This will be a long one, but it is important for people to know before they have their cars potentially damaged here. I had been putting off this review because the fellow I had talked to when I had the work done, Sam, was always very communicative and polite. He was kind enough, in fact, that I felt bad making this review, but it's been almost a year since I had the work done and it was bad enough that it has left permanent damage to my car and others need to know before they bring theirs in. I came in late June/July 2018 when I still lived in Colorado (I now live in Texas) to have some suspension work done to my 1984 300zx. It involved a master bushing kit install, sway bars install and coilovers install, all things I didn't feel completely comfortable doing myself at the time. I forgot how much I was initially quoted but it certainly was not cheap. As long as the quality of work was there, I didn't mind paying for it--but it was not. The first issue arose when they called me to let me know the coilovers I had did not fit my car. They were in fact the proper coilovers, however for this specific car it requires cutting the stock spindles and welding them to the base of the front coilovers. Fair enough, neither they nor I knew that this was necessary, so this work wasn't done. As for the master bushing install, quite a few bushings were left over and not installed-- including the subframe bushings--the ones I wanted installed the most. However, the sway bars were the biggest concern. When I first picked up my Z from the shop it was loaded on to a carrier as I was moving that day to Texas. When the loader started up the car it made a terrible grinding sound which worsened when it was actually driven. He strapped on the car and started transporting it away before I had a chance to bring it back in. I brought this grinding up to the shop when I came back inside and they claimed they wouldn't have let it leave the shop with that grinding, which was obviously false since it was parked outside in front of the shop. I thanked them for the work, paid my amount full in cash and left. Fast forward two weeks and my car is delivered to my new residence in Texas. First thing I do is I start diagnosing what the grinding could be and it took me no time at all to discover the top of the front sway bar was grinding against the harmonic balancer, the MAIN CRANK PULLEY of the car (see photos). Both the sway bar and the balancer had become damaged--the sway bar cut into and the balancer's edge ground against. It seemed like an obvious obstruction that should have been caught by a professional mechanic immediately, let alone a hobbyist. The fix was easy. I loosened the sway bar end links and it backed off the balancer with a good 5 or 6 mm of clearance. I contacted the shop regarding this and their response is below. Essentially, they just told me an easy fix (that wasn't even necessary) and blaming it on a motor mount issue, which wasn't the case. Really, I spent money on their mistake for me to just fix myself with no offer of compensation or meaningful retribution, just a very brief apology. For the record, the damaged harmonic balancer is NO LONGER AVAILABLE to replace as a part and the front sway bar's structural integrity is compromised. I forgot the exact cost but I believe I paid about $2200 for the work done. The coilovers--which WERE correct for the vehicle--I ended up installing myself as well, but I still paid for a portion of the work involving them because they took off the old shocks. I also spent this money to have my balancer and sway bar damaged in the process with no responsibility taken for the damaged parts on behalf of the shop. I would suggest avoiding this shop at all costs. Any reputable shop would have first of all caught their mistakes before it left the shop-- or at VERY least, offer some sort solution besides "sorry, do it yourself" for the parts THEY damaged. (Coilovers in pic shows the spindle welded on when I installed them myself later on).
Seems we dropped the ball somewhere. This is not a typical scenario we encounter, we strive for the best work we can do. If you are in Denver again and can give us a chance, we will make sure you are taken care of. If we would've known that welding was required for your provided suspension shocks we would've been up front that we do not weld suspension components together.
- Importsports Auto Repair Pros