Yet, Another RB Smoker!

[135i2]

Well, with not quite 5000km on my RB's BEV is smoking like a Rasta and friends in a small dunny with no windows.

Car makes good power but each outing the smoking gets progressively worse despite the safer low horspower tune from JD75 and Trebila.

Looks like its turbo upgrade time again!

[dh58]

Originally Posted by 135i2

Well, with not quite 5000km on my RB's BEV is smoking like a Rasta and friends in a small dunny with no windows.

Car makes good power but each outing the smoking gets progressively worse despite the safer low horspower tune from JD75 and Trebila.

Looks like its turbo upgrade time again!

bl man.. that sucks.. while I don't have the turbo issue.. I do feel ur embarrassment/pain with the smoking.

[JB4-335]

That's too bad.

Were these the "next gens" or the OG RB's.

I think your the 4th or 5th Aussie that I know of with dodgy RB's.

[Forced_downunder]

Join the not so exclusive club of broken RB's.

Sorry to hear about it. It's been an expensive exercise for me so far too.

What are you going to out in next?

[135i2]

Unfortunately the turbo's have been on the car for almost 2 years due to the extensive modification to the car in a relaxed fashion.

Car's had one road trip to Queensland and back to Sydney, dyno runs and less than 1000 local kms in all. Run straight e85 for 500km including dyno runs.

Given the fact that there is no warranty worth a damn, or back up from Rob Beck, it's a poor investment the product. You'd hope there would be some improvement from RB moving forward. But for now its money pissed down the drain, not to mention the spend required to find something more reliable.

For now I join the long list of Aussie RB unfortunates....a not so exclusive club.

RB's are original non-VSR balanced.

[135i2]

Originally Posted by Forced_downunder

Join the not so exclusive club of broken RB's.

Sorry to hear about it. It's been an expensive exercise for me so far too.

What are you going to out in next?

At least I got almost 5000km out of them. Spoke to another Advan customer yesterday who's RBs lasted a thousand, and Marty's didn't last much longer than that either.

Ideally, funds permitted, I would like to see if the Motiv900 single will fit. Will need to thunk on that one.

[Forced_downunder]

Yep I got less than 5k kms too. 10mths on mine before they started playing up.

MOTIV 900 is the way to go if you're willing to be the first, they expect it to only be the downpipe needing changing but it's a big IF.

[_ink]

Sorry to hear mate! That really sucks!!

Rob@RBTurbo really should be providing a rebate to upgrade to his newer versions!! Customer satisfaction is paramount.

[martymil]

Ive got the original rb's now with next gen internals but no billet wheels replaced under warranty

So far so good 2k on them time will tell

I'm not saying they are not going to but I hope not

Producing some nice power figures let's hope rob got it
right this time round

[DR-JEKL]

I'm so glad I didnt go with RB's and decided to spend my $ on chassis LSD mods until the dust settled on the VTT RB saga. 2 years later I wouldnt touch either with a 10ft pole, so will be interestig to see how the hexons and pure's fare!

Wow would love to see a RHD motiv ST conversion!

Ultimately I want a 'reliable' ST setup

[_ink]

Hey Mike, worth checking out, I know Advan are all over the install process... But best to eliminate everything first:

http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38455

[questionable]

Originally Posted by DR-JEKL

I'm so glad I didnt go with RB's and decided to spend my $ on chassis LSD mods until the dust settled on the VTT RB saga. 2 years later I wouldnt touch either with a 10ft pole, so will be interestig to see how the hexons and pure's fare!

Wow would love to see a RHD motiv ST conversion!

Ultimately I want a 'reliable' ST setup

Whats been so bad about the VTT stage 2 setup, ive ran them for over 15,000ks with no issues at all.

[froop]

Originally Posted by questionable

Whats been so bad about the VTT stage 2 setup, ive ran them for over 15,000ks with no issues at all.

I think it's more Tony Vargas himself, rather than his actual product lol

[questionable]

Originally Posted by froop

I think it's more Tony Vargas himself, rather than his actual product lol

Does it really matter, couldn't care what the bloke was like, if he makes reliable parts that's fine by me.

[_ink]

Originally Posted by questionable

Whats been so bad about the VTT stage 2 setup, ive ran them for over 15,000ks with no issues at all.

VTT also had their own fair share of smoking issues is what he was referring to.

[questionable]

Originally Posted by _ink

VTT also had their own fair share of smoking issues is what he was referring to.

Fair enough, maybe i'm just lucky then.

[135i2]

Agree with Dr-Jekel, there are a lucky few who have been pottering round on RB's as well. And it is just luck with RB and VTT with the older product. Who knows what the current crop will be like over time but I wont be handing over any hard earned to either due to the almost complete lack of product / customer support.

I believe a recent Melbourne, Pure Stge 2 convert, ran his RBs for 40,000kms before upgrading again.

