Give it time and the right conditions - And you too can look like the above pics. :-)

We will be seeing many more xo2 failures up on the boards in the near future, just like megan went through.

 

Same person, and I'm not back peddling. You are using fallacies to try and win your argument. There is no possible way I can check every HKS for rust or ask everyone if they have experience with one rusting. But that does not mean it hasn't or wont happen. The FACT is ALL stainles steel will corrode, even your precious HKS. That is why it is called stainless "stain less" You showed me one person who had a problem with their exhaust. You can't draw conclusions off of one example, it is clearly not a reoccuring theme, otherwise many more people would be complaining about it. You are basing some rust on calling the exhaust non-stainless? You are a joke, and I'm glad most of our members are smart enough to see through you.

 

ok man, this is gettin a little ridiculous. If your happy with the x02 then thats great. Nobody has any right to tell you that you made a mistake with what you bought. If you didnt want to spend the extra money for the hks then thats fine. this is really gettin pointless. there is no need for name calling, give us an update in a year of how its holding up. thanks.

 

I'm not the one being ridiculous. Had nothing to do with the price, if I wanted a higher pitch tone I would have gone HKS, but that's not what I wanted. It's getting close to a year, the exhaust is at least a year old though, I got it used.

 

Im not sayin anyone in particular is being ridiculous, im sayin this thread is getting beside the point. There is no reason to argue about such ********.

 

Just remember, everything rusts. It may not be the manufacturer. You also stated that "the right conditions" could look like the pic above. Again, everything will rust. Stainless will rust depending on how quick the oxidation sets in.

 

no one is going to win a fight like this. i know for sure you won't convince each other. so why spent the time arguing? take it easy guys

 

bottomline is to make educated decision. if you collect all the information and make your decision based on your preference, no one should blame you. each person has his preference and budget concern. there is really no point to blame others. someone might prefer to take a risk to buy something cheaper, that's their choice. everyone has his rights to choose how to spend their money.

bad outcome doesn't mean that it's a bad decision. a good decision should maximize your expected return. high expected return doesn't guarantee a good outcome.

 

Nice write-up. At least you're honest. The tips look horrible.

 

thanks!

 

My friend is fabbing me up some nice stainless tips that look exactly like the out of the box xo2s, the only difference being there wont be a blue burn look to them. If you are interested I can see if he'll fab up another set and what the cost would be.

 

Well, I suppose its time for someone with actual stainless experience to chime in. Just for reference i'm a marine engineer, and i work with stainless A LOT.

For starters, you can get get two exact same grades of stainless steels (SUS304 in this instance) and they can be of completelt different qualities. That's where the price of raw materials comes in. You can buy an SUS 304 tube of stainless from Britain or Turkey, but the one from britain will cost more than the one from Turkey. Why? Because of the quality of the ore used in making the steel. A perfect example of this was when our vessel went to have a whole load of piping for the engine room replaced in Turkey, and within the year it was all fuked. We then had the same work done in Spain the year later, using the exact same grade of steel, and it lasted almost 3 years before we started seeing signs of corrosion. This is the difference between HKS and XO2.

Next point, as the OP proved, XO2 have poor fitment and look like crap apparently. OK, so it may only happen to a few, but the fact is that it does happen, meaning the quality control is crap. You don't get that with HKS, and if you do, they will replace it free of charge.

Now here is a bold statement, if you look after stainless, IT WILL NEVER RUST. NEVER!! I've worked on boats that are over 25 years old, that live there life at sea, and you don't get a much harsher environment than that, and there stainless still looks like the day it was installed. So for that XO2 exhaust to have rusted like that in such a short time, only means that it's not stainless. It might be steel, but not stainless steel.

Another you get when you pay the price is a warranty. HKS gives a warranty on most of their products. The HKS exhaust is built to withstand the test of time. They will still be sitting on a car in 10 years time, and if looked after will still look great. The XO2, who know one guy may have it last 10 years too, but the next guy might only last 10 months. That is the difference. XO2 are not built to stand the test of time, there built to appeal to your wallet.

Every product that HKS makes undergoes long periods od endurance testing to make sure it's up to par before they put it on the market. XO2's clients are the testers for them.

