Not to say they are not reputable, like I said, they do make decent parts, parts that I currently have on my car and they perform outstanding, but in my experience they have slipped as of late. Thats all I will say on that because I already talked to Adam about this last week.

Like I stated before, the pressure exerted on the track in situations where WOT is common, I would prefer to have a hard pipe where I know no matter what, expansion will not happen. Clearly, the other day it popped off the car without much throttle, having that happen on the track can prove tragic. That's why my view, which has track days/events in mind, the hard pipe is better. Having it feel like it added some torque is just a bonus...the piece of mind of being safe on the track, while I run higher boost, is what I am looking out for, hence why I bought this setup.

To answer your question about boost pressure, the ALTA tubes are perfectly fine for daily driving, but I feel like if thats all your doing, the stock tubes, although they restrict air, can maintain the boost permitted by the stock ecu, thats why they are there. You need to buy 300+ additional tubes for this. You get what I'm saying?

The ALTA setup is merely a way to open the air ways, silicone is not made to replace factory pipes for high boost cars, imo. It dresses the engine and opens the air ways, thats its purpose and the only way it proves power in the ALTA graphs is when you have all other components attached. Am I wrong Adam? Do you have graphs with just the pipes on and nothing else to see what numbers it makes?

Hope this answered your questions. I am not the end all, see all but thats my 0.02.


You don't have to back off and maybe I was releasing some frustration and I apologize, but this was not a comparison thread. Not a ALTA Boost Tubes v. NM eng thread. It is a thread explaining the NM pipe and what experience I have had with it. Coming in here and clearing up a boost post error is fine, your knowledge is welcome.

Yes you showed dyno results, but did you with just the tubes and nothing else? If so please direct me! I feel as though the purpose of the tubes was to help with airflow. The stock pipes can handle the stock boost. Calling them boost tubes confuses people I feel. I explained my issue above and why I purchased the hard kit, the reason was due to boost pressures with my new tune, not airflow.

If it were airflow, I would of stuck with your setup. However, if the design I purchased from you was better, I would of kept it on the car. I mean not for nothing, but for all the R&D you say do, there a lot of V.2 and V.3 from ALTA...just make a final product that is issue free instead of trying to be the first vendor to release a product and you will have customers who aren't constantly frustrated because of malfunctions. Kinda like your finally doing with your ecu tune...

If its less expensive to make a hard kit, why don't you? I don't get the relevance that has to this thread?

Anyways, PoktRokt, I hope you can understand my view on this..as I know many people are different, and if you do, then great!

 

I know we spoke about a minor issue with a phone call lost in the system (which is an issue no doubt! As I mention to anyone who asks, PM ME your TEL# any day of the week and YOU WILL get a call back, either from me, or from my staff. Never hurts to poke at me.) the other issue with the wrong hardware on a set of endlinks. Again, sucks but we did get it addressed that day. I don't really see how that is us slipping as of late?

As I said above. If installed properly, and not cut short (not making excuses) the part will withstand HEAVY track and street use. My argument is still the same against a hardpipe like the NM. You have two additional potential failure points (two extra clamps), changes in transitional airflow from turbo, to coupler, to hard pipe, back to coupler, coupler to FMIC. VS> any silicone version that has one smooth transition from the turbo to FMIC.

WOW! "silicone is not made to replace factory pipes on high boost car, imo." Well thank god that is your opinion. You would have thousands of Subaru, Mitsubishi, VW, Audi, customers of ours and other popular silicone manufacturers that would BEG to differ with that opinion!

While the boost tubes DO make HP gains on any setup, I agree the only dyno plot currently shown online is of a car with the other popular options. I will make an effort to get another dyno plot up in short order! Point well taken.


Thank you! Valid point and admission!

Airflow in any pressurized system is IMPORTANT! Pressure needs to be contained, but airflow is key.

The design isn't faulty. Again, a few people got tubes cut to short. You are likely one of them and that sucks! Would have happily replaced it! The V 2.0 on the R53 Intake is Cosmetic only and freshens the line. The V2.0 R53 pulley is a COMPLETE new way of skinning the cat. We had been copied so many times on the original design we had, it was time to do it again.

WE will always make evolutionary changes to our products. To try to say the first is crap isn't fair though either. To say the first of any company is the best and can't be improved on is short sided. That would be akin to saying the R53 was perfect, why did MINI make the R56? Why does Boeing make a new plane? They are still planes and cars, but they are evolutionarily better!



I think it is important to note that manufacturing of some items is more expensive than others and should be seen in most cases as an advantage. Our part is VERY reasonably priced and yet features higher mfr. costs.

