[Build Thread] -- Journey to 700+ WHP [Supercharger]

[bunk]

Originally Posted by cupcakez

Short Story Didn't bring it to Seb as I originally wanted to do, financial issues came up so I couldn't do it. He was okay with it, communicated it to him in a timely manner and all was resolved. Brought it to a local shop (read below for my experience with them)

Long Story -- Read Below lol


So, Between June 05 - July 03...


I recently brought my vehicle into an aftermarket local mechanic shop to fix a few things (boost leaks and an SES code). The time it took took to fix these three things was a total of 4 weeks. Mind you, this is after I had scheduled with the shop before-hand that I wanted to drop it off at X date. I let them know a whole month before hand, and told them the things I wanted done.

This shop charges $149/hour

They work on GTRs, Q60s, Hellcats, all sorts of 1000+ HP cars and so I decided my Z should be no problem for them! First week goes by and they don't touch the car. I call them and ask what's going on and they said they work on cars with a deposit faster than the ones without. I said uhhh. why didn't you tell me that? I would've put a deposit in a long time ago! So I did put in a deposit of $500 about 1.5 weeks in after dropping it off.

Then they finally work on it, and the way they work is so unprofessional (Communication wise, and organizational skills wise)...very poor.

Then after about the 3rd week, they say they are unable to talk to my ECU. At this point I'm like ?!?!?!?!?! I brought in a working vehicle and now it's not working? And so they said it could be this or that issue blah blah and said might have been something wrong with my ECU or something. They did not even THINK to check the fuses before removing the ECU.

The owner of the shop says he will remove the ECU for me so I can bring it over to my tuner who will bench test it and make sure it's still in working order.

Guess how long it took him to remove my ECU from the 370z 2009 base edition? It took him a whole 45 minutes! He also light weight complained that it was "some intense labor" to remove.

Let me remind you again... This is coming from a shop that charges $149/hour and works on all types of crazy cars as listed above! Then...the unprofessional shop I brought it to that I just took the car out of..they left a set of mitsubishi car keys in my car / engine bay, lmao At first, he thought it was mine when I was getting my car back, and i said no. Then he brought me my keys. I also didn't know he put the mitsubishi keys back in the Z until about 8 hours later.

Oh, and they ended up charging me for the parts they bought to replace the broken fuses that occurred between the time I brought the car in and picked it up (clearly their fault) but instead they said it is nobody's fault, it's the car's fault and "that's why we aren't charging you labor"

And not to mention...they thought that something was wrong with my Throttle Body! They showed me some exposed wiring and showed me some powder to "prove" that it was shorted out. He said that they would charge me for the parts to replace that too if needed, when clearly was not there when I brought the car into the shop! The heck?!?!

K...That makes sense right?

So the question is:

- Should I wait 1 month before I return the keys back to the shop while anonymously mailing it after a month?

- Should I call them ASAP and let them know I have a set of keys that isn't mine from their shop?

- Should I charge them $16.88 for the fuses that they charged me for as well as wait like an entire month? lol


-- The three things they fixed? ---
(1) Sealed up my MAF holes properly as it was leaking from there when they performed a boost test

(2) Fixed my BOV which wasn't properly installed / seated... not sure how it got crooked but it did lol

(3) Found out that one of my cats (yes I still have cats...!) was gasketless, so they put new gaskets in properly.

===============================================

So I finally take the car out of the shop on July 3rd, and have AAA tow it straight from there to a friend's house who can do everything the shop did in 1 day instead of 4 weeks! This person has worked on my car before and knows my car inside out, and has never done any wrong when making installations on the car or helping with maintenance needs.

The things he did to my car so far:

- Changed out brake pads to brand new Yellowstuff EBC Akebono (Front & Rear)

- Will fix an oil leak coming from the top passenger side timing cover area that he found

- Will put in new front rotors because my current front rotors are bad (I just ordered a pair of Cryo-treated, Slotted Stop Tech Sport Rotors which will be delivered on Monday to his house)

- He saw that the belt was rubbing against something so he will adjust it accordingly and fix that issue

- Putting in a brand new fender liner on driver side because my last one got destroyed lol

- Will fix an odd rubbing noise that my supercharger makes against the subframe only when in reverse (sometimes, not all the time).

