there have been recent posts recommending a mechanic in melb, that a lot of us 'z' owners have had trouble with....is he still ripping ppl off and doing dodgy work? or have things changed? does any one know?are the ppl recomending this shop mistaken or lucky?what was the outcome with the poor guy that got his motor blown up by this incompetent person? have the legal actions finished?
Please send me an email...... so as not to publically name the person, and let me know who you are talking about. CheersJEDI-77
If you are referring to Z-Shop..>> Why not just say so. If you personally had a problem be specific. If you are describing Lindsay Drife as an "incompetent person " there are many extremely happy Z owners who swear by him after many years of reliable service. Maybe you could be referring to one of the other experienced Z mechanics there including a Japanese who has had vast experience with racing engines. I have had trouble free running with my Z over 3 years with all major work done at Z-Shop , a pre-ownership check there saved me thousands of dollars. But maybe I am just lucky. If you are also referring to the problem that Simon had with Z-Shop why don't you find out both sides of the story to form a balanced assessment. Otherwise don't waste the time of forum members . Tony
dont waste time?... hmmmm ok... mr. know-it-all, it amazes me that you jumped to that conclusion of who it was! Why is that? it is obvious which side of the fence you sit! i have no dramas with that, that is why i had asked if things had changed! Hopefully they have, my experience was not good, i fell in love with him (being of minimal mechanical experience personally), he seemed to know everything! (except for an approximate completion time of any work to be completed, but all Zed owners have to be familiar with this!) i have a few examples, i kept blowing hoses, and car overheated. It went on for a very long time. Repair... Burst...and so on. There are a lot of little costly hoses! Not to mention the time factor! This cost me well in excess of $1,000. I dont know about you, but to me, a $1,000 is a LOT of money. During this, my brake pads were down, and that annoying whistle was coming constantly! Lindsay informed me that my brakes had seen their day, needed new calipers and machining and what ever else to stop that screech! I would have to take a loan out to cover it! Thanks to this web site, i learned a lot about my zed (thanks a lot guys! you will understand the level of my appreciation shortly)in a relatively short time! One of our members was complaining about the exact problem i had with the screeching! The advice quite simply was change your pads. It was a warning indicator that it was time to change pads. So i did the reasonable thing... got a second opinion! my local mechanic was not gonna do! so i asked our members for help, and Peter (WYKKED) recommended i speak to Spencer of NissPort. (Thanks again Peter) He highly recommended him! And rightly so! Within minutes of studying my engine bay, Spencer thought he found the problem to my constantly bursting hoses. Guaranteed me, 'if it doesn't work, i won't charge you'. Who could argue with that? The problem was that one of the hoses was not put on correctly, and there it was in clear sight he showed me a pinched hose. Which caused the chain reaction, pressure building up and bang! I'm not rich, so a $1,000 wasted on unnecessary hoses doesn't go down well. Just imagining the performance parts i could have purchased!!! From that day, no more trouble with the hoses or overheating! And as the forum advised, Spencer agreed whole-heartedly. He showed me discs, my calipers told me they were all fine! Joe further affirmed this! And using my brakes with me present showed me the wire on the pad making the noise. Still a bit of life left, but an indication that the time to change pads was coming. The noise was doing my head in, so i asked him to replace them. By memory it only cost about $300, and in comparison to Lindsay's 'any where around the $3,000 mark', was a whopping difference. And his push push attitude, gotta get it done now, it will cause greater damage. This is one experience that i had, there are many others. Even simple things, i asked him for a rough estimate on a diff change over. And he would not even give me a ball park figure. To you maybe, this is acceptable. I felt it was dodgy. Quite simply, I had some bad experiences there. And honestly, chances are, if it weren't for this forum, and all our members contributing their little bit along with Peter's advice, i would be the sucker working his tail off to get unnecessary costly repairs. I hope that this has made it clearer to you as to why i am so curious. If you have some spare time, i suggest you have a chat with some of the local Nissan Club members about your pal! You may be surprised! And in your own words, 'there are two sides to every story!' I hope that he is good to you. I sincerly do. I got cheated, i have no doubt on that. It is easy to be cheated and manipulated after some one has earned your trust. So please, in future, dont get smart. All i want, is to ensure that our members know a bit of the 'behind the scenes', so they are able to make an informed decision! I know that i have gone on for a bit, but feel it necessary to give my case strength. The scarey part is, at one stage i was like you. Lindsay the Zed God! So i hope i havent 'wasted your time', but people getting ripped off bothers me!
