Got my car tuned by HB Speed and my engine blew up 200miles later…you tell me who’s fault it is…this is a long story!!!!!


So here it is I guess I would be the first Evo X tuned by HB Speed whose engine blew up, I will try to explain everything that happened to the best of my knowledge and you like your opinion on the matter.

I bought my Evo X in January 2008 new from HB Mitsu and drove the car stock until November 2008.

In November 2008 I decided that I wanted more and bought an ultimate racing O2 housing/down pipe and test pipe cat back and dual tip muffler from Road Race Engineering as well as an AEM intake to try to get the feeling I had in my Evo IX back.
I installed the full exhaust and intake myself and never had a problem with the car.
I did all the services at either HB Mitsu or South Coast Mitsu.

After driving the car for about 4 month with the parts on I figured that getting the car remapped would be nice and could only benefit me so I looked around.
I originally wanted to have my car tuned by Mike W at Road Race Engineering but then learned about HB Speed witch is located a few miles from where I live.
At that time RRE was charging $750 (which $350 was for the ECUTek license) to tune an Evo X and told me that the time needed to do so could vary from a few hours to a few days.
After talking to HB Speed and learning that they where only charging $400 to tune Evo X since they where using Open ECU and no license where required HB Speed told me that Road Race Engineering did not really know what they where doing and also that they where doing a lots of street tuning which was bad for the car and that it would only take them a few hours to tune my car, never a few days, so figured they where cheaper, where down the street from me and could stay there while they did it since it would only take a few hours that I would have them tune my Evo.

On Friday, February 13 09 I was scheduled to have Jon @ HB Speed remap my car so I went to their shop waited 2 hours after witch he asked me what mods I had on the car, put the car on the dyno and did pulls for about 30-45 mins tops.
He pulled the car off the dyno gave me my graph showing 347whp and said it was that quick because he knew how the car was going to react because of the mods I had (Ultimate Racing O2 housing/down pipe, road race test pipe, cat back, dual tip muffler and AEM Intake)

The day after. Saturday, February 14th 09 as soon as I started driving on the street and started giving the car some gas it started smoking like crazy, to the point where cars behind me had to stop. I was going to pass by HB Speed’s shop and figured I’d stop to let them know about it which I did and Jon assured me that it was normal, that it was just the accumulation in my exhaust coming out and it would fade with time.

On Sunday, February 15th knowing that I had a new set of tires which I ordered the previous week hopping to get them on the car in time for the remap on the dyno I decided to go and have some fun by launching the cars a few times in a empty parking lot (wild rivers / Verizon amphitheater in Irvine) to finish my tires witch where practically bold and where going to be replaced the following day.
The first time I launched the car (using the ebrake) I completed about a 180 sliding around a pole when the cars engine started shutting off each time I would give it to much gas. At that point I thought I might have the ASC traction control on so I checked but it was off.
I tired again and the same thing happened, as soon as I open full throttle the engine would start to shut off so I figured it had to be something messed up in the traction control and kept launching the car with the ebrake for about 2 minutes after which I stopped checked on my tires, saw one had strips coming off so I replaced it with the spare wheel and drove slowly home. After watching the footage my wife took of me in the parking lot I noticed that the car backfired a few times and on particular on a cloud of black smoke came out, so I sent an email to Jon with a link to the video and told him to look it where the car backfired and the black smoke came out but did not get an answer.

On Monday, February 16th I called HB Speed to let them know what happened and they told me to bring the car in around Noon so that they could check it out.
So I went to get my tires swapped and then went to HB Speed at noon.
After waiting for a bit Jon asks me to bring the car in the garage, I explained what happened and told the about the S-ASC and S-AWC service required codes that showed up on my dash board, he plugged his laptop in and starting retrieving data. I asked him what he was seeing and he answered that over boost codes where showing up and he did not know why, told me he would need to put the car back on the dyno and check the engine for boost leaks as he did not understand why my car was over boosting.
At that point I asked him if this could cause any harm to the engine because the engine felt like it was seizing and it did not felt good at all and he assured me that those engines where really strong, that it was the traction control that was shutting the engine off as son as it detected something wrong.
My car was scheduled that afternoon to go in the body shop to get my rear bumper repainted.
Jon made a few changes to my map, told me the problem should be temporarily gone and if it occurred again to unplug my ECU from it’s harness for a few minutes which he popped the hood to show me it’s location and to call him when I got my car back from the body shop to schedule time on the dyno.

