Mr Gee

Not on a Scooby, but a buddy of mine has just had a complete twin system setup installed on his E36 328i - Its looks and sounds the dogs !

[Edited by Mr Gee - 9/4/2003 9:56:05 AM]

Scooby96

Christ where shall I start!

I had one made and fitted to mk2 MR2 turbo and had no end of trouble with it. Had it done at Topgear in St Albans, spent months trying to get them to replace it as it made a terrible sound (cackling - tricky to explain but it wasnt good!). Ended up emailing and writing to the CE0 of the Company who sold the franchise. Who offered to pay for my car to be 'sorted out' at another Franchisee which I did (an 80 mile round trip!) to be told when I got there that they were only going to assess the workmanship and I'd have to go back to St Albans if they deemed it cr@p (which they did).

Got in touch with Topgear to be told that the guy who fitted it had been sacked for having his hand in the till and because I'd been undercharged (£199 instead of £399) I wasnt entitled to a replacement or a repair (WTF!)

In the end I got a mate to repair it (split back box) and sent a bill for £150 to them. Never ever heard from them or got any money back - the *****!

Edited to add that the main problem I had was the mounting bracket - the split in the back box actaully ocurred later!

[Edited by Scooby96 - 9/4/2003 2:05:04 PM]

r

i had one fitted to a ford cougar v6,great concept!.... ie loud or not loud choose your application etc.
only as good as the fitter imo! (no disrespect to any exhaust fitters any where)but mine was a total ***** up!
crap workmanship, leaked,not straight etc!got it sorted in the end but what a pain in the bum! never again not 4 me ta

[Edited by r - 9/5/2003 8:48:54 PM]

He_Who_Dares_Wins

Anyone had a powerflow exhaust system fitted on their impreza?

Any good?

Cheers,

Dan

He_Who_Dares_Wins

Sounds good mate...think we'll take a trip down to xtreme then and check it out.

Nimbus

I have a powerflow de-cat centre and back box. As they are cutome made/fitted you can chose what type of back box and tail pipe you want, so you can have it as loud or noise as you like.

I've had mine for nearly 2 years. It's not as loud as a ScoobySport, but still gives it that deep throbbing sound. A lot better than the standard, which sounds too quite now.

I think it cost about £170 for everything. That was with a discount as my dad works at the garage...

He_Who_Dares_Wins

jesus u did well didnt ya aye....discount and a half there!

Nimbus

It's not what you know....

He_Who_Dares_Wins

too right mate

Nimbus

Scoby96,

Sounds the problem was with the fitter rather than the system itself. I've had no problems with mine at all in the 2 years I've had it. It came with a lifetime warenty and as I know the people who fitted it I'm sure there will be no problems if I should need to use it.

Scooby96

Yeah but even after the guy was sacked the owner still wouldnt repair my car cos he felt I had been undercharged - he was a complete tw@t! I might even dig the emails out from archive to show what a nobber he really was!!!

DazW

iTrader: (1)

Got to agree with Scooby96,

Got a flexi section fitted by em & it still blows now after going back twice to be re-welded!!! ...*****!

greasemonkey

Bit late now, but you should have reported the company to trading standards. The owner of the company is legally responsible for the actions of his employees, and it shouldn't matter whether the fitter gave you the wrong price or not.

You entered into a contract with the company, not the fitter, and you were entitled to a product that was of merchantable quality.

Scooby96

This was the letter I sent to the CEO:

__________________________________________________ _________________

30 May 2001

Dear Sir,

Powerflow exhaust (MR2)

On the 20th July 2000 I had a Powerflow ‘stainless steel’ system made and fitted @ Top Gear
in St Albans. In April 2001 the exhaust started to make a completely different sound under acceleration so I had it checked over by a local garage. A mechanic noticed that the original exhaust mounting brackets had not been used to secure the system to the car and that “crudely welded” brackets had been used and the off-side one had now separated itself from the exhaust pipe altogether.

I spoke to Steve Kilcoyne at Top Gear on several occasions and also corresponded by email in order to have the problem rectified. I drove to St Albans (a round trip of 120 miles) having had to take the day off work to do so and left the car with them for 2 ½ hours and returned in a hurry and did not check the work it before I left Top Gear. The following day I checked over the ‘warranty work’ and found that once again all they had done was to weld the same ‘bracket’ to the tail pipe. This did not return the sound of the system to it’s original state.

Following this I decided to take the opportunity of using a friends ramp to view the whole system from underneath. Having done this I was extremely surprised to find the pipes rusting – I had been assured that the ‘best steel’ was used to make the system – would you agree that this should mean 304 gauge? If it is then this has certainly not been used on my car. Other Powerflow suppliers have confirmed that 409 / 430 gauge is used - NOT 304.

I have once again been in correspondence with Steve Kilcoyne at Top Gear and have been left totally disillusioned by his remarks and lack of response to my previous 2 emails. I have enclosed a copy of my last email giving him 28 days to make things good. To date I have not received a reply or even the courtesy of an acknowledgement to this.