You're lucky, only $1K, I've lost $1.5..... and it wasn't Z-shop. My story started when I bought Stillen JWT ECU chip. I should have been told that when installing that chip in automatic the transmission oil cooler is absolutely necessary to prevent damage of the transmission. So when the chip was tested, my car was driven to it's limits for 2 days and one of the run finished with the blown transmission. I wasn't behind the wheel at the time, car was driven by the person who sold me the chip and was told by him that the my a/t was weak and that's why it was blown. So I had to buy another transmission and installed it which cost me over $1500, so there is not only Z-shop behind the scenes. As you said I also want other members of this forum to be aware of dodgy mechanics. By the way I just find out recently that my a/t wasn't properly installed.
Well said, I guess the people who goaded> you into spelling out your unhappy experiences will wish they hadn't. :-0 :-0 Everyone else should thank you for the warning to be on-guard against profiteering businesses.Cheers mate Lloyd :| :|
i share your opinion > I, like you, would be rightly annoyed if i had to spend a grand on something i didn't need. For some people a grand is not much but it is alot of money to many. Especially for something so simple!I persoanlly would want to know of a dodgey mechanic if i was having work done and it saves people alot of time, energy and money. Thats the great thing about this forum, each member is looking out for eachothers "investment." You could have easily have clammed up about this guy and let others fall into the same trap but you shared you unfortunate experience and have probably saved others from reapeating the same mistake.We all know the Z is an expensive beast to maintain and why should you (and why would you want to?) part with your hard earned dollars for sub standard work?
Some things need to be said and i >>> think you said it perfectly, i dont know the exact sitatuion but from what you describe you really got the raw end of the stick from Z shop. You come on here to warn ppl of the risk dealing with them and i recon thats is a good thing, its time these workshops are held accountable for there work and prices, so what if they do a good jobs for other ppl, they should be doing good job for all ppl, ive had several similar issues with different mechanices in NSW and i understand exactly what your coming from.
hurrumph! I'll second that! Yep it's very difficult to find a mechanic that you can trust and why this forum is soooooo good!We can share the good, Autotech Engineering IMHO, the bad, enough said there, and the ugly, anything other than a NA Silver 91 model Cheers Geoff
Mr know it all ? I'm no Sherlock Holmes but it was fairly obvious who you were making your thinly veiled accusations about. I also don't beleive in talking in riddles. A thousand dollars is a lot of money to most people and there would not be too many people that would find spending this amount of money on a car for a repair as opposed to an improvement/mod would despair expending this amount. I have not for one moment claimed that Z-Shop do not make mistakes , what I am more than happy to state is my personal experiences which are well documented. I do find it curious that other workshops in Melbourne particularly Nissport which is EXTREMELY heavily promoted by senior members of this forum and recommended to any new Zed owner seems to be beyond reproach and execute any work in a perfect manner if you believe a few peoples perception. Privately I have heard that this is not necessarily the case and there are many dissatisfied customers including an unpaid bill of $4k currently outstanding for unsatisfactory work. But I repeat I have had no work done there and are totally indifferent to that business. Let's get one thing clear here I have NO VESTED INTERESTS , I like quality for my Zed .This includes: * Z-Shop * Hitec ECU * Amsoil Oil Products/Some Redline Products * Mobil Synergy petrol Everyone has a choice here and if you consider you are getting the best value for your buck that's great ...........So do I.
Ouch...thank goodness in Canberra...>> we are fortunate enough to be able to perform most of our own repairs. Forum hardcore members often get together and look and learn from each others dilema...we believe there isn't much we can't fix if we put our minds to it. We also bring back alot of useful stuff from our Melbourne fellows, particular thanks to WYKKED. Looks like my plenum comes off in the next three weeks to change injectors and I hope that there will be at least three of us to do this.I guess what I'm saying is that it is important that you attend tech days, participate and get intimate with your Z32. In this way you will save time, money and be able to help others not so fortunate. Needless to mention this forum is invaluable....even to the veterans.Cheers
I agree with Tony, I'd some bad...... experiences with the businesses promoted on this web site, so I went to Z-shop, and so far I'm happy with their work. All businesses have their pros and cons.
Well said, that's why I became a member.... of this association, thinking we going to help each other, but I was wrong, it looks like there is something going on behind the scenes.
Can't see how an ECU can damage a .......... healthy auto in 2 days? Even without the cooler fitted. More likely you had a problem to begin with.
ECU gave me around 60hp more.. so this power has to get to back wheels, that should explain how the damage happened. To be honest I'm suprised that it took 2 days, not 2 hours to kill it, after seeing how it was tested. Anyway I'm not a mechanic, are you?
Ha ha......an extra 60hp from an ECU........ excellent value for money=) Don't think you should blame the ECU, as you suggested more likely cause the car was flogged while 'testing' the ECU. But even so I think you would have to really put a lot of effort into the 'testing' to damage the auto in two days. I would still say it had previous problems. It's a bit like blaming the ECU for wearing out your tyres cause you got another 60hp and consequently more wheelspin. Am I a mechanic?....well yes I am
