all i have ever heard is great things about topspeed and my experience with topspeed has been horrible.... i took my car in for work and after almost a month i finally got my car back and within a hundred miles the motor through the bearings, topspeed told me this was do to the recall subaru had on some of its motors. I had the car towed back the next day and i have not seen my car since. now 4 months later and i am having to do the paper work for the warranty that topspeed supposedly did just after my car entered their shop for the second time. After talking to subaru of gwinette subaru of america and topspeed i found out that doug never sent in any paper work and then never faxed me the paper when i asked him for it even though he says he did... long story short has anyone else ever had any problems with topspeed, i would like to know if this is just a bad experience or if this is a reoccuring problem of getting lies and bad service? thanks
i know one guy from hinesville had a horrible time with them. i dont think he gets on here much anymore tho
I tried getting ahold of an invidia downpipe through them when I was going stage 2. The shop I was buying it from originally was having issues with their supplier. Trey said he'd look it up and call me back within an hour. I called back twice that day and twice the following day. I never even reached a real person. I personally would not take my car to them. As good as their tunes and work usually are I feel like they are lacking in customer service. However they have tons of satisfied customers as well. So I really don't know. What are they doing to make it right?
Not blaming you, but calling and sending emails isn't enough. If someone owes you a piece of paper, drive over there and get it. If a shop had my car for 4 months with no explanation, I would be there every day reminding them I want my car back. No repair takes 4 months. Do you have a signed work order with a completion date? Who is paying the bill, you or Subaru? You either need to go pick up your car and take it to another shop or get a lawyer. Those are your two options.
calling and sending emails IS enough. theres no reason why he or anyone should have to drive anywhere to get a piece of paper that can be faxd! i've been at my job now for 7 years. dealing with home owners everyday. if i was to do something like that i dont think i would still be here. on the other hand, both of my experiences at top speed were great. i didnt have any problems.
also on top speed defense, there is always 2 sides to every story. not knowing the other side no one can say much. no offense but it just sounds like to me, if a car is sitting there for 4 months they were waiting on payment before they started.
I will make a quick post about this. We installed a brand new short block in this car, after the customer picked it up the new block developed a rod knock. So the car was towed back to our shop, we removed the brand new block at our own expense not charging the customer a dime. What we found was a defect in the factory machining causing the number two rod bearing to eat itself. It was at that point we have been back and forth with SOA and the subaru dealership trying to get this resolved. I would call SOA would say one thing, then the dealer another. They would ask us for a form, which we would send. Then another.... around and around we would go. I feel Topspeed has gone above and beyond trying to handle this matter. We installed a shortblock for the customer. Now that block has a warranty issue, we did what we could. But as most of you know dealerships can and will try to pass the buck. Which is why we asked this customers DAD to also get involved. His father had to get envolved not because we weren't doing anything. But because what we were doing was getting us nowhere.
....and there we have our second side to the story. This sort of thing happens all the time when there is a 3rd paty or more involved in a transaction. As I do not believe litigation is necessary, a push is needed on SOA/the dealer to fix the problem. Not knowing the age of the customer, his Dad should throw a lawsuit in the face of SOA/the dealership. I bet that would set them straight and get the ball rolling. Warranty issues are a biotch, lol.
That true. But even at a subaru dealer they're dirtbags. Warranties are more a money making scheme than a service.
Topspeed has always done great with my car. In the past I had one little hiccup with customer service and I left but that was because I was impatient and didn't understand the tremendous workload on Topspeed. I would let them work on my car any day if I couldn't do it myself.
Even At The Dealership Getting Things Covered Under Warrenty Is Difficult Sometimes. Waiting On Subaru To Ok Work And Waiting On Parts That Could Have Been Backordered. Stuff Happens And Bashing Topspeed Is Not A Good Way To Go About Things. There Has Been A Few Cases With Brand New Blocks Having Issues So Im Sure Its Nothing Topspeed Did, After All All They Did Was Throw The Shortblock In The Car. Not Like They Built The Thing.
I'd say their tuning, aftermarket engine builds etc are top notch. However, if it's an issue with OEM parts better off taking to the dealer for repair as more involved with SoA, even though still not much better.
here is my reply to doug... my father got involved because since i am only twenty years old no one would take me seriously.... topspeed does have a very big issue with answering calls and returning calls.... my father has gone round and round for the last week trying to figure this out.... after being in contact with all three parties each has a little bit in the wrong but topspeed has the most... it is not my job to take care of the warranty issue... i made a payment to you for work and parts and you are my point of contact... there for i should not have to come to you when the dealer says that you have not faxed any papers to them and when we ask for a fax you never sent them to us, we only got an answer of i faxed them, i have all records to show that there was never an attempt to fax the papers to my father.... soa has been informed of the dealer and his problems with returning calls and that will be taken care of.... yes i know warranty work is not a top concern and that warranty issues suck but it seems to me as it was not properly handled.... as a customer i have gotten three different stories from each party and not one has any evidence to support or back themselves... im very upset that it takes my time and my fathers time to get the ball rolling on what has not been my issue.... on another not, dougs replies has been the first time i have actually heard what went wrong with my car after numerous attempts to find out what exactly went wrong...
yes there was a complete recall on some of the 2008 motors... and true its nothing topspeed did parsay but its the way they have handled the issue thats the problem... never getting calls returned, cant get a hold of people, getting false information... there is one person that knows everythign going on at topspeed and that is doug, if you dont speak to doug then people dont know exactly whats happening and you dont get any information...
