The ordeal has finally ended

[wbradley]

Some of you might have read my story on the forum last July. I had purchased an HKS V1 Supercharger kit with upgrades used from a member on the forum. They had arranged to have their mechanic remove from their car and install in mine. Everything seemed OK except for a messy front bumper reinstall, and I was happy with the deal. A few weeks later Sasha at Onpoint dyno tuned the car for 275 WHP at 7000 RPMs.
Shortly after the install I became aware that the necessary traction fluid cooler for the supercharger wasn't installed in my car and the fluid was piped to just recirculate. The seller claimed to know nothing about the missing part as did the installer. Subsequently I took it upon myself to tr and pipe in a small radiator for the fluid as well as source a traction oil filter as that too was missing. HKS didn't have the filter and it took a bit of work to get a substitute.

In the process of attempting to rectify the situation I somehow was confused with an install manual for an HKS system and ended up confusing the oil inlet and outlet. End result was a seized supercharger within minutes, a towing bill and a dead car in my driveway.

I tried to get the blower rebuilt, removed it from my car and sent it out and somehow ended up spending over $300 dealing with some clown in Montreal who claimed he could fix it for around $700 only to end up with a huge fight and a headache and my blower in a bunch of pieces and unsalvagable.

Dealing with the HKS master distributor in the US and a lot of misinformation, I did eventually order a new blower and was told it would be produced no earlier than Sept. I also agreed to pay $300 US to air ship from Japan so I could hopefully drive the car for 1 month before winter storage. Long story short the blower arrived early January. I did get the freight refunded as it didn't get air freighted. Also bought a bottle HKS traction fluid at $265 US and a Setrab oil cooler.

The blower kit, install and dyno tune cost me around $6200.
The ordeal afterward cost around $3,300 and 7 months of down time for the supercharger. So, no winter vacation for my family this year

I did learn a lot more about wrenching and I am sure after many many years enjoying this car the bitterness will fade. Lesson learned (the hard way).

[Kazuya]

Congrats and well done Bradley, hope to see it in person soon!

[LOLS2K]

That totally blows! As I don't know the full situation, I'll refrain from giving my full opinion on the matter. However, it does seem like buying a new kit would have produced an entirely different result. Nonetheless, you know the story better than everyone. Glad to see that you're back on the road and enjoying your car. Thanks for sharing your journey. It helps the community get a view of the good, bad and ugly.

[blackhawkdown]

With that money, and lesson learned, it would of been cheaper to buy a new one. Thanks for the info

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[hmong337]

i've had similar situations like that before too. sometimes trying to save a buck will end up costing a lot more in the end. hopefully things smooth over now that you're ready to enjoy the car again.

[Cole]

Jeez Warren. Sorry to hear that, but I am glad to hear it's finally over. I've also been in the situation of buying used to save a buck and then ended up well over what the new cost would have been.

[wutsaiu]

I've probably wasted thousands on bad kijiji purchases over the years. It's part of the game we play. Happy to hear the saga is over.

[Myv]

Yikes... Glad you got everything figured out man, saw you on the day that you had that thing installed. Looked amazing, and car sounds awesome! Didn't think there'd be such a headache after.

[akiranakayama]

As a fellow car enthusiast who got ****ed over by a shop, I can certainly empathize. Except mine was over an engine swap that I entrusted a local tuner shop to handle. They ended up taking me for just about $18,000. Money that I could've put to better use by just throwing it into a big pile and setting it on fire for the entertainment value of it.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that shit. I know how it feels to be without something you have a passion for, especially for such a prolonged time. We do this kind of stuff because we it's fun. It sucks when shit gets fouled up and it turns into a nightmare.

It sounds like you are probably in the same boat as I am though as far as a silver lining goes; before my whole ordeal, my knowledge of wrenching started and stopped with changing the oil. After taking the project back from them, I'm comfortable tearing out the engine and putting it back together. (I ended up doing it three times...)

Expensive education, for sure. Now just keep the car and amortize the "cost" of it over a long timeline.

[Tcoat]

WOW! Just two weeks ago I told your story (what I knew/remembered) to a guy at work that was bragging he was getting a smoking deal on a used turbo for his 96 Talon. If he hasn't ignored me and bought it already I will need to let him read this.

[f0rge]

That's a tough break but at least it's all worked out now.

275whp is pretty sick.

[SavingManuals]

That's quite annoying. Glad to hear you got it sorted out.


Rob Gripper
1999 Mazda Miata 5 speed somewhat track ready

[CSG Mike]

yeouch

[Canehda]

Im happy you got your car tuned to a really nice number with a really good tuner, can't wait to hear it and see it in person, but most of all I hope you enjoy the car now that you pushed through and got it working. Tbh i think a lot of people would have given up and just moved on after a loss like that and denied themselves the satisfaction of a finally finished install!