Ark Exhaust installed and review
So, today I dropped my car off at an exhaust shop to get my Ark exhaust installed. I didn't want to do it myself, and plus, I would need the help of someone else to hold the pieces in place.
Anyways, I dropped of the car this morning and the tech told me that my car would be ready by lunch time. I get a voice mail later that morning telling me I need to call them back (tone of the his voice didn't sound good). I called the shop back and they told me that they have an issue with the fitment and went on to say that the exhaust has the worst fitment he's seen for an aftermarket kit.
I get the call while I'm at the gym and I immediately left after I spoke to him. I got there and he showed me what's going on with the installation. Basically, the passenger side mid pipe flange was about 2 inches off connecting to the rear exhaust pipes. It looked so bad, I thought Ark had sent me a wrong piece. The exhaust tech also pointed out some other things, but was all minor compared to the flange issue.
I immediately called up Mike @ Tunerzshop and got a hold of him right away and he tried to understand and see if it was the tech who had installed it wrong. Got the tech on the phone with Mike and basically hit a wall with the issue. I must commend Mike and TunerzShop because he was prompt and extremely helpful. He phoned Lerry at Ark in Chino, CA and told him I was having an issue and that I would be calling him for help. I called Lerry and I got him on the phone right away, by the way, his name is "LERRY" not "LARRY" just in case some of you are wondering. lol. Anyways, Lerry spoke to the exhaust tech and had him take some photos and text it to him right away. Lerry told the tech that he would need to inspect the photos and will call the him back in a few mins. At this point, the exhaust tech told us there's not much I can do and that he'll call me back once he hears back from Lerry at Ark.
Lerry calls back and basically told the tech to switch the mid pipes and loosen all the bolts and once they're all aligned to tighten up the screws. Voila! Issue resolved! Basically, that's all the tech had to do and everything worked out perfectly, with the exception of the driver side exhaust tip being too close to the bumper, but all he had to do was heat up the hanger on that side and bend it a little to fit it perfectly with the exhaust outlet. Very minor issue. The exhaust looks perfect and the sound is heavenly. One of the nicest sounding/looking exhausts out there.
All in all, what I got from this experience is Mike @ Tunerz Shop was there all the way with help and Ark as a company, stood by their products. Even with the issue, not once did they hesitate to help. Just from this satisfactory customer service alone, I would highly recommend them! Even the exhaust tech told me that they haven't seen or heard of an aftermarket company that offered that kind of customer service. Kudos to Lerry @ Ark and Mike @ Tunerz Shop. I'll be looking to them for future purchases! Attached are some photos of the exhaust.
Last edited by EX350; 11-12-2012 at 09:54 PM.
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