Z Shop in SoCal...STAY AWAY FROM IT!

[zfan4life]

Hey guys, so if you havent read my build thread then you dont yet know.

I took my car to a shop called Dr. Z Tuning in Westminster Ca. (AKA ZKingNation) or whatever he wants to call his shop for the day...

I took it there with the intention of getting a tune up on my 1990 300zx 2+2 NA with 80k miles. On the way up there, the crankshaft bolted counterweight decided it was claustrophobic and wanted to escape....So i decide to have a TT Swap done. After talking with John (real name Samual), we talked about a STOCK TT swap for appx $5,000.(parts and labor). I would be making payments on this. During the next week i decided to upgrade some things while the motor was out... bigger turbos, FMIC, injectors (555 nismos ) and JWT computer witha couple other odds and ends... new total close to $8,000... Here starts the lies... I get a call a couple weeks later (2 approx) saying the motor is rebuilt and ready to go in can you bring up your next payment so we can get the rest of the parts we need for the tt swap...

So i get to westminster (2 hours away) and find "my motor" sitting exactly where it was 2 weeks ago, and i asked.. oh its ready? no we are gunna start working on it today... ok whatever... they are letting me make payments...

another 2-3weeks go by and its supposedly close to being done.. it will be done friday ... i come up friday... motor not in car, more lies.... it will be done next week... come up next week still not in the car... more excuses more lies...

Finally the motor is in the car starts.... we go to test drive the car and pulling out the parking lot i hear clanking... i say whats that chattering,... he says oh its the 6 puck clutch.. u not shifting right... it continue two more blocks...he says go back to shop...

get the car on the lift to find out that the parking lot is littered with my drive shaft bolts which were not installed properly...

i should have packed up and left right then and there... but he says... no ill fix it..ill make it right... (MORE LIES)

So we get the driveshaft on right... and go for a test drive.. car warms up... clutch starts slipping past 3000 rpms... i say... is it the adjustment on the clutch(behind the pedal) he says no its transmission (me not knowing much about cars at this time didnt realize that when a MT goes bad it grinds not slips) So he changes transmission (allowing time for clutch to cool off)... it gets to a point where i can drive it home... except i dont even make it home before the car sputters to a stop on the side of the road... had it towed to my house to find the center idler pulley had snapped causing piston to hit valves

I call and complain complain complain.. he has the car towed up to replace motor again...

I come up to check on the progress and he shows me a piston with a hole in the side of it saying it was my fault for letting something get sucked into the enigne.. i call BS and decide **** u im not arguing fix my s*** and be done...

I come back a couple weeks later doing same thing clutch slipping... he says come back in 2 days... same thing again... finally i say im done.. get the car driveable and im outta here...

Meanwhile noticing the use of oil hose for fuel line... jerry rigged bolts too long for ANYTHING... hard fuel lines not bolted down... etc...

On the drive home... the car throttle sticks open... have to shut the car off to prevent over rev...

Get car towed home and open up the throttle intake pipes to find a bolt wedged in where the throttle body butterfly is (he dropped into the intake pipe)

So i start taking things apart further... finding jerry rigged lines and bolts everywhere... tools left in spots on the car... just an absolute disaster.. my nismo 555 injectors were not nismo 555 injectors that i had paid for... they were stock NA injectors (2 of which were not working)... i pull ECU... thank god...its got a JWT sticked on it.. hmmm lets just double check and call jim wolf....it is a JWT designed for modified intake only! another ripp off..

During all of this.. tons of things were found wrong..to include one turbo wastegate hooked up wrong ... missing trim pieces, and dented rims...

Lots more stuff... too much to list in this for right now (see build thread)

So since then i have contacted the California Bureau of Automotive Repair... who basically looked into it and said only thing they can do is file paperwork...

Contacted the BBB (they now have an F rating)

http://www.la.bbb.org/business-revie...r-CA-100115592

And i am posting on craigslist every ten days (which is where they post stuff alot)

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/ptd/3371946421.html


So let me beat some of you to the punch...please no s*** talking... i realize the mistakes and dont need a bashing for it... this thread is here to INFORM and EDUCATE others not to make the same mistakes.

