DTE

I must have the old top bracket design on my 97. Can I buy the new designed top bracket?? How much did the new bracket lower the rods?

 

This sums it all up.
Arrogant (pronounced /ˈærəgənt/) is an adjective that may refer to having excessive pride in oneself. A person who is arrogant may exaggerate their own worth or importance in an overbearing manner.

Feedback is what makes a great product. If the manufactor isn't opened minded, and takes there customers problems into consideration, then how can they excel into having a great product? What gets me, I never even asked for anthing from DTE,a nd didn't want anything. I just came on here to show people what I did because of the problems I had, and was hoping DTE would look at it and maybe say something like, "Hey, nice job", sorry that you had trouble with it, but glad you got it resolved. I'll shoot this over to our engineering department to look at. Instead, I get bashed and preached on how their products never have had problems, and I screwed this up by welding on it. Well, DTE welded on it too. I use to fabricate large industrial heat treating furnaces, and I know all about welding, and how it pulls. And these bosses would had to be pointing up. They was perp as the day they was made. The bosses wasn't welded on the top, which is where it would have to been to pull the bosses up. The problem is the centerline of the strut rods is up to high. That's all there is too it. And there is plenty of room to drop them down 3/8" - 1/2". Simple fix.
Now, I am hearing more and more people with rubbing issues. And still, DTE refuses to acknowledge the problem. I just can't believe the response I am getting from them. To tell you the truth, I am shocked. I thought they was better than this.

 

Well,
I don't want to add to the pizzing match here,but I have to remind Phil that on my particular car I also had this problem.Phil was kind enough to send me another bracket,but after examining it closely,I could see it was NOT going to help my situation....
My fix was the same as yours,and I was happy and excited to fix my issues because mine was driving me nuts with the noise it was making.But after seeing your work, I am so embarrassed to have ever even posted a pic of my barbaric work....:o

Very nice work Red!!!

Now as far as DTE is concerned,they have excellent customer service!!

But I guess it is only fair to note that what Phil has stated emphatically as fact,is not entirely true since I personally had this issue this year........right???

Please, I am not trying to bash you at all.You make excellent ,I repeat EXCELLENT products and have a customer service policy that is regarded as one of "THE BEST" on this forum.Besides, I personally think you are a very good person to cap it all off..

That is why I am having such a hard time reading this post.....
I mean,how difficult would it be to make a handful of these for the guys who do have the problem?

It is really a very simple fix for those who have this problem,but if you do not have the proper tools for it as I did not,it is a bit of a difficult task.
I actually spent more time modifying my brace than I did swapping out the differential itself....
My brace is great and I am happy with it now,and I am more than satisfied with DTE customer service....,but this surprises me!

Thank you Phil

 

When was this supposed modification to your braces made, Phil? My two month old DTE brace rubs and RUBS HARD on both sides of the car. It was installed and torqued exactly according to the instructions and my car is not even lowered. If I can buy this "new" brace that lowers the upper rods significantly, by all means let me know how much and how soon I can have it.
For those with this problem ( and I doubt that a new brace will fix it, but you never know) I would STRONGLY recommend that anyone installing this brace do the modification described in the first post. To do anything else is to risk damage to those metal fuel lines under the car. I am even getting noise transferred up into the car from the contact with the rods. The brace is quite simply very poorly designed in this one area, and needs to be modified by DTE to clear the underside of our cars. I am pretty scared of what the brace is going to do to my fuel lines over the long haul....I am sure that DTE will likely take me on for saying all of this, but if you do praise their products, then they have nothing but the best for you....praise them and they are very nice people -- to do anything else is to risk their wrath....go ahead, Phil...............make me a satisfied customer, please?

 

That's funny. According to Post #6, they have hundreds of cars all across the USA and abroad with out any problem at all.

You must have welded on your upper brace or did something wrong, so "All bets are off".

Well I have another problem with it now. The right rear exhaust is right up against the brace. But I won't blame this on DTE. It could be the exhaust pipe itself. It's just that I am getting tired, and I was planning on driving this car down to California this weekend to take my daughter to Disneyland, and to go to Andys (A&A) barbecue the following weekend. It's looking like I am not going to make it now.
I'm about ready to take this brace off............for good. It's been nothing but a headache for me.

