Hello everyone.


After having several problems with Stillen as a shop, I made the switch to Specialty Z in Chatsworth, CA.


I had them install my heat exchanger by Frozenboost, switch over to EcuTek and retune the car, and GTR Sparkplugs.


In the process, the shop found that the O-Rings were bad, so I had them replace those. Additionally, they found a vacuum leak and fixed that - all symptoms of careless work.


Prior to this, I had serious problems dealing with Stillen. My motor went bad after 3 months of having their kit. The day after they installed it, the car was having long turnover and stalling everywhere. I notified them about it, took the car back to them, and they handed it back with the same problems (very irresponsible). I continued to tell them about the problem and they didn't do anything. In fact, they asked me to pay them to help me fix it (extremely unethical business). As time went by, the motor eventually went bad just under 3 months later. Stillen blamed me for this, citing that I drove the car hard (very unintelligent excuse). I bought a second motor, they installed this, and in the process, reinstalled the SC and a new radiator on their recommendation. Finally, I get the car back after 6 months. Immediately after getting the car back this time, I took the car for an oil change at OC Infiniti because my former boss runs the dealership and they take care of me.


The tech took me in the back and showed that Stillen improperly installed the oil filter and this caused a tremendous oil leak. Luckily since I took the car to them almost immediately after getting it back, they caught it early, cleaned everything up, and I avoided damages.


Only a few weeks later, I had a coolant leak. I took the car back to OC Infiniti. Once again, the tech took me to the back to show me what happened.


Stillen had again improperly installed my radiator. They used the wrong hose. OC Infiniti showed me a side-by-side comparison of the hose they used versus the one they were supposed to use. The difference was very sharp and painfully obvious. Both the connector and diameter of the hose was 100% different. It wasn't even close. These damages costed me almost 800 dollars. I notified Stillen about it and told them I'm not even going to try and get them to pay for it because I honestly am just sick of their excuses.


Sebastian at Specialty Z had the car done 1 day earlier than he originally said, which came as a great surprise.


After driving the car, I felt a night-and-day difference from before. Stillen had not properly tuned my car. I've had several problems with them and have lost a lot of money due to repeated carelessness.


Sebastian definitely knows what he's doing and I recommend anyone in SoCal to go to he and the guys over at Specialty Z. I have never been happier with the car as of today.

 

Did Stillen do the oil change on the new engine? May have been that way on the new motor when you got it.

 

No but they installed their oil filter.

 

Good to hear. I'll be going with Seb next month for a remote tune. Can't wait!

 

Not surprised about either, Stillen( Had my own things with them and their kit) or about Seb. He really knows his stuff and my car on his tune is a HUGE difference than my previous tune. An I can only use him remotely. I really wish he was local, or fly out this way once a year :/ . But he is good and his customer service us A++

 

Yah dude he knows his **** for sure. Stillen has just been nothing but thumbs down the whole way for customer service and frankly they do not seem to care. I can hardly fathom how they have survived with such practices.

Seb absolutely crushed it with the tuning and the quality of work. It runs stronger than ever.

 

If I were you I would file a bad report with the BBB about Stillen and do the opposite about Specialty Z business.

 

I had a similar story with my headers. Complete nightmare. Stillen has some of the worst customer service. Quality control from them is also a huge problem even on the parts side, not just labor. It's very hard for me to honestly recommend Stillen to anybody. After my header issues and seeing how they fail to handle issues with any urgency or care, I do not doubt how they blamed you for the engine messing up and ect. Glad you got everything back as it should be.

-Stillen isn't the only company I've had problems with on my car, they are just the only company that hasn't made things right after a problem arose.

 

I am very pleased with the service from Sebastian and the whole Specialty Z team. I had my car there two weeks ago to get the valve body mod done, Berk HFC, replace diff bushings, and a tune. This is honestly the first time ive had this level of work done on my car with ZERO issues, non, nada. Ive heard issues with Stillen as well so I would never take my car to them anyway. Ill be moving back to FL soon which sucks for one reason only, no Sebastian in FL