draxcaliber

well then can we agree that you are more likely to get better customer support from turbonetics and dezod if you have a problem with your turbo kit than you are with the many shifty toyota dealerships that will blame you for your supercharger ruining your engine? and while the supercharger itself being made by vortech might not be junk, but since vortech makes the supercharger housing, but do they made the entire kit? the problems might not be the kit but more the components to make it fit in the tc.
also,

supercharger: 7 psi, 190 whp, one year 12 k, or join your 3/36 warranty. if you can get a dealership to fix it and not accuse you of aftermarket parts being to blame.

zpi stage 0: 6 psi, 230 whp

turbonetics: 8 psi 240 whp with a one year no fault no hassle warranty even if you race.

VitViper

From what I've seen only a handful of people (who's more likely to post, the people having the problems or the people enjoying their kit and never had a problem) have had issues--and the 07 kit has be reworked to address them. I will agree that the 05-06 kits do seem to have a bad rep on this site. Turbonetics and dezod may provide you (are NOT obligated to help you in anyway) support--which is great.

Seems it's more to blame on shady dealerships than anything else (and I believe it joins your powertrain warranty, which is 5/60). From what I've seen the S/C is a 50-60whp gain over stock (seen stock 05-06 tC's ranging from 136-140 or so go up to ~190), I sure hope my 07 tC that put down 153whp in basically stock form (woohoo, I had the TRD axleback!) hits the 200whp mark (Yes I am working on getting the 07 S/C, my car is going to be basically S/C + exhaust and nothing else, so if anything goes bad and they try to ____ with me they'll be talking to a lawyer, unless they can blame my TWM short shifter for engine failures haha).


I won't argue that well built turbo setups generally make more power on pretty much any 4 banger (hence the ZX2 being turbo). My post was meant to get him thinking about what he really wants: a high power turbo car that generally involves more maintenance and the nagging urge to turn the boost up (hell, I wasn't happy with 7psi I ran on the ZX2 until I get my tune closer to what I wanted), or a factory supercharger that gives a decent (hell, it won't be fast, but definitely better than stock) power upgrade and maintains the factory warranty? I wanted to point out that owning a turbo (hell even supercharged at that) FWD vehicle isn't all smiles all the time. Just food for thought.


ps: I'm really hoping they modified the 05-06 kits to include the changes in the 07 kit.

ExTc

To say there is little power gain is just crazy! Stock I dynoed at 143 h.p. and stock s.c. i dynoed at 201 h.p. Ive had my supercharger for 16500 miles with no problems but no matter what mods you have the way you drive it is going to determine the problems you have. In response to the 's giving advice on which route to go, save up you milk money and get boosted before you give advice!

draxcaliber

look. i am not some boost happy supercharger hater. when i got my tc, i was planning on getting the supercharger, but i could never get the money together. but that is probably the best thing that has ever happend because now all you guys who have had the problems or reported taht you are disapointed with the results have saved me alot of time money and heart ache.

true, i don't have a turbo or super charged tc, but i spend more than enough time reading reviews and problems and posts and so on to know that i won't be happy with a supercharger and i try to teach others what i have learned so that they can make better decisions for themselves.

06SuperWhite_SoCal_tC

When you put it that way, it really all just depends on how you're getting the power to your front wheels. I thought my friends MazdaSpeed3 would be way over powered for a FWD car, but it manages to get its power to the pavement quite easily, minimal wheel spin. My tC is my DD, putting down 230whp, and lower gears can very easily over power the front tires. I also have further goals for it, but plan on purchasing a more practical DD to save miles/wear on the tC.

ExTc

There are issues on both sides however you choose to only point out problems with the s.c. , and to give advice on what you have READ from a few members is just stupid! Go ahead and get your turbo I cant wait to see your thread " I blew my block and ZPI wont cover it". Ill take my chances with a my dealership anyday over a tuner shop.

VitViper

Bingo. Given the tC doesn't come with the LSD from the factory it's safe to say it gains quite a bit of wheel spin. At least there is a Quaife LSD available to use, I'm not so lucky with my ZX2 (but hopefully the phantom grip POS will work OK until I get a custom tranny together).

