Title says it all. Pictures to follow.

I'm going to set the background first. I drove 4 hours down twisty 2-lane Alabama roads last week to stay at the beach with my family. When I got there, I checked the manifold. It still had a few small cracks in it (the usual), but nothing threatening looking. To be safe, I slathered it with black silicone to keep it together for the drive home. About 3 hours into the drive, coming out of a fairly sharp corner, I hear a loud "POP" from the engine and my car DIES while travelling 80mph. Power steering GONE, power brakes GONE. I try to crank it back but it fails. My car coasts to a stop on the side of a 2-lane highway in the middle of nowehere Alabama. Great, just great. Pop the hood, and here is what I see (pictures included). Well, to make matters worse, my cell phone has zero signal. So, here I am, small white 19yr old preppy boy with a nice broken down car, 95 degrees, in middle of nowhere Alabama... sounds like a prime target for robbery/theft. Well, I decide to PUSH my car until I find a small town. Luckily I got to Forkland, AL within a mile or two. Long story short, after trying to patch the hole with rubber cement patches, aluminum cut from soda cans, etc etc, I decide to just get a tow back to Alabama. I call for the tow truck and get charged $150 to get towed back to Tuscaloosa, where I change back to my stock manifold and everything runs fine. I tried calling Kinetix when it happened (Saturday afternoon- left a voicemail), and also this morning with no response.

I am furious to say the least. I do not want a v4 plenum. Even though it may have solved all the problems, I have a bad taste in my mouth from Kinetix now and do not wish to put their brand name under my hood. I believe I am entitled to a full $399 refund IN ADDITION TO Kinetix paying my $150 towing fee. Does anyone feel this is out of line? All I can think about is how grateful I am that my power steering and power brakes didnt go out in the middle of that 80mph turn... I might be dead right now. Then Kinetix might have a wrongful death suit on their hands... not to mention all the plastic composite powder that surely got sucked into my engine when the manfiold blew apart. Sorry for the long post, had to say it all somewhere. Hopefully now that this is in the open Kinetix will respond and do the right thing.

-Wren

 

2

 

towing receipt

 

How long have you had the initial crack? V2 or V3? Had you reported the initial problem to Kinetix so they could send you a "new" V3 or V4? Knowing their customer service reputation, they will most likely give you a "full" refund to include towing!

Personally, knowing I had a crack, probably would not have taken it on that trip.

 

Sorry I say you should not have driven it with the crack. I also have a cracked v2 and informed them of the crack and my patch job. They advised me to put the stock one back on but were happy to replace with a new one.

 

i think they should give you a refund, however, i don't think they should have to pay for towing. knowing that it was cracked previously, i would not endure furtherr stresses on the intake plenum by driving it for ~3 hours

 

Well, the initial cracks came 6/18. I drove it around town and it was fine; the cracks weren't expanding or deepening. They were very small, almost hairline. I sent Kinetix a PM requesting a v4 plenum and they said they would get mine out asap. I had to leave for the beach 6/27, so I figured 9 days was long enough so I could get my v4 plenum and change to it so I could avoid changing to stock then to v4, as changing the plenum isn't exactly high on my things I like doing list. Well, 6/26 rolled around and I still had no v4, but the cracks hadn't gotten any worse, so I saw no need to change to the stock plenum. When I got to the beach, the cracks were slightly worse, but barely. Thats when I smothered the top of the plenum with a thick layer of black silicone to hold it together for the drive back. Had I thought the plenum had any chance of completely failing, I would have no doubt changed to the stock immediately after 6/18. Simply put, I underestimated the extent and severity of the cracks and overestimated the plenum's ability to hold together. Thats what I get for having too much faith in a product...

 

Wren,
I'm sorry to hear about it and am glad you're ok.
I can't seem to see your first pic ... it's in black and white (not gray scale) ... all I see is the silhouette of whatever it was.

 

Jesh what a sad chain of events. So sorry of your misfortune. However, after all this cracking, and now this, I can't believe people are still buying this product, and Kenetix is still selling it. It obviously came to market with little or no testing, and the consumer has been the test bed, with the well published results on this forum.

Lou

 

I don't own one of these Kinetix plenums, but from what I have read I don't see why anybody does. Almost every thread I have read on these says they crack and break, oh yay they will sent you a newer updated version, but what's the time limit till that one goes? Sounds like it's more of a heaqdache than it's worth, I will not be purchasing one of these for my car.

 

thats very retarded wiseprice

 

Wren,

I hope you don't take this the wrong way and I'm really sorry to hear about your car, but there's no way in hell that I'm going to buy that plenum from you after I heard what happened here.

Based on YOUR experiences, I just don't trust it. I'm still very interested in the JIC Y pipe though.

Dan

 

Oh and that's a really cool table you've got there. I'm making a similar bar top.

 

Heh, I understand completely Dan, I wouldn't either. This plenum is NOT the one I'm selling in private classifieds. As mentioned earlier, I requested a v4 plenum 6/18 and Kinetix told me I would get one. I haven't heard from them if they have shipped it or not yet, so I don't know if I will get one. I have PM'd them requesting them to cancel/refund my order, but I have also listed the new v4 they might be sending my in Private Classifieds for a quicker sale in case they do send it. The JIC is still for sale however, PM me if interested.

Thanks for the compliments on the table. I was going to do a beer pong table like that but decided it was too much work...


-> back on topic <-

 

Was it a V2 or V3?

 

I honestly do not know. I got it around the time they released the v3, so maybe it is a v3, maybe v2. I don't really know the difference between them...

 

I think you guys have "battered wife syndrome" with Kenetix. You keep going back for more punishment...LOL...this is nuts. Why even bother with this plenum???

 

In twenty years of tuning cars, I have never even heard of an intake manifold made of plastic. The whole notion is ridiculous. Who EVER thought that plastic can handle these kinds of thermal stresses. Why can't Kinetix simply fabricate their plenums from aluminum. Problem Solved. I remember back when these things were on V1 and V2. Everyone was raving about how good the customer service was, and what a "great group of guys". Times certainly have changed. In a few months, we will all hear about the V4's cracking too. My take....this company is basically a bunch of hackers and the organization is a flash-in-the pan. I doubt it will last out the year.

To the organizers of this website.....I would remove them as a website sponsor. They have no credibility whatsoever.

 

Take a picture of the bottom and we can tell. The V3 has horizontal bracing across the front bolt hole.

Speedracer, I believe plastic plenums are used on a few production cars.

 

i thought there were a few plastic ones availible for vettes and such. Anyone else notice the complete lack of representation of Kinetix since the Plenum was released. During beta and on its initial launch, they were responding all the time, but now, i havent seen a post from them for some time. Weird.