[Steve @ WEAPON_X]

Hi all,

Often when shopping for parts, or anything really we tend to look for the best bang for the buck. Sometimes this works out really well, but as some of us might know this is usually not the case with car parts. I'm sure most of us have came across cheap ebay headers for a third, or even a quarter price of the brand names like ARH, Kooks, Stainless Works, Corsa, and so on.. We usually advise against anyone on buying these, because we hear of them cracking or fitment issues, and all that not so fun stuff. Not to mention, I think we should all be supportive of the big companies that invested a lot of time and money doing the R&D to develop these awesome products that we have available to us, while giving Americans jobs at the same time. I want to state that the focus of this post is not to bash the choice, but to instead bring awareness to everyone because it is likely we've all bought something because it was cheaper then later on regretted it.

We recently had a client bring his car to us for several upgrades. We installed the headers that were supplied to us by the client. The car was picked up after dyno and drivability tuning then later we received word that the car was acting up. After the car was brought back we started it and immediately confirmed that the issue was a pre o2 sensor exhaust leak, caused by the header warping. The pre o2 exhaust leak caused the PCM to interpret that the car was running lean because it was not reading the correct air/fuel values through the o2 sensors, in result the PCM commanded more fuel and actually caused the car to run excessively rich fouling the spark plugs. We did a compression check and leak down test and luckily there was no damage done besides the fouled plugs. In hindsight, I'm sure if he could go back and purchase brand name headers he would, these cheap chinese knockoff headers ended up costing more in the long run and now the car is back to stock manifolds. :(

Below I have pictures of what caused the issues and wanted to share them with everyone to prevent this from happening to anyone in the future.

[oneredry]

good looking out!
and in no way I took at as bashing either. I would consider this a look out. I would 100% agree. You normally get what you pay for. when it comes to parts for your car, something that you may not always want to be cheap about.

[S2K+1LE]

You get what you pay for.

Just remember that, for basically everything, and you're good.

[chozn4service]

Had a friend tell me “Good $hit ain’t cheap, and cheap $hit ain’t good!


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[Soleil]

Yep, buy cheap buy twice. MIC= Made In China

[Stig eh]

seems to have warped pretty bad

did U measure it before assembly and could have this been caught earlier?

stig eh

[JBones81]

LOL, I was just discussing this with someone! It's like when they complain that the fast-food workers messed up their order. Dude, they're making $8/hr - you think they're hiring the best and brightest to fill those positions?! Also, don't forget that you're paying $5 for a meal...

Whether you're an employer or an employee...You get what you pay for!

[FlowForm_Wheels]

Originally Posted by S2K+1LE

You get what you pay for.

Just remember that, for basically everything, and you're good.

100%

[USAFS197]

Hmm. Not going to do us any good unless we know the brand. I see the brands you listed there but, there are other companies out there that supply headers that are well known to us. Just because it's made in China, doesn't inherently mean it is bad and just because it is made in America, doesn't mean it's inherently good.