Super Tuner Motorsports

[Joe]

Hello everyone, First let me say I will not provide cliff notes for this. If you don’t want to read the whole thing then what I’m going to say probably doesn’t apply to you. This entire thread is about our experiences with Super Tuner Motorsports, http://www.supertunermotorsports.com (STM for short)

Myself and a friend, Krayton as he is known on most message boards, coincidentally live about 1 block from each other, have s14’s (his a 95, mine a 97) and have RB25’s we were planning to swap. So after we found that out about each other; we started to figure out what to do about wiring. Since nobody has spilled the beans about how to wire an s14-RB25 we decided to go with a shop. Since we are both poor college students Mckinney, while the best choice, was out of the question. The sport compact car article about the RB25 swap had JUST come out when we got our engines. STM did the swap for the article, I contacted a couple people who had experiences with STM and they said nothing but good things.

The middle of August, 2003 I started to contact STM about wiring, how much it would cost, how long it would take, etc, all the basic questions. Patrick told me 5-7 business days and the wiring would be shipped back to us, so just a little over a week, week and a half at the most.

Flash forward to the end of August, 2003. We contact STM and decide to go with them for our wiring needs. It took over a week for them to get a shipping address for us to send the harness to. Being a new business we thought nothing of it. One week goes by (now second week of September) and we have figured out we need engine mounts too. So we go ahead and order them also from STM.

So every week we send emails asking for updates, most of the time we get nothing or a short response saying “we are working on it, they will be finished soon”

The mounts finally arrive late September/early October (don’t remember honestly) and they looked like something someone welded in their backyard. This worried us. In emails to STM I specifically asked what the mounts did and was told they would move the engine down and back 1.5 inches. The mounts they sent did NOTHING. The motor sat the exact same as when the r33 crossmember and stock mounts are used. So after asking STM what the problem was they said their s14 car had a bent frame and they would send replacements as soon as possible.

Keep in mind we are emailing or calling at least once a week trying to figure out whats going on as it now enters October. I leave for 2 weeks to go to Florida on vacation in early October and I ask Patrick when the wiring would be back because my 240 was my only car and I was moving to Phoenix in early November. He assured me the wiring would be there when I got back from Florida around the 15-20th of October. Well I get home and there is nothing.

More emails, more phone calls and the only thing we get is “some of the plugs are broken on your harness, we are trying to get new pieces to replace them.” While that may be true when the wiring finally did arrive none of the “broken” plugs were fixed.

So now it’s the end of October, I am forced to get a loan to buy a second car because I am about to move from Tucson to Phoenix to attend school. Not really a big deal to me because I didn’t want to daily drive my RB-240 anyway but still something that is a result of STM’s not finishing on time.

More and more time passes by and it’s now the middle of November, many times we wouldn’t get return emails or calls for a week at a time. And 99% of the time all we would get is “we are working on it, it will be finished soon”

It becomes too much the end of November and we threaten a lawsuit if we don’t get a finished product soon. They promptly tell us “we tried to send the harness out today but got stuck in traffic so they will go out Monday” and low and behold, we get a tracking number on the 2nd saying it will arrive the 3rd of December.

Well the package arrives December 3rd and at first glance, the mounts look to be in better condition but THERE ARE NO HOLES DRILLED. So they are essentially just solid pieces of metal welded together. An email is sent and, what a surprise, no response. Thursday the 4th comes around and I am talking to Krayton about trying to get down to Tucson that weekend to attempt to fire the RB, while we are talking he says “oh ****, hold on” come back 2 or 3 minuets later with this, “they didn’t send the RB harness, only our mangled KA ones. I didn’t realize it till just now (understandable, he is going through Finals that week, said he didn’t have time to really look over the harness)” I lost it right there. I put a hole in my apartment wall, split open my knuckles, screamed, hollered etc. After 3 months of straight BULL**** with that company they don’t even sent us a finished harness?! I was about 48 hours from driving to California to extract my money and RB harness from them in person. Thankfully Friday they tell us the wiring was sent in a different package (on that Wednesday, the 3rd, 5 days after they originally said it would be) and would arrive Friday the 5th. And it does of course while talking to them about the wiring they say nothing about their non-drilled mounts.

