V12Godspeed

First of all this is not to point any fingers at kleeman, I love their products and will continue to use them.

Monday night I picked up my car from the dealership because it was being serviced due to a faulty throtle body. Well I pick up my car and notice a small hissing souund from underneath the passenger side. I decide to take it again to the dealership and they say the sound was coming from the secondary TB valve supposedly the one under the supercharger...well they go ahead and replace it. Yesterday I pick up my car I notice it still has the damn hissing sound. I call them and tell them my car is not the same...it is leaking boost..pressure ..something, at that point I did not know what to make of the situation so I pm'd a few people here like Rock, I knew he had some experience with this.

I had a suspicion it could have been a faulty header or something. Rocks advice really did not help much lol!, he told me get your car to the dealership asap, could be a cracked header and whatever you do..:"don't rev the car above 4k rpm"....well I got news for you Rock.....I played some pool last night and on my way home there were 2 guys at the light in 2 nicely tunned STI..they had so many decals I thought they worked for the rally team...lol! So I pull up and rev the car light turns green and I punch it...Kaboommm!!! I felt my engine fall to the floor!!! I was like ooh my God!!!! . I call my tech asap!!He works at Rallye in long island and explain what happened to me, he tells me bring the car up to the shop..all this happens like at 12 midnight, so I take the long island expressway at midnight with no power at all and a hidious sound waking everyone up, at this point I am thinking my engine is blown, I get there we put it on the lift asap...and viola....he says come check this out...he tells me my headers cracked in half!!! Right after the 02 sensors and the flange to connect to the downpipes...I couldn't believe it at this point I am thinking what are we going to do. My tech tickwelded it from top to bottowm, he did a great job, he told me this will hold better than factory weld but it's not the prettiest thing after the job was done It looked like a very good job, I just want to thank Rock for his good advice eventhough I read it after I got home lol!! And thank my tech at Rallye motors in long Island, those guys love these machines, they are night owls!!.

So what do I do??? should I call cory at kleeman and explain this ordeal or am I better off leaving this alone. Guys help me out. Sorry for the long post, by the way the car is running like a bat out of hell I ran home last night at nothing less than 6K rpm!!! Heheheheh not to mention speed limit....lol!

x-tian-230k

Those STI guys must of been smiling ear to ear...... Crushing an E55 by 20 car lengths!!!

V12Godspeed

No worries, I will see them again this thursday...I will be laying the 10 car lenghts ... , lol!

dsc

If the headers are less than year old I would expect Kleemann to replace them.

I would call Cory anyway to let him know. It's always good for a company to know how their products are performing over time. He may have in site as to why it cracked. You may need to know that so it doesn't happen again.

x-tian-230k

Go Amg!

Cylinder Head

iTrader: (1)

Cracked headers could be caused by crappy welds, poor material choice in the construction of the headers (there's a lot of debate as to what metals hold up best in that role), and of course motor mounts that have been pushed to the limit so that the actual twisting of your engine stresses the headers.

Jody, I feel your pain in being smashed by the STI, but its probably not necessarily Kleemann's fault.

V12Godspeed

I think the welds were not strong enough, It craked right were the welds were at...very strange, it was very sharp also a complete sharp crack if you know what I mean. Can't be the motor mounts as this car only has 28k miles on it and not to mention babied from top to bottom, only my weekend driver. Well never the less, I will call kleeman and just let them know, might not help me but will help other clients maybe my headers were just faulty since the beginning, there is a small error margin when production goes in place I will assume.

Rock

It would be great if Cory or Brandon would chime in. I know they monitor this site.

I know when one of my headers cracked in under a year of use, Kleemann was good enough to replace both of them. I am still curious why it cracked...........never got a reason.

Some people suggested that it may have been due to how they were installed but I doubt that was the case because the install was completed in Colorado Springs. Others have suggested that stainless steal headers are more likely to crack because of the inherent properties of that metal.