On Tuesday February 24th 2009, a week and ½ later I got my car back from the body shop and as soon as I drove off their lot the car started showing S-ASC and S-AWC Service required codes on the dash as well and the engine shutting down each time I went full throttle so I called HB Speed told them that I still had the problem and they told me to bring the car in that evening.
I went there that evening and Jon plugged in his computer, and went up and down the street for about 30mins with my car. He came back told me once again that he issue should be gone but that he would still need to put the car back on the dyno to finish the job, and the next available spot on the dyno would be the following Tuesday which I scheduled.
I cruise to work that whole week since every time I tried to open full throttle from low rpm I would get the service required codes and the engine would back fire and shut off.
I brought the car back to them on Tuesday, March 3rd 09, I told Jon I was still having the same issue before he put the car back on the dyno, he did a few pulls took it off and told me the issue was resolved that the only thing that was left was to apply the intake patch or pill that he did not have but should get by the end of the week and to come back then so that he could apply it.

After that the issue finally seemed to be fixed and was finally started to feel comfortable again driving the car until Friday, On Friday, March 6th 09 while driving to work after lunch I was going around 45-50mph in 4th gear when I went full throttle. At that point The S-ASC and S-AWC Service required showed up again on my dash and about 5 seconds later I heard a big bang and smoke started coming out of my hood and my cabin air vents, and the engine was making weird noises, I pulled over to the first parking lot I could stopped the engine( I was going north on golden west before edinger) and got out the car. Right away I could notice an oil trail all the way down the street and saw oil under my car, I open the hood and oil was everywhere.
I called HB Speed right away to let them know what happened, Shannon answered and I explained what happened, she put me on hold went to talk to Jon and came back telling me that if oil was coming out of my engine that it could not be related to any work or modifications they did since they only touched electronics on the car.
I then asked them if I should bring the car to the dealership since it should be a warranty issue since this was not a result of their work which she answered yes that the dealership should take car of it.

I hanged up and call Mitsubishi road side assistance gave them my car info and that I needed to be towed to the nearest dealership (HB Mitsu).
10 minutes after I hanged up with Mitsubishi, HB Speed calls me back telling me that Mitsubishi would not cover this under warranty, that I needed to have the car towed to their shop so that they could erase the work they did on my car and then have the car towed back to the dealership. I told them I already notified them of the problem, gave my VIN and explained what happened and that the tow truck was on its way.

My car stayed at the dealer ship for a week before a Mitsubishi engineer came down to inspect the car and his report showed that rod #3 broke and pocked a hole in either side of the engine block witch was the result of turbo over boost and since the ECU was modified it would not be covered under warranty.

I tried to open a claim with my insurance company who sent an automotive forensic to inspect my car once again and he concluded to the same diagnostics.

I called HB Speed to let them know and long story short Jon told me that yes his map caused the over boost that caused the engine failure, that he could not tune my car because of the ultimate racing O2 housing/ downpipe because it created to many boost pikes, almost all the pulls he did on the dyno with my car where to get a stable boost through out the map and that he refused to tune any more Evo X that had that down pipe after mine…(guess I was the test dummy), that I signed a release waiver and he would not pay for a new engine specially not one of a car that has been “abused” (because of the donuts) but that he would help me out with parts and labor.
He also recommended getting rid of that down pipe and rebuild the engine stronger with after market parts.

I waited for HB Mitsu to come up with an estimate to rebuild my engine and once they did I called back HB Speed to let them know that the dealer ship quoted me $6500 to which Jon said it was extremely hi and to fax him the parts needed to fix my car.

