Friday, I paid a visit to SGP to check on the status of the Forge actuator install. Mark and Shawn showed me something pretty shocking. The driver side wastegate, from the original APS TT kit, had been stuck wide open. The passenger side wastegate was beginning to get stuck as well. Since my first dyno and tune back in the summer of 2005 ive lost about 40 hp. Ive felt the lose in torque gradually over the months. Now I know the cause of it.

Ive racked up 32k miles on the APS TT kit/built motor and I have come to this conclusion: APS is not a technically mature company to claim they have a superior TT kit. I’m sure dozens on this board have already come to that conclusion long ago. The smoking issues from the first week and the poor wastegate actuator design are grim oversights. I blame this on too little experience within the company and dishonest business ethics because any long term testing they claimed to have done would have revealed these problems.

 

That sucks, but...

...perhaps it affects some vehicles and doesn't affect others. I know of one that has been installed for 15,000 of the hardest imagineable miles and the wastegates were not stuck open and no power loss occurred. Who knows...

 

I dont think you can generalise about all TT kits just because you've had problems. Not something I've heard of before, and certainly something that I havent suffered in nearly 20k of use. Component failure can happen in anything mechanical.

 

"APS is not a technically mature company to claim they have a superior TT kit"

You're kidding right? Is there anybody else that you know that has had a similar issue with the stock actuators? If not, then you're statement is ignorant. Just because you're actuator stuck open, doesn't by default make APS's engineering immature. So if I buy a Sony LCD and the backlight fails after 6 mons, then Sony automatically has crappy engineering? I've got to say that is some pretty dumb logic.

 

I'll let 1 of the 100 other APS owners here answer that Jr.

 

If you take your car back to where you had it dynoed, im willing to bet you've lost a bit of torque and power as well. You just might not have noticed it by the seat of your pants.

 

What caused them to stick open?

I wonder if the rods on the new Forge actuators got bent at install, or not adjusted correctly, causing them to act funny.

 

In the case I referred to, i know for a fact this is not the case. 430whp on 9psi when he had it installed, 430whp at 9psi a year and a half later. Track numbers did nothing but stay consistent as well.

 

My kit was one of the first shipped here. Back when they had the introductory price. Wow.. what a bargain!

 

Jr...LOL. You made the statement before any of the other 100 APS owners gave an answer. Who makes a conclusion without any supporting evidence? Seriously, you're being childish.

And as "1 of the 100 other APS owners", no I haven't had any issues with my actuators.

 

The Turbos/actuators are GARRETT units, not designed/manufactured by APS...so technically Garrett is whom you should have a problem with, and we all know that Garrett products are total crap.

PS - no issues here either...my car actually trapped HIGHER after 1.5 years of hard abuse...

 

What were your 'smoking issues' in the first week? Oil/fingerprints burning off?

 

32K miles is some pretty good usage. Any mechanical part can eventually break on a vehicle. Even high quality external gates can stick, particularly if running leaded fuels. 30K miles is more than 2 years of usage for most people.

 

No, I havent lost any power at all.

Your statement is bordering on ridiculous. As said earlier, its like me getting a faulty part on anything I buy, then claiming that the whole run of products is completely faulty even though thousands of people are having zero issues.

 

I would like to see a list of people with ANYTHING APS that have had ZERO issues. Probably can count them on 1 hand!

 

OK..... I'll be the index finger..9,000 miles...APS TT.. Zero Issues.Sunday nights are so boring!!!!!!!!

 

does your boost hold steady?

 

Zero issues....15K miles. There are a bunch of other people like me and coachk.

 

Only problem I ever had was smoking due to bad turbo seals. APS repaired at no charge, even though they were never installed by an APS Dealer.

 

I wanted to say zero issues but I had a defective boost solenoid and a Friday weld on the LHS charge pipe. Both were easily fixable and the kit has been flawless since.