V12Godspeed

I doubt they will replace them these are second hand I bought them from Biturbo when he sold his K2, then again how long did he have them...Hmmm..

ROCKETW19

did the headders crack at a weld? if so that should be life time warranty. actullay i think it should be life time anyways. i would call asap i bet you get a new set!

BenzoBoi

I say let them know either way just to give them a heads up...

just my 2 cents...

Cylinder Head

iTrader: (1)

If they cracked at the weld then its definitely a warranty issue. Someone can feel free to jump in and correct me but many times issues with welds come down to disparities in the heat/expansion properties of the metal used in the construction of the headers vs. the material used in the welds. Also, if the edges are sharp its more than likely that the material was just too thin.

V12Godspeed

You got that right, when the tech took them off he said they were very thin in that particular place. I will call this afternoon, if they replace them fine, if not still fine. What can I do...what is done is done. keep you posted.

ROCKETW19

the only way they shouldnt replace then is cuzz you bought them used. if not id say they have to replace them. but i bet you get tem replaced anyways good luck.

V12Godspeed

well Spoke to cory and they will not be replaced since I bought them second hand, just great...he said they only protect first buyers....he said if tick welded properly if should be the same effect and nothing should be wrong with it. So in other words no coverage for me, what can I do...not much. This should have been lifetime warranty but what the hell, No problem with me, I will just send them to a profesional company who will probably do a better job than factory. Thank you all for your input.

Cylinder Head

iTrader: (1)

On a side not, did your car sound like a Choo-choo train when they cracked? Happened on my old escalade and that's exactly what it sounded like. My brother called it the "little caddy that couldn't" for months.

V12Godspeed

Man I don't even want to remember the way it sounded, it did sound like a chooo choo train, lol but with a deep note, kind of when a boat hits the horns, heheh, It was just awful, ...you know it truly showed me how much pressure goes into our exhaust!, without a properly built exhaust your engine is worthless, no power at all!!! Man i appreciate my exhaust more and more everyday, heheheh. So skyler when are we going to meet man, been a while at least shoot some pool. We should get a few of the guys together and meet somewhere in Midtown or something...

Cylinder Head

iTrader: (1)

I'm down for that. I've actually been silently looking for new employment as of recently. I'm starting to hate babysitting old peoples' money when I could be closer to the real lines of fire.

SleeperX

Oh man!! I am really sorry to hear about your headers. Good luck getting it fixed and you should definitely call Kleemann.

absent

I went through 2 sets of headers in 20k miles before giving up, installing stock headers and trading in the G.
Will not tune any car by Kleemann again.
On the other hand,Renntech exagerates their #s and these two are probably still the most reputable tuners.

ProjectC55

Anyone have Cory's #, I have a problem with my headers. Turn the steering wheel to the right,no problem. Turn the steering wheel hard left and my center control (connected to the idler arm) hits the down pipe!

blackbenzz

Greatttttt, now I'm going to be constantly worried my headers are gonna crack!

V12Godspeed

Just so you know it's not like the headers are completely useless, they are great, and they sure bring out the power on our cars. The way they tickwelded it is very strong, My tech took almost half hour welding it to perfection, lol, so at least I feel good in that part, he assured me the other good header will break instead of the welded one.

Carl- make a search under Kleemannusa and use the colorado office number, they will transfer you right to him.

BlackBenzz- no worries man, when it comes you deal with it, unfortunately I had to deal with it at 12 midnight, lol!!!

Addicted2Speed

I wouldn't start worrying just yet. A lot of people have kleemann headers and this is actually the first time I heard about people cracking them... obviously when people don't have problems, they don't post about it, so you're way more likely to get feedback when something goes wrong. How many of you had kleemann headers for years and no problems whats so ever? I bet the great majority. If the welds were bad on this particular header, kleemann should definitely replace them free of charge. 4,000$ headers should be 100% perfect.

ROCKETW19

ive only been on this board alil while and i have seen a couple of people talk about cracked haedders. it is a know fact to most of us.