SUBARU BRZ FIRE

[Opposed]

Originally Posted by Toma

Curious of why Visconti is being blamed for the fire? If he was just test driving and tuning.... why is he getting the blame?

A fuel leak or oil leak onto a header is really only way for a fire to start. I had a oil leak onto the headers of my mustang almost burn it down 20 years ago. Always have a fire extinguisher in a modded car now.

Because it was Johns flex fuel kit that has known issues to potentially be the cause of the fire...

[mikalem]

Originally Posted by Nightbringer

I will agree that the recent behavior/responses in regards to this situation have been unnerving, but I think it's premature to commence a witch hunt. This situation is truly demoralizing, and if the flexfuel kit hose issue is at fault, I completely concur that Visconti will need to take major and immediate action to rectify the situation and the perceptions it's causing here in the community.

I can see where Visconti's casual responses about it are a bit off-putting---and the timing certainly does not bode well---but before we all gather our pitchforks, let's wait for official proof to be posted. The investigation is ongoing. Righteous indignation is understandable, but let's make sure we have all the facts straight before we start to point fingers and slander a long-standing vendor.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone. Truly sorry again for your misfortune brzturbo. :\ I hope everything works out in your favor in the end.

Honestly I don't need to wait for a result on an official report - looking at the car and determining the source of the fire (right in the nose, drivers side) the fuel kit is the likely cause. I'm pretty certain as I have the same kit, with the same hoses as this car had and I had the leak. I was EXTREMELY lucky that I caught it early in the morning and immediately shut off the car and had it towed to a dealer for review and fix. This could have been me. John's response at the time (calling me back 5 days after I asked him to call me) was "I have a fix boxing up to ship now". Later that week I saw the post from Rich about the costs for the "fix". He's not a business you want to be a part of, stay away.

[DJCarbine]

Originally Posted by mikalem

Honestly I don't need to wait for a result on an official report - looking at the car and determining the source of the fire (right in the nose, drivers side) the fuel kit is the likely cause. I'm pretty certain as I have the same kit, with the same hoses as this car had and I had the leak. I was EXTREMELY lucky that I caught it early in the morning and immediately shut off the car and had it towed to a dealer for review and fix. This could have been me. John's response at the time (calling me back 5 days after I asked him to call me) was "I have a fix boxing up to ship now". Later that week I saw the post from Rich about the costs for the "fix". He's not a business you want to be a part of, stay away.

This explains exactly why many people believe the cause of the fire to be from the flex fuel kit.

The likelyhood of an untouched OEM fitting leaking/causing a fire are slim when compared to the likelyhood of a kit that is known for leaking...

[AVodka14]

What a shame @brzturbo. I hope you are fully compensated for the disastrous event once the culprit of the fire is confirmed. There was indeed quite a lack of tact when Visconti called you to deliver the message of bad news. Keep us posted. We wish you the best!

[HunterGreene]

Originally Posted by Nightbringer

I will agree that the recent behavior/responses in regards to this situation have been unnerving, but I think it's premature to commence a witch hunt. This situation is truly demoralizing, and if the flexfuel kit hose issue is at fault, I completely concur that Visconti will need to take major and immediate action to rectify the situation and the perceptions it's causing here in the community.

I can see where Visconti's casual responses about it are a bit off-putting---and the timing certainly does not bode well---but before we all gather our pitchforks, let's wait for official proof to be posted. The investigation is ongoing. Righteous indignation is understandable, but let's make sure we have all the facts straight before we start to point fingers and slander a long-standing vendor.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone. Truly sorry again for your misfortune brzturbo. :\ I hope everything works out in your favor in the end.

You are right, level heads need to prevail, but the evidence does not look good. John at least needed/needs to post that he's looking into it, he intends to find the root cause and make it right...not just disappear into the shadows. Thats the mark of a coward and bad business if I ever heard it.

[Frs300]

Originally Posted by Nightbringer

I will agree that the recent behavior/responses in regards to this situation have been unnerving, but I think it's premature to commence a witch hunt. This situation is truly demoralizing, and if the flexfuel kit hose issue is at fault, I completely concur that Visconti will need to take major and immediate action to rectify the situation and the perceptions it's causing here in the community.