- Took out a stupid screw that somehow got behind the panel of the driver side door that was there since the moment I bought the vehicle at the end of July 2018, lol (just an annoyance)

- I may ask him to install my polyurethane CPZ motor mount as well since it will raise the height of things and give more clearance to things underneath the car such as the oil pan, etc.

- Try to find the cause and source of the P2A03 code I still have on my car, and hopefully get rid of it once and for good. Still, nobody knows the source of this code. I am starting to believe my car is cursed with a cold case of P2A03 lol.

If you had a leak at your cats, i think that could cause the P2A03 code. Clear the code and see if comes back since you fixed the leak.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by bunk

If you had a leak at your cats, i think that could cause the P2A03 code. Clear the code and see if comes back since you fixed the leak.

Was cleared and driven not even for more than 2 hours, and the code came back already ):

I seriously thought that was the solution too, but nope. Eugene also thought it would fix the code, apparently the car states otherwise!

[bunk]

Originally Posted by cupcakez

Was cleared and driven not even for more than 2 hours, and the code came back already ):

I seriously thought that was the solution too, but nope. Eugene also thought it would fix the code, apparently the car states otherwise!

But you said you just had a gasket put in the cat recently? Next thing I would do is get the back pressure checked for other leaks

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by bunk

But you said you just had a gasket put in the cat recently? Next thing I would do is get the back pressure checked for other leaks

Yep. And apparently that wasn't the cause for the P2A03, and if it is, then that means there is multiple things causing the P2A03

[Elmo370z]

Should of saved up and took it to seb

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by Elmo370z

Should of saved up and took it to seb

That was the original plan xD
I had to cancel because I only had like 3.5k saved up by that time instead of the planned 5k that he told me to bring.

Didn't have it in time, so I had to cancel =\

[JARblue]

In time for what? You have an event scheduled for your car?

You should have waited a bit longer to gather the funds and taken it to Seb. I'm still confused why you wasted money taking it to another shop. Deja vu all over again it seems. Good luck with the repairs.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by JARblue

In time for what? You have an event scheduled for your car?

You should have waited a bit longer to gather the funds and taken it to Seb. I'm still confused why you wasted money taking it to another shop. Deja vu all over again it seems. Good luck with the repairs.

Nah it's because I scheduled to bring it to him on the last week of June so he could work on it the first week of July. I had that set in stone with him, that's why xD

[bunk]

Originally Posted by cupcakez

Nah it's because I scheduled to bring it to him on the last week of June so he could work on it the first week of July. I had that set in stone with him, that's why xD

I wouldve just postponed instead of cancelled. That would be like wanting to get an FI CBE. You saved up for 4 months, but still 300 dollars short, and settle for an Ebay special instead.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by bunk

I wouldve just postponed instead of cancelled. That would be like wanting to get an FI CBE. You saved up for 4 months, but still 300 dollars short, and settle for an Ebay special instead.

The thing is his schedule is always booked, so if I postponed it to another date it would have been a ton later, lol. Guess this is what happens when I am impatient, hardheaded and stubborn. Oh well. Used to it by now, sadly! haha.

[JARblue]

Originally Posted by cupcakez

Nah it's because I scheduled to bring it to him on the last week of June so he could work on it the first week of July. I had that set in stone with him, that's why xD

Originally Posted by cupcakez

The thing is his schedule is always booked, so if I postponed it to another date it would have been a ton later, lol. Guess this is what happens when I am impatient, hardheaded and stubborn. Oh well. Used to it by now, sadly! haha.

And that's your reasoning for taking it to an inferior shop?

That doesn't make any sense...

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by JARblue

And that's your reasoning for taking it to an inferior shop?

That doesn't make any sense...

Yup. lol. Learning the hardest way possible!

Originally Posted by bunk

cupcakez, next time you want to get something done half @ss, think about how much more youll end up spending, how much longer itll take, and most importantly, how safe would it really be when you hit the gas and something breaks because it was done half @ss...

Yes, Yes, and Yes. xD 100% Agree!

[Rusty]

If you want to throw money away. Throw it my way. You wasted money and time taking it to the OTHER shop.

[bunk]

cupcakez, next time you want to get something done half @ss, think about how much more youll end up spending, how much longer itll take, and most importantly, how safe would it really be when you hit the gas and something breaks because it was done half @ss...

[Elmo370z]

Got damnit snowflake