Blau Kits Beware

[Patrick Anderson]

As of yet I have been lucky not to get caught up in a bad kit from Blau. But
I have heard the stories so I agree with Bruce on this one. Our cars are
unique enough that most of the parts warehouses don't have a clue, like you
get the 10v version of a part or something. I am lucky enought to live in
the Pacific NW so I know Scott personally and I order a great deal of my
stuff from him. His prices are always good, if not better and I know that I
will get the RIGHT part everytime. I got all the correct hoses for my
cooling system redo a few months back. He even managed to talk me out of the
Nissens radiator stating that they had a higher failure rate than the OEM
units and offered no additional cooling capabilities. Knowledge that I
passed on to the list at some point I believe. You sure can't beat his
technical expertise when it comes to this car.


----- Original Message -----
From: <BriceW at webtv.net>
To: <200q20v at audifans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 10:18 PM
Subject: Blau Kits Beware


> I now will not order anymore kits fom Blau.
> The 1st kit I ordered was the cluster light kit. It came with approx. 6
> to 8 bulbs. Anytime you do the cluster you want to replace ALL the
> bulbs. The sheet they sent with this kit also didnt specify where the
> new orange and black bulbs should go. You had to guess. It was a total
> waste on money. I ordered the real kit from Scott at Autotechnik for
> less money and he provided all the bulbs (approx 20 or more)
> with a diagram where each bulb went.
> This cost me time and money.
> The 2nd kit I ordered was the cooling hose kit. They didnt include the
> hose directly under under the hydraulic pump. I had to catch a ride to
> Auto Zone to find something that would work. The hose into the heater
> valve was not the right hose as one end was 3/8 and the other end was
> smaller. I wasted an hour on that and had to find something that would
> work from new cut to length hose at Auto Zone.
> They put hose clamps on each end of the hoses in this kit. Almost half
> of the hose clamps in this kit were to small. When you went to loosen
> the clamp to be able to put it over the connection the clamp would come
> apart of course. No way to reinsert a small clamp when the hose is on. I
> went to Auto Zone to get new bigger clamps.
> That cost me time and money.
> The 3rd kit was the radiator mount kit.
> The 2 big mounts looked OEM but the 6 or so small mounts were these
> pieces of junk black rubber with a very thin metal plate on each side.
> They were also thicker than the OEM and didnt fit properly. The rubber
> would twist a bunch when I tightened them. I did the radiator and the
> aux. They looked like some very cheap Chinese knockoff. I was hacked
> off. The OEM mounts have that hard rubber with the thick gold cap.
> This cost me time and money as I will get the OEM for the upper and the
> aux.
> I complained to Blau politely after each of these instances. They took
> down my complaints and my phone no. I havent got a call from them or a
> credit of any kind.
> They will lose more and more business by trying to cut corners on small
> stuff. I dont trust them anymore.
> I am becoming Mr. OEM only.
> When you are doing a repair you are and get the parts in you are stuck
> using the crap parts unless you have a backup car.
> I need to spend some time and get my backup car running.
> I will now only buy from TPC and from Scott at Autotechnik.
>
>
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