Tuner / Workshop Recommendations For Qld

[AussieMark]

Hi Guys,

I'm interested in getting some work done on my R35 and I'm looking for recommendations for anywhere SE Qld. Mercury Motorsport?? Gavin Wood Autotech?? What are the options and who do you guys use?? I'm especially interested in the Ecutek but it appears Mercury and GSA Racing are the only agents around here. Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated.

Edited February 19, 2013 by AussieMark

[AngryRB]

Gavin woods if you dont want to be ripped off

[Willo]

Godzilla Motorsport

[limitless]

+1 for Gavin Woods. He does all the work on my R32 and he's been excellent over the years. I haven't done anything with the R35 yet so I haven't had it down there.

[Neels]

Gavin is excellent. He has worked on my R35 many times. Even Moorooka Nissan send him R35's that they can't fix with TCM issues.

He does my routine services and has replaced my TCM sensors and fitted the Willall TCM upgrade components.

I can highly recommend him.

[NissanForLife]

Do not take your car to Mercury MotorSport, there are far to many horror stories, including my own to risk taking your car there. I have seen a load of incompetent work being carried out there, seriously it's not worth the headache. I won't elaborate here as it's not really the place to do that, but I have had first hand dealings with them that will leave your jaw hanging on the floor.

[AussieMark]

Thanks for the feedback guys. An R33 I bought a few years back had a lot of work done by Gavin back and the previous owner told me he was great. Maybe that's the way to go then....

Edited March 14, 2013 by AussieMark

[kymbo]

What's with the Mercury Motor Sport bashing?

They have tuned and worked on my car since I bought it new in 2010 and, every single thing they have done on my car has been spot on and at a reasonable price!

I have now had the car for almost 3 years with 42,000 's on the clock and it has never missed a beat.

Even the NIssan dealer is complementary of Mercury's work when I take it in for a service.

There's an old saying "thou protest too much".

Sounds like jealousy and too much self interest to me?

Always seems to happen too those who are the biggest and the best. Good old Aussie tall poppy syndrome at work again!

[NissanForLife]

What's with the Mercury Motor Sport bashing?

They have tuned and worked on my car since I bought it new in 2010 and, every single thing they have done on my car has been spot on and at a reasonable price!

I have now had the car for almost 3 years with 42,000 's on the clock and it has never missed a beat.

Even the NIssan dealer is complementary of Mercury's work when I take it in for a service.

There's an old saying "thou protest too much".

Sounds like jealousy and too much self interest to me?

Always seems to happen too those who are the biggest and the best. Good old Aussie tall poppy syndrome at work again!

Not even one bit of Jealousy mate, I too was a Mercury customer for a year, and so have a few of my mates, and none of us will touch them again.

First of all has your car been pulled apart extensively and modified? My mates car had a timing belt changed, they didn't do the front harmonic balancer bolt up, and within a short time his engine blew the oil pump from vibration, and his whole engine was ruined, and yes it has been verified from another very reputable workshop in Brisbane.

They also did not put his oil filter hoses on the right way and reversed al the contents of his oil filter back into the engine.

They have only given him a very small amount of money in return to fix his engine which is a total insult, and his engine build will cost 4-5 times the amount they gave him, and his car will be off the road for at-least 8 months as a result.

My engine was tuned on the totally wrong setting, and was not told who was tuning my car, and I thought it was there old tuner, but didnt know until I went to pick my car up. My car was essentially a test car for Trent to tune a Haltech platinum pro on, and he did not put it in VE mode. My car worth a lot of money, and this type of rubbish workmanship is totally unacceptable. Put it this way at the track my car became hot, and with this tune, the ECU does not retard timing nor change AFR's to compensate, this can blow your engine very easily if not picked up, but luckily it was running on E85 which was a good amount of insurance on the day.

Some of my parts went missing, bolts were left off and I had to go through he workshop and find them myself. I asked to have my parts compensated for and my car to be retuned, but after many phone calls back and forth, Trent straight out refused any money back my way for parts he lost, which he admitted to, nor was he going to refund the tune money, as he stated I did not give him the chance to fix it. I'm sorry but if you make that bigger mistake, your not getting another chance with my car.