THANK YOU for the clarification. I do still appreciate your opinion as it appears you do mine.

 

Well on this point, ALTA again, today, sent me the wrong parts and now I am still waiting to hear from Chris who said he would call me back after speaking with someone. Same thing happened last week and I had to wait a week and I had to have someone who I bought the endlinks through, NAMotorsports, call you guys to get the ball rolling...I will be going on my third week without these parts...

Those extra clamps are T-Bolt, clamps made to withstand these things. Not the ones you sell with your kit, which are weak and snap easy. Unless you changed that too. Not to say you are wrong, there are more points now, but the clamps I have are sealed shut with a nut, over a flanged end. It would take a lot to bust that off. I'm sure you know what a T-bolt clamp is.

Yes, I understand silicone is great and it has many uses on many cars. Never said it was something I wouldn't use or nobody else uses, but if there is a hard pipe option on a car running higher boost, like there is, I would opt for that. You still didn't answer what happen with the Unichip and people collapsing their inlet and throttle body pipes. Had it been a hard pipe, LIKE ON YOUR TURBO UPGRADE THATS RUNNING MORE BOOST, that wouldn't have happened. Why not use silicone for that if its suitable?

If the HP gains from the tubes made more than 5hp, I'd be shocked! Would be interesting to see though..thanks for wanting to try it...

Never said airflow wasn't important.

Evolutionary changes are fine and I worded that wrong. Of course companies will make new versions of the old, your are right, but I guess what I was getting at is that ALTA makes parts sometimes and it seems all you care about is being the first to do it, whether someone gets a pipe to short or not, you say it sucks. If your putting all this emphasis in talking about the EXPENSE into making a pipe, wouldn't it cost more to have to constantly replace them for free? If all the RnD expense is not being put to good use by making perfect pipes every time, whats the point? Something doesn't add up here...

Of course YOU will try and make it better, you are always a stand up guy in that department, no doubt Adam, but now I have to deal with your customer service department and in my case on more than one occasion for one part. THAT SUCKS! Now I'm without a part and no one else in your camp seems to care too much by not calling me back. How long does it take to ask a question and call me back? Why should I buy from you again if you are going to continue to have faulty parts and poor customer service? You see what I'm saying...

I agree with you that yes I'm frustrated and this whole endlink thing is really obnoxious. Can you blame me? I really have nothing against you Adam, you are a great guy and know your stuff. If I were you, I would find some new people in that customer service department...too many things get lost in translation. Again, not very cost effective...

 

Chris should be speaking to you now. Rough day for little Chris chasing some things. Delay isn't acceptable.

We use T-bolt clamps in some situations. So yes I am familiar. Looking to see if they can fit smoothly with this kit. The T/B would be a nightmare! But again I don't think your current part will fail, nor would your ALTA part (short of being to short). you STILL have silicone on your "hard pipe" if that was the sole reason for changing, then you need to look at something different than the NM as the hardpipe is only as strong as the weak link. (I don't think the silicone is weak, but you expressed that YOU felt it was weak. Now you have silicone and metal. I don't see the purpose.

endlinks through, NAMotorsports, call you guys to get the ball rolling...I will be going on my third week without these parts...[/QUOTE]

Chris should be speaking to you now. Rough day for little Chris chasing some things. Delay isn't acceptable.

Turbo kit still uses silicone hot side with a metal adapter to silicone. Inlet tube is shown currently with a metal inlet. Silicone would be fine there too.

Lets not bring up the nightmare UniChip harnesses. The inlets that collapsed were corrected. Not cropped up since.



Hey anytime something goes a miss from shipping, to packaging, to a missed phone call etc. it SUCKS A%%. No argument! We can only grow from the experience and refine the system. I can't apologize enough for any errors on your situation.

CHRIS DOES CARE ABOUT YOU AS DO I (feel the hug ) SERIOUSLY!

Have a GOOD weekend!

 

I am in no way trying to stick up for Alta. But (here it comes) I actually have had good experiences with Christina, Chris, jeff, Adam. They have always called me back and did a good job of trying to help me. I am sorry to hear of your experience. And as someone who works for a parts supplier (Moss Motors) I know about problems. I just hate to see people who I have dealt with and have been good to me bashed.

But I am not wanting to start a fight with you. And if your story is true, which I am sure it is, at this point they should overnight you the correct part and get you handled.

 

I have had good experiences also, like I said I am not trying to bash them as people, they are great people! I just feel on the business end they tend to screw things up, which in my case is the problem.

