Kinetix Plenum: Catastrophic failure @ 80mph... stranded middle of nowhere!!!
good idea with the metal sheet wren, but... at what point do you say, this is not a good idea. just keep adding material, supports, thicker, stronger, it gets bulkier, heavier; eventually your losing HP cause youve made it so much thicker than stock just to maintain strength.
by the way, I wouldnt expect a response... the last thread about their phones being down went over a week and hundreds of responses, not a single post by a kinetix person unless I missed it.
by the way, I wouldnt expect a response... the last thread about their phones being down went over a week and hundreds of responses, not a single post by a kinetix person unless I missed it.
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Originally posted by ares
by the way, I wouldnt expect a response... the last thread about their phones being down went over a week and hundreds of responses, not a single post by a kinetix person unless I missed it.
by the way, I wouldnt expect a response... the last thread about their phones being down went over a week and hundreds of responses, not a single post by a kinetix person unless I missed it.
from what I understand this is not new at all... no one has ever been able to call and get a response. its always been leave a message they call you back. it seems that just ended competely.
good customer service rep came from them replacing those that failed. I think customer service was wrongly labeled. it was more good product support; if that.
good customer service rep came from them replacing those that failed. I think customer service was wrongly labeled. it was more good product support; if that.
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From: North Carolina
Originally posted by dave079
But although yourself and a couple others have not had any problems, there have been so many that have. For a company to put a product out there with such little testing that could lead to injury to a customer is not good business. What if he had gone through a turn at 80 and this happened. There could have been a wrongful death lawsuit on kinetix's hands. I am very curious as to when they will be chiming in on this thread. Should be interesting.
Till they get these things tested fully I dont think they should be putting them out on the market.
But although yourself and a couple others have not had any problems, there have been so many that have. For a company to put a product out there with such little testing that could lead to injury to a customer is not good business. What if he had gone through a turn at 80 and this happened. There could have been a wrongful death lawsuit on kinetix's hands. I am very curious as to when they will be chiming in on this thread. Should be interesting.
Till they get these things tested fully I dont think they should be putting them out on the market.
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But just the fact that so many have cracked is the problem. For a few people it has been great, but for many others it has been a severe inconvenience and could have cause major problems. They also have horrible communication with their customers which is another thing.
Even though wren knew it was broken is beside the point. Its just an underresearched product that shouldnt have been thrown onto the market as fast as it was.
Even though wren knew it was broken is beside the point. Its just an underresearched product that shouldnt have been thrown onto the market as fast as it was.
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From: North Carolina
Originally posted by dave079
But just the fact that so many have cracked is the problem. For a few people it has been great, but for many others it has been a severe inconvenience and could have cause major problems. They also have horrible communication with their customers which is another thing.
Even though wren knew it was broken is beside the point. Its just an underresearched product that shouldnt have been thrown onto the market as fast as it was.
But just the fact that so many have cracked is the problem. For a few people it has been great, but for many others it has been a severe inconvenience and could have cause major problems. They also have horrible communication with their customers which is another thing.
Even though wren knew it was broken is beside the point. Its just an underresearched product that shouldnt have been thrown onto the market as fast as it was.
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From: Denver, CO
Just an fyi. When Active Autowerke (large aftermarket BMW tuner) set out to design a supercharger system for the E46 M3 (which has a plastic intake mani) they encountered a problem. When the supercharger was attached they watched the plenum literally expand to the point of failure at only 5 psi. This forced them to make a new manifold out of aluminum. So hey may plastic is not the best idea.
BTW here is their new manifold:
BTW here is their new manifold:
man sorry to hear about your misfortune but getting stranded was your fault..ive been frustrated with kinetix as far as the cracks go also ...but i removed the plenum when it cracked.....
i think your asking a little much by asking them to pay the tow bill....a full refund i can understand and im sure they will give you back what ever you paid....but tow bill? sorry to say its your fault
not trying to cause bad blood between us...just giving my opinion
i think your asking a little much by asking them to pay the tow bill....a full refund i can understand and im sure they will give you back what ever you paid....but tow bill? sorry to say its your fault
not trying to cause bad blood between us...just giving my opinion
I just put on my new V4 last week and I love it so far... I bought the product knowing the possible flaws beforehand, and Kinetix stepped up to the plate with a newer version that, IMO, is a great design and has worked flawlessly for me for over 1000 mi (lot of traveling last week) - and the performance gains are real (I have just about every bolt on besides headers and cams and this one has been the most noticable - really opened up the car) - before and after G-tech runs showed a 2-tenths deduction on average from my last set of runs after I installed the GReddy exhaust (14.05 avg before to 13.88 avg after - street tires, shitty road, but level - conditions kept as constant as possible - temp., time of day, gas tank level, etc)... just my opinions - this IS a superior design and concept, and if it can be carried out to perfection (who is to say V4 isn't - I'm not arguing against it yet) - this can be a great product... I guess I'll have to check back in about 3 mo from now to give everyone an update...
well, its been a while since I have been on the boards and we should have been paying more attention to the public.
