vettenomore

i purchased a 2008 997.1 TT approximately 6 months ago that had, among other mods, a FabSpeed exhaust with tips that I assume are black chrome - although they do not look as dark as the black chrome currently on FabSpeed's website. Cut to the chase - one of the tips is losing much of the black chrome coating and is showing just chrome. Is there an easy way to remove the black chrome from the the other tips so they match. FabSpeed won't address the problem because I'm not the original purchaser. This is not meant to be a bash FabSpeed post, just seeing if there is a solution short of buying new tips. Thanks

DC911S

You could buy black exhaust paint and repainted them

993MAN

You know, over the years Fabspeed often get a bad rep, but they hardly ever do anything about it, and the posts just stop. They should be a bit more proactive about this and look after you.
I say this because I was about to buy some of these tips from them.
I won't now.
Who cares if you aren't the original owner? It's not a motor or gearbox we are talking about. They should last. It's not as if they're cheap.
It cracks me up how these companies just sqirm out of anything they can.
I'll buy another brand now.

4ocious

I have the same problem with mine. I won't buy Fabspeed black tips again. Their chrome tips are fine, just stay away fro the black chrome ones.

aa909

I have the same fabspeed black chrome which stopped being black chrome after a few thousand miles LOL!

You can easily remove the rest of the infamous "Black Chrome" with blue-job chrome polish and some elbow grease:

http://blue-job.com

Good Luck
Art

vettenomore

Art - thanks for the info - glad to hear there is a solution even it requires a little grunt work! Although I didn't intend to start a bash FabSpeed thread, the replies above clearly indicate a problem with this product. It looks like FS would want to stand behind their products and address issues when they arise - not ignore them.

993MAN

My point exactly. They would have read this thread as well.

Typical.

BOOSTED TTS

Sorry, but the price that they (Fabspeed) charges for those China/Taiwan tips is ridiculous...SpeedTech sells a nicer set for half the price and if you want to go fancy, order the Kline carbon fiber tips.

Manuel

jcnesq

The black chrome exhaust tips I got from Fabspeed last December at their half-off sale still look just like new. However, I haven't installed them yet and they are still in their original packaging. Maybe I'll just admire them as they are and they should last forever. Anyway, fingers crossed they will hold up for a while once I install them.

vbb

Since people tend to speak up only when there is a problem, and not as much when they are satisfied, I'll toss in to this discussion that I had a very positive experience dealing with Fabspeed in my first (and so-far only) dealings with them. John G. at Fabspeed occasionally posts on these forums and is very accessible via email. I don't know who the OP was dealing with, but if not John G. he may want to drop him a line. I don't necessarily want to post someone else's email address on here, but it can be pretty easily found on their website.

I too ordered the exhaust tips, and although I ordered them in the polished rather than the black chrome finish, they look to be of very good quality. That said, even with the sale price, they are quite expensive for exhaust tips (I bought a set of similar tips for my wife's BMW for a fraction the price) but then again it seems that everything associated with the 911 Turbo is expensive!

That said, even for a "small ticket" item like exhaust tips, John G was very responsive to my questions and made sure to follow up regarding the sale and shipping. I find it hard to believe they would run and hide if someone had a problem with an item they can verify was one of theirs. I have not yet installed my tips yet either, due to some seized up exhaust components preventing me from removing my stock tips so far, but I would expect for the price that I paid not to have any issues with these. To the OP, I'm not sure if a complete replacement of the old tips that you bought 2nd hand with new ones is exactly the right thing to expect, but I would expect some sort of response or maybe even a deep discount off of a new order.

vettenomore

I'm not sure who I spoke to when I called originally. And when I called, I didn't have any specific expectations except to see if there was "anything" that could be done considering the obvious defect with the product. That said, because I am the second owner, I don't really know how long the exhaust has been on the car although I do know the PO didn't just buy tips, he purchased a FS exhaust system - so the original cost was significant.