Good Luck and Happy Z'ing

[300ZXttZMAN]

Damn man sorry to hear all your troubles

[85cartagena]

Sh*t...if I was you I would put an add on the paper!!!!

[IonZ32]

And burn down the shop! ... just kiddin :P
Sorry to hear that as well, I dont trust shops with much of anything besides machine work, we have a pretty decent local machine shop thankfully
Keep them craigslist posts up and I second the add in the paper!

[Mattcusdav]

I live in Mississippi and have heard about this place... 6 months ago... And it wasnt from these forums!! his reputation has spread with a lot of z owners. guy needs to be shut down.

[BigTDogg (MA)]

I've heard bad things about them before, sorry to hear about your troubles.

[dangeris]

Dang Brother...As I'm reading this , I'm like..No freaking way!... Sorry to hear about what you had to go through but in the words of Judge Judy..."Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining..."

[Ziggy1621]

Sorry to hear brother. It's sad what people stoop to in attempting to make a buck

[TotallyNotReal]

wooow i can't believe they're scammed more than me. they gave me a card with "Dr Z Tuning Specialist", "15197 Moran St. Westminster, CA 92683" with the telephone number (714) 376 9414. i went to these guys for a tt fuel pump, tt injectors, tt fuel regulator, engine rebuild, brand new tt transmission, stage 3 clutch, timing belts, waterpump, and a brand new ECU for retuning. when i got the car back i saw the EGR valve was missing half its piping, the front bumper was missing a bunch of clips (it also looked cracked), the alternator was filthy (as if if was wet and rolled in dirt) and a lot of nuts and bolts were missing. it wasn't a big deal to me at the time and i just got a bunch of parts to reassemble some things but a little over a month later my water pump starts leaking coolant. i replaced it along with a new thermostat, radiator, and flushed my entire cooling system out. the inside of the water pump was scratched and cut up to hell. (i have picture if any one wants to see) this gave me time to see the timing belt which at least looked and felt new. a week later i drained all the fluids to find my transmission drain plug was filthy and the fluid looked gross. i put less than 200 miles in a month and i was still breaking in the new motor so i went very easy on everything. i was assuming it wasn't my fault. i haven't checked out any other parts yet even though i got everything done months ago but after seeing these posts i think i'm going to call these guys very soon and see if i can lawyer my way to at least a grand out of the 3700 i paid to pay for some of the damages

[StockTurbosFTW]

That sucks dude...If you are in Cali, got to Specialty Z...that is where I am going to go...and I live in Minnesota...

[TotallyNotReal]

thats actually closer to where i live. thanks a lot. i had a 200 dollar towing fee to have them tow it from my house down to their shop and then back

[zfan4life]

File a lawsuit!

[StockTurbosFTW]

thats actually closer to where i live. thanks a lot. i had a 200 dollar towing fee to have them tow it from my house down to their shop and then back

Sucks you didn't go there first...SZ is awesome though. They will get your Z in good shape again. They are the best around. Here is their website if you don't have it. http://www.specialtyz.com/
Greg and Seb are both great.

[t.mcginley.jr]

Wow that's insane. Sorry for the bad luck, that's a horror story for real. It sounds like that shop is just putting crap used parts on and not caring how it looks or works. No idea how they got in business

[TotallyNotReal]

thats actually closer to where i live. thanks a lot. i had a 200 dollar towing fee to have them tow it from my house down to their shop and then back

Sucks you didn't go there first...SZ is awesome though. They will get your Z in good shape again. They are the best around. Here is their website if you don't have it. http://www.specialtyz.com/
Greg and Seb are both great.

haha you're actually starting to sound like you're advertising for them. i'll trust your word on that though. i only went to "Dr. Z. Tuning" because i wanted a engine rebuild. i could do most things by myself or with the help of a few friends. the other day i discovered a vacuum leak and underneath the hose was torn. the hose looked filthier than most of my other hoses so i want to say they put an old one on my car

[300ZXttZMAN]

Although he may sound like he is adverstising for them I can assure you he is not. SZ is awesome to deal with, they are seriously just that legit!

