blackbullet

Hi CForum Funs,

I wanted to share some pics with you regarding what happens when a Cartek Stage 2 - X Heads valvespring fail and what it does to your piston and valve.





You can imaging all the metallic debris inside my engine. The funny thing is...I was driving 70mph in 3rd gear. I decided to take my Cartek heads for some aluminum inspection and welding to one of the best aluminum welders in Oregon (Hutchings Peformance, owned by Dan). Dan used to work as a welder and technician with GM and he repaired the heads beyond my believe. I could not tell which ones were the damage ones. Dan told me that the engine had not been over-rev because there was no signs of damage or high impact to other valves, which confirmed my theory that I was not driving hard.

I decided to call Dave at Cartek and he shared that they had sold around 275 sets to customers and only 3 sets had failed. Dave said that it was probably a bad valvespring batch and I happened to be one of the customers with the bad luck. I sent the pictures to Cartek back in June and Dave was surprised that it happened to my heads because they were sold to me 9 months before the incident.

I told Dave that I had spent $4K in heads and cam with Cartek and it would be great if Cartek would be willing to help out with the repairs. Initially, they said that they will send me a new spring kit and a used valve (Dave did not have a new one and I had already being waiting for several weeks). It took Cartek to get me all the parts 7 weeks!!! Unfortunately for me, I was in Europe for vacation and my daily calls with Dave ended up costing me $650 of phone invoice. I never asked Cartek to refund me for the phone.

Dan got the parts and he finished the heads. It costed to repair the heads $750. I sent copy of the invoice to Cartek.

Then, I worked with Robert Judd and GM to get additional parts and service, etc, and I have ended spending on engine work around $3.5K.

In the mean while, I was conversations with Cartek (2nd week of September) regarding how much they will be willing to refund me for all the costs. Apparently Dave went back and forward with Julio and they decided the "generous" offer of $450. I thought, what the heck, better than nothing.

Then, Dave started the similar process to shipping the valvespring kit but in this instance, we was trying to ship a check. First, their accounting department said that they sent it to me but I never got it. Dave said "I am going to do it myself", 6 weeks later and many long distance phone calls, I am still waiting for the check.

My patience has ran out and although I started with my best intentions and trying to work things out with Cartek, they service has been terrible. I never asked for anything out of the ordinary, if anything, Cartek had the freedom to decide what was best for their customer, they choose the cheap path and at the end, they did not even deliver a $450K. Overall, I have spent over $4K to put my car back and Cartek is the great dissapointment.

Parts fail, and I don't complain about that but I would have expected more from Cartek in terms of service. I was more than willing to take the $450 check and post an email saying something like "Cartek is awesome" but it seems that they did not want it to be that way.

I am not sure Cartek is going take the chance to challenge this post but if they do, they should know that I am more than willing to submit a claim at the Better Business Bureau and it is not first time and I take it even further and I submit a claim to consumer protection and the state attorney.

Four months have gone by and I have lost all of my faith on Cartek. They may come through at the end and if they do, I will submit another post, but if they don't, I will never do business with them again.

M.

Ikester

Dam, that sucks! hope you get it worked out!

2ndVette

I know that sucks, but, in reality, that could have been any tuners heads that failed you. Most vendors/tuners would pony up the paltry new spring and valve, but very few would pay for any damages. In fact, even if a warranty is extended, I don't know of a single tuner that will reimburse your labor expense to correct a defective part (unless you are lucky enough to live close enough to take it back to them). As far as I am concerned, any warranty expressed or implied, is a joke since the labor to correct the problem typically far exceeds the cost of the broken part. And the HS comment like, send it back to me and I'll take a look at it, is a slap in the face if your car is tying up another shop's rack.

The Cartek gang make great products and have an excellent performance reputation. It would be sure nice, however, if their customer service quality matched the great performance gains that they make for the C5.