Again, my original purpose was not to bash FS but to find out if anyone had an idea about how to remove the black chrome finish since FS didn't offer an alternative except, I guess, to purchase new tips at full cost. If I can get the finish off and have decent regular chrome tips, that's fine - if not, I'll purchase new tips but definitely not FS black chrome tips!

vbb

I understand that you didn't want to start a "bash Fabspeed" thread, but obviously by your stating Fabspeed won't do anything to help, the thread was inevitably going to go down that path. I was giving you the name of a real live person at Fabspeed that I found to be helpful in the hopes that he might be able to help you out too. I know that when it comes to customer service, while any company should have uniform standards across the board, oftentimes it comes down to getting the right person on the phone (or on email) to come up with a solution to a problem. I would be surprised if nobody at Fabspeed is willing to offer you anything other than "oh well, buy another set at full price" as a solution. I mean, maybe that is their final answer, but I would be surprised if it is. While you have not contracted with anyone from Fabspeed and are a secondary market user, I would still expect them to stand by their products. Companies like that are very concerned about their reputation, and a few bad posts on popular internet forums can severely damage that reputation. If they are selling a part for good money that doesn't last as intended, that is bad for business. As a person who was just in the market for tips, had I read this thread before completing my purchase, I definitely would not have purchased the black chrome tips from them (even though I ended up going with polished, I was considering the black chrome).

I would reach out to John G. and see what, if anything, he can do.

John@Fabspeed

Woah! Guys sorry it took me so long to find this thread. This is certainly not what I like to see, nor what I expect to hear from my Porsche brethren in regards to our products.

I have personally sold a ridiculous amount of Black Chrome tips for various vehicles (they are our most popular option) and not had any phone calls regarding our BC finish having this kind of an issue. I am planning on running our a set of BC tips on my personal Cayman R as soon as we are back in stock, and we have been running the same set on our 2011 Boxster Spyder for the near 2 years i've been here with no issues.

I am not here to say we are perfect, in shipping out 30-40 packages a day there may be the rare bad batch of coatings for our tips, and as much as we pride ourselves on our QC sometimes something slips through. This is why myself and our customer service department take these matters very seriously.

For everyone's reference, Brian is our head of customer service, and our company policy has always been that our warranty is for the original purchaser of our products. We have no idea how the products were treated or how old they are if it is not the original purchaser. For all we know they could have seen a decade of winters on salted roads without being taken care of. It is your risk to take in purchasing a used product. It was Brian's job to follow company policy with that matter, and it is unfortunate that him doing his job has caused a thread blatantly labeled as an issue with our product. This is catastophic for my business and that of the company and a homing beacon for negativity.

That being said, i'd like to say this...I am a fellow Porsche owner like yourselves. I am not here to shove our products down your throats, or tell you "you're beat" when you have a problem with our products. I'm also not one to sit around and see our products have issues and ignore a thread like this. If I am not active in the thread then I haven't seen it yet, so please do not make the assumption of ignoring it. In addition, if I see any confirmed trend of product quality issues I WILL investigate and I WILL make sure we minimize/eliminate the possibility of it happening again. I do not tolerate anything less than maximum effort on our end to maximize the driving experience of my fellow forum members and petrolheads.

If you ever have an issue, before posting up a thread about it please reach out to me directly. I will do everything in my power to come up with fair resolution that leaves you with a positive experience with Fabspeed. My work number is 215 646 4945 ext. 101 (or just ask for John Gaydos). My email is john.gaydos@fabspeed.com. My cell number is 484 883 6197, available any time any day for anyone for anything. As long as i'm not asleep, on the track, or getting a death stare from my wife I will be available.

vettenomore, aa909, and 993man, please give me a call at your liesure I would love to chat about your experience and concerns and restore your faith in our products. Same goes for you jcnesq if you have any doubts on our quality.

vbb special thanks to you, I really appreciate you chiming in and your kind words on myself and the company. Would love to know who you are, so give me shout when you can (hard to keep track of who is who on the forums haha).

I'm going to go burn some rubber and vent frustrations for all of us, then catch up on ****ty new Top Gear. I'm always here

BBiAutosport

I have worked with John, Brian, and the rest of the crew at Fabspeed on a few of their projects featuring our parts, and I can vouch that they are great to work with from my personal experience. Not taking sides or knowing the backstory, I hope that this will get amicably resolved

- Jerry@BBiAutosport.com

CincyScott

I'm certainly no fan of FS, but I think it's a little extreme to think that they would cover second-hand owners. Very few companies do warranty past the original owner nowadays, and that would have been my expectation before even reaching out to them.

Perhaps I am not accustomed to the same companies you are.