I was hoping i was one of the few that got lucky with the APS kit? I was wrong! It blew on me today I heard something like a light hitting underneith on the drivers side last week as i was going up a hill and heard it again today while out playing BOOSTING i mean LOL,then after i let off,, i saw and smelled all the smoke coming out my exhaust.I knew it was not the engine or valve seals or anything like that because the engine was still running too good,so i removed the exhaust and fired it up and all the smoke was from the drivers side .well,after removeing the turbo inlet hose i could see the impeller was hitting the houseing alittle and theres a **** load of play when i wiggled the shaft side to side Atleast it looks easy to get to., I heard LG now makes replacements for these? Is this true? Also, from what ive researched,it looks like the LG center cartraiges are alittle diffrent spooling times then the stock APS ones. Do they make stock replacement ones ?or will i have to change out both sides if going with the LG' s or can i just change out the drivers side and leave the passanger side alone for now? i just dont think i can get to the passanger side without dropping the K member or can i ?

 

CHRIST....thats all you hear about with aps kits....good luck man

 

That sucks. Should of upgraded before it went out.. Just when you get it all running..Damn sorry to hear man

 

Damn, thats complete bullsh*t after spending that much money on the APS kit. I cant believe APS isnt handleing this crap. Its a known fact that the turbo's that come with that kit are junk. Im so glad I didnt buy one of those kits.

 

Im getting a brand new APS drivers side from Kwikkar from on here as he allready upgraded his turbos before he installed. As soon as i get it ,it's going to a local turbo guy near me to have it goon threw and checked for balanceing and what have you ,which i bet is where APS fucked up on these.Ill probably upgrade to the LG's over the winter LOL At least ill be tearing it up again late next week LOLThis bitch is funner to drive then my 87 GN i use to have back in the day LOL (ALOT FUNNER) LOL

 

It wouldn't be bad if they were at least handling it.

Sponsors here in the past did not get away with things like this...

I remember Hi-Flo and PTK had their sponsorship on the line unless they delivered to customers, or gave money back, or whatever the case was, respectively.

How so many people are getting **** turbos out of the box they paid for and then later having to pay out of their pocket to someone like LG or otherwise AGAIN to get the turbos right... **** that's twice!

How these turbos cannot be returned for a refund is beyond me... Any other turbo sponsor here will accept a defective turbo since these things do happen sometimes and they are not the customer's fault... LOL, That's not even considering what is CLEARLY, MASS defects!

You shouldn't be forced to buy their turbos to buy their kit, get charged for them, and then have to throw them away... That's insane.

Turbo's are KIND OF important in a turbo kit.

Imagine buying a built longblock, knowing that the heads will be defective from prior, mass feedback, removing the defective heads that were a big, significant portion of the price you paid, and then sending the heads out for repair out of the box, paying for the heads AGAIN, in a sense.

If any members here practiced that routine with an engine supplier here and posted about it, what would be the response of the other members? Pretty much, they'd question the buyer's sanity and/or intelligence and demonize the engine supplier.

What's the difference?


Come on guys, back each other up, don't take it bending over...

Dumb question: Can the turbos NOT be bought? If you said you didn't want them?

 

i feel the same way, but for some reason ppl keep buying them.

 

friend of mine has both of the aps turbos new, if any of you need one. PM me

He is upgrading his before he puts the kit on

 

Has anyone had good experiences with APS?

All I hear about lately is APS turbos failing. I was considering this kit because of the setup and their looks as I want the car to look stock but DAMN. Their turbos suck major *******!

 

Well there are some with good experences..Hugger z has 20k miles on his original turbos. Think Kelliente had no prolem with hers. JM hit 9s with his stock ones. Seen many of the same turbo on the gto and corvette forum and they don't seem to have near the problems of the f body kit turbos.

My theory is poor balancing ,possibly knock off turbos either bought knowingly to save money and increase profits or they just got stung with knock offs.
Also the ones that have excessive shaft play and hit the housing are for sure screwed.
But think some guys just start seeing oil and right away yank the turbos off the car and upgrade. Turbos can burn oil from many things. Crankcase ventilation problems, blockage in oil return, failure to remove the shipping plugs where oil return bolts on, the gravity return setup maybe not workign that great, overfilling crankcase.