My apologies to Wren, I just spoke with him on the phone.
I apologized to Wren, I make it a point to tell people to remove a cracked plenum and install the factory plenum, but I must have missed it with Wren when he notified me of the crack on June 18th.
True, longer testing periods initially and between versions should have been practiced, that is definately our fault and a MISTAKE we are paying for.
We have spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to leave no one out in cold, and accomodate all of our customers, even when this means getting taken advantage of by some of our customers.
Our inability to answer phones is also our fault, we are simply understaffed and the plenum problems have drastically increased our work load, but I had made several points to contact me personally at jamisonl@msn.com because I can check that email address round the clock.
We will continue to progress forward, and hopefully we will be able to look back at the plenum, with a lot of lessons learned, and still be able to bring out cool products at good prices.
My apologies again to Wren, as he was one of our great customers originally, who actually helped develop the plenum by sending in his JIC strut tower for fitments. He has said he will continue to be our customer in the future, so thanks for that.
My apologies to Wren, I just spoke with him on the phone.
I apologized to Wren, I make it a point to tell people to remove a cracked plenum and install the factory plenum, but I must have missed it with Wren when he notified me of the crack on June 18th.
True, longer testing periods initially and between versions should have been practiced, that is definately our fault and a MISTAKE we are paying for.
We have spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to leave no one out in cold, and accomodate all of our customers, even when this means getting taken advantage of by some of our customers.
Our inability to answer phones is also our fault, we are simply understaffed and the plenum problems have drastically increased our work load, but I had made several points to contact me personally at jamisonl@msn.com because I can check that email address round the clock.
We will continue to progress forward, and hopefully we will be able to look back at the plenum, with a lot of lessons learned, and still be able to bring out cool products at good prices.
My apologies again to Wren, as he was one of our great customers originally, who actually helped develop the plenum by sending in his JIC strut tower for fitments. He has said he will continue to be our customer in the future, so thanks for that.
Originally posted by jovasi
You know Doug at Crawford has got to be loving this.
Better get a Crawford plenum while you can because the wait for them will soon increase.
You know Doug at Crawford has got to be loving this.
Better get a Crawford plenum while you can because the wait for them will soon increase.
As said, I did speak with Kinetix on the phone. They returned my call around 12:30 today. I don't know if I will be putting the v4 on my car or not, I will have to thoroughly inspect it before deciding to put it on the car or simply resell it (I bought it at a discounted price because I helped in the R/D). They are sending me out a v4 today but will not foot the towing bill (I didn't really expect them to). I will simply eat the towing bill, no big deal. Also, as said, I probably will be buying their suspension products as I feel they offer good products overall at good prices, but as of now I can't endorse or recommend their plenum, even if the design has changed. Thanks for calling me back today and I look forward to getting my tracking #.
-Wren
-Wren
Wren,
I apologize, I had not read your post before I had called you, so I did not know you had requested for towing compensation. If I had known I would have addressed it in our conversation.
You can email me at jamisonl@msn.com and we can talk about making good on the towing charges.
I dont want anyone to feel pressured into running the plenum, nor would I want anyone to purchase if they were sincerely worried. I think only time will eliminate worries, and we are confident in our long term goals, so we would rather have the full confidence of our customers.
It is a shame though that we chose to devote such a large part of our operation to a product with so many variables, because we have lost the confidence of our market. We take a lot of pride in our products and brand name. We had worked hard to gain the confidence of the board members in the past, but we think in the future we will re-gain the level of confidence from the 350z market.
I can say that I am relieved that our next 2 products coming (FI manifold, and y-pipe) are made with more "conventional" methods
I apologize, I had not read your post before I had called you, so I did not know you had requested for towing compensation. If I had known I would have addressed it in our conversation.
You can email me at jamisonl@msn.com and we can talk about making good on the towing charges.
I dont want anyone to feel pressured into running the plenum, nor would I want anyone to purchase if they were sincerely worried. I think only time will eliminate worries, and we are confident in our long term goals, so we would rather have the full confidence of our customers.
It is a shame though that we chose to devote such a large part of our operation to a product with so many variables, because we have lost the confidence of our market. We take a lot of pride in our products and brand name. We had worked hard to gain the confidence of the board members in the past, but we think in the future we will re-gain the level of confidence from the 350z market.
I can say that I am relieved that our next 2 products coming (FI manifold, and y-pipe) are made with more "conventional" methods
i would just like to add something about the material used for this plenum. i have a supercharged fox body mustang that is making about 450 h.p. i went from a modded/ported cobra plenum/manifold to a comp cams comp polymer upper box intake. it is a plastic intake that was designed specifically for FI applications. i loved mine & through 12 psi of boost from my paxton novi supercharger at it ll day long for over a year.......this intake was designed for the elimination of heat soak associated with the aluminum intakes & had large short runners wich took away from the low end torgue & added more topend power wich was nice on my tire blazing mustang.......all in all this is the type of plastic that should be used. light yet very strong!! and capable of FI applications.............just wanted to add that there are very strong plastic intakes designed that are more than sturdy!
-justin
-justin