I believe they are packing an LSD from the factory?

Ditto, hence I own an 07 tC now I just can't deal with driving an n/a car, but I don't want all the "perks" of a custom T/C setup, I'll be more than happy with the 200whp from the TRD S/C in my DD.

draxcaliber

okay, this is the dirty on turbos that i have read so far. some guy blew his engine installing a second hand zpi kit. one guys blew his motor after installing a greddy turbo kit and then driving it to get tuned. kingsleyinmd just blew his greddy turbo'd tc having a boost controller installed. playinwithfire has the turbonetics kit, and it had a bad seal or something, but turbonetics replaces it no problem, not questions. one guys fouled up his spark plugs with a zpi stage 0 kit without a piggy back ecu, so he ran rich. those are all the turbo horror stories i have read. i'm not saying those are the only ones, but all of those sound pretty resonable to me.

VitViper

In all honesty both setups can have their problems. You're converting the car to FI, if you think it'll be 100% peaches and cream 100% of the time... you're pretty delusional

:p

ExTc

^^^^^ Exactly, whether you go turbo or supercharger both have their pros and cons. It just gets tiring seeing the s.c. get crapped on when so many enjoy and continue to enjoy their s.c. setup.

vvtiTc06

not on any side both ways are great and like you said both have pros and cons but to add to the info i have had mine now for 8000 miles works great only mods i have done is cold air for about 3000 of the mile and just today i put in the 007 foge BVP and wow it feels great the s/c for me give me plenty of power for a daily driver and keep me happy. And I am the only S/C TC in Wichita and mine was the first the dealer here did so they are fully aware of what i have added and are all for it and said would be fine with my warranty so i guess it comes down to..what kinda relationship you have with the person you buy it form and have your work done by.

06SuperWhite_SoCal_tC

^ My Uncle is the parts manager at the dealership I goto... Hassle free for me. and I bought everything at Dealer Cost. $2800 for S/C and $200 for Install. :D

Stone128

It's actually 5/60 warranty on the supercharger

Robs_tc

I see your point and if one where to have a s/c that was holding up well, it would get tiring hearing the criticism. Having had two of them and had two different problems, makes me want to lean towards unreliable in general. Maybe the odds were seriously against me getting two bad units and maybe it could have been installed or assembled wrong. Either way, a number of the s/c are failing pretty early on a performance life standpoint. Assuming people don’t mod the crap out of them, you should still have nothing to worry about with the warranty and repairs if something where to go wrong.

kocho333

actually thats not entirely true... after returning my S/C to stock i tried to get it serviced and honestly ur really at the mercy of the dealerships, in both service and installation, theres a dealership near me that had consecutive S/C failures due to installation. bottom line, if ur lucky ull get through it. i got lucky when my bearings spun and my crank shaft seized. they were hesitant but with the permission of the regional manager they ordered me a new block, they completely boched that swap including not installing my tranny engine mount and misaligning the steering column but i didnt have to pay for a new engine.
so honestly lookin back, as well as MORE THAT JUST A HAND FULL of us that had horrible issues wit the S/C are glad to either gone turbo or back to stock. yea it put down some nice power and it was a nice run, but if i didnt have the money for any of it and really pieced it together as how some of these other young guys want to do its really a big risk to take.

my point of view, make the car look nicer than it already does, make it sound nice, get a nice gps, or other entertainment, and be happy with ur warranty. im fine wit my 150hp now cuz i know if something where to happen now, it would be minor things, i dont have to worry about getting ripped at a dealer or sucking some **** to get somethin fixed, its really not worth the pain, hassle and worry.

it was a learning experience for me as ive always been around turboed people and seen the problems and the money get thrown away and the pain, i thought i wouldve been invincible with the supercharger as so many people were saying. thats y i choose it last summer...but all in all getting 250 whp MAXED out with this supercharger aint worth wat could and most likely will end up out of it. the way i see it, save money use the stock warranty, make sure u have RELIABILITY keep ur good credit or wealthy bank account w.e it might be and be happy, later on look back and laugh while burning out in a nice porsche or something really fun and worth the 400 hp.


just my .03.......