I have now had the opportunity to have another specialist exhaust retailer / fitter look at some pictures of the system made and fitted by Top Gear with the following comments: -

“Does look a bit pants. Was the welding like that or have
you had the mounting bracket repaired ?”

“The pipe looks really rusty.”

“All systems unless stainless steel will rust, especially after a year, but yours does look a bit on the rough side.”

“It doesn't look particularly stainless steel! although there are different qualities, 304 gauge being the one good systems are made from.”

“The cheaper stainless has lots of impurities in, which will rust.”

In view of the above I have turned to you in the hope that you can extract some sort of after sales service from Top Gear as I have had no luck. Do you have some code of conduct that suppliers must adhere to or are they free to supply and fit what I consider to be sub-standard systems under the Powerflow brand name without any recourse?

It is interesting to note that Top Gear advertise themselves as Powerflow exhaust makers in Max Power magazine – the very publication I intend to contact should I have no joy.

Yours sincerely,



cc Steve Kilcoyne, Top Gear (St Albans)
Encs email to Steve Kilcoyne 02/05/01
__________________________________________________ _________________

Apologies - yes I did refer to Lax Power but in them days I hadnt discovered SN!

If someone will let me email them I have pics of the zorst that can also be posted to corroborate the sh1te job that was done??

He_Who_Dares_Wins

Jesus fills me with confidence....well all luck of the draw i reckon, mate of mine had it done to his motor and hes been well pleased with it...so think i'll pop down there anyway and hav a butchers....cheers for the opinions tho lads and keep em coming in aye.

Dan.

Nimbus

I think the best thing you can do is see some of the work done by the fitter who's going to do yours. Everyone has good and bad experiances with things like this.

Scooby96

anyone want to post the pics for me?

SiDHEaD

Pics for Scooby96:



Andy

Nimbus

Had trouble working that out at first until i reliased it was an MR2

That's a poor job

He_Who_Dares_Wins

think ur right there Nimbus i will make sure the geesar is tip top b4 i go ahead.

j_p_h

It seems some are better than others around the country. Ive had there systems on my cars and they have been top quality. I use top gear in doncaster and they have got a very good rep people travel quite a long way to use them. They also do a lot of jap cars.

IWatkins

Not on a Scoob but on my old GT4 I had one fitted and I had no problems with it for the time I had the car. Only reason I went with Powerflo was because I couldn't get an exhaust otherwise, well apart from a few poor options.

On the Scoob the world is your oyster so I would seriously look at all the options before discounting them (if you haven't already) and going with the Powerflo.

Cheers

Ian

Project ST

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

A lot of R&D goes into the systems you can buy off-the-shelf; due to their hand-built nature, the Powerflow systems can vary immensely and in some cases, their fitters don't know enough about a specific vehicle's requirements to be able to accurately specify the exhaust; for example, positioning of the boxes and silencer volumes can vary with resulting noise or performance problems.

Also, every one of their systems I have seen have started to rust away to nothing after 12 months; for a lifetime guaranteed stainless exhaust, this is pretty shocking stuff.

There are some excellent stainless exhaust fabricators out there who really do know their stuff; some of the custom and kit car jobs I have seen have been works of art. Try Hayward and Scott in Essex

Al

SPLITTER

WELL IM PLEASED WITH MINE FROM PERFORMANCE AND STYLE BOURNEMOUTH
great sound
and free s up the motor a bit
i think it depends on the fitter
power flow r inly the manufacturer

He_Who_Dares_Wins

jesus a lot of bad experiences here!

Project ST

Agreed, Splitter; generally speaking, I think Powerflow's fitters are trained and certified experts.

wanted

Had a powerflow fitted on the girlfriends car and initially was pleased.After a few months rust set in and on closer inspection, i didn't get exactly what i asked for, i was given what they thought was best without being consulted. I wanted the tail pipe to be the same diameter from the tip into the backbox. What they did was weld a 3in tip onto a smaller diameter, 30cm long bit of pipe which went into the backbox, which looked cheap.

I wouldn't even consider another especially on a scoob

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Ive got a Powerflow back box on my MY98 UK Turbo.

Cant complain with the quality.

Sounds ok although now id like louder/deeper.

Didnt notice any performance benefits and if im totally honest on the drive back after fitting, it didnt seem as responsive.

Not sure for the reason but the original impreza tailpipe has two outlets from the silencer and the powerflow only has one.

Maybe this means nothing but knowing what i know now i would spend a bit more on a HKS/SCCOBYSPORT/BLITZ unit.

Sturge

generally the quality of powerflow systems is very low. The claim that u get the choice of power, noise etc is greatly exaggerated.

The systems are not specifically designed for the car and neither are the boxes so they will never give the same results a specific manufacturer will.

Also dont think powerflow use mandrels to bend the tubes, this means a reduction in diameter, affecting the flow.

Since working with a manufacturer of quality systems would never buy a powerflow system or even a lot of the off the shelf systems again!