stevo1970

iTrader: (1)

It has been determined that my MY00 classic needs a new motor. (melted piston)

I had a quick look on ebay last night, initially just to gauge prices, but came across a company in London importing Jap engines. Although I wouldn't normally buy such an item from ebay the more I look at my options the more it makes sence.

I can't remember the company name (i'll post more info tonight) but the engines are inspected internally and all less than 22K miles. They also come with a 6 month warenty. The sellers feedback is 98.6% and the comments are generally very good.

Has anyone had any experience with these people. The price is fair but certainly not cheap.

Any genuine experience would be appreciated.

Thanks

pslewis

All less than 22k miles ...... and rebuilt?? Hmmmmmmmmm............

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Dont do it, buy from it from API who will/ can do all the work needed

Andy

stevo1970

iTrader: (1)

The engines aren't rebuilt, but according to the advert the internals are inspected nto offer a 6 month waranty. They say that all engines are less than 22k miles. They do allsorts of jap stuff too, from diesel pick-up engines to Evos.

Rather than just make an off the cuff judgement I would like to hear from anyone with experience of this company. Again i'll post their details later.

scoobyschef

iTrader: (6)

sounds too good too be real this one. api will sort your problem out

jim

stevo1970

iTrader: (1)

The company is called Fastrack Motors, they are in London. They have 573 feedback of which 98.6% are positive. The feedback includes plenty of satisfied Impreza owners, I thought at least some might be on here. Surely that must count for something.

Its all very well coming back with "go to APi", but at a third the price it has got to be worth a look.

APIDavid

iTrader: (4)

Whether or not we sort you out; DO NOT BUY an engine from someone like this on Ebay.

I have a number of customers who have had to wait 6 months and a big SH*T fight to get their money back.

The engine that arrives will be a scruffy looking Legacy motor that looks like it has been on the bottom of an ocean for 22,000 years let alone low mileage.

There are various threads on here about Nippon Spares 2000 Limited and all of these type of scrap yards are linked by family or race or religion. The current scam appears to be that you are buying from - lets say ABC motors - through an agent. The agent, who is actually the yard anyway, says he has no control over what is sent from the yard and is very apologetic that you are unhappy with the product, BUT the yard are adamant that it is correct and you should just get on with it.

OR how about Mr Mark B; whose car is here now after having one of these type engine from a Birmingham yard for £600.00 only to have it fail inside 300 miles AND then find that he has actually been charged £1600 ' and he must have heard the price wrong ' ' Cos every one knows you can't buy an engine for a soob for £600 ...........'

Buy at your own risk don't just go with cheap.

David APi

stevo1970

iTrader: (1)

Fairy Nuff

Right then thats me sufficiently frightened......

......What about this APi then?

I'll give you a ring tomorrow David.

340BHP-WRX

iTrader: (6)

I need a new engine at the moment and one of my options was going to be buying an engine from a company off ebay such as the one mentioned.

I came to the conclusion that it may seem cheap at £600-£800 but if it only lasts a few hundred miles it's not that cheap is it !

You would be better off trying somewhere like Essex Subaru breakers or similar as there is more chance of getting what you want from them.

dantastic

When something sounds to good to be true it usually is, these type of firms trade under many different names, if you look in autotrader you will see lots of adds for exchange engines the adds are identical but the name of the company is different but its obvious its the same company. you would be taking a big risk with your hard earned cash if you go down this path and it will end up costing you more in the long run, I would steer clear if I were you it will only end in tears. regards, dan.

APIDavid

iTrader: (4)

As the very first importer of Low Mileage engines from Japan, way back in '82 [ YES !! I am that old ] I have spent many years helping Trading standards fight the battles to keep these type of people and companies under control.

APi even took out a weekly full page advert in the mid 90's, in Exchange & Mart telling people to beware of this sort of treatment and gave them 3 key questions to ask, that I knew would be exactly the questions that the trader did not want to answer. Look under 'consumer advice' on the APi Engines website - you'll see what I mean.

That advert got picked up by Channel four television and I ended up on telly helping a team called Beam & Da Silva do and undercover programme about the lot that work out of Twickenham & Hounslow & Milton Keynes. Sort of 'garage's from hell' type of thing.

Great telly!, did it stop them ? NOT A CHANCE they just changed the name of the company and carried on as before. Still there now, all of them.

The same is still going on and cannot be stopped, as they change their name regularly when the heat is too great.

One guy from Twickenham even smashed up the camera of the film crew for BBC Watchdog just before Xmas 2006 when they did a feature. Within a very short while, they had moved premises and called themselves something else and were back at it again.., You might find something about that on the Watchdog website still, as they promised to follow this guy for a Loooooong time.