While I personally think you would be lucky as hell to receive any monies from Cartek, I don't ever believe it is right for any vendor, whether they are a pizza delivery service or a major tuner, to tell you one thing and then blow you off.

blackbullet

For whatever reason, I don't see the pictures, here is another try:

[/IMG]http://forums.corvetteforum.com/photopost/data/1033/45029HeadPistonDamage4.jpg[IMG]

[/IMG]http://forums.corvetteforum.com/photopost/data/1033/45029HeadPistonDamage1.jpg[IMG]

blackbullet

blackbullet

[QUOTE=2ndVette]I know that sucks, but, in reality, that could have been any tuners heads that failed you. Most vendors/tuners would pony up the paltry new spring and valve, but very few would pay for any damages.[QUOTE]

2ndVette,

You should know that I never went to Cartek and said "How are you going to repay me for this part failure", I only ask "What are you willing to do for me?". Do you think is reasonable for them to say, "We are going to do X" and you are calling every week to find out what happened and they never come through. It is a waste of time on both sides.

On the other hand, I agree with you, their service sucks and I disagree with you DRM and LG have deliver great when it came to service and we ran into problems.

M.

URNDWAY

wow.

Good luck on getting her back together.

2ndVette

good luck in working through this. I am an admitted Cartek fan and I may overly defend them. The good news is that Dave seems to be a reasonable guy and I hope they will work with you to a reasonable compromise.

The other good news is that this Forum does go a long way to educating many owners about what products work and what vendors are good to work with. Hopefully posts about specific experiences, good as well as bad will shape, how we as consumers,will spend our money in the future.

While any vendor can say they are busy and that **** happens, the truly good ones understand what it takes to create a brand name and what it takes to retain customer goodwill. Consumers are a fickle bunch, and I might add, with good reason, as a business is only as good as how they treated their last customer.

cyclerage23

Sorry to hear of all this. How long did you have the car together? I've read a few threads on this type of issue(not Cartek related) some of which it was believed that failure was due to incorrect preload on the lifter/pushrod set up? Was this checked?
Good luck,
J

Patches

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, blackbullet. I truly hope you can work something out with the tuner to both your satisfaction.

What brand/type of spring were you using?

Geneus

Don't want to be perceived as a "negative Nelly," but this failure is not Carteks fault. I take it you realize this and are just asking for some help from them. It would appear that you feel you should have been treated a bit better than what you indicate in your thread. In defense of Cartek (and all other tuners/parts suppliers), always two sides to a story.

Now, on a different note, this type of thing can and does happen, even on a somewhat "stock" car. Below is a link to Z06vette.com where a member has similar pics of the results from a failed spring. In his case, he was still stock on his H/C. Stuff happens!

http://www.z06vette.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69306

VetteHunting

[QUOTE=Geneus] In defense of Cartek (and all other tuners/parts suppliers), always two sides to a story. [QUOTE]

Im sure there is more to it. Ive never had customer service like I got from Dave. What does Dave say when you call say it has been so long?

vstella

I can relate... I feel your frustration..See my post on my experience with ARE and the 2 broken valvesprings and bent valve herehttp://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=933463

SideStep

blackbullet, vstella,

What springs did you have???
What were the specs of your cam???

Buckmaster

Dave at Cartek was very pleasant to deal with. Very friendly staff and gave me great service and a great price. I hope things work out for you.

blackbullet

Thanks a lot!

M.

blackbullet

2nd Vette,

Thanks for your help and support. I appreciate a lot your response. M.

blackbullet

It was tough to get the specs from Cartek but at least I got the brand, it was Pioneer.

M.

blackbullet

Geneus,

I perceive you are committed Cartek customer and as I shared on my previous email "Part fail" no question about it. On the other hand, the Cartek promises and services were completely missmanage and why would treat a customer (like me) who spends thousands of dollars in the first place with Cartek like you don't care what happens. It is their business but it does not speak greatly for "customer retention" practices.

M.

blackbullet

[QUOTE=VetteHunting][QUOTE=Geneus] In defense of Cartek (and all other tuners/parts suppliers), always two sides to a story. In my case, Dave says "You will get it next week". After 14 weeks, I have learned my lesson. I am not going to ask anymore.

M.