This is only the tip of what has gone on here, and the fact you have had no issues.......yet is great mate, but if your are using MM as a performance workshop to extensively modify your car, be very vigilant. Basic services and alterations are probably not going to cause you any problems for obvious reasons.

Maybe before making claims about me being Jealous.......what a joke, you should check to see what other people and customers have gone through before commenting. And making claims about being the best with tall poppy syndrome....lol.

Who the hell are you to get on here and say that crap about me, whilst you have not a single idea about who I am, nor what I think or do? Oh well good luck to you bud.

I have thought long and hard weather I would ever talk about them in bad light, and when nothing was rectified for months and months, and I even told Trent I would keep my mouth shut if he fixed this rubbish up and did the right thing by me, but he never did, and now I think I owe it to the car enthusiasts to know at-least my story and some of my mates extremely bad experiences too, before others get burnt like we did. Trust me, I am only one of many, many horror stories that has taken place whilst guys have had cars under there care. I know more than you could imagine, from very reliable sources.

I was a mechanical engineer in the Navy for 12 years and managed complex ship systems with many people in my department to co-ordinate and direct, I'm pretty sure my opinion is very valid and speak from a strong foundation of experience and workplace engineering ethics,not just some generalised rant about someones workshop. If you wish to keep taking your car there, that is your business, and good luck with that.

[Wardski]

This is not the first time I've heard similar comments on MM. My mate with his Evo X that had CEL issues after being tuned there, ended up going back for Trent to rectify, now the Evo drops into Limp mode every time he puts the foot down... I just dunno, I think the negative comments outweigh the positive, so its a BIG risk IMO.

Not even one bit of Jealousy mate, I too was a Mercury customer for a year, and so have a few of my mates, and none of us will touch them again.

First of all has your car been pulled apart extensively and modified? My mates car had a timing belt changed, they didn't do the front harmonic balancer bolt up, and within a short time his engine blew the oil pump from vibration, and his whole engine was ruined, and yes it has been verified from another very reputable workshop in Brisbane.

They also did not put his oil filter hoses on the right way and reversed al the contents of his oil filter back into the engine.

They have only given him a very small amount of money in return to fix his engine which is a total insult, and his engine build will cost 4-5 times the amount they gave him, and his car will be off the road for at-least 8 months as a result.

My engine was tuned on the totally wrong setting, and was not told who was tuning my car, and I thought it was there old tuner, but didnt know until I went to pick my car up. My car was essentially a test car for Trent to tune a Haltech platinum pro on, and he did not put it in VE mode. My car worth a lot of money, and this type of rubbish workmanship is totally unacceptable. Put it this way at the track my car became hot, and with this tune, the ECU does not retard timing nor change AFR's to compensate, this can blow your engine very easily if not picked up, but luckily it was running on E85 which was a good amount of insurance on the day.

Some of my parts went missing, bolts were left off and I had to go through he workshop and find them myself. I asked to have my parts compensated for and my car to be retuned, but after many phone calls back and forth, Trent straight out refused any money back my way for parts he lost, which he admitted to, nor was he going to refund the tune money, as he stated I did not give him the chance to fix it. I'm sorry but if you make that bigger mistake, your not getting another chance with my car.

This is only the tip of what has gone on here, and the fact you have had no issues.......yet is great mate, but if your are using MM as a performance workshop to extensively modify your car, be very vigilant. Basic services and alterations are probably not going to cause you any problems for obvious reasons.

Maybe before making claims about me being Jealous.......what a joke, you should check to see what other people and customers have gone through before commenting. And making claims about being the best with tall poppy syndrome....lol.

Who the hell are you to get on here and say that crap about me, whilst you have not a single idea about who I am, nor what I think or do? Oh well good luck to you bud.

I have thought long and hard weather I would ever talk about them in bad light, and when nothing was rectified for months and months, and I even told Trent I would keep my mouth shut if he fixed this rubbish up and did the right thing by me, but he never did, and now I think I owe it to the car enthusiasts to know at-least my story and some of my mates extremely bad experiences too, before others get burnt like we did. Trust me, I am only one of many, many horror stories that has taken place whilst guys have had cars under there care. I know more than you could imagine, from very reliable sources.

