Well this is now my second post re: RMR, hopefully it will be my last (until something else f*cking breaks on my car!)...

By the way Rhys, Blair, Eric...as a company you guys suck. F*ck trying to get any kind of refund for anything out of you. I'll let my attorney handle things from here on out.

Keep in mind this is my opinion of RMR, others might have had good luck with them, if so my hats off to you, consider yourself very lucky. I have never felt such bitterness or hatred re: an aftermarket tuner shop, especially after spending 15k. Here is what has happened to me part by part installed by them. First here is the list of parts installed on my car.

HKS GT2835 turbo kit
HKS 272/272 cams
Clutchnet clutch disc
RMR IC piping
RMR Induction Pipe
RMR Turbo back exhaust (test pipe)
Pruven FMIC kit
ECU Reflash
GReddy EGT
Power Boost gauge/controller
PWR Radiator
Tein Flex coilovers w/EDFC
Cusco rear sway bar
Cusco rear strut tower bar

ECU - They put my car on a dyno and reflashed the ecu, supposedly tuning the car for the mods I have, etc. Found out the other day when I took the car to Shiv's that it had detonation at idle and 50 degrees of timing advance at 1700 rpms!!! WTF? I had Shiv speak directly to Blair while I was there. RMR's solution? Ship them the ecu overnight and they will reflash it back to stock Shiv couldn't do any tuning on my car at all in the state the ecu was in. I get the ecu back today and put it in my car, it wont idle at all now with my foot off the gas. It dies if I keep my foot on the gas at 1500 rpms, wtf? Their response, well Tadashi (or whatever his name is) builds race cars for big motorsports companies. If that's the case why the f*ck cant he get some code right in my ECU?? Oh yeah, it cost me $200 for shiv to diagnose the problem with the ecu and $30 to overnight it down to RMR, when asked if I would be reimbursed for it, "uh, no, you didn't pay for the mod so we aren't going to reimburse you". Which is fine if the F'IN mod worked!

Clutch - I went with their recommendation regarding the upgraded clutch. They offer a 6 puck sprung hub clutch disc. I was told it would engage like stock. When I picked up the car the clutch felt "weird" in the way it engaged, but I figured it was something I needed to adjust to. Well I drove the car back from LA to Sacramento, and when I got into town, I could barely get the car to engage from a stop. The car would buck/shake violently no matter how I feathered the clutch, gave it rpms., etc. It got to the point I couldn't drive the car w/o fear of breaking a motor or tranny mount. I had to take the car to a clutch shop where I had them drive the car to make sure it wasn't just me, they agreed, the car was not driveable in that condition. Called RMR, their response, "well it drove fine when we had it here". I had to speak with Rhys himself to get a friggin refund on the labor (which I still haven't received, since I haven't sent them the receipt yet, going to wait and let my attorney file a demand for everything at one time)and had to source out a new clutch on my own. Went with the Exedy twin plate, issue solved, shifts great with just a bit if chatter in first. Thanks to Buschur for overnighting me one when there wasn't any left in the states. I've since pulled the Buschur, swapped in an Ogura Racing clutch, grabs like a ****, but I can't stand the noise from the drivetrain. So I'm putting in a pressure plate with higher clamping force and a stock disc.

EGT - I would of never really known I had an issue here unless I had to pull the ECU. First off it was wired like crap, everything was just shoved behind the dash, nothing wire tied, etc. My biggest gripe here is the probe location, it's mounted AFTER the turbo. Now before I go off here, tell me if I'm wrong please? The general consensus I have always heard is it's mounted in the manifold somewhere before the turbo, right? Preferrably in the runner from the cylinder that has the potential to run leanest. I asked them why it was mounted after the turbo and they said it's the proper location and that's where they put the probe on all their race cars. Once again wtf? Anyone?

