My Z1Motorsports story.
(But first a little about me, I live in the NYC area the Z is my weekend car at best usually only put about 4-5k miles a year on it. I park in a private parking garage but I can do small simple jobs at my parents driveway, ie regular maintenance. For anything else I go to Real Auto Dynamics or Sideways Motorsports both of which are excellent shops with much experience on Nissans.)
My first order with Z1 was back in August of 2013. It was oddly enough for a Z Speed Aluminum undershroud. There was only a small hiccup and but Shanna at Z1 did a stellar job communicating the shipping delay and gave me a 6% refund because it took 6 weeks to ship out.
My next order was in January 2014 when I was upgrading my brakes for future track days. Carbotech XP10s all around and stainless steel brake lines. Received everything quickly but once again there was a small issue that Dustin at Z1 corrected as quickly and effectively as anyone could expect. The issue was that the front brake lines that were originally shipped were for the incorrect model and one of the rear brake lines was leaking. He next day shipped the replacement and payed for return shipping on the original parts. I was a bit annoyed still because there was a QC slip in the package and even though the correct parts were ordered the incorrect ones were shipped. So I had to pay to have my mechanic reinstall my old lines and then install the replacements. But accidents happen and it was just bad luck.
My next order was in October 2015 where I ordered more pads, fluids, and new Z1 slotted rotors. Everything look great and worked fine.*
My next order was a big one, it was in April of 2016. And I thank Rod at Z1 for helping me, but it was where everything started to fall apart.
1. Z1 Clutch flywheel combo with standard full face disc, medium weight flywheel, and Z1 CSC elimination kit.
2. Quaife Differential with side bearings and seals, whiteline diff bushing kit
3. And a whole bunch of fluids and the nismo pilot bearing.
The differential and clutch combo were excellent. The Z1 CSC elimination kit was crap, it's worse then the OEM CSC. I got about 1k miles of driving, NYC driving out of it before it went out of adjustment and wouldn't disengage the clutch. Mind you I got about 35k from the OEM CSC of NYC driving and it was still going.
So I had to get toed back to my mechanic wondering if he had done something wrong and it' shouldn't be going out this fast. I have been working with him for awhile so we looked over everything together and noticed the instructions were different from the ones we both saw when he originally installed it, those instructions were Rev1 while these were modified, I wish I could give the number but it's no longer on their site and there is no revision history in the current manual I believe it was rev2 but I can't recall. We went through to try and find the changes and readjusted the clutch to the tolerances in the instructions. This lasted another 2k or so miles and again the clutch wouldn't disengage. Once again a tow back to my mechanic and we find the slave cylinder has completely failed (3k miles to failure).
Replaced and working again I went to a track weekend and by the second day the clutch was again having trouble disengaging. Thankfully I was able to nurse it back home, 120miles away thanks rev matching, and then tow it to my mechanic the next day. The cylinder wasn't blown so while he was dropping the transmission I was getting the instructions again from the site and they had a new revision out with an appendix of more information. Not small clarifications, new method of calculation for spacing and min and max tolerances. At this point I was pissed, they made something that doesn't work and are trying to fix it through changing the instructions. So I call them up explaining my problems and they nicely told me well your just an idiot and can't follow instructions. How am I supposed to follow instructions that keep changing! I was told those changes in instructions are for clarifications but when I asked how are different calculations and different tolerances clarifications they told me I should go to an experienced mechanic for the job. So my mechanic went ahead and followed the new instructions and it has been working fine now for over 4k miles and a track weekend but if there is ever a problem with it again I am just throwing it in the trash where it belongs and getting the Z Speed one. This is strike one for me of Z1 saying go **** yourself it's not our problem.
*So now it's March 2017 and after an advanced HDPE single day event I noticed my front driver side rotor missing one and a half slots. So it's been a year and a half or so, lets say 7k miles and 2 track weekends HPDE1 and the single day event in HPDE2 mentions previously. I think maybe I was being bad on my brakes but they still have plenty of width and all other slots are fine. Except the 2 that were machined too shallow. So I decided to send Z1 an email detailing all my constant issues in the past and maybe they could do something with this one defective rotor.
They quickly called me back and told me that since I do track the car they can't replace anything but they would credit me on a future order and would put a note on my account. Ok, this was fine with me since I knew I could still use the rotor being mindful of the difference and when I need new ones I would get some credit for this issue.
So now June 27 2017 I call up to order a 2015 Nismo Front fascia kit and front fender liners. They put my order together and total everything up and I ask them isn't there any note on my account for future credit? Nope nothing on my account or past orders. WTF! So I send in my prior emails and pictures and orders and this whole history of problems and they say I paraphrase but “Were sorry but there's nothing we can do but from the what you tell us it looks like you need a new master brake cylinder and/or piston rebuild kit, that's what seems to be causing your rotor problems we can give you a discount on those”. Really my master cylinder and piston and causing 2 specific slots on 1 rotor to wear at a different rate. I said no thanks to this and they asked me is there anything else you are interested in ordering that I maybe eligible for a discount, that's when I realized they were just trying to sell me more stuff and squeeze every penny out of me. So I just said no thanks, hung up and put the order in like any other costumer, my front bumper was kinda messed up so I wanted to fix, I shouldn't have been lazy and just found the OEM Nissan parts to do it and get it from Fontana Nissan, but I was and am paying the price now.
So my Z1 2015 fascia is delivered to my installer (Friday 6/30/17) and the box is in good condition except for one superficial scrap and he signs for it, I would have done the same. He opens the box and the bumper is scraped and scuffed like it was used and portions of the grill that should not be painted are discolored. He emails me the pictures and I call up Z1 today(7/3/17), I was away on the weekend, and they tell me it's not their problem, they are just the distributor and I can send it back at my cost, and they will credit me the cost of the part, essentially I am out 320 dollars on a 490 dollar part. So at this point I say a bug F.U. and hung up. Which I am sorry for, it's not the guy working the phones to deal with this crap but with the polices of the company which is why I am making this post. I liked Z1 they are one of the very few out there that dedicated time and money to the Z platform. I wish I didn't have to post this but they have gone very wrong for me in the last few years. I know they have served many Z owners with dedication in the past and present but they have really been apthetic to my constant issues of late and I feel it's at the point where it no longer serves the benefit of the community to keep this between Z1 and myself.
Please comment, I look forward to hearing all your opinions.