My 26,000 mile experience with Stasis
11-21-2011, 03:32 PM
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My 26,000 mile experience with Stasis
Hi - long time lurker... first time poster. I officially registered for Audi World. I've been a long hardened BMW guy driving my way through an e36 M3 (still own), a 2002 325 wagon (still own), a 2002 330i, and 2 z4s (yup, liked it enough to buy a second one after selling the first when my oldest daughter was born - I sold the second when my third child/second daughter was born)... ANYWAY...
My opinion with Stasis... steer clear... VERY clear. I bought my A4 new (less than 100 miles on the odometer) with the touring package already installed... rear sway, ecu upgrade, lowering springs, exhaust, and baller 20" wheels. After a comedy of errors, gaffs, mixups, and screw-ups by both the Audi dealer and Stasis it's pretty obvious they are not going to do anything related to resolving the outstanding issues with my A4 and I'm not really sure I want them to. Every time I work with either of them on Stasis related stuff it ends in frustration and costing me time and money but I'll digress... so here comes “THE” post about it all detailing how 3 out of 4 "Stasis" parts have given me serious trouble…
First it started with the exhaust and springs. From Day 1 the springs banged around, moaned, and creaked sounded like the front end was going to give out. The tech said "must be the Stasis springs causing the issue" and then debated with the sales manager on who was going to pay for him to install them correctly. After several visits the springs were quiet. Keep in mind the ENTIRE TIME I was telling them that my e46 wagon made the EXACT SAME noises when I PERSONALLY installed the rubber hat crooked... I, of course, fixed the problem with the wagon after I screwed up. I was asked by the Audi tech why I didn't fix that problem on the Audi... my answer "because I paid you to do it right." NOT Stasis' fault because of a shotty installation by the dealership but you can see where this is going, right?
The exhaust was an epic 3 month long battle with the dealership. The mufflers, from day 1, were never installed properly. One hung waaay out the back and the other was tucked under the rear valance and hung off to one side sort of gangster-like. Again the tech denied any fault and said "Stasis didn't send me the right parts" and "Stasis doesn't know how to design exhaust systems" and so it would go in, again and again, for adjustment only to come out looking just okay but ending up right back where it started a week or so later. In the end Jared from Stasis DID inspect the install and confirmed it was wrong but ONLY AFTER I drove to Summit Point (I also decided to staye that weekend to watch a few friends race in Lemons to make it worth my time – the drive is about 3.5 hours away from my home). Anyway, he did agree it was a poor install and suggested I take it back to the dealer. I did… three more times. The last time was when the right muffler had fallen completely off the hook and I used a screw from my garage to hold it together for the drive into the dealer... it got fixed that time and things are looking pretty good still.
So a few months later I was getting on the Interstate and stepped on it… the car started rumbling and shaking and a CEL popped on the dash saying something to the effect of “GO TO YOUR DEALER RIGHT THIS MOMENT.” I pulled off the side of the road and turned off the car. After a minute I turned it back on and the rumbling didn’t continue. I’ve felt that before with the original BMW Z4 (which had a failing coil pack after 65,000 miles)… it felt just like a misfire. I drove it to the dealer the very next day. The dealer said “yup, we see the misfire but it’s probably because of the Stasis chip. We cleared it… see if it comes back.” Great. No more misfires but see down below… poor performance.
Then onto the wheels. When I purchased the car the package was already installed. I asked multiple times if the 20" wheels running a VERY VERY soft sidewall and 30 series tire would survive the roads. "Absolutely", "not a problem", and "of course" were thrown out again and again. Within 5,000 miles all the wheels were bent and to compound the issue the clear coat was flaking.