[TotallyNotReal]

thanks really appreciate it. if i end up getting some cash from those idiots i might drop by SZ. have them take my engine apart and see if i got everything i paid for. all the new internal stuff i can't see should be seals, cams, and pistons

[StockTurbosFTW]

haha you're actually starting to sound like you're advertising for them. i'll trust your word on that though. i only went to "Dr. Z. Tuning" because i wanted a engine rebuild. i could do most things by myself or with the help of a few friends. the other day i discovered a vacuum leak and underneath the hose was torn. the hose looked filthier than most of my other hoses so i want to say they put an old one on my car

I vouch them every chance I get. Z guys need to stick together and support quality people. If we want Z experts to stick around, work on, and make parts for our cars, we need to support the legit people.

That is why we support guys like Mike Smith (designed the MSP Manifolds,) Greg and Seb at SZ and Kyle at Importpartpros. Of course there are other good guys too.

And we make sure to point out the garbage like this jerk off you got involved with and products like AMS.

Keep the quality good and legit in the Z world.

*fixed wording.

[t.mcginley.jr]

thanks really appreciate it. if i end up getting some cash from those idiots i might drop by SZ. have them take my engine apart and see if i got everything i paid for. all the new internal stuff i can't see should be seals, cams, and pistons

If the rest of the engine bay looks like crap when you got it back, I would be VERY concerned with what the inside probably looks like. From the "quality" of work they do, I would say they probably put used pistons in.

[300ZXttZMAN]

haha you're actually starting to sound like you're advertising for them. i'll trust your word on that though. i only went to "Dr. Z. Tuning" because i wanted a engine rebuild. i could do most things by myself or with the help of a few friends. the other day i discovered a vacuum leak and underneath the hose was torn. the hose looked filthier than most of my other hoses so i want to say they put an old one on my car

I advertise them every chance I get. Z guys need to stick together and support quality people. If we want Z experts to stick around, work on, and make parts for our cars, we need to support the legit people.

That is why we support guys like Mike Smith (designed the MSP Manifolds,) Greg and Seb at SZ and Kyle at Importpartpros. Of course there are other good guys too.

And we make sure to point out the garbage like this jerk off you got involved with and products like AMS.

Keep the quality good and legit in the Z world.

This is true. But instead of using the word "advertise" use "vouch".

[andre1038]

If only i lived in SoCal i would drop by SZ always wanted to go visit. Last time i went to SoCal was 1999 and i was just a kid. Im thinking about it now but back then the Z32 was somewhat still a new car lol

[Re037]

yea, i dropped by this shop around halloween asking about tt conversions and it was a giant mess everywhere. there were a few guys wrenching on cars while others were working on a head off the ground. like literally on the ground. owner claimed his turd of a z was 900hp. at that point i ended conversation and walked away. i then googled his shop to discover hes been ripping people off for a while now and changes the name of his business to avoid lawsuits.

[zfan4life]

yea, i dropped by this shop around halloween asking about tt conversions and it was a giant mess everywhere. there were a few guys wrenching on cars while others were working on a head off the ground. like literally on the ground. owner claimed his turd of a z was 900hp. at that point i ended conversation and walked away. i then googled his shop to discover hes been ripping people off for a while now and changes the name of his business to avoid lawsuits.

Do the conversion your self... not that bad :-) i am finishing up mine

[Re037]

Do the conversion your self... not that bad :-) i am finishing up mine

yep, about to jump in the pool soon!

[zfan4life]

Do the conversion your self... not that bad :-) i am finishing up mine

yep, about to jump in the pool soon!

Im in the vista/oceanside/camp pendleton area if u want some help

[TotallyNotReal]

hey this is kind of off topic but should i do a resonator delete? the previous owner has the resonators from a 3000GT (i didn't really ask why) and 2.75 inch piping from the behind the cats to the mufflers, which is also custom. it looks kind of like a stock muffler but the exit measures 2.5 inches in diameter. i want something that can be loud when i punch it but quiet enough to hold a normal conversation in the car. i could post some videos of the exhaust sound if you guys need it