NEw Power FC members who think about cutting the pins WARNING
 

Hello everyone , I havent posted in quite a long time because I've been so upset with my current circumstances that I didn't even want to think about RX-7's.

About 4 months ago I purchase a Power FC and commander from Jason at Rx-7 store. I recieved the Power FC a week later Commander-less (because Jason didnt tell me they were out of stock and I got to find out the fun way) and installed it in my car. I cancelled the Commander order from Rx-7 store and ordered it from Gotham racing and recieved it in 4 days. The Powe.r FC ran fine and I loved it. Then all hell broke loose.

When I recieved the the Commander 4 days later from gotham racing, I plugged it in and tried to start my car, and all helll broke loose as my entire motor filled with fuel to the extent of pouring out my intakes. Some of you may remember a previous post about this happening. It turns out my ECU shorted out when the Commander was plugged into it. I had cut the pins, and cut the wires on my harness (rx-7stores suggestion when I was having the flooding problems)

I called Jason told him the problem, and he had me send it back to XS engineering. This was around October 15th 2003. I sent it back, and awaited the diagnosis and what was to be done to my ECU.

I rarely got any sort of response from Jason other then " I dont know whats happening," "Idont know why its taking so long" You should get it back soon " etc etc etc. This happened every week or so. I waited for 4 long months and still had no ECU.

Finally one day I recieved a PM from Jason telling me the Power FC was on its way back to him from Apexi. Apexi (supposedly, dont know if he didnt want to break me the news or somthing) that they were finished with it and sending it back.

Finally after 4 months my ecu was returning!! I got it back on a cold day In January and plugged it back into my car. GREAT DAY I thought.

I put it on, turned the key to on and low and behold the fans came on ( Power Fc telling you somthing is wrong ) Try to crank the motor and the same thing happens. 4 months and my ecu wasnt even touched it appears.

I call Jason up furious and his comment was

Jason > "Was there anything written on the Diagonosis and repair sheet from Apexi?:

Me >> no why?

Jason " yeah thats what I thought, they didnt tell me that they did any work to it "

I remained silent after this

Jason " let me call them and find out what they did to it, call me back in 20 min"

so I did and He had nothing but bad news to tell me. It turns out that my warrenty was not being backed up, and they were not going to fix my shorted out Power FC because I CUT THE PINS instead of hacking up my precious wiring harness like hundreds of people choose to do. Apexi's claim was that it shorted out because I pulled one of the pins slightly when I was cutting them, and it made contact with another pin. This is bullshit. Why you ask? Because...

one. There isnt even an electrical signal going through the pin that touched the other one because the pins cut.

Two, I opended the power FC and the PINS arent even touching like they claim ( I'll post pics soon )

Three, the POWER FC was running perfectly untill I got the commander and installed the commander.

So basically their claim made no sense, and It turns out they wont repair it because they dont want to, and wont because I "voided the warrenty by cutting the pins".

So I talk to Jason, and he is trying pull some strings.

However, he tells me that he thnks there is only one guy that works in the repair department in a multimillion (billion? ) dollar company and he doesnt even think they repair power FC.s right. I dont even know what to believe anymore bcause this all sounds so fishy.

So not only am I out a Power FC (900)$ thats sitting in front of me collecting dust, but from Rx-7 stores advice I also cut my wiring harness to make sure the pins were not still making a connection or some crap.

Now it seems like im being fed bullshit and that my ecu wont even be repaired.

This is simply a fair warning to those who buy power FC"s and debate weather or not to cut the pins or cut the wires on the main harness. Cut the pins and you risk going through this horrible situation that I am in.

I also ask for any advice, or any information on Where I can get my Power FC repaired. Please any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Pics coming soon.

holy crap, that sounds like pretty bad service from apex'i. then again, you did void warrenty by pulling pins instead of cutting the wires... why again did you not cut the wire? pesonnaly, i would have just took the pins out of the harness connector and wrapped them with duct tape or something like that.