I want to pause here and say that I have owned many cars with a lowered suspension and large wheels. My favorite was my 2002 330i with VMR CSL replicas from ModBargains. I took that car to track days at VIR and Summit Point, I autocrossed it and acted like an idiot banging curbs… you name it. After I sold the car I moved the wheels onto my wife’s e46 wagon and we still drive on them today (in fact, those same wheels went back to VIR on the wagon recently!). The wheels have over 150,000 miles on them and they look great and ride like they were new. Granted they have a 255/35-18 tire on them but that should at least show my wife and I know how to drive on semi-baller wheels. NOW, back to what I was saying…
After going back and forth with Stasis for about a month they agreed to ship me “refurbished” wheels only because the clear coat was flaking and not because of the bends. I paid for shipping and the $150 to refurbish the wheels. IF the wheels couldn’t be fixed I had to buy them outright. I ended up with only 3 replacements and a bill costing me about $650. To make matters worse the 3 “new-ish” wheels all were bent within 750 miles of putting them on. My wife and I decided we’d only do short trips in the car from then on only on smooth roads until I found a replacement set. About a week or so later my wife was driving the car with the kids in the back and the TPS alarm went off… she pulled off the road and saw the flat tire… after putting on the spare and getting the car home we noticed the wheel had cracked! Now I would have been okay if she would have HIT something with the car and it cracked but where the wheel came apart was on one of the smoothest roads in our area. Who knows, maybe the dirty diaper did it?
But the fun doesn’t end there. I called Stasis… they again denied any issues with those wheels and said I was the only customer that had any problems and even said that I didn’t know how to drive on roads (yea, you can only imagine the color my face was at the very moment). What got me was that they say they hadn’t ever had bent wheels… I knew this wasn’t true because in a previous conversation I was told the CEO bends wheels all the time and has never cracked one. I also called the original manufacturer of the wheel (NOT STASIS!) and was told he had replaced some bent ones for them but they don’t make them anymore. ALSO the shop that the wheels got sent to for repair ALSO confirmed they had seen that style from Stasis in there before. Hmmmm… To make matters worse Stasis offered to sell me new wheels at “cost” which came up to about $300 a wheel. Cost my a@@. But, I’ll take the hit on this one… I knew better to drive on the wheels from the beginning and should have sold off the replacement set.
Anyway… life went on after I purchased OEM wheels from a member on the forum (and now that I think about it… I don’t remember what board that was from). My third child was born, a Mazda CX-9 came into our life and I started driving the wagon more often and wanted to sell the Audi.
A few months later, in the spring, a few things happened. First, as I was driving around one day I noticed there was this rattling noise coming from around the turbos/middle exhaust area. I couldn’t put my finger on what the noise was or exactly where it was coming from so I took it into the dealer. The tech said he thought I needed a new turbo and that he didn’t think it would be covered under warranty… OMG. He said “It’s not like it’s that bad right now so keep driving on it to see if it gets worse or if the turbo goes completely.” OMG. I called Stasis and inquired about the noise. Of course they had never heard of anything like it. I asked about their upcoming turbo UPGRADE on the off-chance I would be needing a new turbo (hey, even with all the problems more power is still awesome, right?). They said it would be released in a few months and that they were looking for someone to help test. I said “sign me up!” SIDE NOTE: Guess what… I was never contacted about it and when I followed up they didn’t know what I was talking about even though I shared an email about it from me to them (including their response)…. Amazing. ANYWAY, in the end the car was making a HORRIFIC racket underneath to the point that people were stopping me at lights and gas stations saying they think something is majorly wrong with my car. I took it back to Audi and they discover the middle muffler was completely blown out. No exterior damage just that the muffler failed completely. They called Stasis and was told it would be 6-8 weeks before a replacement would be sent. I was told to take the car back and that I could keep driving on it like that until the replacement arrived. After a few more days of crazy stupid noise I switched back to old faithful: our e46 wagon. Eventually, after much fussing and complaining, the exhaust was “expedited” and was installed about 5 weeks later. Life went back to normal.