I was offered possible replacement for my one dud from Peter and APS .I choose to not bother right now since my dud was internal crack that let coolant into oil.It was very serious defect that could have cost me my new 408. The only thing that saved things was caught it in first couple minutes .Thought engine was the problem at first. Been running the turbos for several thousand miles with oil only. Actually they can be run that way. Many mits guys run the same turbos oil only water cooling is optional,still a good thing but the oil cooling is the critical one.
I checked my drivers side for shaft play and its fine, no oil in the inlets and no oil in the intercooler pipe. No oil at idle , cruise and no clouds at wot.
I will check passenger side next day or so. Don't hear no blades hitting and they usually make pretty loud screeching sounds. Had lots of dead turbos in the past I like to play with dsms.
I just stented my inlet tubes for cheap. Easy fix really .Front sway bar is easy fix.
I will likely upgrade my turbos as want to get bigger ones anyway. Should maybe have got the upgraded aps ones but they were not available when got mine.
You can also buy replacement center carts for pretty reasonable from various places. Like ebay. Upgraded wheels and plug and play into the aps exhaust housings.
You can take off the drivers side without dropping the kmember. It don't look lke you can do passenger side without dropping it.
I think you could mix and match turbos for awhile no big deal. So maybe do just drivers first even if it was a bit different and then passenger later.

I also wonder how many people with blown turbos have sent them to aps. Its a bit awkward too though with them being in austrailia the time changes and all that. But I have had no problems talking to APS and Peter. So maybe some of you just think they have bad service. I think they have replaced some turbos for guys on here?? And most people likely just throw it in the garbage bin and order those upgrades.

I would like to see some dissections of the failed ones to see why they failed. Was it balancing, was it inferior knock off parts. I am just crossing my fingers that my turbos last till end october at which time car is away for winter and can get the upgraded ones.
Or put in the back up ebay center carts if need be.

And sorry to be a wolf amongst the sheep but so far I like my APS kit. Car is faster than frak at even 7.5 standard boost course do have a built 408. I like lots about the kit. intercooler is pretty serious and fit good, downpipes , intercooler pipes ,intake pipes except for the collapsing problem in the coupler section which have fixed for like 30 bucks. They have upgrade inlet couplers which shoudl be in the new kits.

coolant overflow ,windshield washer reservoir, the way the kit went together in the car. the excellent manual,every nut and bolt and aside from the turbos being iffy no really huge problems that can't be fixed fairly easily.. inlets, front sway bar.

It would be nice now if aps would offer the kit without turbos so guy could just buy the LG right off. But doubt they will do that. I have still not seen many corvette or gto guys on their boards saying they were having major issues. LG has seen quite a few bad ones but they are sponsor and selling their upgrades so sorry please don't take this the wrong way Louis but you are not impartial in this issue. course if you want to post pics of dead aps and show what and why they failed thats fine too. More evidence is a good thing here.

 

Oh one more thing..I lost 2000 to GMR speed smaller company on here and sponsor . They went under and got dick for deposit back. Many members lost lots of money to various scammer turbo companies on here and most all were sponsors.
I don't think hiflo ever shipped a kit? incon of course and one guy from incon does work at APS..
But at least APS kept their word. My kit shipped out ahead of shedule. I could have sent my dud to aps but didn't want to put my car down for that long and it still works ok oil cooled only.
So be really careful if dealing with smaller companies..they can be gone overnight.

 

If they're taking the turbos back, then that's totally different. That's to be expected... I hope that's what people are doing, but the last couple of threads have made things seem different it appears.

If APS is taking them back for a refund, but the customers are not sending defective ones back, then those customers are idiots, IMO.

I say send them back if they're fucked up... Why the HELL would someone choose to keep a defective turbo, Australia or not... If your checked bounced from your payment, I doubt APS would have any qualms pursuing their money from you despite that geographical distance... Why should the customer let it go just because they're in Australia???

 

Add me to the list. I'm running the kitt on a GTO. Never heard any noise, just smoke.

 

Sorry to hear barnat. Your build is a nice one too. I hope you get it back up and running. And I agree, the cars are a blast to drive with these kits!

My kit went on in Sep 2007 and has been running strong ever since. It had 89k when it went on and I am over 110k now. So 21k on my kit. Maybe I am just lucky or it's because I stayed at stock boost. The car is a blast to drive and scares people so I am happy with it. I just get in and go. I take it on roadtrips with no problems. It's been back to NY numerous times. I can't complain with my kit. I have not had any major issues. A few minor ones here and there like the dented charge pipes. I got a spacer and shorter end links for my sway bar. Checked everything over this spring and had to retighten a bunch of bolts here and there. I assume all the heat cycling worked them loose. They were all tight when I installed everything. No smoking, no overheating. Just get in and go and enjoy the ride.

 

I agree with everything bboy said. I think it's horse **** that this **** is going unchecked. The inlets and sway bar issue suck, but are quick, relatively cheap fixes. The turbos are by FAR th most exp. part of th kit not to mention the HEART of the whole system. I've tried to contact APS by email several times and have got nothing. I also think it's crazy that some people still defend them like this **** is ok!! Also. nobody seems to speak on the fact that PETER has yet to chime in on ANY of the turbo failures lately!!!

 

You can get them rebuilt for about 200each. Call Jose@ forced inductions. He is redoing 2 GEN-TTR turbo's for me right now.