P.S. the only power fc i installed came with the pins already cut. not 100% sure where the guy got it from but i always though it was from rx7store.net. in anycase, it worked beautifully. easiest add on/mod i ever did to a FD to tell you the truth, just unplug the old one and plug in the new one.

thats horrible man I hope you get that fixed asap

if it makes you feel better my car is down as well for about a month now since I blew the motor...that was my fault though yours was something you couldnt control. I also hate when I have to rely on someone and they keep lying to me

that's crappy service, jason should have sent you a replacement ECU and dealt with the crap one himself...also i disagree with the practice of cutting the pins, if that were the solution, apex'i would leave them out from the factory, no?

I have seen another PFC damaged by cutting the pins. It is much safer to open the top of the wiring harness clip and just slide the wire out.
John

have you tried starting the car with the stock ECU?

Are there other reasons for this? I thought that the PFC lit the exhaust temp lamp when there was a problem. As far as cutting the pins, if I remember correctly isn't there something in the manual about this? I don't remember what exactly it said as far as cutting the harness or pins, but I'm sure there's something in there. There is a possibility that when you cut the pins you grounded an adjacent pin, and there is a possibility that it was ok until the point that you plugged in the commander. Albeit the possibility of that is extremely slim, it is possible. ESD is a bitch. Here's a suggestion. What mods do you have anyway. This can be a two part troubleshooting thing. I still have my modded stocker. If the mods are somewhat similar, you could try to dump that in and see what happens. If it works, then we can try my PFC and see if that works too. Unless you've tried something like this before, then maybe this would help you pinpoint the issue. If you didn't get anything back from Apexi, then maybe 1. they ever even looked at it in the first place or 2. there isn't anything wrong with it and there is an issue elsewhere.

Just some suggestions.

Aren't the pins supposed to stay in for AT's?

powerfc does not support AT

thats some horrible news...

That's a terrible situation, but not really attributable to Jason or the RX7store. They are not an authorized US vendor for Apexi (there's very few of those). As for Apexi service, I agree it's bad, but ANY electronics manufacturer would not honor the warranty on an altered product.

Sounds like a lot of bad luck to me, with no one really to blame. At this point, it sounds like you are just going to have to eat the cost of the PFC, as fixing integrated electronics is not fun. Sorry for your bad luck. :(

Why are PFC's sold for RX-7's then you have to mod them? and do all the interior electronics work with a PFC? A/C mainly?

Re: NEw Power FC members who think about cutting the pins WARNING
 

You said Apexi won't repair it under warranty, but is there a possiblity they can repair it if you pay out of your pocket?

Did the possibility for returning this PFC for a new one come up with Jason?

My only other suggestion would be to bite the bullet, and go for a used one.:(

Sorry to hear this Steve...

Are you kidding me! If I did that on every warrenty issue I would be out of business.

The situation does suck, but there isnt much I can do. Apexi's argument is it doesnt matter if the commander caused it to short out, as soon as they saw the pins cut they werent going to touch it.

For those thinking of cutting the pins, DONT! Voids the warrenty.

Jason

i'm pretty sure it states in the manual to not cut the pins. either way, i'd rather hack up a wiring harness that might cost $100 from a junkyard than cutting pins off of a $900 ecu. makes sense to me.

as far as jason goes, he's done as much as he can do. you're lucky he's been nice enough to do what he's done. your best bet would be to just send it to a'pexi and have them fix whatever is wrong. maybe they'll recondition it and renew your warranty. no offense, but noone is to blame here except yourself. it's easy to blame others when you just fried something expensive, but not always right

Apexi's argument is it doesnt matter if the commander caused it to short out, as soon as they saw the pins cut they werent going to touch it

Exactly. And the whole point of this post was to warn those who decide to cut the pins ( which I thought was alot more people then it seems )

And also , Im not putting the blame on Jason in any war or form. I dont know why, but it seems as if people think im trying to blame this on Jason or expecting Jason to take care of my ECU. uh. no. He is trying to help in all the possible ways he can.

