutes. Surely this minor problem could have been addressed by you so the tune could be done properly, considering all the hours you spent on it, the 2 months it was left there for, and no pressure of a deadline.

The leak in the intercooler is internal so no metered air is leaking to the atmosphere and will not affect the tune. The pressure on both sides should be the same so the amount of bleeding between the end tanks will be minimal.

John, I am sure Adrian at Toda Racing will apreciate you calling his workmanship bodgy. He is a Honda specialist and also does a lot of work on Skylines and other cars and he was the head mechanic and tuner at Advan before he started his own workshop. So he knows how to build an engine and tune a car.

Please list the bodgy stuff that affects your ability to tune the car.

Our Drift car went to Motorex shortly after coming back from the paint shop. A chip appeared on the edge of the bonnet/guard while at Motorex. We put a couple of marks on the front bar trying to get the engine in and we put a chip in the front guard and there was also a texta line drawn on it. The rear drivers quarter/bar had a scratch on it which happened in our workshop. The marks on the lower front bar are from the car trailer. We know all about these.

The car went to your workshop, returned here for around a week and has been at your workshop for 2 months. These 2 pieces of damage were not on the car prior to going to your workshop the second time. The loose paint from the chip in the guard was still sitting on the guard.

Whether this is a track car or a road car is irrelevant, tell me honestly, are you proud of the tune that is in my car?

Before I even picked up the car, you told me you never ever wanted to see my car back there again, so don't blame this post as a reason.

You also mentioned that you are too busy with full paying customers, who don't ask questions or whinge - apart from a discount on a few parts, I paid full retail price. Why was my car less important than anyone elses?

I came to you because of all the endorsements on this forum, and I had already paid for a tune from the engine builder, but because you are 300zx experts, I decided to pay again (time was an issue as well) to make sure there were no issues with the car.

If you are a 300zx expert, you should be used to dealing with cars that have problems, that is why you are supposed to be the experts, and that is why people pay $98 per hour for your tradesmen to work on their cars. Sure, my car had issues, and some of that was due to one mechanic re-building what another had started, and by not being the one to strip the engine, sure, some wrong bolts were used to hang the accessories to the outside of the engine. Sureflo had 2 weeks to put the engine in and get all of the other work done, so that you had 1.5 weeks to check it over, install the computer, get the engine running and tune it. Once this deadline passed, we had 4 months till the next race, so the urgency was over. 2 of those months have passed and the car is not running any better than when we got it back from you the first time.

John, I never asked for a price. At the end I queried the hours on the jobsheet because they did not make sense. I also queried why you did the same thing on both visits, and replaced a brand new genuine timing belt with an aftermarket one, etc without permission. All this discussion took place after you told me the car was ready to pick up, so all of my so called whinging and questions would not have affected the outcome of a car that was already finished.

At the end of the day, as a customer, when I ask myself "am I happy with the finished car?" the answer is NO.

Do I think the car has been tuned properly, the answer is also NO.

Regardless of who worked on it previously, or what issues it had, after being tuned by experts and told it was ready to pick up, the car should be ready to drive. I know there are things we have to do before we race, but the car should be able to be driven.

 

If we get the problems sorted between now and then it will be running.

Cheers
Greg

 

Answers

Your car with your fuel system which is not a good set up may have different fuel pressure than when we had set up and yes we tried to make it work. Ben in the interest of getting your car tuned and in least amount of time offered to use his own fuel system out of his 10 second MR2 which worked fine.

The motor was missing parts as mentioned and has a tight spot possibly from bent crank or other. With no spark plugs in it can be turned over with 1/2 inch rachet and gets to a point it is very tight. Also had massive oil pressure and blew our oil gauge as well as had yours go to max and stop working then came good. Prior to tuning and as we told you about. It is more the work around the motor thought that is the problem and bodgey. KI know of Adrian and believe him to be good and we spoke with him re this motor to try and sort it out. He built the motor itself not fitted accessories or worked on the car which is where most of the problems are.

Re the tune plenty of time spent tuning and trying to tune due to many issues as mentioned and fuel pressures varying and Ben checked the fuel flow and said it was air rating.

We are not proud of the tune or having anything to do with it. We can only do so much with what we were provided with. I am not surprised you are not happy with it either I would be pissed off as spent a lot of money with us and elsewhere and so close yet so far. As in cheaper although big cost to start most of it again all over again as in motor and intercooler, fuel system etc etc. Moral of the story is don't rush it and get motor built with contra deals and don't cut corners and get quality mechanics to set it up from the start.

 

theres no point arguing, i have had the same problems and theres always an excuse for everything. Its just funny when you take your car to another workshop and they tell you the work is shit and im standing there thinking "F#&$ i paid $98h/r for that shit"

At the end of the day people will believe what they want but it seems alot of people that go their have these problems.

 

OK Guys,
It seems like we have reached a point where some answers are on the table(and, to some extent the heat has gone out of the discussion).
How about drawing-up a list of the things that MUST be done to get this car running satisfactorily(as opposed to a "Wish List" of what ideally should be done). It seems to me that it is far too late to go back to a clean sheet of paper, and start again, as everybody has invested far too much time and money in this project.