A few months went by and life was looking good… I was driving the wagon a lot more and the Audi sat on the street like the bastard child it knew it was…. That is until that one Saturday morning I decided to take it out for a spin to the store. I got in, fired her up and, after letting it warm up, romped down the road only to notice it felt a little sluggish… like really sluggish. I decided to see just how slow so I did some quick pulls from 0-60. 7.8 seconds, 8.1 seconds, 7.2 seconds… it was a nice cool day too but I decided to try again the next morning (maybe we hadn’t had enough coffee?). The next day I do the normal warm up and then tried again… similar results. I thought, well, I guess I haven’t gone through a whole tank in about a month now so I’ll burn this tank off and make sure I put the best **** out there in there to see if that makes it better… well I did exactly that but, guess what, it didn’t. I waited until my next service visit to bring it up (mostly because I just don’t have the time with 3 kids and a seriously full time job to visit the dealer every day). At that service visit the dealer said “if there aren’t any codes then there isn’t anything we are going to do about it.” Great. I called Stasis. They asked for me to pull codes from a VAG-COM. I don’t have one so I asked a local friend. His was pirated (he sucks) and so I drove the car to West Virginia from Baltimore to another friend (I was in Baltimore that week for a meeting). Note here that Stasis is ALSO in West Virginia RIGHT DOWN THE STREET FROM MY FRIENDS SHOP but said they don’t allow “client cars” to visit their shop… uh-huh. Anyway, my friend ran the codes in his shop and emailed me the results. I sent those results to Stasis and several days later I was told they needed more data. After going back and forth with them for months I’ve decided they aren’t going to do anything about the car. They even told me to PAY for the dealer to flash it back to stock and then re-apply the Stasis upgrade. OMG. I’m so done with them.
I’m waiting until I find the time to get the thing on a dyno to really see what’s up. The butt dyno between my car and my friend’s (also a 2010 manual but without the “upgrades”) puts the cars about neck and neck and that’s been confirmed by switching drivers and going head to head in a drag… it was fun but sad the car doesn’t do much over stock. It definitely feels like the ECU “upgrade” isn’t working.. what’s wild is that sometimes the car pulls like a mad man… maybe it works when it wants to… kind of like what Stasis does.
IN CONCLUSION… stay away from Stasis. Ignore the dealer saying they’ll support you. Go with APR or whatever but DON’T BUY STASIS… please. They are more concerned with hopping up the R8 (who wouldn’t though) than actually taking care of their customers that supported them in the beginning (heck, I even liked their Facebook page and spoke at my dealer early on in front of a group of Audi enthusiasts about how great Stasis was – I’m so sorry!). I tried working with them, trust me, I did… it is clear they only want to make the sale and move on. I’m not saying all of the car’s problems land on Stasis but between the dealership and them going back and forth you end up not getting ANY support.
I don’t want anything from Stasis… I just want other consumers to be aware of the multitude of problems you’ll face if you have problems with any Stasis “branded” equipment.
My opinion with Stasis... steer clear... VERY clear. I bought my A4 new (less than 100 miles on the odometer) with the touring package already installed... rear sway, ecu upgrade, lowering springs, exhaust, and baller 20" wheels. After a comedy of errors, gaffs, mixups, and screw-ups by both the Audi dealer and Stasis it's pretty obvious they are not going to do anything related to resolving the outstanding issues with my A4 and I'm not really sure I want them to. Every time I work with either of them on Stasis related stuff it ends in frustration and costing me time and money but I'll digress... so here comes “THE” post about it all detailing how 3 out of 4 "Stasis" parts have given me serious trouble…
First it started with the exhaust and springs. From Day 1 the springs banged around, moaned, and creaked sounded like the front end was going to give out. The tech said "must be the Stasis springs causing the issue" and then debated with the sales manager on who was going to pay for him to install them correctly. After several visits the springs were quiet. Keep in mind the ENTIRE TIME I was telling them that my e46 wagon made the EXACT SAME noises when I PERSONALLY installed the rubber hat crooked... I, of course, fixed the problem with the wagon after I screwed up. I was asked by the Audi tech why I didn't fix that problem on the Audi... my answer "because I paid you to do it right." NOT Stasis' fault because of a shotty installation by the dealership but you can see where this is going, right?