Adam, Chris, and Christina are the only people I have dealt with and they all are great people, no lie there. Frustrations can sometimes get the best of the consumer and I do apologize for this, but this should not excuse them for sending me the wrong parts twice over a three week period. I agree it should be handled in a timely manner.

Hopefully this can be resolved by Monday.

 

I think that is fair. While all honest mistakes, they are still mistakes and the enduser ends up getting the brunt. As I said before that sucks!

I got your PM, as did Chris. Monday we will get this 110% resolved. Stupid hardware

Chat soon and have a GREAT weekend!

 

I went through the unichip harness fiasco too.. All through it Alta was very helpful. They didn't manufacture the failing part but they sold it and worked hard to resolve it.

I do question the safety of running 20lbs of boost now but that is not for this thread.

I'm happy enough with Alta that I just ordered front swaybar endlinks from them about 15 minutes ago.

( now go rush that order Adam! )

 

Hey thanks for the compliments and the order! Shoot me the order # and I will be sure to give it some extra luv! Chat soon!

 

I like to commend dts on his willingness to try new things and share his experiences. He, at least, has tried both hard and silicone tubes before he commented on the products.

 

coming from the US navy submarine background that I do - That brings some sick thoughts to mind!



now back to our hard pipe discussion.

dang I did it again...

 

Thank you Slinger, appreciated!




Yesterday, Adam got on the phone with me and sorted out the endlink issue. I thought I was sent the wrong bottom rod ends and did not realize that they were reverse thread, thus the reason why I was thinking they had sent me the wrong parts twice. I did not know, nor did anyone tell me until yesetrday they were reverse thread, but with that aside, the endlinks are now completed. Adam made sure both parties were satisfied and left it on a good note.

Again, there is no excuse for the tardiness of the service, but Adam did his best to clean it up and make sure it was resolved and that I was happy . I applaud him and his efforts!

Back to the OP...with more and more time on this setup, I really have to say the hardpipe design does feel like it puts more trq to the ground and quicker...I had a JCW guy drive in my MINI again the other day who has silicone tubes, but didn't tell him I changed pipes from silicone to hard pipe. He said my car felt much more powerful up to 5k across 1st to 4th and wondered why his didn't feel that way After explaining the situation, he was quite impressed...It may seem crazy that one pipe can make a difference, but changing the two from ALTA when I got the car made a difference too. As long as you have other parts working together, espeically ones that help move air quicker and without restriction, you will feel a difference.

Yes, there is silicone for the bends, but with T-bolt clamps and flared edges, IMO, this pipe setup is hard to beat...

 

Did you recieve your ED cold pipe yet?

 

Not yet, I don't think he started it yet...I'll have to call today.

 

HAHAHAHAHHAHA! too funny!

 

dtsoccer6: Thanks for taking the time to speak to me yesterday! Glad we got to the resolution that worked. Sorry you had the right parts for that long and we didn't have a meeting of the minds sooner. Regardless, glad it is done and for now we are all happy! Let me know if I can ever help in the future!

Thanks NAM!

 

I have to weigh in on this subject for the masses. I too am replacing my last ALTA boost hose with the NM Engineering turbo hot side discharge setup. This post is based on actual experience and documented with photographic evidence to back my findings. See the following link for more pictures and video:
http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ube%20Failure/

In short, the ALTA boost inlet tube failed due to the hose breaking down and collapsing under heavy inlet demand.


Video of this is available at the link above. I know, the ALTA replacement is suppose to flow better but the reality of it is that you're maximum flow is still limited by the small opening at the turbo inlet fitting so the factory pipe is back and and working great.

The ALTA turbo discharge hot side tube is being replaced due to excessive wear by contact in the radiator area.



The ALTA turbo cold side discharge tube was removed and the stock piece put back in due to contact and extreme wear with both the engine and the firewall.


Let's not forget the fact that the ALTA hot side turbo discharge tube was too short for a proper installation.

IMHO, spending more time on research and development, instead of marketing would have yielded much higher dividends down the road.

Again, this post is based on my personal experience that's backed by the provided data and photos.

Have a great motoring day!!!

 

Using pictures to prove what you're saying . I found this thread (and the dozens of other similar threads) to be very helpful with finding out what works and doesnt...

 

I also just found this thread while doing some research and the rest of the thread aside, that last post really did it for me.

I don't see myself dropping money on parts like that. "more flow, better, smoother bigger" at the expense of a silicone part rubbing against everything in it's vicinity is not something I can see myself accepting.