Its all been done to death in the States but I would certainly expect more than 5,000kms on a purported upgraded performance oriented turbo charger. You would think the guy who made them would be desparate to protect customers and future product. Nooo, silly.

At the time these RBs were the only game in town (non-vsr balanced) and the choices coming out of the woodwork since were not available or rumours.

Yes, Ian. We have been across all the standard whats smoking stuff apart from the RBs. Pushing the power levels with these pupies wont have helped their health.

What's next will transpire over the next month or two as this platform goes to the next level with some hopefully reliable turbo's.

JD75 has his work cut out for a while.

[_ink]

Will be anxiously awaiting the decision you decide with Mike! Best of luck mate.

[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by questionable

Whats been so bad about the VTT stage 2 setup, ive ran them for over 15,000ks with no issues at all.

That's great mate what sorta boost and power do you yield with his stg 2 turbos?

I've seen a lot of guys with VTT turbo issues, and how he treats those customers is appalling.. He blames them for everything and has a superiority complex IMO and is a major know it all..

Having said that, he does have some great concepts and he is responsible for the whole silicon inlet craze and his latest turbo offering with new cast manifolds look quite nice. He just needs to pull his head out of his ar$e and learn some basic customer skills...

RB seemed like a great guy, but with all these turbo failures he played possum and didn't really help out his customers... He also came up with some excuses and wouldn't put his hand up and state sorry guys i fkd up and I dont know why my turbos are failing... (in his defence if I was in his position I wouldn't admit this also - albeit I wouldnt be blaming ZDDP content in oil for instance either...)

The difference with RB is he is a more astute business manager, and would honour the warranty without all the BS VTT did, but when someone pays an exorbitant amount of $ for the RB turbo's (I'm used to TT upgrade on an RB costing less than <$3k) plus install costs then when his turbo fail within the warranty period the customer has to pay for R&R (or in advan's case they had to wear the costs) you lose confidence in the product...

Having failures within such a short time frame and with a high failure rate isn't good, I recall Peter telling me had had installed say 10 sets of RB's and he had 8 of them come back with smoking issues (chances are the 2 that didn't sold their cars onto some other poor bastard - or really did get lucky and got the turbos that weren't manufactured on a Friday...

A lot of guys on here may not agree with me, that's fine... this is just my opinion from trawling the forums over the years whilst attempting to select turbo options for my N54

[JB4-335]

Originally Posted by DR-JEKL

That's great mate what sorta boost and power do you yield with his stg 2 turbos?

I've seen a lot of guys with VTT turbo issues, and how he treats those customers is appalling.. He blames them for everything and has a superiority complex IMO and is a major know it all..

Having said that, he does have some great concepts and he is responsible for the whole silicon inlet craze and his latest turbo offering with new cast manifolds look quite nice. He just needs to pull his head out of his ar$e and learn some basic customer skills...

RB seemed like a great guy, but with all these turbo failures he played possum and didn't really help out his customers... He also came up with some excuses and wouldn't put his hand up and state sorry guys i fkd up and I dont know why my turbos are failing... (in his defence if I was in his position I wouldn't admit this also - albeit I wouldnt be blaming ZDDP content in oil for instance either...)

The difference with RB is he is a more astute business manager, and would honour the warranty without all the BS VTT did, but when someone pays an exorbitant amount of $ for the RB turbo's (I'm used to TT upgrade on an RB costing less than <$3k) plus install costs then when his turbo fail within the warranty period the customer has to pay for R&R (or in advan's case they had to wear the costs) you lose confidence in the product...

Having failures within such a short time frame and with a high failure rate isn't good, I recall Peter telling me had had installed say 10 sets of RB's and he had 8 of them come back with smoking issues (chances are the 2 that didn't sold their cars onto some other poor bastard - or really did get lucky and got the turbos that weren't manufactured on a Friday...

A lot of guys on here may not agree with me, that's fine... this is just my opinion from trawling the forums over the years whilst attempting to select turbo options for my N54

I agree with you completely Shane. I think the best option is to go single if you want to make good reliable power or just stay with stockers. Ideally I would get the VM Top mount as it fits RHD and just get a custom downpipes made.

[martymil]

Shane your spot on about a single especially on manual, is the best option and is something goes wrong the turbo removal is so simple it's right in your face.

I'll do the single if mine fail again I'll be doing it myself this time round.

I'v been up for 4500k in installs and uninstalls of rb's

But until those single kits come down in price I can't see myself getting one anytime soon

[JB4-335]

Originally Posted by martymil

Shane your spot on about a single especially on manual, is the best option and is something goes wrong the turbo removal is so simple it's right in your face.

I'll do the single if mine fail again I'll be doing it myself this time round.

I'v been up for 4500k in installs and uninstalls of rb's

But until those single kits come down in price I can't see myself getting one anytime soon

Just buy the hot parts from VM. Get the turbo locally and find a decent shop to fab up a downpipe. Total cost won't be much more than a set of fully optioned RB's installed.