Mechanic recommendation in San Fran/Bay Area, CA

[scchu]

Lovely forums! Thank you. Thank you! Being a newbie J30t owner, this is a gold mine!

My J30 is having the well-known sunroof problem. I'd like to get some recommendations for mechanics/shops to perform the install on the sunroof repair kit. I mean, the dealer wants to charge me $1000 while some local guy will do it for $150... I don't want to pay $1000, but I am not going to trust some random guy for $150....

Thank you.

[Jesda]

Only place that comes to mind is Jerry Tucker Import in San Diego. Did you check out this document?http://www.fuzzycats.com/docs/sunroof_repair.pdf

[gniknave]

Lovely forums! Thank you. Thank you! Being a newbie J30t owner, this is a gold mine!

My J30 is having the well-known sunroof problem. I'd like to get some recommendations for mechanics/shops to perform the install on the sunroof repair kit. I mean, the dealer wants to charge me $1000 while some local guy will do it for $150... I don't want to pay $1000, but I am not going to trust some random guy for $150....

Thank you.

scchu, What is going on with your sunroof? I may be able to direct you to someone who can help.

[scchu]

Sigh... classic issues... minor leak when heavily rained on (just damps the cloth; no dripping yet <knock on wood>), won't open properly (opens halfway) and when manually pushing the roof to open almost all the way, it gets stuck closing up (again, need to manually push the roof to close).

The damping in rain issue may very much be traced to clogging drains or old weather stripping... But I just want to spend a little extra money to fix it for good (and have a usable sunroof as well!).

Yes, I did read the fuzzycats.com documentations. I really don't have the know-how, tools and experience to deal w/ a big job like that... . Even the dealer says it'll take them at least 1 whole day to do it (hence the $1000 charge)!

Also, does anyone have a spare backup light socket you can sell me? The passenger side backup light cover was broken when I got the car... Would love to repair it myself.

[gniknave]

Sounds like you may need a new sunroof motor, and possibly new weatherstrip. Is that what they told you? If you don't mind a used motor, you may want to contact Nissan Only Wreckers (N.O.W.)up in Rancho Cordova. You can see them on the web http://www.ninfiniti.com or inquire by AIM: nissan1parts

Your problem could just be that the motor isn't closing the sunroof ALL the way even with you pushing. For the weatherstrip, you can contact Brother Auto Glass down in San Jose (408)771-7287. They make and install custom fit weatherstip on the spot...and I've seen them do it on a J30. What year BTW?

[scchu]

Thanks for the reply.

My car is a 1993 J30t. I am not sure if weather stripping is the only issue. One mechanic I spoke to says the roof doesn't seem to be fully closed at close position (the rear of the roof appears to be below normal serface level).

The motor sounds like it works. The same mechanic said it may just be the cables that need to be replaced... According to Carlos Fuzzycats.com site, roof leaking would be a reason to install the sunroof repair kit.

Thanks for the resources.

[artandscience]

Try European Automotive off Castro in Mountain View on the Peninsula. Ralph Foglein is the owner. An old friend. Used to do myPorsches for the last 10 years or so.

I convinced him to work on my Q and when he saw how well itwas made he didn't object.

Mind you, he specializes in Euromobiles so you might have toconvince him. He doesn't really like to work on non-Germancars.

Mention that I referred you, it might help. Very honest, veryskilled. Rare combination.

239 W Evelyn AveMountain View, CA 94041-1311Phone: (650) 966-8866

[scchu]

I will give him a try tomorrow morning! Thanks.

[scchu]

My god... took my car to car wash. Afterwards, the interior started leaking water through the map lights. What an awful experience.

European Automotive referred me to another shop down the block, Car Clinic (181 W. Evelyn, 650.961.2277). Very nice people as well. I will keep you posted on the outcome after their inspection on Tuesday. At this point, I don't even car if the damn roof opens... just so long the damn thing won't leak anymore water!

[scchu]

I thought I'd give everyone an update.

Tibor at Car Clinic (Mt. View, CA) is great. I highly recommend him and his service. Both him and his wife, Erika, are wonderful and friendly people. He gave very honest and straight forward advice on my sunroof and charged only for services he thought would be a good idea to perform. So now there are no more leaks and the roof opens/closes as usual (as opposed to replacing the entire assembly like I thought I'd need). And all this only cost me $97 and change. Well worth the money!

[gniknave]

So I can post this in my "notes" section, what exactly did they do?

[artandscience]

Great news. Glad it worked out.Hard to find a good and trustworthy mechanic.

[scchu]

Great news. Glad it worked out.Hard to find a good and trustworthy mechanic.

Thanks for the referral to European Auto. Cliff was the guy who told me about Car Clinic.

For body works, they strongly recommend M2, which is down the street from Car Clinic.

Carlos, all Tibor did was cleaning out the tracks and greased them up. He did have to make some adjustments to the flipping mechanism of the sunroof for it to close completely. The leaking has now stopped due to his adjustment. But the real test will be the next car wash!

I told him about your site (fuzzycats) and he's most interested to learn what you got there. I will print out some stuff for him to look at (namely the driver's side headlight turns itself on/off from time to time). He ran some tests on the headlight but could not find anything wrong...