ehp
01-28-2014, 10:16 PM
So the other thread was locked for some reason so I decided to post a new one. My brother took his s13 automatic to Robert at Sideways Performance for a 5 speed conversion. He made it seem like his place was extremely legit even showing off his many jz swapped cars and told us that we wouldn't have to worry about a thing. We dropped off the car and more than half of the cost as a deposit (according to Robert's request). He even bragged that they have 3 or more techs and that it would be done fast. I know my brother didn't send a text or phone call for at least 3-4 days before asking a single question and apparently it wasn't even started. It took another 2-3 days for him to even start . When he was almost done, he called my brother asking how soon we'd be able to pick up the car and that if we weren't able to to pick it up that day, he was going to finish another customers car first. Wait a minute... you take long as hell for a simple manual conversion and then give this bull **** (this has already been like 1.5 weeks). We tell him we can get it today and when we get there, my bro starts it up and it literally sounds and runs like SHIT. There was even smoke coming out of the engine and much more from the exhaust. We take the car into a shop that we trust and were told that it had a bad 4th cylinder and would need a rebuild/swap, but wait a minute. This engine had JUST passed smog with decent numbers about 1-2 weeks before we took the car into Sideways. I really don't think a motor with bad 4th cylinder can even pass smog. On another note, the car seemed to be running okay being able to take us place to place with no problems. After the manual swap, the car died randomly so often it was undriveable. There's no way the car could've changed so much with a mere manual conversion. Sideways performance is a SHADY shop that is only out to make a quick buck. I'll leave it up to you guys if you want to take your car there.