Can you see the difference now. So all in all, the XO2 is an inferior product, and there's no two ways about it, but that's not what people care about. They want the cheap way to get power.

 

Yes, the xo2 did have fitment issues on a few cars, but is easily fixed by adjusting the exhaust hanger, this is not an issue experienced by xo2 alone. Yes this ONE persons exhaust rusted a bit, but it was also left to a corrosive environment for 2 weeks. HKS is the best manufacturer ever with very tight quality controls, which explains why they let out a shipment of exhausts with h-pipe problems and people had to fight to get them to correct it. I never said stainless would never rust, I said if you didn't maintain it it would. If you keep it clean, then yes it will last.

No one ever said the xo2 was better quality than HKS, so please don't put words in our mouth. We were just saying the exhaust is not some big POS that the HKS owners make it sound to be. I, and the majority of xo2 owners do not have a problem with their exhaust, and would recommend them to others. The only people that are speaking poorly of the exhaust are those who own HKS exhausts, and hate the fact xo2 is a knock off. Why don't you let the people who have the exhaust, and have experience with the exhaust make the calls as to it's quality? I would be the first to admit if the exhaust fell apart prematurely, but mine has held up just like any other exhaust I've owned.

 

Just call a spade a spade. The xo2 is crap. No two ways about it. Don't get it. If you want that style of exhaust, spend a few more bucks and get the high quality a real HKS is known for, and has proven over & over. Lol~ :-)

 

wow, this is getting really interesting.....lol...

 

My apologies, i never meant that you were saying that the XO2 is better, you're right you didn't. You did however mention that it is of equal quality, and i believe you just called the HKS exhaust a POS in your above paragraph. Don't get me wrong, i haven't got a problem with you or the XO2 exhaust, i'm all for saving a buck here and there, just not at the expense of quality. If that's how you roll, then that's how you roll. Good for you. Just please don't claim your exhaust is of equal quality to the HKS.
Yes HKS had a booboo with there exhaust, but people didn't have to fight to get there exhaust replaced. HKS just waited to see if it was a recurrent problem before they replaced them all.
Yes the guy left his exhaust in a corrosive environment for two weeks. You're also claiming that you've had it in a corrosive environment for over 3 weeks, and nothing has happened to yours. So what happened there? Basically they get there steel from whoever is selling it the cheapest, and this guy got a really bad one. Basically making this exhaust inconsistent. One guy may have one that's amazing, the next guy won't. You and the guy with the rusty exhaust are examples of this.

 

Thanks for all the info on XO2/hks. Now the customers can choose whatever they want

 

I didn't say that the exhaust was even of equal quality to the HKS. All I have been saying is that the exhaust is not crap. Some HKS owners try to paint the picture that the xo2 is going to rust out within a few days, all the welds are going to fail and you're gonna be dragging around a piece of **** a month after you own it. You said that the xo2 is for people who "want to save a buck or two". I don't buy that for a second. Yes it's possible some bought it was because it was cheap, but there are others who bought it because they liked the sound over the HKS (me). If the HKS sounded like the xo2 I would have had no qualms paying the $1200 for the HKS and would have done so.

As for me calling the HKS crap, I was proving a point and being sarcastic. I was saying if you can paint all xo2 exhausts as being crap because of one exhaust, then I should be able to do the same with HKS, because of their issue they had. I know HKS is a reputable company that puts out quality parts, but every company makes mistakes. xo2 doesn't produce the exhausts anymore, and I heard rumor that there was another knockoff being passed around since then, so that is something else that needs to be thought about.

All I know is that the vast majority of xo2 owners are satisfied and have 0 problems regarding quality with their exhausts. I have 0 problems with you, or your opinion on the xo2. My problem is with gothchick who loves to drag the exhaust through the mud and then makes no basis for her claim. Then when you call her out on it acts like someone in elementary school. You at least have some knowledge about stainless and can have a debate without being a child about it, which is very refreshing. I like debates where facts come out, because everyone benefits from it, no one benefits from the garbage coming out of gothchick.

 

Fair enough.

 

Lower standards?

/thread.