 

some time ago some dude called aps out about the turbos being defective and flawed,
big back and forth thread,
guy got banned but he was right apparently

 

Well not sure what warranty is ,90 days , 1 year. Its often not that long on turbos don't think. Still quality mits turbos don't die very often . Ask me how I know have had tons of them.
Email can be wastes of time .I believe you phone the company and realize there is time change but phoning is usually still best. You talk to them hopefully and see what they will do. Its more a pain that they are in australia.

If they refuse to replace and most are still going to require you send them in then you can badmouth them on the forums wherever.
I always come in nice first and then get mean. Normally nice works in most cases.
I have not talked to aps directly just Peter .And Peter has been good with me. But I chose not to send my dud in for repair since again it works just is internally cracked so just run it oil cooled.
And really didn't want to put the car down right now . Remember too that the entire turbo don't go. Center sections are what goes. Centers can be bought for like 300 to 400 on ebay and other places. Decent quailty centers. I got some as backup right now but not throwing them in unless aps ones die and so far they are being troopers. Checked the passenger side today. Zero oil out the inlet, out the intercooler pipe not seeing any clouds of oil at all at wot..they are boosting and sounding fine. Maybe got a good set like Hugger z seems to have got.
The upgraded ebay ones have better wheels and should give faster spool. Not sure if they have more airfllow than the aps ones.
I am still likley going to upgrade to the 70s from LG as they are better match on the 408 or mabye bigger motor later .

I wish there was some way to know if the aps centers are genuine mits from stampings on the center housings maybe? And still want to see some dissected to see what went wrong and what parts were to blame.

We are not seeing 100% failure rate but we are seeing many guys with f bodies having problems. But of course not seeing everyone with an aps kit .Guys with no problems may not be posting or may not be on this board.
Search the c5 and gto boards I did but coudln't find many that had bad ones. Same turbo on those cars.
I did a personal little survey but idiots were posting on them dying and many guys posting didn't even have aps kit ,some didn't even have f body. Survey was screwed so
deleted it.

I repeat what also forced performance and other big turbo shops will tell you. Oil burning is usually not turbo failure. Turbo failure normally the bearings go from oil starvation or poor balancing sometimes from crappy knock off parts. Then you usually get loud screeching noises as the blades hit the compressor housing.

And wonder how many guys think turbos are gone when its there motor that is gone. Stock pistons are crap in these cars. Please keep your boost to 7.5 psi max if you are on stock engine maybe a few pounds higher if you have 317s.

Not trying to let aps off the hook .They should be upping the quality control. They better be buying genuine mits turbos and getting things balanced by shop that can do the job consistently and properly.

There is dick all for parts in a turbo .It should be reliable unless someone is really cheaping out with knockoff stuff.

 

Sooo...

Did you pay for internally cracked turbos that can, subsequently, only run oil?

IMO, you should have received the turbo you paid for, regardless of whether you have back-up cartridges or prefer to run only oil...

What if I paid for a bed, a springboard, and a mattress, but only received a bed and the hard springboard? Then, I slept in it every night, and I expressed how I prefered that over the mattress and really didn't mind sleeping on the springboard (and I really didn't mind!)... Does the fact that I paid for a mattress mean nothing at all? Would you think that was a good choice on my part to not complain at all?

Since when did convenience trump principles?

 

No was pissed the turbo was internally cracked.The coolant could have wiped out 10k engine! Lucky caught it at fire up.
Just that since my engine builder passed away in the middle of my engine build my engine was seriously delayed and it was like a year after got the kit that finally go it installed and that was out of warranty since think it was a year maybe 90 days.
So really aps could have said tough luck and most companies likely would. Peter did tell me to send it in and they woudl see what they could do for me.
Now at worst figured mabye have to buy a new center at their cost maybe. But then read that could just run them oil cooled and did that since driving season is short up here and didn't want the car down while waiting on them to inspect mine. And don't reall know which side is the dud. Guess could put compressed air thru or something to figure it out.
Then a bit later other guy on here put me into some ebay centers ,he got them said it was plug and play and were working great.So ordered me same ones they have upgraded wheels so faster spool maybe more airflow power not sure on that.

Was going to throw them in but now LG has his upgrade option so guess go for that.

Anyway I still think APS should for sure warranty any defectives in the warranty period and its their call out of warranty. They should definitely not buy knock offs if that is what happened on purpose trying to cut costs or accidentally.

I feel sorry for the guys that got bad turbos being one of them too. But I love my kit and being an old hot rodder guess just used to things breaking and losing money on things. 2000 bucks to GMR speed when they went under with deposti on their kit.

We really need Louis or someone impartial to take some of these duds apart and say what exactly is the failure reason. Balancing or cheap knock off parts most likely reasons.

I have had mits turbos run 200,000 miles and still work fine.