The only thing I thought was weird was when Jason told me he thought there was only a single person working in the diagnosis and repair department of Apexi. Also, I was slightly upset to find out my ECU was shorted out by trying it again, thinking that in the 4 months they had it, it was repaired. Was this a communication problem with Rx-7 store and I? or Apexi and Rx-7 store. This I dont know.

The car runs fine on the stock ECU aside from the cut wires not sending signals. For those who were wondering if another Power FC works, the car runs perfectly fine with my friends. So it is a matter of MY power FC being shorted out.


Absolutley and again, im not blaming Rx-7 store.


Shinobi-x thats the matter at hand right now. Jason is trying to find out if I can pay money to get the ECU repaired, but I dont know whats going to happen if they only have 1 person in the repair department like he said/thinks. Who knows if they'll even repair it.

Anyway, I am not blaming the problem on Rx-7 store, or any other business or persons other then myself. I was falsely led to believe (not by anyone other then my failure to research farther ) that most people cut the pins on the ecu, so not to have to replace the Wiring harness if it were to fail in some sort as that can be quite the fun job.

Anyway, Im trying to find out what I can from a bunch of sources on what to do. It's possible that I have a commander and gotham racing commander mount up for sale in the future. And since my wiring harness is cut, I might just bite the bullet and go Haltech when I can afford it. Who knows whats to come.

Any help , suggestions, or information is much appreciated.

Thanks

woah sorry I suck at quoting

Thats an awful situation I agree.

But as Shinobi said, can you directly contact Apexi and see if they will repair it if you pay for the repair? It would be a whole lot less than a new PFC.

Thats real shit service from Apexi, seems like they're all shit, Greddy,HKS,Apexi,all of them are a bunch of wankers, considering the money we spend on their products you would think they would give some sort of toss but they're a bunch of dickheads.
Anyway i hope sincerely that you find some ressolve.
Also i think there are some vendor(s) who pull the pins before they sell them to their punters, SR i think? feel sorry for you boys if anything plays up on your pfc.

I work in warranty for a different industry,
and would find it hard to believe Apexi wouldnt atleast offer you repairs for a certain price.
Even if an items is out of warranty or not covered we always offer a solution.

Its not like their U.S. warranty department is going to be backed up with warranty issues (I havent seen many Power FC warranty cases posted on here)

I hope at the LEAST you can send your PowerFC in and the warranty department can help you solve the problem (if its fixable)

I had a similiar issue with a Kicker Amp. Their warranty department found my Amp non-warrantiable due to something I had done when installing it. So for a very fair price they replaced the parts and even shipped it back to me. I learned my lesson and had no bad taste towards Kicker.

the power fc was designed for the japanese market FD, which had alot of differences. the casuality is having to cut some wires and of course the AC not working correctly.

See, Im waiting to find out from Jason if they are able to fix it, or even fix power FC's.

You have any info for me yet Jason?

Re: NEw Power FC members who think about cutting the pins WARNING
 

that's what made me refer to jason about the issue...i would not ever advise anyone on cutting pins...but i guess he's a better troubleshooter with those things than i am

sorry jason-

NO Jason didnt tell me to cut the pins, Xavier from rx-7 told me to cut the wires.

The other reason I was upset was the fact that I ordered a commander with the power FC and cancelled it once I found out they were on backorder ( he didnt tell me, found out when my PFC came commanderless) And to this date he still hasnt recredited me the money after telling him to do so on more then 3 occasions.

So not only do I have that, but also the interest of the unpaid commander.

So wheres my credit Jason?

Hey,

I'm sorry for you, man! But, this is an important post cuz it shows we should not always follow what majority have done. I have PFC too...and I decided to ask my mech (I'm so dump that I don't even wanna touch those electrical or wired stuff) to mod the harness. My request was he cut the harness, but make it reconnectable (my vocab:)). I don't remember what exactly he did, but I'm sure he did what he could.

Hope Apexi has balls to do something for you. I got my PFC via rotaryextreme, so there's no warraty whatsoever. Can't imagine 'why' Apexi won't even fix your US PFC. (As you said Jason sent your PFC to XS, I think it's from XS)

POM HB