DON'T buy the SSAC (eBay) 'ST185' midpipe! *Pics*

[Meurz]

I also received my new midpipe. SS 3" from eBay (SS autocrap). I assume they are able to make a decent almost straight pipe (compared to their shitty downpipes) so I gave it a go.

Well, they're not.

I received my midpipe with all flanges welded up like this:



The pipe comes with 2 extension pieces, but they are the same length?!



^ Again very well aligned

Rrright. I contacted the seller to tell him about this and whether he was willing to cover some costs to get all flanges mounted properly. "Hell to the no" in caps was the polite reply I got. "Just machine the flanges down."

Since it's basically a 10 minute job to replace the midpipe I decided to check out the actual fitment too.

'Roughly' the same length as the stocker



'Roughly' the same shape



Same brackets then? No.



Overall alignment: Great!



Maybe it's a ST205 midpipe, but it's clearly sold as a direct replacement for the ST165 and ST185. I don't think so. The seller offered a refund if I returned the item, which I did. After I sent it back however, the seller didn't repond to any of my e-mails or eBay messages anymore. Great. A Paypal dispute though was enough to get my money back within a few minutes and that's the only reason I won't name and shame the mofo everywhere.

YES I know it's only 50 USD (120 shipped to me) so NO I shouldn't expect that much of it. But it's just crap. Save yourself the hassle and DON'T buy this midpipe.

I'll leave the pics online for others to see. Also available on http://www.turbocelica.nl/ssautocrap.

[Autobot]

I didn't have any problems with my midpipe, but I bought the entire exhaust system.

[xaftermath801x]

you pretty much have to do a little bit of custom work with any any of thier products ive noticed maybe you could take those two pieces and weld a straight piece into them. i myself bought the whole exhaust and it fits well.

[BoostedBlueToyotas]

It looks like its meant to be used with an aftermarket catalytic converter ?

My Aussie has the short extension shown in your first picture and that attaches to an aftermarket cat. It even uses those same clamps. You may have 2 extensions because one model of the car (ST165,ST185, ST205) uses a different one ??

[hnygt4]

I take it thats ssautocraps own work not motoria?

[Simba]

Looks like the motoria midpipe with some funky short pieces added in. What you need is the secondary midpipe piece from the motoria exhaust, or one of those short pieces and a cat. It would likely work fine then.

Welds look very good, aligned flanges or no. My guess would be they did that intentionally-- I had to make a very similar angled-flange piece to fit a cat into my motoria system.

[Meurz]

It looks like its meant to be used with an aftermarket catalytic converter ?

Possibly. But then again, they should say that in the listing and they don't.

I take it thats ssautocraps own work not motoria?

eBay listing said Motoria, box said SSAC, invoice said SSAC / XS-Power, seller told me to contact Motoria hq at first and finally I had to return it to XS-Power. They're all the same crap.

What you need is the secondary midpipe piece from the motoria exhaust, or one of those short pieces and a cat. It would likely work fine then.

Maybe, but they sell it as direct replacement. They don't state I need to get a cat to weld in between there myself. I don't WANT to mount a cat.
If you check out the last picture you see the pipe - even if it was long enough - doesn't even line up properly. No personal offence Simba, but I can't see why they would do that intentionally; a proper product has aligned flanges AND nice welds AND is aligned properly. My HKS catback a) is welded up perfectly, b) is the right size and c) bolts on like it should without additional welding or extending. Last time I bought cheap crap.

Rant over

[brophats]

hey muerz i had the exact same problem and that was after i sent them several pictures of the 2 mid pipes they sell. what i found was that they do get the correct midpipe but they come packaged with the turbo back exhaust the have and they wouldn't open a box to send me the right one so i got my money back after complaining like crazy. anyway do not buy their mid pipe.

Demetrius

[toayoztan]

Muerz (and the rest of you), it's a 205 midpipe.

Read here:

http://www.alltrac.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24099

Here's two pictures to show what i received. The first is with the 205 midpipe, the second is the with the 185 midpipe. Off the bat, you can already tell how much longer the 185 is:





As for their customer service...well it isn't the best.

Hope this clears some things up!

Bryan

[vash169]

I put that midpipe up against the midpipe that came with their full catback system and it's indeed quite different. The system I did get was perfect, none of that hackjob flange fitment at all. I guess I got lucky!

[lumbercis]

I mentioned this problem in the midpipe thread:
http://alltrac.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... sc&start=0

If you order just a midpipe from them, they send you an ST205 midpipe. The pictures on their site ssautchrome.com also show an ST205 MP under the ST185 listing.

They won't respond to any of my emails now and they don't list anything but a fax number so I have no way of getting my money back or trying to get an exchange. If anyone has any contact info, I'd like to give them a piece of my mind.

At the very least, they need to take down the pictures of the ST205 MP and check their stock to make sure they aren't selling people bogus parts.

The only people getting the right MP are those who buy full "Motoria" exhausts. I suspect what is happening is that the full exhausts are packaged together from the factory, so all the pieces match up. But the individual midpipes are mislabeled and/or from a different source. Anyway, you won't get the right part if you just order the MP.

On another note, 935 Motorsports is selling the correct "XSPower" MP seperately,
https://935motorsports.com/catalog/prod ... ts_id=1026
but they are charging $250 for what we all know is a $50 midpipe. Even though it's still probably the cheapest midpipe you can buy, I can't quite stomach paying that much of a markup.

J.

P.S. This thread needs to be stickied.

[Gary]

For someone that has a problem and made a payment via Paypal, you can file a dispute.
If seller don't do anything/no response, you can escalate the dispute into a claim.
This should be covered under Buyer Protection Policy.

13.11 Significantly Not As Described. To the extent that we provide reimbursement for losses for items that are Significantly Not as Described when received by the buyer (which we may do under all programs except the Buyer Complaint Policy), an item is Significantly Not as Described if the seller clearly misrepresented the details of the item in a way that affects its value or usability. This does not include cases where the buyer is merely disappointed with the item or where the item did not meet the buyer's expectations.

You can also file a claim with your credit card company if you pay by credit card.

[lumbercis]

^ I bought mine directly from their website (mistake!) and besides, I let the package sit around for a while until I had time to mess with it, so I think even if I did buy it through paypal, the time period within which I could file a dispute has passed.

J.

[Meurz]

For someone that has a problem and made a payment via Paypal, you can file a dispute.
If seller don't do anything/no response, you can escalate the dispute into a claim.
This should be covered under Buyer Protection Policy.

Exactly what I did. Seller didn't respond for alomst 2 weeks so I filed a dispute. 15 minutes later I got my money back

You can file a dispute till 45 days after the payment.

[lumbercis]

If several of us need midpipes, should we see if Robert will do a group buy on Aussies or else significantly drop the price on the XSPower ones?

J.