Cams - I was able to finally track down my idle problems, although RMR says it isn't the cause of my car dying at idle. I had my 272/272 cams taken out, and voila, the car idles like stock again, no idle fluctuations, no sputtering and dying. Cost me $450 to have them and the cam gears taken out by the dealership. I called RMR, their response? Well it wasn't the cams causing the idle. Other people have them and their car(s) idle fine. WTF? If a car dies and doesn't idle before taking a part out, then once it's taken out and the factory part put in and the car idles fine, doesn't common sense tell you that the cams were causing the idle prob??? I asked them to refund me the cost of the labor to pull the cams out, they said no, the cams idle fine. Lot of common sense there huh?

Turbo Kit - Fast forward to yesterday, my car is now idling like stock and I'm somewhat happy that I get to actually drive my car for once. I've driven it less than 200 miles since the clutch issue first rendered the car undriveable. So I'm driving home, minding my own business, when out of no where, my windshield is getting sprayed, more like drenched with fluid! I'm like WTF? I'm on a freeway and have to pull over since I cant see ****. I open the door and I'm greeted with the wonderful smell of coolant. I'm thinking oh ****, head gasket, or something, but I wasn't even boosting, I'm in rush hour traffic going 55. Well EVERYTHING underhood is soaked in coolant and I'm searching for the prob and finally find the culprit. The lil cap that RMR (supposedly an HKS part) used to cap off my water line from the stock turbo is now missing and leaking coolant everywhere. Great right? Sad thing is, I'm not surprised at anything anymore with my car. I called Blair and he said, well that's an HKS part, shouldn't of come off. Also, once again they take 0 blame and say that since my car has been to 4 different shops now (fixing their **** ups), some other shop must have done it. Although the water lines are there on that turbo, they dont hook them up since that is what HKS reccommends, does that make sense? Why cap the lines, wouldn't you just do a loop back from the water feed to return? Doesn't coolant have to floe? Yet on the 3037 kit they use the water lines, go figure. I get the car to the dealership, and that is where it's at right now. The turbo kit is off the car now, I'm having my stock turbo, etc. put back on.

The most frustrating thing about the work done on my car is that they think everything that was done is fine. That their work is ok, that I'm just being picky. I dont complain unless there is an issue, and there is. I spent 15k, yes 15k there and I feel like I'm treated like a second class customer. I guess what I'm getting at is they don't care. They don't care my new EVO sits in the driveway broken down. Now I have to wait for their ecu programmer guy to get back to me with an ECU reset procedure, since supposedly that's the problem. Can you say lip service? I am so mad now I can barely see straight. Needles to say, I already have a call into my attorney re: the situation. I can tell this is going to get ugly.

I guess this is what I get for believing in a company and their claims, and wanting to be the "fast kid" on the block. All of this might not be so bad if it hadn't cost me 15k and my car was still running, which is isn't.

As far as RMR goes, I think they make great products, but I would not take my car there again if someone paid me. They knew this was my daily driver, and that the work done to it, had to keep the car dependable, which it is the furthest thing from. I'm sure some of you have had good luck with RMR, congrats to you, I haven't and I thought I owe it to all of you to share this. When it comes down to it, they are a company, a business, they exist to make money, which trust me, they did.

So please heed my warning or at least keep my experience in mind before taking your nice beautiful EVO to RMR. I hate my car so much now, I want to trade it in on a new unmolested (ie not touched by RMR) EVO so I can have a dependable car again. I'll even leave the 10k stereo system in the car. I just want my car the way it was or at least running dependably!!! So far to date I've had to spend over $1500 fixing their f*ck ups, have I got one dime from them to offset their mistakes? NO!

Shawn Glass
p.s. I'm selling most of the parts they installed. Here is a list of what I have, I'll entertain any decent offer. PM me or email me at sglass@intercareins.com.

RMR Downpipe
RMR Lower Tie Bar
RMR Test Pipe
RMR Cat back
HKS GT2835 turbo kit complete
Cams/gears are sold already

 

Mounting the EGT probe after the turbo would insure that if the probe breaks off that it won't go through the turbo. Maybe they've had issues with that happening so they mount it after the turbo instead of on the manifold.