The parts these tubes connect to are mounted firmly in place and do not twist, adjust, flex, or move to ever cause the tubes to attach in any different angle other than the correct way. And getting that amount of wear, to me, is unacceptable. I see myself piecing together all my own hard charge piping if I ever upgrade.

 

I was very dissatisfied with my ALTA intake. It didn't add any power, didn't fit the car right, was impossible to get everything to line up, and made the worst vacuum cleaner sucking noise ever. I've had plenty of experience with other cars and intakes, but this system didn't do anything but cost me 45 dollars in shipping. I was so angry. I ended up getting punished because their part didn't fit right and wasn't what they advertised. What a ripoff.

Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

Pay to ship it to you, advertised as fitting your car, fits like crap and from what I heard, even on cars it's made for pulls things to the point of tearing the factory intake tubes on their intakes, AND then pay to ship it back to them because THEY couldn't do enough R&D to put out a quality part? (especially at all the nuts pricing on something as basic as an intake). The more I read on here, the less I see myself ever giving Alta my money.

 

I know, it's ridiculous. They seriously are lacking on the customer support end. They had even tried saying they "don't do refunds" and I told then it wasn't my fault they sent a POS intake that didn't fit my car. I was expecting a return shipping label to be issued by them, and a FULL refund including initial shipping charges. Of course, they don't do what should've been done. Pretty lame in my opinion.

Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

Hi Fields!

Jeff and I were the folks helping you from the get-go. I was even the one you chatted with before you submitted your order, if you remember! I recall you being apprehensive about the purchase to begin with.

The biggest complaint from you was that you didn't enjoy the sound of the product. We didn't really argue with your complaints as we sell a lot of these intakes and have no problems - the sound of the intake is not something we can change for you. As you claimed to have minor fitment issues, we decided to accommodate you and take the intake back, no questions asked. The part was in perfect manufacturing condition upon its return.

When our clients don't feel they should pay shipping on a return, in a lot of cases we will send a shipping label so that it's on our dime. During our conversations, there was no mention of you wanting the shipping refunded or covered. Most customers that are returning an item because they don't like it will cover the shipping back to us as it is a stock return. In this case, had you asked, I would have been more than happy to include a call tag to cover the shipping cost of the return; Original shipping is never refundable.

We went through with this return and didn't argue with you because we understand that we can't satisfy all customers. It's better customer service, in my opinion, to go a little out of our way to bend the rules on returns, in hopes that we will be able to keep you as a future customer.

I'm sorry if we didn't offer the call tag for the item as this may have eliminated your frustrations with ALTA Performance.




Please PM me or email me directly at christina.silva@ALTAperformance.com with any additional questions or concerns. I look forward to our future correspondence and hopefully a chance to win your customer satisfaction!

 

My biggest complaint with the intake was the fitment. I chatted with the tech support the day it arrived and said I was having fitment issues. Yes I returned the part in perfect condition. I was instructed by you to pay for shipping and insurance on the return. I thought you were going to refund both charges once the processing was done that you spoke of. I don't appreciate the fact that here on a forum, you direct a concern that I had emailed you about, and never got a reply for. The fitment issues are what I sent the part back for. You didn't have to "accommodate" anything. I was sent a part that didn't install as stated, and it didn't produce any gains as claimed. I am not the only person on this forum that has said the same thing. I was expecting a full refund of the original shipping and return shipping. It was never mentioned that I was getting a less than full refund. I sent your company another email yesterday, again stating that I shouldn't be punished financially for a part that didn't fit correctly. I would appreciate you issuing my credit card a refund for the shipping charges I incurred. I am not asking you to do anything above and beyond what any other customer would expect, when a part they ordered doesn't fit correctly, and doesn't make any difference in performance. It is very upsetting that over 45 bucks, you would tarnish your companies reputation in the eyes of many. I would've preferred for you to handle this in a professional manner and reply to the email I sent, but since that wasn't done, I guess this is the only way to respond to you. Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

The best part is, they will publicly defend themselves in a forum thread here when you make the claims you do. But the guy above who posted pictures and videos of the Alta parts failing, rubbing on everything around them and not fitting right gets completely ignored. Good PR. Defend yourself against the guy wanting some monetary refund, but the guy who posted major flaws in your products, who doesn't seem to be asking for a refund gets ignored completely because a done sale is as far as it needs to go. He's not asking for money back, so why say anything? I would bet because they have nothing to say. His post is pretty cut and dry on the issues. Nothing short of smoke, mirrors, and talking themselves in a circle like a politician could make someone with some sense want the products after that post alone.