The exhaust was an epic 3 month long battle with the dealership. The mufflers, from day 1, were never installed properly. One hung waaay out the back and the other was tucked under the rear valance and hung off to one side sort of gangster-like. Again the tech denied any fault and said "Stasis didn't send me the right parts" and "Stasis doesn't know how to design exhaust systems" and so it would go in, again and again, for adjustment only to come out looking just okay but ending up right back where it started a week or so later. In the end Jared from Stasis DID inspect the install and confirmed it was wrong but ONLY AFTER I drove to Summit Point (I also decided to staye that weekend to watch a few friends race in Lemons to make it worth my time – the drive is about 3.5 hours away from my home). Anyway, he did agree it was a poor install and suggested I take it back to the dealer. I did… three more times. The last time was when the right muffler had fallen completely off the hook and I used a screw from my garage to hold it together for the drive into the dealer... it got fixed that time and things are looking pretty good still.
So a few months later I was getting on the Interstate and stepped on it… the car started rumbling and shaking and a CEL popped on the dash saying something to the effect of “GO TO YOUR DEALER RIGHT THIS MOMENT.” I pulled off the side of the road and turned off the car. After a minute I turned it back on and the rumbling didn’t continue. I’ve felt that before with the original BMW Z4 (which had a failing coil pack after 65,000 miles)… it felt just like a misfire. I drove it to the dealer the very next day. The dealer said “yup, we see the misfire but it’s probably because of the Stasis chip. We cleared it… see if it comes back.” Great. No more misfires but see down below… poor performance.
Then onto the wheels. When I purchased the car the package was already installed. I asked multiple times if the 20" wheels running a VERY VERY soft sidewall and 30 series tire would survive the roads. "Absolutely", "not a problem", and "of course" were thrown out again and again. Within 5,000 miles all the wheels were bent and to compound the issue the clear coat was flaking.
I want to pause here and say that I have owned many cars with a lowered suspension and large wheels. My favorite was my 2002 330i with VMR CSL replicas from ModBargains. I took that car to track days at VIR and Summit Point, I autocrossed it and acted like an idiot banging curbs… you name it. After I sold the car I moved the wheels onto my wife’s e46 wagon and we still drive on them today (in fact, those same wheels went back to VIR on the wagon recently!). The wheels have over 150,000 miles on them and they look great and ride like they were new. Granted they have a 255/35-18 tire on them but that should at least show my wife and I know how to drive on semi-baller wheels. NOW, back to what I was saying…
After going back and forth with Stasis for about a month they agreed to ship me “refurbished” wheels only because the clear coat was flaking and not because of the bends. I paid for shipping and the $150 to refurbish the wheels. IF the wheels couldn’t be fixed I had to buy them outright. I ended up with only 3 replacements and a bill costing me about $650. To make matters worse the 3 “new-ish” wheels all were bent within 750 miles of putting them on. My wife and I decided we’d only do short trips in the car from then on only on smooth roads until I found a replacement set. About a week or so later my wife was driving the car with the kids in the back and the TPS alarm went off… she pulled off the road and saw the flat tire… after putting on the spare and getting the car home we noticed the wheel had cracked! Now I would have been okay if she would have HIT something with the car and it cracked but where the wheel came apart was on one of the smoothest roads in our area. Who knows, maybe the dirty diaper did it?
But the fun doesn’t end there. I called Stasis… they again denied any issues with those wheels and said I was the only customer that had any problems and even said that I didn’t know how to drive on roads (yea, you can only imagine the color my face was at the very moment). What got me was that they say they hadn’t ever had bent wheels… I knew this wasn’t true because in a previous conversation I was told the CEO bends wheels all the time and has never cracked one. I also called the original manufacturer of the wheel (NOT STASIS!) and was told he had replaced some bent ones for them but they don’t make them anymore. ALSO the shop that the wheels got sent to for repair ALSO confirmed they had seen that style from Stasis in there before. Hmmmm… To make matters worse Stasis offered to sell me new wheels at “cost” which came up to about $300 a wheel. Cost my a@@. But, I’ll take the hit on this one… I knew better to drive on the wheels from the beginning and should have sold off the replacement set.
Anyway… life went on after I purchased OEM wheels from a member on the forum (and now that I think about it… I don’t remember what board that was from). My third child was born, a Mazda CX-9 came into our life and I started driving the wagon more often and wanted to sell the Audi.
