Visconti Tuning - Latest BRZ Flash Info

[Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by Mitch

He hasn't dropped off the face of the planet. He's just dealing with paying customers directly. Until we have a final say on what happened and how the situation concludes, all the children here have done is make it impossible for paying customers to have a dialogue with their vendor in a public forum. I'm sorry that guy's car burned down. Was it the fault of the flex fuel kit? We'll find out. Meanwhile, I'm still heavily invested with this vendor, and you've all taken away one of my means of making use of that investment. So thanks, everybody.

I'm now genuinely hoping that the flex-fuel kit wasn't the cause of the fire for the sole purpose of watching everyone eat crow. How about a simple proposition? If it's Visconti's kit's fault and he doesn't make it right, ban him from the forums. If it's his kit's fault, but he makes it right, no action. If it ends up not being his kit's fault, we ban every member on here who participated in the witch hunt.

That's the problem is you will never know. The car is too badly burned to find out what caused the fire. Not to mention that none of the involved parties will speak up if it is found out to be something other than the "oem fuel pump" as the insurance claims (the insurance also had no knowledge of the FF kit). A few thing point to the kit though.

Numerous leaking kits.
The release of a revised kit shortly after the fire.
The location of the fire (OEM fuel lines all travel from the passenger side, The FF kit is on the driver side... where the fire was the hotest).
The fire happening right after the install of the kit.
The lack of any other oem pump burning a car down (one case of a dealer improperly installing a pump and paying for the car).

[Carwhisperer]

Originally Posted by Mitch

He hasn't dropped off the face of the planet. He's just dealing with paying customers directly. Until we have a final say on what happened and how the situation concludes, all the children here have done is make it impossible for paying customers to have a dialogue with their vendor in a public forum. I'm sorry that guy's car burned down. Was it the fault of the flex fuel kit? We'll find out. Meanwhile, I'm still heavily invested with this vendor, and you've all taken away one of my means of making use of that investment. So thanks, everybody.

I'm now genuinely hoping that the flex-fuel kit wasn't the cause of the fire for the sole purpose of watching everyone eat crow. How about a simple proposition? If it's Visconti's kit's fault and he doesn't make it right, ban him from the forums. If it's his kit's fault, but he makes it right, no action. If it ends up not being his kit's fault, we ban every member on here who participated in the witch hunt.

I thought this was over. I guess not.

[DJCarbine]

Originally Posted by Mitch

He hasn't dropped off the face of the planet. He's just dealing with paying customers directly. Until we have a final say on what happened and how the situation concludes, all the children here have done is make it impossible for paying customers to have a dialogue with their vendor in a public forum. I'm sorry that guy's car burned down. Was it the fault of the flex fuel kit? We'll find out. Meanwhile, I'm still heavily invested with this vendor, and you've all taken away one of my means of making use of that investment. So thanks, everybody.

I'm now genuinely hoping that the flex-fuel kit wasn't the cause of the fire for the sole purpose of watching everyone eat crow. How about a simple proposition? If it's Visconti's kit's fault and he doesn't make it right, ban him from the forums. If it's his kit's fault, but he makes it right, no action. If it ends up not being his kit's fault, we ban every member on here who participated in the witch hunt.

This is actually something I've been wondering for a while. What happens when your ECUTEK tuner gets another job, or decides they don't want to tune anymore?

I also like when my tuner posts regularly on the board.

I own several tunes, and one of them is from Visconti.... so I feel that my worries are valid

[Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by DJCarbine

This is actually something I've been wondering for a while. What happens when your ECUTEK tuner gets another job, or decides they don't want to tune anymore?

I also like when my tuner posts regularly on the board.

I own several tunes, and one of them is from Visconti.... so I feel that my worries are valid

It's similar to when a company goes bankrupt. If they stop tuning, then it's over.

[xjohnx]

Originally Posted by Mitch

He hasn't dropped off the face of the planet. He's just dealing with paying customers directly. Until we have a final say on what happened and how the situation concludes, all the children here have done is make it impossible for paying customers to have a dialogue with their vendor in a public forum. I'm sorry that guy's car burned down. Was it the fault of the flex fuel kit? We'll find out. Meanwhile, I'm still heavily invested with this vendor, and you've all taken away one of my means of making use of that investment. So thanks, everybody..

Nothing is stopping the man from posting about other topics on this board in the mean time. He's still posting on the GTRLife board regularly.

Your beef should be with the vendor you can't get ahold of, not the community that had legitimate questions and concerns about product safety.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by Hawaiian

That's the problem is you will never know. The car is too badly burned to find out what caused the fire. Not to mention that none of the involved parties will speak up if it is found out to be something other than the "oem fuel pump" as the insurance claims (the insurance also had no knowledge of the FF kit). A few thing point to the kit though.

Numerous leaking kits.
The release of a revised kit shortly after the fire.
The location of the fire (OEM fuel lines all travel from the passenger side, The FF kit is on the driver side... where the fire was the hotest).
The fire happening right after the install of the kit.
The lack of any other oem pump burning a car down (one case of a dealer improperly installing a pump and paying for the car).