I faxed the parts list over and called them and they told me that they could get the short block for $700 less and that they usually charge $1500-2000 for this kind of job and they would only charge me $1000 in labor to rebuild my engine, that they needed 3 complete days in a row to do so and the only date they had open where in 3 weeks.
So I said ok and asked them to either fax or email me an estimate with those numbers and scheduled my car for those 3 days.
After a few days I called them back to ask when I could bring to car to their shop since they where going to fix it I did not want to leave the car at the dealership to what they answered they did not have room for my car and to bring it a few days before the scheduled fix.

The week end before my car was scheduled to get rebuilt at their shop I still did not receive any estimate and called them once again to know when I could expect it.
They sent me the estimate that day witch was the exact same part list I sent them 3 weeks prior, minus $700 on the short block but no labor was mentioned.
I called them back and was told that they could not quote the labor, they needed to see the car, that they could not short pay their mechanics and that if I needed something on paper that it would cost $1500 or more to rebuild my engine.
Also they would not guarantee their work and if anything happened I would be in the same situation again.

After hearing that and realizing that I would cost me more to bring the car to them to fix them having the dealership I asked them if they could just get me the short block to save money on that at least witch the agree to.
They told me the short block would cost $2100 in cash and it would be there in 1 week.

2 weeks later and still no news or block I called HB Speed and was told their contact a Mitsubishi went on vacation, that they had no way of contacting them but he would be back the following week and I would have my short block then.

3 weeks later after calling them numerous time to the point where they would not pick up my calls if the called id showed my cell or work…if I called right after with a different number they would pick up, I called the dealership to ask them on the availability of the block through them and explained the situation and they contacted Mitsu HQ to learn that a short block was on hold for 2 weeks for HB Speeds contact, that the short block went on national back order and would not be anymore available until at least June, but since the guy did not pay for it and was known for not paying for parts, that the short block would go to a different customer in the morning if was not paid for and picked up.
I called HB Speed to let them know and told me that they could not do anything.
The block went to someone else and got stuck once again for another month with out a car…

Anyways after almost 4 month without a car I got my engine rebuilt by the dealership and it cost me over $6k.

Once my car was fixed and all back to stock, I called HB Speed to get a refund on the tune since their website stated “if we cannot produce a smoother, safer and more reliable power band then you already have we will put your car back to stock, refund you and you can be on your way” which they now removed from there website, I was told that I could not get a refund since the map the put on my car was safer and more powerful and that what blew up my engine was me launching the car…………So I asked if their where serious and why if the donuts blew up my engine why it did not blow up while I was doing them and why I had to bring my car back to them 3 times for the same problem witch resulted in my engine blowing up and he started arguing that the donuts originally damaged the engine and the 3 times I brought my car back Jon tried to even it out and fix it but was not able to.
Anyways got so frustrated after all that bull**** that I just told them I thought they where full of **** and hanged up.

I had an Evo IX before this one which I drove the same way and never had any issues with.
I’ve had this Evo X for over a year driving it the way it is meant to be and never ever had any issues until HB Speed landed their hands on it.

Now I honestly think that hey do not know what they are doing, caused my engine to blow up and would not recommend them to anyone. For the way the treated me and my car and the fact that their mistake cost me over $6k.

Now this is my opinion and know I could be wrong or looking at it under the wrong angle and this is why I would like to get your opinion so please let me know what you think.

Thank you for your time.
Ryan

 

damn ryan you forsure got the longest post award. i read it all.

i think its partially your fault for going the lazy way and choosing HB speed over RRE, when RRE is known for good jobs. i guess i would have done the same, going the cheaper and more convienient way. its more HB speed's fault though because they were the ones who messed up the engine in the first place. Donuts alone cant "ruin" an engine especially if its a close to new evo x engine. those are made to be whipped. obviously HB speed made a serious mistake mapping your engine and im leaning 75% their fault and 25% your fault.

you should have gone the more known, better job way man. quality rules over convinence man. i love the evo x and at least you got it back. maybe someday ill go down to HB and we can race. ill bring the cayenne LOL

 

I'll finish reading this later this year.

 

these type of flame threads get closed even when they involve non-sponsors