I can see where Visconti's casual responses about it are a bit off-putting---and the timing certainly does not bode well---but before we all gather our pitchforks, let's wait for official proof to be posted. The investigation is ongoing. Righteous indignation is understandable, but let's make sure we have all the facts straight before we start to point fingers and slander a long-standing vendor.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone. Truly sorry again for your misfortune brzturbo. :\ I hope everything works out in your favor in the end.

thats the thing though don or visconti will more than likely never come on here and give any details even if its not them thats at fault. If i was a customer of his i would want him to come on and give some sort ofclarification as to what happened and what hes going to do to fix it and how hes going to make it right for this guy.

Looking at it in a business aspect that would be the best thing for him to do i think if he doesn't want to lose customer but I think it might be way past that.

[AVodka14]

If it is indeed deemed that the flex fuel kit installed by John is cause of the fire. He is to be banished from this forum and NOBODY on here shoulder ever give him a penny of their money. There are plenty of quality vendors on here that are testing flex fuel kits before they release them for public use. Cheers.

[brz_star21]

If the Visconti crew were using their heads, they probably would lay low for a bit or permanently regarding this case. I'm not saying this is the best way to handle customer service issues but trying to defend yourself in a forum almost always ends up throwing more fuel on the fire and PR image nose dives. Attempting to change people's minds is hard to do on a forum. Keep it in private communication channels if you really want to help the owner.

OP, sorry for your loss but as someone else suggested keep your posting to a minimum in case it can be used against you.

[Frs300]

@HunterGreene you beat me to it

[Toma]

Originally Posted by Opposed

Because it was Johns flex fuel kit that has known issues to potentially be the cause of the fire...

Ahhh. Well. Lets see what happens. Insurance covered it. So all is well. Around here they have been known to deny claims on modded cars.

[Foobar]

While the flex fuel kit has been known to have fitment issues and subsequent fuel leaks, until the investigators come out with their findings, nobody can really be blamed as the source of the fire.

The only thing people can legitimately question, based on what we know, is how the two vendors involved conducted themselves through this disaster - OP has not really told us why he felt they were bad vendors to deal with, and I suspect we won't hear from either vendor because if they (or their lawyers) know whats good for them, they'll keep quiet about this until the investigation results are completed.

Understood that the OP is upset, I'd probably have killed someone by now if it were me, but the only facts we have are:

Don installed the mods (what mods, all of them, some of them?)

Mods include but are not limited to: Vortech SC, V-Tune Flex Fuel Kit, V-Tune EcuTek ECU management

Visconti was driving the car while tuning it and it caught fire.

Beyond that, we can hypothesize all day long. Betting money would be on a flex fuel kit leak, given the number of people who have reported this themselves, but again - proof hasn't been provided yet. Given the fire burning through as much as it did, I don't know how much evidence would be left to rule it in or out, but I'm sure some forensic guy way smarter than I has some tricks up his sleeve to find out.

That all said, should the OP's insurance be dealing with this or should the Shop's insurance be dealing with it? The OP wasn't even present at the time of the fire, and he had left his car in the care of someone servicing his vehicle. This isn't pointing blame at anyone, I am legitimately wondering who's insurance should be involved in this at this point. If it's the OP's insurance, then he's screwed for book value since I'm sure he didn't even have his additional mods (probably close to 10K worth) covered. If it's the shop's insurance, he might fare better as the shop should have sufficient liability to cover all of the book value and mods (especially if they installed them in the first place since they know exactly how much it's worth and can document that it's there).

Anyway, I think this will be one of those situations where we'll never get the full story. I feel for everyone involved in this, but I suspect the car isn't the only thing that is coming out of this on fire.

[Frs300]

Originally Posted by mikalem

Honestly I don't need to wait for a result on an official report - looking at the car and determining the source of the fire (right in the nose, drivers side) the fuel kit is the likely cause. I'm pretty certain as I have the same kit, with the same hoses as this car had and I had the leak. I was EXTREMELY lucky that I caught it early in the morning and immediately shut off the car and had it towed to a dealer for review and fix. This could have been me. John's response at the time (calling me back 5 days after I asked him to call me) was "I have a fix boxing up to ship now". Later that week I saw the post from Rich about the costs for the "fix". He's not a business you want to be a part of, stay away.

you shouldnt have to pay EXTRA for a fix because someone sends out a faulty kit and did 0 testing on it before hand. Its the not customers fault the product is crap and a fire hazard. Then again this is the FI thread and anything can go wrong

[FR-S Matt]

Did I just see a post about John a few months ago fucking something else up? This is just the icing on the cake now.

Sorry for your loss, OP. Hope everything gets straightened out and glad you're safe.

[Brzetto]

Sue his ass off.