Unfortunately neither of us have the time to install for a couple more days so we don’t know if the wiring even works. Myself because I am in Phoenix and Krayton because he is going through finals right now. Hopefully this weekend we will know.

This thread is NOT about trying to bash STM or their products. This is for the people who are considering using them to get work done. I don’t want ANYONE else to have to deal with the crap we went through. Many times I have considered selling my car or motor just because I was so frustrated with this entire ordeal.

I think everyone in the Nissan community who is considering a RB swap should know about this place and what kind of service they provide.

Please keep this thread civil.

Joe D.Creighton C.

I apologize for writing a small book but everyone should know the ordeal we have gone through.

[gabossie]

Good info to know. It's to bad, a resonably priced alternative to McKinney comes out, and it's a flop. Is there anyone who can live up to decent customer service and have reasonable prices? Or at the least, get the product to the customer finished the way it should be???

[Nameless EJ6]

<-- plans for my car certainly won't be involving their services.

Thanks.

[AREITU]

I...working on the harnesses right now and will offer a full line of them from S13-S14 and RB20-RB26...in a few weeks he will be done I believe and I can't wait...

Night

Would you happen to know if they wire for AC as well? I'm weird like that. Anyway, it's good (in a bittersweet way) to see that there's more and more intrest in the RB.

[krayton]

thats a negative on wiring the AC. i asked them about that before we sent the harnesses away. all he offered was some help and wiring info on it. but with all this that has and is still happening, i doubt ill ask again

[AREITU]

Wouldn't the whole AC deal just be wiring the one or two wires from the ECU pinout to the compressor?

[jbanach77]

i agree with everyone in this thread. anyone doing research should know who they are getting involved with. wether it be positive or negative, just knowing makes the difference. some events are unavoidable, but sheer ignorance of not doing what you say your going to do is another thing.

[Joe]

its also good to note even if you do research, like i did, its not 100% accurate...

[Bluefire]

You know I really wanted to go with STM's kit because of price but after some calculations I found something interesting...

STM's kit (695) comes with mounts to use on RB crossmember, modified down pipe to clear steering rack, swaybar spacers, and wiring. Also since the RB crossmember is used powersteering lines must be modified to fit... and let's say you want to do it cleanly(if your anal like me), you'll need to spend around $100 for new lines and fittings according to "musicsurfman" So the total comes to about $800

MM's kit (600) Motor mounts with use of stock crossmember. I am assuming their kit does not require swaybar spacers or modified down pipe because of the way the mounts position the motor. As for the powersteering, stock lines can be used since the ka crossmember is used. So the total comes to $600 without wiring.

Now if someone could do wiring for around $300 ( Night or Mckinney) that would make the price difference between the two companies only $100. And at that rate I can almost bet that everyone would rather choose quality MM mounts or over STM mounts. I know I sure will...

And finally the driveshaft... I don't know about you guys but i'm thinking $550 from MM is way way to expensive. Looking on http://www.pstds.com , I can get a freakin one piece chromoly shaft for $200 less than MM. I just have to figure out measurements...

Anyways theres my 2 and half cents. Hopefully all my info is correct so take it as you will.

-Bluefire

[jbanach77]

its also good to note even if you do research, like i did, its not 100% accurate...

i agree, and that is why i agree with the post that ppl need to post experiences with vendors to make better choices.

[Joe]

UPDATE for everyone

niethre of us have actually tried the wiring yet (my car is 150 miles away) and krayton is busy with family for christmas

but I got a chance to tear down the harness last night.

oh my god, its complete ****. they didnt even use butt connectors. the only wires they DID touch (3 in ALL) were twisted together by hand.

NOTHING the under dash F3 plug controls is going to work because of their ****ty bypass wiring job. they taped the F3 plug down onto the harness so we couldnt use it.

STM is a ****ing joke, i hope nobody else has to deal with them.

