HKS fail !

[Phil@rise]

Wow thats shocking but at least now that buddy opened it up its an easy fix.

[Timpo]

are you sure this one is real?

i'm not familiar with HKS stuff but when I searched HKS G35 exhaust on google this came up...

Originally Posted by G-spec

G35 member accordfreak was doing some custom work on his AUTHENTIC HKS exhaust which costs upwards of $1500+ brand new and this is what he found when he cut the Y-Pipe section up, quality fuckin shit HKS, quality shit

[Timpo]

ok so, that exhaust seems like fake...

here's the REAL HKS exhaust

look at post #17

http://my350z.com/forum/intake-exhau...t-on-350z.html

[bcrdukes]

Timpo's got a good point.

I have owned 2 HKS exhausts. One on my AW11 SC and one on my SW20 turbo. The welds on the exhaust look near-perfect while the one posted by OP looks like some drop-out welding apprentice went out to town on that chunk of metal. Not to mention, the flex-pipes look kinda

I'm suspecting the exhaust was fake to begin with. But to be fair, we don't know the full story nor the truth so I'm not going to be so quick to make judgement.

[G-spec]

It's confirmed to be authentic a few minutes of googling isn't a confirmation of the opposite, furthermore the fact HKS examined upclose all the various up close pictures that were sent and in the end didn't deny te exhausts authenticity, well that speaks for itself.

I think some of the VQ guys may be mass emailing HKS with those pictures and ask WTF is up, lot of them are pissed off, especially due to the fact that for years now on the G35 and 350z forums one of the biggest debate arguments has been the owners of the authentic HKS and fake eBay ones. This particluar HKS ehaust is a favorite for fakes in the VQ world, I think there exist at least 5 different fakes of this specific exhaust out there. And the only thing the authentic HKS owners been saying all these times in arguments against the owners of the fake one is that theirs is fully optimal, authentic, rigorous testing, etc...
So yea needless to say, this really pisses the authentic owners quite a bit
Posted via RS Mobile

[bcrdukes]

All I gotta say is:

[G-spec]

BcDukes yea I see what you mean about the welds, if I was a betting man I would guess with a batch of these had a really shitty welder and non existent quality control, I honestly don't think they make every single exhaust this way
Posted via RS Mobile

[Captain Bondo]

Originally Posted by Shun Izaki

Thank god you said that before all the kids came in and said

HKS = HONG KONG SHIT. bahahahaha

I thought it was "Hong Kong Supermarket" Hehehe....

[Phil@rise]

Your (OP) exhaust appears to be mig welded when the other ones posted appear to be tig welded.
I have seen instances where a manufacturer will replace a knockoff with an original just to keep the customer happy. Providing the customer proves it was bought from a legit dealer.

[Timpo]

ok so...is OP's exhaust fake or real?

[Manic!]

Originally Posted by Timpo

ok so...is OP's exhaust fake or real?

Know one knows for sure yet.

But it's hard to believe a company that also makes airplane engines would make something so crappy.

[optiblue]

seems fake to me. Where was it purchased from?

[freakshow]

Originally Posted by G-spec

the fact HKS examined upclose all the various up close pictures that were sent and in the end didn't deny te exhausts authenticity, well that speaks for itself.

I think they are denying it's authenticity when they say "The website you show is not how the exhausts are designed". If they said anything else, like "you bought a fake", you, or the OP, would probably be even more pissed off.

[G-spec]

yea quote

Originally Posted by accordfreak

those who are saying it's fake either

1)doesn't have an hks exhaust
2)has the hks exhaust but doesn't like to see they didn't get what they paid.


So I was under the car today to finish up some installs of other stuff and just to be nice I snapped pics

Yes, I rewelded the right side myself. That's why it's so shitty looking because I welded it but who cares, there are no leaks and it holds up very well after scraping many times. I also rewelded the Y pipe back together after cutting out the H pipe protrusion.



So here are the smashed up HKS tips. ooo look at the blue rainbow (not brown) unless you're color blind



replaced with Ebay tips. YES EBAY TIPS.. wow look at those canisters! they're welded!




end of story.

few other interesting quotes that make sense

Originally Posted by SQBassHead

HKS welds went down hill... google it and you will see someone with a S2K pulled out his AUTHENTIC HKS out off the box and his welds were CRAP... looked just like mine

Originally Posted by SQBassHead

must be a defected product, ill be the first to say that HKS has gone down hill since back in the day, the welds got sloppy and this...... i remember a member got an REAL HKS and when he inspected it, he saw something like this and he was also suprised about the welds.....keep in mind this was not his first exhaust..... so i think he returned it...

im thinking that HKS got sloppy when there was more demand, they just started half a$$ing everything in order to get it out.....

im glad my HKS doesnt have this defect, BUT i did get the shitty welds :suicide:

[jasonturbo]

This has just prevented me from buying HKS Legamax for my STI, so thanks.

In regards to who is responsible for the poor construction, it's not the welder, its HKS. They are supposed to have quality control in place just like every other manufacturing company, it's really sad that they make this junk. Being realistic, it's probably not even made "in house" it's more than likely contracted to the lowest bidder and no quality checks are actually performed by HKS.

A real life example of this, needed some coil overs in a hurry and went to buy some locally, when I got to the shop I asked to take a look at some skunk2 coils so we opened up a box to have a look. Well the box had four front coils and no rear.... so we check another box... and another box... and it's the same story. How much quality control does a company have in place when they cant even make sure to package a product properly with only 4 parts.

So many of these companys that sell "race" parts, dont do any research at all, don' campaign actual race cars, and dont do any design or manufacturing themselves. There is a reason baller parts cost baller money, cause research, design, quality, the best materials, etc all cost a lot of money.

Thanks for posting, spread the word and drag HKS through the dirt, your friend might actually see some results.

Thought it is sad that HKS is now on par with t1R and Skunk2.