143MYVTECEF

***This thread is in no way trying to bad mouth ETD as a company but to show future patrons what they might have to deal with***

Ok So here my story begins. Ive had the ETD gen 2 traction bar installed on my car for close to 9 months. The car is a 1989 civic DX with b18b with moderate modifications. Which has seen the track once on street tires while the bar has been installed. The car is a daily driver for me here in sunny California. It has not been subject to road salt or other rust inducing chemicals.

Well while swapping in a new 4-1 header i unbolted the traction bar to make installation of the header easier and this is what i found.






Ya to say the least i was stunned. The flange just came off in my hand. I began to think about what would have happen if i hadn't found this massive failure. Car crash? Injuries? Death?

So I called ETD and left a message because it was 6pm Friday their time and to my relief received a call back on Monday and spoke to mike. He asked me to send him pictures of the bar, so i did. Now here comes the upsetting part. I get an email back from them stating that because the bar was out of warranty (only 90 days) that they would not replace it, but sell me a new bar for a slightly lower price. I emailed back my displeasure to their response and Mike sends me back that the bar ETD sold me was in fact not an ETD bar but another company's bar under ETD's name. Which i had no knowledge of and was not informed of at the time of purchase or i would have took my money else where.

So that is where the situation stands now. I am still in contact with them now and will follow up with the outcome. Hopes this helps future patrons spend their money wisely.

ian1006

So ETD sold you a traction bar that they didnt make? Am I understanding your post right?

BTW...you need some Mechanix gloves

Edit: You should be able to grind off the powder coating and weld that sucker back together.


Modified by ian1006 at 5:27 PM 9/24/2008

143MYVTECEF

yep thats the response i got back from mike at ETD. That the bar i bought from them wasnt there bar but another companies bar that they put there name on.

Yes i know i could fix it but thats not really the point. I bought the bar so i wouldnt have to do any welding ya know lol..

Oh i love those gloves.. Really cheap and last a long time.

ian1006

Yeah that sucks about the bar. Well...you can either junk it or fix it, thanks for the heads up on ETD though. I was actually looking into them for a while when I had my Rex but after reading they just put there name on a bar...

143MYVTECEF

***update***

Well Mike emailed me back basically saying ETD would do nothing but offer me a discount on a gen 3 bar. After this hassle i will not deal with them again. Ill take my money somewhere else.

So i got the bar welded up and reinforced all the welds.

Lesson learned: DON"T DEAL WITH ETD

ian1006

I can actually see where he is coming from...he didnt make it so in his opinion he owes you nothing. Bad business and customer relations right there.
The design looks sturdy though and with the welds reinforced you should be good to go. Good luck with the bar again

F20EG

john from etd is a little bitch i hate dealing with that guy

ian1006

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by F20EG &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">john from etd is a little bitch i hate dealing with that guy</TD></TR></TABLE>

He said he talked to Mike...not John. Do you have bad experience dealing with them?

661rex89si

so do you have to post this in every forum jesus we get it.


Modified by 661rex89si at 8:26 PM 9/26/2008

F20EG

yeah i had a bad experience with john who is actaully the owner of etd mike is alright

143MYVTECEF

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 661rex89si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so do you have to post this in every forum jesus we get it.


Modified by 661rex89si at 8:26 PM 9/26/2008</TD></TR></TABLE>

I felt the need to make multiple threads because this one fits into each group. Drag racing, suspension, and 88-91 civic/crx. That's probably why all three threads are still up and haven't been deleted. But thanks for the bump

stumpyf4

Looks like poor weld penetration. Reweld that sucker.

143MYVTECEF

Ya i had the bar welded back up becasue i needed to get my car back on the road. Yet no solution reached yet

JOeiROck

well im having a completly different problem with my etd traction bar ..

i have a 96 civic coupe ... and when i put the bar on and the brackets on the lower control arm... the connecting bars that are adjustable are too big ... i adjusted them to be as small as possible ... and still .. nothing ..

what is etd's number .. i have not been able to contact them ..!!!!

DEIVIONCRX

Pretty sure the bar my friend had on his EF CRX was a ETD, he had to modify it to make it fit right out of the box, then it failed after a few HPTD's.

143MYVTECEF

John and i spoke today and he stepped up and the situation is getting a lot better and making progress. I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

johnlear

If they are selling any product with their name on it and with their approval, then they are ethically and most probably legally responsible for that product, whether or not they actually made it themselves.

It's amazingly bad business practice for them to not have offered you a replacement for what is obviously a faulty unit, just look at the bad word of mouth it generates...

Mike@K-Tuned

In light of the partially negative discussion we have seen on here lately, I thought I would drop a little FYI into this thread for those who are interested.

With that said, everyone on open discussion boards like this one is entitled to share his/her opinions and experiences and it is up to those reading it to interpret the content. Sometimes people agree and other times they don't...

At ETD Racing we are constantly striving to offer our customers quality parts and the service to go with it. We are open to feedback and encourage feedback from our customers regularly. The feedback is very important to us and sparks us to revise current product or generate new product. Bottom line is, "At the end of the day, if you weren't here, we wouldn't be here."

The traction bars we sell have been through several revisions over the years and those revisions were made to improve the product that we sell. Some of our earlier product was simply sold by us but manufactured by someone else (now out of business). Company's sell parts manufactured by others all the time. Our current traction bars are designed and manufactured 100% by us, and we are proud to say that they are our best to date.

Here are some links:
8891 Traction bars
http://www.etdracing.com/8891.html
9200 Traction bars
http://www.etdracing.com/9201.html
9093 Traction bars
http://www.etdracing.com/9093.html

We are currently working to resolve the issue with our customer who originally posted feedback in this thread.


Modified by LSvtecMike at 7:52 PM 10/1/2008

ian1006

Good to hear that a business is actually trying to make good with a customer. To the OP, please keep this thread updated with the final outcome of working with the company, we know you had it rewelded already but keep us up to date here.

Mike@K-Tuned

We will keep you posted too.