The ethnic breakers that call themselves importers from Japan may be so, but I cannot find any history of them when I do an product importation check occasionally with Customs and Excise to see who is importing what. So either they are not importing, or are importing under a different name.....

Do a check on APi and you will have a list of how many engines we import and when - no problem - nothing to hide.

The advice is - If the claims are too good to be true or the price it probably isn't what you think it is.

Call up a thread on here using the search - Nippon Spares 2000, I doubt you'll sleep tonight.

Good luck guys David APi

R4LLY

iTrader: (1)

That is quite a sweeping statement as well as an uninformed generalisation.
Personally I would never buy an engine from a scrap yard, but to assume that every Scrap yard is associated with another due to Race/Religion is a bit pretentious. Are you suggesting every type of scrap yard which is run by a specific race/religion is to be avoided as they may be linked to a rogue trader like Nippon....

There are scrap yard traders on E-Bay who can be Trusted i.e Saj from JAP Performance Parts.

I would have expected a more of an educated response from a tuner who is held in such high regard.

340BHP-WRX

iTrader: (6)

Another thing that put me off was I asked the seller some questions about the engine which he never answered,just kept saying 'buy now,send money,you will receive what you're after' !

I said I wanted to come and view the engine first before sending any money and they told me it wasn't possible as they had no staff at the warehouse that could show me around. They said they only had staff at the warehouse that send out the engines,they don't allow people on the premises !

That was more than one seller on ebay that sent me the same reply so I don't doubt what David says about the sellers all being the same,just trading under different names !

[Davey]

Just buy a running from a CAT C/D'ed car... I wouldnt trust some iffy imported engine but on the other hand sod spending 1.5k plus on a rebuilt engine in a car thats only worth 3 times that..

SPEN555

I think the way David is putting it is these outfits tend to be linked, no where does he generalise that every scarp yard is like this

[Davey]

Not all scrappies are robbing *******s!! I've bought some right gems from Hills including a VXR engine that was barely run in! and A1 in Berkshire are pretty straight..

R4LLY

iTrader: (1)

Even if you bought one from E-bay why buy an engine with only a 6 month warranty, chances are you will have to fork out again within a year.

What I don't understand is why David is inferring only "ethnic breakers" are not to be trusted. That is not what I would expect from a Trader with his sort of rep. This is just ignorance.
There are lots of people who have dealt with Jap performance parts without a problem and Saj even posts here sometimes and they are also as Dave would call "ethnic breakers".

R4LLY

iTrader: (1)

Your right not every scrap yard, only the one's owned by "ethnics"


I know Dave is highly regarded on here, but however you try and put it his inferences are ignorant and I would not expect that from him.

james-wrx

I had a very bad experience with an Astra GTE16 Valve engine a long time ago. I agreed for a company to provide an exchange rebuilt engine etc. I was very careful when explaining all about the engine not being an"ecotec" like the ones in the GSi etc, what did i end up with? you guessed it an Ecotec engine, no cosworth cylinder head etc load of W*****s took a few mates down there (mixture of doormen and bodybuilders) came to an agreement shall we say!
Never again though, i was a lot younger then and fitter etc!
Married with kid's now far more responsible!

RAMP

Being in the trade and having had experience of fitting various second hand engines from civics to subarus,I really dont think that it is ever cost effective in fitting engines that are not from a company who have a long period of tradeing in this particular field,I remember being stood around as a kid watching my dad fitting APi sourced engines in the late eighties and there never being a problem,I still now would only ring API if i was considering fitting a second hand jap engine as i have fitted engines from other so called specialists which where customer supplied and have had to do the job three times before finally the customer had realised that it had cost them twice the amount a rebuild or exchange API engine would have,They may cost more than others but its worth paying up once fitting a forgetting and enjoying the car without having to worry about warrenty issues.

Jam Performance

iTrader: (3)

Not all ebay engine suppliers are dogey, my dad owns a japanese car breakers in Hertfordshire and he has sold a few scooby engines and boxes on ebay, he advertised to come and inspect whatever they are buying beforehand and pay cash, there was no problems whatsoever and he has had no problems to date, and YES we are asiann..Nippon and the other mickey mouse jap car breakers are just giving other people in the trade a bad name, and not just other people "asian" business's to be precise.

If you want to buy a engine or whatever from ebay make an appointment go and see what u are buying, dont just sit on scoobynet looking at other people's threads as at the end of the day you will always get mixed responses, mainly from the big name scooby specialists out there who claim to have the best prices, yet they never come close to the cheapest, dont be put off by small companys operated via ebay as at the end of the day they are making a living and are advertising on ebay to save money hence offer you a better price on a engine. If the engine or whatever you are buying seems to be 100% upon inspection and the warranty is sufficient go for it...Why pay stupid amounts to big name companies when the job can be for a reasonable amount

2 door scoob

You always have the option of having your engine rebuilt if possible (depends on the damage.