That really sucks that u're having problems though... I feel your pain. I've had to sue a shop before for shotty work. All in all it was about 2 years worth of me being pissed off over my car, and what I got back was next to nothing for all the trouble I had to go through to get anything.

 

Damn I would be mad if I had a Evo that was butchered. The car is already expensive enough. Sorry about the problems man.

 

You spent some serious coin and should have the red carpet treatment.

 

Unless you put a probe on each runner I think it's best to do the EGT probe post turbo as well. It helps prevent costly damage.

 

All I can say is, "Wow." I hope you can get things worked out.

Tuners and mechanics seem to love pointing fingers at the other guy because their work is "flawless." Happens all the time, and it really sucks because the customer is squashed in the middle. Some other shop finds a mistake, so according to the first company, it's the other guy's fault. That's just poor business.

I wonder if RMR actually *drove* your car. It sure doesn't seem that way. Maybe they "drove" it to the parking lot.

Best of luck, man.

 

I had heard otherwise. That the probe was to be mounted as close to the cylinder head as possible. In a log style turbo manifold, there aren't much in the way of runners. The collector right before the turbo is perfect. Other wise, the gas gets a little cooler the further away you get, giving you an innacurate reading.

DSM people complain about the HKS 272/272 setup because of its rough idle. It is generally thought of as too edgy a setup for a street car. The 264's are enough for most people on modest turbo upgrades. Others go for a 264/272 setup for a street/strip setup with even large turbos. 272's all the way are usually reserved for race only applications.

Good luck, I hate it happened, but I doubt it will work out since so many other hands have been on your car. It would have been better for RMR to diagnose the problem and swap cams/clutch/hoses to prove that they were wrong. But I wish you the best.

 

Man, I feel your pain.
Good luck with your battle with them.
Keep us posted on what happens.

 

Keep in mind, they are the ones' that recommended the 272/272 combo to me, although I questioned the cars ability to idle with them. The didn't idle for crap. I've had to take my car to other people to fix their probs because they want nothing to do with me or my car. What am I to do? Leave the car in the driveway and hope RMR will step up and fix their mistakes? They haven't done anything to help or compensate me for the problems caused by them.

 

Supposedly they drove my car 50 miles and had not one issue. Since nothing happened in 50 miles, there is no way anything wrong can happen after that, according to them anyway. If that was the case, why do most reputable repair shops offer a 12 month/12000 mile warranty on any repair/part installed? I guess I got the 50 mile warranty from RMR.

Shawn

 

RMR showed up to our first SoCalEvo.net meet with Shawn Glass' evo. Blair drove it in. They still had to reflash the ECU according to Rhys and they were going to ship it back to Shawn. I remember Rhys talking about how Shawn would have "quite a ticket" after all the work is done. Ticket as in bill.

Shawn, I feel really bad for you. It's going to be a tough battle ahead. If my evo was hardly running i think i'd be crying non-stop.

 

WTF!??!?!!?!?

Just caught them in another lie, supposedly Rhys is the only one that drove it to that event. More BULL**** from them! I'm lucky I dont own a gun and a plane ticket right now. By the way I had quite a ticket, 15k and a car that doesn't run. Nice huh?

Shawn

 

Sorry to hear that man. I love my RMR intake, however I can't say it was a flawless experience. Took a week of inquiries and "we already shipped it" answers for me to find out it was still sitting on their "shelves". Then I was told it would be overnighted to me at their expense. They sent it 3 day by "mistake". Even after all that I figured wrong place wrong time and was planning on purchasing a lot more. I'm not comepletely sure now.

Good luck man, you'll just need patience if you want to see this through to the end.

 

Oh, I read it wrong then. I thought they only tried to diagnose things over the phone with you since it was such a great distance between your home and their shop. I didn't realize they refused to work on your car anymore.

 

Well there's really no need for two of these threads.