Robs_tc

You're right about the dealer side of things. Luckily the main sponsor for our car club is the dealership and they're pretty involved, tricked out tC's must sell cars I guess.

trdsparks

I can't take it anymore. People come out there and talk about tons of things they really don't know about and state everything like it's fact. W hen it's really just an opinion that they have come up with based on what they read on the internet.

1) There is nothing wrong with the TRD Supercharge. The majority of the people who have had problems either changed/modded something there were told not to then got made when something went wrong and had to play for it. You can look back at almost every thread where someone was talking about having an issues with the S/C and find that they changed or modded something. Trust me if you dig you will find it.

2) Turbo kits are by no means safer or more dangerous than the S/C. The down fall to the turbo is that unless you really know what you are doing and know how to maintian the vehicle is going to have issues.

3) Just because you haven't heard about all the horror stories of turbo kits does not mean they do not exist. I have had a few ppl tell me that some well known turbo companies have asked them to keep things on the hush. So please do not get it twisted.

4) There were some brackets that got broken because of faulty installation. Keep in mined that there are tons of ppl that are still running the original bracket with NO issues.



Here is what I tell every person I sell a S/C to. If you are going to mod the S/C then please go buy a turbo because you will be much happier with the power. If you want to add some additional power to your can and pep it up then the S/C is the way to go. If anyone can sit there and call a 51 whp gain nothing then they are crazy. The ONLY way I know to get that kind of power for under $3500 in a Nitrous kit.


Sorry if this sounds like a rant but i hate when people jump on the band wagon and start bashing thing they don't even own or have zero experience with.

Robs_tc

Just take it easy. Everyone knows that a turbo isn’t anymore reliable than a s/c. In fact it can be less reliable because there are more things that can go wrong. I’ve been through my fair of schooling and deisgn at work when it comes to bearings, shaft design, and stress annalist. Garage’s post on the s/c re-build was one of the best I’ve ever read. The Fact is, bearings don’t just burn up on their own unless they were manufactured wrong, poor lubrication, or something was assembled poorly to put the extra stress in a given area. That or they didn’t get the proper rated bearing for the s/c, which I don’t think was the case. Even Garage said the seal wasn’t the greatest.

I personally spoke to you at TRDsparks with my first s/c problem at the time, was researching if anyone else at the time was having problems (bad seal). This didn’t upset me at all, I was patient and things were fixed. And no I never had a header on the car. I can agree that the majority of people with problems have mods done to their blowers. There are also a few people on here who have had problems and are completely stock. One guys has an intake and the dealer will not cover the s/c, I wouldn’t even put that into the same class as a pulley ect. And I know people try to bash the power it makes, saying it only makes 200hp. It makes about 195whp which is a 55whp gain over stock. This is pretty good considering it’s only sending you back about $3500 with install.

What you don’t understand is that normal every day people who don’t want to start a flame war are having problems that aren’t isolated to modding the s/c. I don’t need to be an engineer for TRD or even a representative that sells these things to know they have problems. I’ve experienced them first hand. Maybe I got some bad installs from the dealer and maybe I just got the lemons of the group. I know people who have been running +30k miles on the car with no problems. I even know people who have close to that with every mod you can put on that thing and have no problems. Bottom line, I’m just trying to look out for the next guy and make them aware of any little (or big) problems these things have been having, how ever rare or abundant they may be. You said what has been bothering you and now I’ve said what’s been bothering me. That is my unbiased opinion.

trdsparks

If I came off hostile apologize. I'm not saying that TRD is perfect or that any aftermarket part is perfect because we all know they are not. No matter what way we look at the TRD S/C is an aftermarket part. If just happens to be covered by the warranty. Just like every other part or accessory that has been made for any vehile sometimes there are issues when parts are new.

Now I know there are some dealer out there that are less than helpful (to put it nicely) when it comes to TRD or warranty work for that matter. There are apparently alot of techs out there who don't follow through with directions either. I'm not blaming all the broke brackets on tech either so don't take it that way. But if you heard some of the phone calls I have gotten from other dealer you would start to wonder.

Like I said I hate it when someone bashes something an post miss or sometimes flat out wrong information as fact.

ThisDudePaul

iTrader: (1)

can your uncle hook me up? haha