The problem is that if the block was installed in a car that it did not originally come equipped with, SOA has every right to deny the 12month/12,000mile across the counter parts warranty. I can see how this goes no where fast. This car would have been denied coverage in under 1 second had this been done at a dealer. Top Speed called me about this issue (if this is that same car). I explained the difficulty of this process due to the matters of the non-OE block in this vehicle. I have had this happen to me and SOA quickly denied the parts warranty since the block was installed in a vehicle that it was not originally equipped with. The customer had to buy another block.
Its not a recall. It was a stop sale in order to inspect some/all of the 2008/2009 MY 2.5L Turbo engines within a specific VIN/Production range. If the vehicles met certain criteria the engines would be pulled and replaced with new engine assemblies from SUBARU. If the engine assemblies ran out then they would be replaced with individual components basically replacing every item in the engine. So far I've seen only 1 stop sale check vehicle and zero that had the bearing issues. I have *heard* of 3 or 4 that needed engine assemblies. I cannot confirm those rumors tho.
sorry for the wrong info... i got busy typing you are correct it was a stop sale not recall...thank you for the correction
I called SOA for clarification under a 'what if' scenario not mentioning any of this thead (not that it matters, SOA reads this forum on a daily basis) and popped the question: What if a customer replaced his EJ205 block with an EJ257 block and there were no other problems, then it developed a rod knock AND the EJ257 block was produced in the period of the stop sale w/bad bearings? Answer: Since the block did not get installed into a vehicle that it came originally equipped with from the factory, there is precisely ZERO warranty. Regardless of it was a 'stop sale' engine. Period. If the EJ205 block had been installed and had issues, it would be under warranty all day long until 12mo/12k miles. Same as if it was an STi/EJ257 or 06+ WRX/EJ255. So, sorry dude, you are a bit SOL on this one. Its not Top Speed's fault either. At least they tried.
hang on, let me see if I grasp this. topspeed sold a new OEM shortblock to Under and installed it? It was defective and took some other parts out with it? Topspeed as the front line vendor of the part to the client tried to file a warranty claim? And WJM says that SOA wont warranty a block that was sold that wasn't already in a car?
no, WJM said if the car CAME with a 257 and replaced it with a 257 then itd be ok. BUT 205 to 257 is a no no
The tuning is spectacular IMO but the sales division NEEDS work, it should not take days to return a call or a month to get a turbo. That being said I have had NO luck with ordering parts at the well known places around. I now do all my work myself as I trust virtually no one to work on my car, except the few who know who they are as I call them regularly.
Ditto. I do *ALL* the work myself on my car. I was gonna finally let another person build my motor but I'm on the fence on that because of the distance they are away from me. May just end up doing it myself but I dunno....we'll see how much gas drops.
Yeah I take GREAT pride in knowing I built something myself....I prized my DSM motors that took a HAMMERING and never blew. Can you get me a complete download of the FSM? Nicad gave me a login but I never could get the FTP to work.
ummm...no complete FSMs. That would take HOURS to click and save and click and save and click and save...you get the idea.
if anyone wants the FSMs (and isnt a douche) PM me and I will set you up with ftp access to get them from my machine. use wget or a real ftp client and just nab them all at once. no I won't zip them so don't ask. no tech support, and asshatery on my ftp is not advised.
why are you discriminating against your own kind? I would ask for it, but I'll just make someone else do the work for me:rofl:
Actually no...you fail. IMO, there is no reason to mess with anything on my car that I haven't already done (therefore not needing the FSM), because I would probably fuck something up if I tried to go to the next level of working on/repairing the car. The next level is essentially pulling/tearing down the motor...
This has been industry standard for YEARS. Warrantys ONLY cover ENGINES if they are installed in the same make, model, year, etc as what they are supposed to be in. Even when you can an engine importer like NadAUto, Jhot, Hmotorsonline.com, Best Japenese etc their warrantys are only cover what that motor goes into. IE just like WJM said, you cannot order a EJ257 and put it in a EJ205 car. EVEN if you did it at the dealership, the warranty would not apply and would be denied. Reason being is they assume you are UPGRADING, and that usually means driving hard, racing, etc to the corporate people. So their policy is to deny deny deny unless you want to keep your car stock. And remember, that is what WARRANTYs are for, they are not for race cars or guys looking to make power or whatever. They are for 30mpg, 200,000 miles, grandma driving. This is why performance shops offer NO WARRANTYS. Its not their fault someone elses product failed. They cant cover every Subaru OEM part if it fails, they would go out of business. Unfortuently for the OP, Subaru is screwing you, but they have a right to. You should have read their warranty rules before deciding to move forward. What you have here is a clear cut case of some manufacturers parts failing and you wanting to hold the shop responsible. IMO if i were topspeed i would have given you SOA phone number and told you to let me know what you figure out. The fact thay they even got involved is pretty amazing. They arent a warranty department neither are they in the business of warrantying other peoples parts. My shop has strict rules, my invoices say that the OE MANUFACTURER is responsible for any warranty claims, and i offer NO WARRANTY on anything except my work. Sounds you like you had to learn a hard lesson, but that happenes sometimes when you are young. Good Luck
But you know only smart people would watch it :hs: thus, defeating the purpose :unamused: I too made a few decisions in my youth that cost me big $$$ (funny thing is Scott S. :bowdown: told me not to do it... )
^I want to know too.....altho, check your owners manual stuffs, theres a warranty booklet in there. I've never read it tho.
? to the original poster.What was wrong with your car before you brought it to topspeed?If it was also brg failure they would have had to replace key components on the tranfer 2.0 t0 2.5.Such as new pan (not cleaned). new oil pump and new oil cooler for these parts can destroy a new engine block.Also there are many techs on here and they can testify that a bad block is a long shot from soa.Usually this is mechanics fault or overboost issue.