On3 Performance .. Not Impressed.

Boosted92LX

It's only an inch or two. What's the big deal?
15 Year Member
Dec 19, 2010
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So, I've been slowly building my car.. Bought this turbo kit over a year ago, did HCI, and slowly as time allowed, between my wife and four kids (football practice, games and dance class/recitals), have been getting it together.

Finally, got it tuned, and on the road, and immediately had problems. I'm not talking about the 1000 dollars worth of upgrade parts not fitting, The pounding with a sledgehammer on my floorboard to get the downpipe to fit, the complete relocation of my a/c drier, or chopping up my catback to get the " bolt in" Y pipe to bolt in.. No, I'm talking about the wastegate failing inside of 25 miles of driving. I got boost spikes from my 10 psi setting- all the way to 15 psi. I'm REALLY lucky I didn't hurt anything- at least I don't think I did.. But yes. 25 MILES OF DRIVING and the wastegate failed.

It gets better.

So I coughed up $360 bucks for a precision wastegate, wait a week for it to arrive.. (all the while waiting to hear back from on3 about sending it in..)

Finally, the new name brand WG comes in. I install it and go thrash. The car runs great. GREAT power, I'm thinking what a great deal this kit is, even if I had to replace the wastegate.. Sounds good, huh? So I continue my drive, a 25 mile round trip I had planned, and the car starts to run like crap, dies at stop signs, etc. I hear a noise that sounds like a fried roller bearing, so I stop to inspect it. Pop the hood, SMOKE ROLLS OUT!

I'm looking at the turbo, My brand new K&N filter on the turbo inlet HAS MELTED OFF. It's fallen down and resting on the piping looking like melted cheese. The heat from the bearings failing was impressive to say the least, it didn't take long. It actually got some of my wiring harness, too that was about 6 inches away from the turbo. I'm hoping the trash from the turbo hasn't ruined my engine bearings. At this point, I've lost my warm and fuzzy with on3.. but it gets better.

I go home and fire an email at Chad telling him I got tired of waiting to hear from him about a return number for the waste gate.. replaced it, and now his piece of crap turbo (didn't say that to him) has failed.. What the heck, it didn't make it 50 miles! NOW, he decides to reply...Then the accusations start flying. I screwed up the waste gate, I left the fire ring out, I screwed up the oil supply for the turbo, I screwed up the drain for the turbo.. He's never heard of heat like that in all his years of working around turbos, blah, blah, blah. Of course, none of this was true, I documented everything with photos. Nothing he claimed was wrong, even the fire ring in the waste gate.

I tried to be as polite as possible- I wanted help, I knew if I made him mad there would be no chance in it. He tells me to call the shop after Christmas when they get back and make plans for sending the turbo in, which I did. Got a hold of a guy named Danny who was very polite, and told me to send the turbo to the shop with the same return number for the wastegate. I thought, ok. They're going to help. Good. Packed it all up, fedexed it to them, Three days later I get a snotty email from Chad saying " I gave you a return number for a wastegate, not a turbo, why did you send me the turbo, it's not supposed to come here?" Like I'm an idiot..
Good grief. I explained to him what HIS EMPLOYEE TOLD ME.. and you know what this tool says? "THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DEAL WITH MORE THAN ONE PERSON ON A SITIUATION LIKE THIS." Wow. Just wow.

I've explained to this guy the whole story about how long ago I bought the kit, how long it's been in service, how it failed- before I shipped it.... and AFTER I SHIP IT TO HIM---(THEY TOLD ME TO).. HE TELLS ME: THIS TURBO IS NOT UNDER WARRANTY, WE WON'T FIX IT. He then asks If I want him to send it to his rebuilder which will cost me, or just ship it back to me...

I said, Ship it back to me. All of it. I need a tracking number.

Still haven't heard back from them, probably never will, which is why I'm writing this. ON3 will never get another cent of my money as long as I live. What amazes me ( aside from how poor the equipment is,) Is just how nice and polite Chad was on the phone BEFORE he got my money, and afterwards, what an (insert expletive here) he was afterwards.

Yes, I knew the reputation going in, Yes, I took the risk knowingly, but strangely doesn't make me feel any less ripped off.. Even if in this instance Chad broke no laws.(He has in other cases though, google it!) Figuring it up, with the cost of a name brand turbonetics turbo and the precision wastegate I'm buying to replace the fine China, and the upgrades I paid for to on3 that 3/4 of didn't work, I could have bought a Hellion kit and been done.

What's bad is for every person out there like me who got screwed by this character there are two singing his praises because they are the 2 out of 3 that haven't had a failure. YET!
 
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Oh NO! This was the one reason i did not buy it. I was in the market and went with Vortech instead. I think you should do the same.
Well, I've replaced the wastegate and have a Turbonetics Ceramic BB turbo on the way. If the piping breaks or cracks I'll just fab my own.

I bought this kit instead of piecing one together because I was unfamiliar with turbo systems and thought I could get everything together hassle free. After doing it, I've realized it's very simple, and the parts interchange a lot easier than I knew, and are available everywhere. A little shopping for hotside stuff, coldside stuff, couplers, clamps, diff components, you can build a nice system cheap. It's the learning curve that got me I guess. That, and a crook named Chad..
 