I was a mechanical engineer in the Navy for 12 years and managed complex ship systems with many people in my department to co-ordinate and direct, I'm pretty sure my opinion is very valid and speak from a strong foundation of experience and workplace engineering ethics,not just some generalised rant about someones workshop. If you wish to keep taking your car there, that is your business, and good luck with that.

Edited March 31, 2013 by Wardski

[AngryRB]

My experience of MM was that it was run by mostly Young guys, this is significant, ive found whenever the owner or tuner is of a youngish age they tend to not know as much and its more a $$$ making business than it is about knowledge and doing it properly. You dont get to see who's tuning or working on the car, they dont allow you in the tuning room and you dont get to talk to the tuner, its give the keys and then pick it up and pay.

I was given poor advice on clutch selection, then when it was done, i later pulled it off myself to find the flywheel had not been machined and the clutch pads were thick on one side and skinny on the other, to which they said was normal. They offered to swap it weeks later when id already fixed it up myself.

Tuning wise was a joke, they had trouble setting up boost on a stock highflowed turbo with an AVCR, apparently it took 3hours on the dyno to troubleshoot this issue which was solved with an excuse of the actuator was bent? hmm

I think i had an amature learning the trade on my car, not a pro. My tuner Gavin Woods took less than an hour on a dyno to have my setup up and running and then some final touches, that was with a whole list of part changes, injectors , afm, turbo, etc

With Gavin , he is the tuner and the guy you talk too, theres no group of young guys, its ONE guy who has years of experience.

Edited April 4, 2013 by AngryRBGTX

[NissanForLife]

Mark, your spot on with that info from my observations too, but not machining the flywheel.......what the. That is a day one, lesson one task, how do you not think that is essential on a clutch change.....lol. They probably put brake pads back on rotors with a 1.5mm lip too. Ahh shell be right.......lol.

I haven't been to Gavin for a tune before, but ive heard good things, and as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

I am using NextUp Performance at Rocklea now, who are two ex MM employees (not hard to work out what happened there....lol.) and they are a great duo to get work done. I have had three separate jobs done at NextUp now, and every time I have been very pleased with there professionalism and high work ethic. I can also hang out in the workshop with my car and be on the dyno with John whilst tuning, it is a real car enthusiasts workshop.

The price in which they quote is strictly stuck to with them and is almost never gone over, except where new parts of something else is discovered throughout the repairs etc. MM bill used to come back in at pretty much double there original quote which really got my back up, as they would never advise you before embarking on new work on your car. Sometimes I would only scrape to pay a bill because of this, and it was a regular occurrence.

Almost all of the work performed by MM has been completely redone by my new workshop because of shonky workmanship, hopefully my recent repairs have been the last of that saga.

I strongly advise anyone from getting work done there. They are very good at marketing to the masses with a high first time customer base, but for major performance work it is like playing Russian Roulette with your car IMO.

[Wardski]

yeah, nah.... I'm sorry but as much as you recommend NextUp I wouldn't touch a company that employed anyone from MM. Those 2 ex-employees couldnt work out my mate's Evo X Cel issues from the start, and then Trent made it worse... Dumb and then dumber as far as I'm concerned..

Mark, your spot on with that info from my observations too, but not machining the flywheel.......what the. That is a day one, lesson one task, how do you not think that is essential on a clutch change.....lol. They probably put brake pads back on rotors with a 1.5mm lip too. Ahh shell be right.......lol.

I haven't been to Gavin for a tune before, but ive heard good things, and as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

I am using NextUp Performance at Rocklea now, who are two ex MM employees (not hard to work out what happened there....lol.) and they are a great duo to get work done. I have had three separate jobs done at NextUp now, and every time I have been very pleased with there professionalism and high work ethic. I can also hang out in the workshop with my car and be on the dyno with John whilst tuning, it is a real car enthusiasts workshop.

The price in which they quote is strictly stuck to with them and is almost never gone over, except where new parts of something else is discovered throughout the repairs etc. MM bill used to come back in at pretty much double there original quote which really got my back up, as they would never advise you before embarking on new work on your car. Sometimes I would only scrape to pay a bill because of this, and it was a regular occurrence.