 

Mines right up against it as well. The vibration is driving me fluking NUTS.. I will be doing some tweaking in the next coming weeks.

 

Yeah I just got a PM from someone else with the same problem. So maybe it's not my exhaust. Doesn't surprise me now. This brace looks like it was never revised any from the day it left the desk on paper.

 

You have this right,simple fix,plenty of room......

The way I see it,the rear of the boss may have to be slightly beveled for trans case clearance if lowered 3/8",but that's it...end of problems, for the a-4 cars anyways

 

lol this seems very reminiscent of when i had the "nerve" to question the pricing on the side differential cover a while back when i had it quoted for about half what they were charging from a local machine shop...


DTE you guys need to take a chill pill and lose the arrogant jerkish attitude. you lost my business a long time ago and it seems as though you didnt learn from that experience?


great products for a good hit in the wallet and what seems like an even greater mental hit to the head if you ever need customer support

 

LostCauseZ06:
Well said......DTE gets in your face and then hides behind "facts." The "Have a nice day" at the end of his messages is just salt in the wounds and they know it. The worst thing for me is that Phil quotes scripture after his name on emails coming from his office....that makes it doubly worse in that humbleness and willingness to work WITH others should be the hallmark of a well-lived Christian life. Beware, Phil:
1 Samuel 2:7
The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.

 

So what does DTE do that anyone else can't do as good, if not better? Anyone interested in a better mouse trap? I'm thinking about after getting back from vacation of maybe building my own A4 differential brace for starters. I know I can build one that doesn't have the issues as the one I have now. Something to think about.

 

While your at it Red99, make the turn buckle portion of the rod only about 3" long and position it so you can get to the lock nuts

 

Go For it RED99!!! I'd love to see your brace become the number one best seller with the BEST customer service you can offer......knowledgeable, friendly, willing to take input from customers, all that has been missing in the past........

 

You won`t need the brace for the trip, so make your daughter happy and come on down to Disneyland, then be sure to stop by and meet everyone at the A&A bbq on the 30th!

 

I too had this problem and my brace is less than 2 years old, and I didn't modify anything. I just took some thin felt and put up above the bars since it was driving me nuts also, but I know this is a temporary fix. I'd be interested in a new designed brace as well

Eric

 

Heck, it's too much trouble to take it off in this short of time now. But, I did just fire my motor off. That puppy started off on the first turn. All I need to do now is fill top off the fluids, mount my boost-a-pump controller, do some changing on my tune file, and hopefully get a couple days of road testing in, and I think I will be on my way down there Sunday.

 

Anyone notice that ol' DTE has been absent from this discussion for a while? You can only blame your customers for so long before it starts to sound like you should have taken the blame all along............especially when all of us with the brace crushing our fuel lines begin to chime in......

Phil, I KNOW you read Corvette Forum threads that have anything to do with DTE....are you out there and are you willing to make all of our braces fit right????? Would love to hear from DTE in THIS forum with a reasonable fix --- you've got your work cut out for you to make this right for all of us whose braces simply do not fit right......C'mon ---- you can do it!!!
Look at the number of readers of this post (nearing 600) and imagine that they all would have bought a brace from you.......if it fit right.....

And ---- THANK YOU to the moderators for allowing this thread to continue. I think that the members here have conducted themselves well and that this is important information to get out there...again, thank you moderators --- it was a class act to leave this thread up.........

 

Your goading over the last few days is quite comical and I would expect more from you than any other, but it seems that some law enforcement folks always have huge ego's to feed, so I'll chime in here to a number of false accusations to correct inaccurate assumptions/accusations.

One last thing- When any thread, no mater who's it is, who it's about or what it's about, begins to spiral downward due to a number of childish posts that are meant as malice or to attack personally- *ESPECIALLY* when you attack another person's religious beliefs like you have, than we will always refrain from participating in such foolishness.

Phil

 

No one was or is offering to get into a "pissing match" with you as you so eloquently put it, so I have no idea where that came from. However, I was posting a direct answer to your direct question, nothing more, nothing less. Don't make it more than what it is and don't look into it more than what it is. As I said before, it's that easy.

Phil

 

I never said such things in any of my statements I ever made here, *YOU* and only *YOU* made those statements, so please don't put words into my mouth when they were not stated in any capacity, just to distort the thread and twist what WAS said.

Phil