John, in your opinion, can this car be fixed to an acceptable standard if approached in a spirit of good will and common sense?

It might be nice to see a successful Zed in the Drift Comp, especially if it had a "Tuned by UAS" sticker on it(rather than a continuation of this mess).

It might just help to restore some of the damage that is being done to the reputation of your workshop/business, as well, and that can't be a bad thing.:zlove::zlove:

 

I agree with Chili, this would be a very could chance to save face. To be absouletly honest I wouldn't be taking my car to UAS after this little incident. Regardless as to who is to blame the customer should not have to come here to try and get some reasonable answers to his issues. If I was in Greg's shoes I would be happy to stick a big "Tuned by UAS" sticker on my car if the car goes back to the workshop (for free) and comes out in a few weeks working properly (as it should've in the first place). Regardless of how difficult it is to tune a Dual afm setup you would expect a car that is tuned correctly for over $7000...

I can see where John is coming from and the set backs UAS has had with the fire and moving premises, but regardless a workshop with a reputation as big as UAS should act in a professional manor, especially since a large chunk of work comes from people here.

 

And then of course, they would be called UAS dumps


I have made my views regarding said workshop known, but it really does seem it is a one way street down there.
I still fail to understand how the time to change a pump ,or whatever it was, can change so dramatically from one to the next.
$98/hr..... I think I'll put my price up!

Would have been cheaper in the long run to send it to Qld and get one of the experts up here to do it.

Nuff said today I finks.

 

You're just a cheap ol' tart John... KY told me so

Quite a few NSW Members do just that. Holiday + major service at same time!

 

Hey thunder

The answer to your question!
Does anyone else know whether the missing hose on the e-boost needs to be blocked off or whether it is left open for a reason????
Port 1 is left open, its a vent
Port 2 should be teed to both actuators
Port 3 is a where the soleniod is connected to a preasure source, ie the manifold!
Good luck with it.

 

If this is a continous problem, which it seems to be

Nearly everytime on this forum someone complains about being over charged or for the work done to their vehicle, UAS is mentioned. I dont know why and i think this might be a good opportunity for both JP and Members to give advice and sort somthing out concerning UAS's reputation.

To be honest i would love to be able to take my car to a Zed specialist and at the same time be treated like i dont know anything, and if i dont know anything, then appreciate good communication so that i know exactly whats going on. On top of this to have really good relations with the people im paying money and trusting with my car. This will ensure everyones happiness, which atm is not being met by anyone i dont think.

In the end no one is dumb and you can smell a fish or untrustworthy conduct pretty quickly, even though sometimes its too late you still gotta pay. What im trying to get at is, if UAS's reputation in continously put down by members which seem to be growing more and more, then it will be very smart for JP to not just brush it off as though everyone is wrong and he knows best, but to address the issue, alalyse it and then go about fixing that problem. It could be somthing as small as communication problem or something major like over charging.

At the same time members need to try to stop the biases against UAS at some point of time and open relations with UAS so that not only JP receives business from members of this forum but also re-builds the expert reputation he has had in the past.

Everyone wants the same thing, if you think about it and as my grand mother says, dont do what you wouldnt want others to do to you. :zlove:

 

I have my doubts that greg would even want a UAS

decal on his car after this, even if it was fixed for free - which, in my opinion, should be the case.

There are too many contradictions in John's 'answers'.
"Adrian is a good mechanic" BUT "the motor has a tight spot possibly bent crank "should've got done by quality mechanic":

Told Greg that he'll "look after him" on the price and then charges out full retail.

Not that this should be the case BUT, quite a few mechanics here in Brisbane will not charge a full retail if they cannot fix the problem. At $98/hr, I would have thought that some consumables like clamps would have been thrown in at no charge (but that's just me)

It does appear though that UAS rep is not being helped in anyway by the banter going back and forth and with other people's experiences noted.

There are quite a few "businessmen" here on the forum and i doubt any one of them would agree that their business needs this kind of exposure and would be doing everything possible to rectify a customers concerns (even if it means 'tearing up a few $$' to make things right. Or is that just me?

John I really hope you can sort this out quickly and fairly for all concerned.
I can't help but feel your company will lose any respectablility it has left if you simply wash your hands of this.

Greg, I am happy to supply you with some form of parts sponsorship for a spot on your car

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me.
The hoses are correct and we have fixed the leak on the pressure source to the engine.

Cheers
Greg

 

Thanks for your support.

The only things that I know that I need are 2 "Good Quality" BOV's, and a Turbo timer.

According to John the fuel system is airating and we need better fuel filters, but not sure what he recommends as our Earl's filters are apparently toys and only filter rocks. I'll have to check the Rocket catalogue and see what we can find.

If you can help me out with these it would be great to have you on board.

Cheers
Greg

 

I'll take one of the 'rocks' off your hands, would be nice in my NA