Mid-Atlantic Chat Thread

[infinite012]

Originally Posted by Pure Automotive

You have a valid point, it's frustrating that you can't just boost it and not worry about it. But when you go FI on a car that didn't come that way, especially one that has a 12.5:1 compression ratio, it's always a risk. If warranty and longevity of the engine are important to you, FI may not be the route you want to go. When I decided to go turbo, I decided that my motor might blow up and I had to come to terms with that before I did it. In NA form, this car can be reliably quick. I personally think that anything south of 330hp is safe as long as the tune is proper and the car cared for properly.

In NA form, this car should be reliable. *SHOULD* be. But it isn't.

The only way to really make it reliable seems to be with a tune that fixes the whole DI seals popping when revving over 5000rpm, but it also introduces other areas of risk (like if you got a Visconti tune, your car will catch fire and burn to the ground).

[BoostinIX]

Originally Posted by infinite012

In NA form, this car should be reliable. *SHOULD* be. But it isn't.

The only way to really make it reliable seems to be with a tune that fixes the whole DI seals popping when revving over 5000rpm, but it also introduces other areas of risk (like if you got a Visconti tune, your car will catch fire and burn to the ground).

That's not EVERY one being unreliable though. I'm at 21k miles and no issues beyond a cricket chirp that I never really notice.

They made lemon civics too. It happens. Thousands of parts, odds of one failing are pretty high.


This is also a brand new car, with a new drivetrain setup, and a new system to learn. You can't expect to have the aftermarket industry have it perfect from the get go. If you take on those parts and tunes, you accept that they're new and mostly untested. Nobody knew how to tune the GM LS or the RB26 at first, but after years of trial and error, it's easy peasy now. How many EJ25's blew up while they learned to tune those safely?


It's coming off like you got the short run of the luck stick and are bitter about it.

Originally Posted by Pure Automotive

You have a valid point, it's frustrating that you can't just boost it and not worry about it. But when you go FI on a car that didn't come that way, especially one that has a 12.5:1 compression ratio, it's always a risk. If warranty and longevity of the engine are important to you, FI may not be the route you want to go. When I decided to go turbo, I decided that my motor might blow up and I had to come to terms with that before I did it. In NA form, this car can be reliably quick. I personally think that anything south of 330hp is safe as long as the tune is proper and the car cared for properly.

Nail on the head. It was never meant to handle boost, it's not built for it. None of the FI companies knew what the motor could handle, but they made them anyway, and people bought them with no regard for popping their already-high compression. If you want a warranty, don't add FI to your new car.






Welcome to the world of modifying a completely new platform.

[infinite012]

Originally Posted by BoostinIX

That's not EVERY one being unreliable though. I'm at 21k miles and no issues beyond a cricket chirp that I never really notice.

...

It's coming off like you got the short run of the luck stick and are bitter about it.

...

Welcome to the world of modifying a completely new platform.

1. Every USDM BRZ/FRS ECU, AFAIK, has the retarded transient timing table (yes, I said it that way on purpose to make my point) and dealerships are not updating with the latest/greatest ECU ROM from South Africa. This means everyone is at risk. I'm at 26k miles and have the chirps, rattles, and lights leaking. Weak/dipping idle started last week...

2. Not really. The chirps, rattles, and lights leaking were all taken care of under warranty. It's just a pain in the ass to have a car constantly being in the service center getting warranty work done. If I wanted that, I would've bought a VW.

3. My car is mostly stock (only has an aFe intake, RCE springs, and wheels).

[kanundrum]

Seems like chirping is related to ethanol content in our cars

[infinite012]

Originally Posted by kanundrum

Seems like chirping is related to ethanol content in our cars

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. There are just as many people claiming ethanol free stops the chirps as there are people who have tried ethanol free and still have the chirps.

Either way, there is no ethanol free gas station near my home or my place of work.

[Pure Automotive]

Originally Posted by infinite012

In NA form, this car should be reliable. *SHOULD* be. But it isn't.

The only way to really make it reliable seems to be with a tune that fixes the whole DI seals popping when revving over 5000rpm, but it also introduces other areas of risk (like if you got a Visconti tune, your car will catch fire and burn to the ground).

If you think an NA tune can burn your car to the ground you've not done enough research. Every single person I know that has a stage 1 or 2 NA tune absolutely loves their car and has had little to no issues with it for thousands of miles. Quite frankly, it's my opinion that the tune fixes most of the stupid problems that stock tunes have, you'd probably spend less time at the dealer if you had a tune. No need to get personal, we're having a discussion here, not an argument.

[infinite012]

Originally Posted by Pure Automotive

If you think an NA tune can burn your car to the ground you've not done enough research. Every single person I know that has a stage 1 or 2 NA tune absolutely loves their car and has had little to no issues with it for thousands of miles. Quite frankly, it's my opinion that the tune fixes most of the stupid problems that stock tunes have, you'd probably spend less time at the dealer if you had a tune. No need to get personal, we're having a discussion here, not an argument.

I'm playing devil's advocate because I have some spare time at work today No hard feelings.

I was making a joke about Visconti burning cars and laughing about it in front of their customers (posting pictures of Visconti tuning a car with a fire extinguisher at the ready on their Instagram, for example).

However, if you think that putting an aftermarket tune onto a stock car to make the stock car reliable is acceptable, then you aren't thinking like a normal person. Normal people don't want to have to worry about when their stock car goes pop and likely won't do the research to find information about how to tune their car/get their car tuned to "fix" the issues that shouldn't be present in the first place.

So far, the stock items which are terrible: ECU tune, transmission fluid, HPFP, rear cam cover, tail lights, Homelink mirror, idle dip (caused by a spacing issue? something like that). There are aftermarket "fixes" for 4 out of these 7 issues that should've never made it to a production car.

[BoostinIX]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck0JCaMt4tA"]Halloween Light Show 2013- The Fox (What Does the Fox Say) - YouTube[/ame]




Factory tunes have sucked before from Subaru. 07 STi anyone? As a former car salesman that saw a ton of new stuff come back...it happens. Takes a few years to work the bugs out.

[infinite012]

Look at the pretty lights!

[Jrohit]

Off topic, but what's there to do in northern Virginia? I'm here for the day and there's nothing to do.

[kanundrum]

Food Beer Woman Cars

Take your pic!

[Jrohit]

Originally Posted by kanundrum

Food Beer Woman Cars

Take your pic!

Beer is out of the question. Not legal

[sidswiftsteel]

Originally Posted by Jrohit

Beer is out of the question. Not legal

Then, make sure the women are as well. Matter of fact, just stick to food and cars for the day!

[Jrohit]

Originally Posted by sidswiftsteel

Then, make sure the women are as well. Matter of fact, just stick to food and cars for the day!

I've been driving from place to place, need 47 more miles and then I can actually