The recent Fabspeed thread (not started by me) was filled with unprofessional posts by a number of members (at least one has since been banned from RL).

Please guys, do NOT use this thread to bash Fabspeed. That is not the purpose here. This thread is intended to document my current Fabspeed cat replacement experience.

Last August (2013), I purchased the Fabspeed Performance Package (headers, cats, X-pipe, mufflers, tips, and misc. other stuff). I purchased it through Konig Motorsport in Oceanside, CA, based on the high recommendation of the owner of Konig Motorsport.

The workmanship of the Fabspeed components appears to be very high quality, and overall I am pleased with the components.

Then, in December 2013, I got a CEL. The OBD indicated a bad Bank 1 cat. I had the code cleared. Two months later, the CEL came back, showing bad Banks 1 and 2 cats (CEL – P0420 and P0430 codes).

Initially I was told by my mechanic that Fabspeed would send new ones under warranty. After waiting several months (and a lot of "they will be here next week"), I finally spoke with Joe and Alex at Fabspeed last week.

They have both assured me that the cats will be replaced under warranty, but I have to send them in first, to be inspected. I have no idea why I was told "they will be here next week" for so many months, but let's get beyond that.

Today I took my car to Konig Motorsport. They will have the cats sent to Fabspeed, per Joe's request.

So, I will be without my car until this is resolved.

Today is Monday, August 4, 2014. Let's see how long it is until I am back on the road.
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Hmmm. Surprised you still have your patience and sanity and are handling this in a professional manner. You must be a good husband. I would've lost it awhile ago. And here I thought you were already past this until I read about it today again.

 

Hang in there buddy. I'm sure Fabspeed is a good company and hope that they do the right thing and get your situation fixed quickly so you are back on the road. Please keep us all up to speed on your progress.

PS - I'm not giving back your tips....

 

Post up a video when you get every thing sorted would love to hear it .................

 

Thanks, guys.

Dave, yeah... I still have all my other stuff (OEM cats, mufflers, headers)... the one thing that prevents me from going back to OEM is that my tips are driving around in Atlanta!

Alpine, My new (to me) 914 has been taking up my time and automotive discretionary funds lately, which has given me a bit more patience on the 996. However, patience has worn thin by now. I'm really hoping that Fabspeed doesn't drop the ball this time around.

Raven, here's a short clip I made last summer. However, the clip quality is marginal, at best.

 

Sorry, but that's inexcusable. Unless this story ends with, "I was reimbursed for labor and shipping costs", I wouldn't deal with them. I hope you get this worked out to your satisfaction.

 

Hope it works out for you, I'm sure it will.
Good company, 914s can be a lot of fun on the track.

 

not to change subject, and hard not to bash any company that has basically has blown u off this long, but how do u pass smog???

 

Not sure about the labour cost, that should be honored by Koneig the reseller. But yes way past time for him to be made whole.

 

Aren't you able to use the Fabspeed mufflers/tips with the stock cat pipes? Why not just use the stock pipes for the time being?

 

An excellent question. When I bought the set-up, I did ask if it would pass CA smog, and was told "yes." Unfortunately, I was not aware of the evil "Visual" portion of the inspection at that time. So, even though it will (according to Fabspeed) pas the "sniffer" portion of the inspection, it will not pass smog from the visual standpoint.

My options are:

1. Try and find someone I can slip a hundie to have bad eyesight during the visual.
2. Put all the OEM stuff back on every two years, smog it, then swap it back out.




BEeif61: Well, if it's just a week or so, not worth the effort of swapping, then swapping back.

Good question though. I'm not certain if the OEM cats will just bolt in, between the Fabspeed headers and mufflers.

Any of you Fabspeed guys know?

 

OEM cats will bolt in

 

Would they still fail you on the visual with the header and/or muffler though?

 

^^^ Yep, will still fail on the headers, not sure they can even see 'em though. I think that technically the mufflers are OK, since they after after the cats, but not 100% sure on that. Anyone here know?

Pete, you sure on the OEM cats (that they will bolt right up to the Fabspeed components)? That will make things a lot easier, if all I need to do is swap them out.

 

They will definitely bolt in. All the parts that come in the package that you bought can be bought separately and used along with the rest of the OEM components. Meaning if you just want the Fabspeed headers you can only buy the headers and switch it out and it will bolt right to your OEM cats and vice versa for the cats and mufflers.