I know. I own a flex-fuel kit, but put off installing it because I wanted to see how other's experiences went. I bought the updated hardware within a few hours of it becoming available. I still haven't installed because I want to see how resilient the kit updates are, but it's very hard to get that information now. I agree that the experiences people have had are pretty damning, but I've also seen cars flambe themselves from other issues in the past, so I don't imagine that we're immune from install errors. For instance, with the STG1+ kit the fuel injectors are changed. Improper installation could have caused a fire on the driver's side. The fire would have then compromised the FF lines. Obviously the low-hanging fruit is a leaky FF kit, but it's not the only possibility at this time. Will we ever know? Maybe not. I just want more information before deciding my own path forward with my upgrading plans.

Originally Posted by DJCarbine

This is actually something I've been wondering for a while. What happens when your ECUTEK tuner gets another job, or decides they don't want to tune anymore?

I also like when my tuner posts regularly on the board.

I own several tunes, and one of them is from Visconti.... so I feel that my worries are valid

That was my biggest concern with the new tuning model. Of course this is still superior to the old days of swapping eprom chips.

Originally Posted by xjohnx

Nothing is stopping the man from posting about other topics on this board in the mean time. He's still posting on the GTRLife board regularly.

Other than the fact that any thread immediately gets swamped with spill over from the fire thread. It would be impossible to keep any thread on topic at this point.

[DantKR]

The fact that he posted about this topic on the GTR forums and not here speaks volumes in my opinion.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by xjohnx

Nothing is stopping the man from posting about other topics on this board in the mean time. He's still posting on the GTRLife board regularly.

Your beef should be with the vendor you can't get ahold of, not the community that had legitimate questions and concerns about product safety.

I can get ahold of my vendor. What I can't do is have a product discussion that doesn't get steered off-course by people who aren't even using these products.

[FR-S Matt]

Originally Posted by Mitch

I can get ahold of my vendor. What I can't do is have a product discussion that doesn't get steered off-course by people who aren't even using these products.

Because we don't want our cars to go up in flames. That's a pretty valid reason.

[Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by Mitch

I know. I own a flex-fuel kit, but put off installing it because I wanted to see how other's experiences went. I bought the updated hardware within a few hours of it becoming available. I still haven't installed because I want to see how resilient the kit updates are, but it's very hard to get that information now. I agree that the experiences people have had are pretty damning, but I've also seen cars flambe themselves from other issues in the past, so I don't imagine that we're immune from install errors. For instance, with the STG1+ kit the fuel injectors are changed. Improper installation could have caused a fire on the driver's side. The fire would have then compromised the FF lines. Obviously the low-hanging fruit is a leaky FF kit, but it's not the only possibility at this time. Will we ever know? Maybe not. I just want more information before deciding my own path forward with my upgrading plans.

This is the big rub here. His inability to admit that he F-ed up. That "upgrade" should have been something he ate the cost on for customer safety. If he did that you would have far fewer people after him.

The best vendors understand this, and do whatever they can to make things right with their customers. Maybe they lose $20 bucks here or there, but they build relationships and positive views on the way they do business. It builds a sense of security for the people handing over their hard earned money, and makes them more willing to recommend them to friends, and make purchases from that vendor in the future.

With JV, he burns more bridges than he builds (no pun intended).

[Yruyur]

So I have the updated kit but have not installed it yet and have seen a fa20 club install in person.

Both myself and the fa20club member are going to replace our rubber lines with differrent line and have them crimped.

I also noticed visconti used the front fuel line which i believe is the di feed while fa20 uses the line next to it.

Sent from a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

[s2d4]

Honest question,

Why don't you guys just return it and get the FA20 kit?

[Nightbringer]

Originally Posted by Mitch

I can get ahold of my vendor. What I can't do is have a product discussion that doesn't get steered off-course by people who aren't even using these products.

This. I've been swamped with work and didn't have a chance to have a conversation, but they've contacted me by phone TWICE in the last few days. Considering how things devolved on this forum in multiple threads, it's probably wise they aren't posting directly here---however, they're still in contact with their customers, even those of us that participated in the negativity.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by FR-S Matt

Because we don't want our cars to go up in flames. That's a pretty valid reason.

Nobody is going to sneak into your house and install a flexfuel kit on your car without telling you. Feel free to participate in the discussion, but incessant tagging of threads and clutterposts make it impossible to have a conversation. I've actually spent money. I have a kit in hand. I want to be able to talk about the kit with other people in the same situation and the vendor without a bunch of jokes so we can figure out what our path forward is.

Originally Posted by Hawaiian

This is the big rub here. His inability to admit that he F-ed up. That "upgrade" should have been something he ate the cost on for customer safety. If he did that you would have far fewer people after him.

The best vendors understand this, and do whatever they can to make things right with their customers. Maybe they lose $20 bucks here or there, but they build relationships and positive views on the way they do business. It builds a sense of security for the people handing over their hard earned money, and makes them more willing to recommend them to friends, and make purchases from that vendor in the future.

With JV, he burns more bridges than he builds (no pun intended).

On the one hand, I agree that the "upgrade" should have been free. On the other hand, I voted with my dollars on how I truly felt about it. I'm an early adopter. That means I'm taking on a certain amount of risk, sometimes having to meet the vendor half-way. I have an Airaid intake that stumbles and Whitleline Com-C hats that pop. I'm not happy about it, but I'm not going to stop being an early adopter either.