Almost all of the work performed by MM has been completely redone by my new workshop because of shonky workmanship, hopefully my recent repairs have been the last of that saga.

I strongly advise anyone from getting work done there. They are very good at marketing to the masses with a high first time customer base, but for major performance work it is like playing Russian Roulette with your car IMO.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Wardski

[NissanForLife]

yeah, nah.... I'm sorry but as much as you recommend NextUp I wouldn't touch a company that employed anyone from MM. Those 2 ex-employees couldnt work out my mate's Evo X Cel issues from the start, and then Trent made it worse... Dumb and then dumber as far as I'm concerned..

Do you even know the two ex employees I'm referring to? They might be a bit younger compared to Gavin Woods or Godzilla MS, but there work ethic and care is fantastic, and have been doing long enough professionally and privately. My care gets treated like one of there own, and even washed sometimes just so I can drive it home clean.

There prices are awesome too, no need to spend excessive amounts on your GTR just for the sake of it, it is just a car at the end of the day and not a high tech space shuttle.......lol.

The reason why they left MM was for the same reason customers wont go back, and since they left MM it has fallen apart in so many ways, so I'm pretty sure they were the only two guys trying to keep it together, but when you have someone like Trent running the show, it doesn't make any difference.

[Wardski]

I've never personally dealt with the MM guys, but my mates Evo X was done by John in 2010 when he were there. When we dropped off the car for the "fix it" resolution, Trent had no end of trouble blabbering on about how bad John was (true or not) and then proceeded to make the Evo X worse LOL...

So, aside from the fact I've been in this game for a while and never heard of Next Up Performance (no website either according to Google), I think maybe with a cheap car like an S15 or something like that, I'd probably give them a go - but no way in h3ll would I let them touch my R35.

Any serious aftermarket work I get done will be by Willall Racing, I know the owner personally and not fussed paying the interstate freight to get my car to/from them in SA - because I know I can sleep at night with 100% guarantee the work will be done right...

Do you even know the two ex employees I'm referring to? They might be a bit younger compared to Gavin Woods or Godzilla MS, but there work ethic and care is fantastic, and have been doing long enough professionally and privately. My care gets treated like one of there own, and even washed sometimes just so I can drive it home clean.

There prices are awesome too, no need to spend excessive amounts on your GTR just for the sake of it, it is just a car at the end of the day and not a high tech space shuttle.......lol.

The reason why they left MM was for the same reason customers wont go back, and since they left MM it has fallen apart in so many ways, so I'm pretty sure they were the only two guys trying to keep it together, but when you have someone like Trent running the show, it doesn't make any difference.

[NissanForLife]

I've never personally dealt with the MM guys, but my mates Evo X was done by John in 2010 when he were there. When we dropped off the car for the "fix it" resolution, Trent had no end of trouble blabbering on about how bad John was (true or not) and then proceeded to make the Evo X worse LOL...

So, aside from the fact I've been in this game for a while and never heard of Next Up Performance (no website either according to Google), I think maybe with a cheap car like an S15 or something like that, I'd probably give them a go - but no way in h3ll would I let them touch my R35.

Any serious aftermarket work I get done will be by Willall Racing, I know the owner personally and not fussed paying the interstate freight to get my car to/from them in SA - because I know I can sleep at night with 100% guarantee the work will be done right...

Fair enough mate for oyur 35, but mine is an R34 GTR, but heavily modified and they know there RB26 engines very well. NextUp is only a new business hence the website status. On another note, are you going to the Norwel Track day on the 21st April? There is a heap of us 34 GTR boys going, and would be cool to get other GTR owners there too. I'm not sure but a mates 35 might be going too from Brissy, he has only just got it, so I bet he is looking forward to his first day in it.

[Ants]

Have to say that you cannot go wrong with Gavin Wood Autotech.

Been with him for years now and in fact my car is there right now.

Very, very good mechanic especially in relation to Nissan skylines and R35.

I would rather pay someone to do a good job rather than have a backyard job completed where it will most likely create problems.

My 2cents worth.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Ants

[TTR34]

Shit..... just dropped my car off at MM.... only saw this thread just now..... now you have me sweating ... parts going missing? For real?