[Yellow4g63]

Damn that sucks man. Someone should make this a sticky so nobody else gets jacked by them.

[Joe]

good idea.

[jbanach77]

can you get your money back, if you already gave them a payment.

i agree put them on the scammer list, or what ever you want to call it.

[Joe]

oh we are trying to get a refundbut guess what

they wont contact us back.

[Nolimit]

what's their address?

[Joe]

Cameron i will be filing with the BBB after the holidays

nolimit http://www.supertunermotorsports.com/i dont know a street address because it was on their site. their shipping address is like a box somewhere, not their real address.

[Dano]

website is down for maintainence and updates.

-Dan

[Joe]

yea amazingly its been down for almost a month now.

[jbanach77]

if someone can get a adress i will fly there to meet a few forum members and we can sort the entire thing out with them face to face!!!!

i help my brothers, and they need to be dealt with on a personal basis. that is a bunch of s***

[Dano]

yeah, that is total BS.

-Dan

[jbanach77]

someone has to know where these guys are located. weren't they in a magazine not too long ago. they had to have said something about where their shop is in the mag.

[PROJECTRB240SX]

SCC IN SEPT '03. ITS THE ONLY ISSUE OF SCC I OWN.

[Joe]

yep, only one i own too.im gonna be emailing this to SCC too because they said STM was a reputable shop.

[jbanach77]

i am friends with mike kojima, he writes for them, and is a hugh part of the sr20 related forums. if you want i can send him this link and he can read for himself, of i can give you his e mail adress and you can touch basis with im. its the least i can do for a forum brother.

[Joe]

give Mike the link to this thread, and give him my email address [email protected] if he has any more questions.

i dont expect SCC to do anything about the situation but it would be nice if they knew what happened because of what they wrote in their article. there are also a handfull of other people who are going through the same **** with STM right now.

SCC was one of the main reasons i went with STM. bad choice.

[fito]

People! I get so mad to hear that some of you go througth so much to have your cars going! Here is what I did with mine and had NO problems at all.I bougth a 95 240 and got an RB25 "NEO" engine all here in Puerto Rico. I then called Mckenney and talk to the owner there about a few questions. I Got my mounts and driveshaft 3 days after a pleased the order. The entire kit fit perfect! Then called "Central Florida Turbo" (they are friends of mine and are distributors of Microtech EFI) Got my Microtech about two weeks later since it was coming from Australia. We left the factory ECU to control everything but the engine "airbags, A/C, etc.) and put the Micro to manage the engine. The instalation of the Microtech took 1 DAY!. So I had my car up and running in about a month with no problem. The Mount kit and driveshaft run you around $1,000 and the micro around $1,000. I personaly thing this is one of the most cost efective and fastest ways of doing the swap. Just my 2 cents! hope it helps! :thinker

[rb250sx]

I def see now that i should have selected another company for my mounts, but $250 compared to $500 i thought was well worth it. I am currently waiting for the 3rd set of mounts to be delivered from STM. The second set "got lost in the mail" but i have a tracking number for the 3rd set. They claim this set has holes in them, Im just hoping everything lines up the way it is supposed to. Just wondering, has anyone got a new set of mounts with holes in them yet? and have they found out how they fit?

btw, the origin scan from my tracking number is RIDGECREST, CA, US. I wish i still had their actual mailing address.

[krayton]

I might still have their mailing address. I need to look for my papers

But Patrick from STM finally emailed me. Supposedly, I asked for the no holes on our mounts. He says when I talked to Brian I wanted no holes so I could drill them myself. First off, its been ages since I talked to Brian because he never returns my phone calls, and why would pay for a chunk of medal? These guys just cant take responsibility.

I've finally gotten on the wiring. Im still a little worried. I should have it all plugged in tomorrow for a test start.

Oh, they said that Brian would call me to go over the wiring. Its been almost a whole week and no call. (expected this from them)

[Joe]

MORE UPDATES

STM's wiring does not work. whatsoever. yesterday krayton tried to start it only using STM's wiring, no dice.