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I learned a LOT on the TURBO FORUMS about turbos and setups. I also learned that Chad has been banned from that forum for FRAUD.

Go ahead, look it up..
 
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Sorry Bro. I've also searched the forums and have read the many horrot stories about On3 products and their service.
What was the reason they said it isn't under warranty- the year the turbo sat waiting to be installed?

Sucks but hard leasoned learned. We've all been there- sometimes it pays to buy a quality part the first time. That is why I tell people to use companies like Max Motorsports, SilverFox. Vortech, Cervini, Fordstrokers, FTI, CHP etc.

What I try and remember is Karma is a bitch. People that make a living screwing over others eventually get what they deserve one way or another.
 
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Sorry Bro. I've also searched the forums and have read the many horrot stories about On3 products and their service.
What was the reason they said it isn't under warranty- the year the turbo sat waiting to be installed?

Sucks but hard leasoned learned. We've all been there- sometimes it pays to buy a quality part the first time. That is why I tell people to use companies like Max Motorsports, SilverFox. Vortech, Cervini, Fordstrokers, FTI, CHP etc.

What I try and remember is Karma is a ****. People that make a living screwing over others eventually get what they deserve one way or another.


Yessir. That's exactly what he said, that turbo is over a year old. I'm like, I can give dated pictures of the install, and dyno tune??!!

Nope.
 
Yessir. That's exactly what he said, that turbo is over a year old. I'm like, I can give dated pictures of the install, and dyno tune??!!

Nope.

I can see his point- guys buy parts all the time and they sit for years before they install them , or they install them and then wait for some time and then contact the vendor. A vendor does have to make a cutoff or everyone would be sending back parts they blew up for years after purchase. As muchs as this sucks, I really can't take issue with any vendor saying a part is out of warranty if that is in fact the case. Yeah, the part shouldn't fail 50 miles after you install it.

That being said, a business also can try and help out their customers to the best they can- sometimes they can't but sometimes they can try and help. He'll lose more business this way than by trying to help a customer out. It is their call and they do have the choice. Hard lesson learned for you again- trust your instinct on using companies with bad reputations.

Hopefully the new setup will be up and running and put a smile on your face.
 
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My friend ran the kit but before even installing put a tial waste gate and bov and att the time used the master power 76 and didnt have an issue . He sold the car and boom the manifolds fell apart on the next guy I hope it all works out bro .
 
Thanks guys. I'm making my rounds to other forums posting this. If I can save one person the heartache I feel like it's time well spent. It'll be back up eventually, but it is very sickening.
 
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My friend ran the kit but before even installing put a tial waste gate and bov and att the time used the master power 76 and didnt have an issue . He sold the car and boom the manifolds fell apart on the next guy I hope it all works out bro .

They might have been the older style manifolds they had a lot of problems with those I have the newer style no problem at all....Jeff if you work on my car you will see how it is.....the only thing I wish they did was make the downpipe in 2 pieces so it would be easier to change the plugs on that side....other then that like I said fitment is fine....
 
Well I'm not entirely sure what setup I'm going with for forced induction, but I do know is that it WON'T be On3. I know some people have had great experiences with On3 but from what I've gathered the bad outweigh the good and I don't think I want to take the risk.
 
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All products and companies have failure rates and problems. Some times how a company handles those issues is as important as the product itself.
When buying something that costs only a couple grand when others costs thousands more, you have to wonder why.
I've been fairly outspoken against On3. A few reasons why. I've seen that they are garbage in person. Fitment is poor, so is the hardware quality. When you know people that run a shop and won't install them anymore even when it's no risk to themselves (like any other place you provide your parts, you don't get a hardware failure warranty), that says something.
Either other companies have been ripping people off for years, or you get what you pay for. In this case it's the latter.

People around here seem to like to get fancy with power adders, I too don't like to just do the same as everyone else, but the bottom line is, on a non race block 302 based engine the best choice is a vortech S trim. The price is fair, quality is predictable, support is everywhere and customer service is good.
Not to mention, pullied right with the rest of the parts it makes enough power to split a block. In less than a weekend you are up and running with no worries, I can't see how anyone with an 0n3 setup puts their foot to the floor and doesn't think it may be the last time, peace of mind goes a long way.

Not sure what else you could ask for that a vortech doesn't offer.
 
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@Boosted92LX

Wow, sorry about that bad experience. You have such a beautiful LX too I hate to imagine it's parked again after all that time it was down. I hope your new equipment is reliable and you get back on the road and smiling as you run through the gears again!

Warranties suck for those of us "building" a car. It takes a long time to piece it together as we get money from pay check to pay check. Then once it all comes together and we fire it up the warranties have been expired for some time and all the risk is ours. I'm in the same ball park like you and others although not with a turbo but thousands of dollars in other brand new parts. Hopefully when it gets fired up this March I'll get lucky with a problem free 5.0.

Best of luck going forward bro!
 
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Yep, like I said, I rolled the dice, and crapped out. Thanks for the kind words, guys. hopefully turbonetics can makes what's still there do the trick.. At least the turbonetics has a one year "no fault, no questions" warranty..