jtanoyo1

So I took my car in to the shop today to get the intercooler installed and found out that my front two HKS LS+ coilovers are leaking whatever fluid is in them. The left one was leaking VERY badly and the right one was beginning to leak.

The head mechanic told me that whoever installed the coilovers had used those power impact wrenches to tighten the nuts/bolts. This caused "overturning" at the top strut mount and probably was what destroyed the coilovers.

This is pretty messed up considering I babied these coilovers and barely drove 1000km on them. Thank goodness my dealer was kind enough to take them back (even though he didn't install them) and claim warranty with HKS Japan.

What really stinks is that this whole fiasco will cause me yet another 4-5 months of being coilover-less and I decided to put stock shocks with the H&R springs up front for now to tide me by till I get my coilovers back....

*Sigh* anyone had similar experience???

jucee187

ouch that sucks dood.. lucky u had a cool dealership.. i gotta be sure to mention that to my mechanic to NOT use impact wrench to tighten the shocks.. it also states in the manual..

johnee78

iTrader: (4)

It's a good thing that you caught it when you did..it's great that you have an honest mechanic that will go out of their way to help you out..

Richie

Sorry to hear of the misfortune Jon.
That sucks big time!!

rominl

iTrader: (4)

oh man that sux big time dude.... sorry to hear that.... bring a baseball bat back to the shop that installed the stuff!

PHML

iTrader: (33)

Jon -

So sorry to hear about your coilovers....that really sux BIG TIME....esp. cuz you were "on a roll" installing stuff.

Props to your HKS dealer. I would let the installer know what happened + you will go elsewhere for future installations cuz they are idiots.

Now....have another shop check your rear coilovers. Cross your fingers that they're OK.

Pete

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

4-5 *months*? Sorry to hear that... why will it take so long?

jtanoyo1

Well my HKS dealer will want to use the cheapest means possible to ship the coilovers back to Japan, and that means by sea. HKS is also known to be very slow to respond with repairs, etc, so I give that another month, then it will be another month or two to ship them back here along with a week or so for customs clearance.....

...so yeah, 4-5 months are actually a very conservative estimate...... *hiks*

HKGS300

right! HKS is slow. They try to do what is efficient for them, not what customers require. (most JDM companies are like that).

Most of the time I specially order HKS parts from Japan, I need to wait 4 - 6 weeks.

GS4Will

joko..sorry to hear that..

actually on most high-end JDM car parts, like the coils, they are made to order..like the wheels. such is simply due to the fact that there are waayyy too many car mods in jdm market, and most mfg as well as retail shops prefer not to stock them. also keep in mind that most shops in japan is not a large carparts store like some of the ones in the US, their shelve spaces are quite limited.

on less expensive items, like brake pads, sslines, springs, they can be obtained in a shorter time frame

Neo

iTrader: (3)

Sorry to hear that Jon. On the bright side, it is a good thing it was caught and it looks like things are being resolved, even if it will take months.

Richie

Jon,

Pete made a good point, have they checked the rears also?

GammaLex

I know I waited 2-3 monthes b4 my HKS coils came in. My box came damaged and one of the rear coils on the **** where you adjust the damping was bent at a 90 degree angle. I called HKSUSA to see how long it would take to get new ones in and they told 3 monthes so I bent the **** back carefully so it wouldnt break and it worked. Damn that sux that you have to wait that long. Well now you can get a Body kit since you wont be scraping everywhere

jtanoyo1

Thanks for the concern guys. My HKS supplier told me now that HKS Japan will want to "control" the broken coils first to see if they are defect (their fault) or installed wrongly (my fault). If they for some reason surmise that they were installed wrongly (which they were, truthfully), then I would have to pay for the cost of the two new front coils or at least pay for the repair bills.

My HKS supplier went out of his way and told me that he will "lie for me" and told HKS Japan that they were installed by him personally (even though I went somewhere else.....) and that these coils shouldn't leaking/destroyed this bad in just a couple of months of babied use (which is the truth!!!)

What really stinks is that right now, i am at the pinnacle of my tuning stage and I am about ready to *cough* debut *cough* my car on CL in the coming couple of weeks with all the new parts installed. But I don't think that will be happening now since I will be forced to go back to stock front shocks with my old H&R springs. The mechanic told me this wouldn't be too much problems, just don't try to track or slalom the car around too much because the front and rear stiffness rate would be "quite a bit" different. I think he meant "a lot" different, but he was trying to be nice.....

But, my rear coilovers are given the clean bill of health this morning. He said the reason they are not busted are because the rear coils are not as "technologically intricate" as the fronts because their main purpose really is just to go up and down, while there are a lot more things involved up front......

Either way I am hella pissed, but my car will be done with the rest of the mods next week, albeit the coilover fiasco, but this should tide me over for a while till I get back these coils.....

rominl

iTrader: (4)

man that sux... at least the distributor is helping you, that's the good part of it i guess