Paul at PR Developments may be able to help advise.
PR Developments

Not only does he rebuild engines but also specialises in conversions

Jap performance magazine this months has one of his sport to turbo conversions in and i know last year the magazine featured the version 8 conversion.

always worth a call if nothing else.

cheers

Shark Man

He is speaking from experience, and the group that operated those particular chains of breakers are still at large and operate through their associates, there is an unfortunate trend on their backgrounds, which will always cast bad light on more honest individuals.

It's not to say a bunch of Buddhist breakers would be any less dodgy, but to say trust the black man cos the whites are all dodgy wouldn't be telling the truth. And you wouldn't catch me saying it the other way round either.

Any information regarding as to what name/alias/area/advert that they are now currently operating combined with pointers and descriptions on what to watch out for will keep people aware and on their guard. And if that description include them being Asian, well, I'm afraid its the truth. With no doubt there are White scammers, just they aren't as notrious and this slippery bunch.

FWIW, we NEVER deal with breakers for that reason, we've had plenty of previous run-ins, and I won't start saying anything about what race the owners that run them are. Simply because nobody will like what we have found through our own experience.

SM (who stears well clear of any breakers in Bordesley: White, Black, or Green. And NEVER uses Ebay).

dantastic

The twickenham based company mentioned earlier is one of the worst in the country, for legal reasons I cant name them but I can say they are in rugby road trading est opposite the rugby ground. give them a wide birth they are rogue traders of the worst kind. Dan.

Scoobybits

Buy a new short mtr or get a rebuild.
Cheaper in the long run

blueangel

Robbed lumps out ov nikked imps.and bored off engine no&restamped.
den sold on ebay.
take no notice of supplied vin plate numbers.

stevo1970

iTrader: (1)

So a rebuild it is.

APi gets good press, but I would like to get a couple of quotes. Which other reputable companies are options for the work?

Thanks for the continued advice.

Jam Performance

iTrader: (3)

zen performance will be cheaper than api ask R4LLY about the rebuild they did for his and his brothers car nothing but praise...

stevo1970

iTrader: (1)

Has anyone had experience with HDC in West Yorkshire. I have bought bits of him in the past and have been immpressed with his knowledge and service, but an engine rebuild is a larger investment.

APIDavid

iTrader: (4)

Apologies for the clumsy wording in my post. I have no particular grudge or down on any race or religion. People are just people to me.

BUT there is a huge gang of Asian breakers spread all over the country who all behave very badly. If they happened to be Irish, l would say so, or whatever means of description that would give an immediate warning to someone that they could be on dodgy ground.

Sure there are many straight Asian dealers/breakers and l have done & still do business with many of them. Some named on here and others who are not. Heathrow Jap spares are one of the people that we talk to from time to time no problems for me there in the past.

But once you ask if you can come and see the engine you are paying for and start getting evasive answers move on. Try asking for a name. then ring back and ask to speak to 'Fred ' shall we say [ sorry Fred ] saying that you have a problem and need to talk to him, chances are he will be 'out ' whereas in fact you are speaking to him......

We have a car here for a guy from Sidcup way in London He is down on his luck and has a cooked engine in his 51 plate car. Now to save money he has bought an engine of one of the very companies I am warning about. the engine arrived and looked a bit sore. Rather than fit and find trouble we compressioned it and found none on the 3/4 cylinder side. The suppliers couldn't believe it as it ws a running car yesterday [ NOT a F...G chance ] OK we'll collect the engine and his [ NO YOU WON'T ] and get it repaired. So we kept his original for safe keeping in the meantime.

The engine duly came back a week later with compression on that side but with one thick and one thin head gasket fitted.........

What do you mean wrong head gasket fitted? is all we could get out of the breaker.

Still going on that saga.

Buyer beware is the soundest advice for anything from a breaker to an internet dealer. Backup and service is what you want when something goes wrong. Not evasion.

The price you pay also tends to reflect the level of warranty support you will get when something goes wrong. Changing head gaskets is something that might happen. To do it properly is an engine out job which is going to cost a few quid however you get it done. Think, if there isn't enough profit for the seller in the first price IE an engine for 600 quid, then how can he offer you a deal from the profit on 600 quid, to pay for a head gasket repair?

Good luck and apologies to anyone of a sensitive nature who may have offended by my clumsy generalisation in the first post.

David APi