A few months later, in the spring, a few things happened. First, as I was driving around one day I noticed there was this rattling noise coming from around the turbos/middle exhaust area. I couldn’t put my finger on what the noise was or exactly where it was coming from so I took it into the dealer. The tech said he thought I needed a new turbo and that he didn’t think it would be covered under warranty… OMG. He said “It’s not like it’s that bad right now so keep driving on it to see if it gets worse or if the turbo goes completely.” OMG. I called Stasis and inquired about the noise. Of course they had never heard of anything like it. I asked about their upcoming turbo UPGRADE on the off-chance I would be needing a new turbo (hey, even with all the problems more power is still awesome, right?). They said it would be released in a few months and that they were looking for someone to help test. I said “sign me up!” SIDE NOTE: Guess what… I was never contacted about it and when I followed up they didn’t know what I was talking about even though I shared an email about it from me to them (including their response)…. Amazing. ANYWAY, in the end the car was making a HORRIFIC racket underneath to the point that people were stopping me at lights and gas stations saying they think something is majorly wrong with my car. I took it back to Audi and they discover the middle muffler was completely blown out. No exterior damage just that the muffler failed completely. They called Stasis and was told it would be 6-8 weeks before a replacement would be sent. I was told to take the car back and that I could keep driving on it like that until the replacement arrived. After a few more days of crazy stupid noise I switched back to old faithful: our e46 wagon. Eventually, after much fussing and complaining, the exhaust was “expedited” and was installed about 5 weeks later. Life went back to normal.
A few months went by and life was looking good… I was driving the wagon a lot more and the Audi sat on the street like the bastard child it knew it was…. That is until that one Saturday morning I decided to take it out for a spin to the store. I got in, fired her up and, after letting it warm up, romped down the road only to notice it felt a little sluggish… like really sluggish. I decided to see just how slow so I did some quick pulls from 0-60. 7.8 seconds, 8.1 seconds, 7.2 seconds… it was a nice cool day too but I decided to try again the next morning (maybe we hadn’t had enough coffee?). The next day I do the normal warm up and then tried again… similar results. I thought, well, I guess I haven’t gone through a whole tank in about a month now so I’ll burn this tank off and make sure I put the best **** out there in there to see if that makes it better… well I did exactly that but, guess what, it didn’t. I waited until my next service visit to bring it up (mostly because I just don’t have the time with 3 kids and a seriously full time job to visit the dealer every day). At that service visit the dealer said “if there aren’t any codes then there isn’t anything we are going to do about it.” Great. I called Stasis. They asked for me to pull codes from a VAG-COM. I don’t have one so I asked a local friend. His was pirated (he sucks) and so I drove the car to West Virginia from Baltimore to another friend (I was in Baltimore that week for a meeting). Note here that Stasis is ALSO in West Virginia RIGHT DOWN THE STREET FROM MY FRIENDS SHOP but said they don’t allow “client cars” to visit their shop… uh-huh. Anyway, my friend ran the codes in his shop and emailed me the results. I sent those results to Stasis and several days later I was told they needed more data. After going back and forth with them for months I’ve decided they aren’t going to do anything about the car. They even told me to PAY for the dealer to flash it back to stock and then re-apply the Stasis upgrade. OMG. I’m so done with them.
I’m waiting until I find the time to get the thing on a dyno to really see what’s up. The butt dyno between my car and my friend’s (also a 2010 manual but without the “upgrades”) puts the cars about neck and neck and that’s been confirmed by switching drivers and going head to head in a drag… it was fun but sad the car doesn’t do much over stock. It definitely feels like the ECU “upgrade” isn’t working.. what’s wild is that sometimes the car pulls like a mad man… maybe it works when it wants to… kind of like what Stasis does.
IN CONCLUSION… stay away from Stasis. Ignore the dealer saying they’ll support you. Go with APR or whatever but DON’T BUY STASIS… please. They are more concerned with hopping up the R8 (who wouldn’t though) than actually taking care of their customers that supported them in the beginning (heck, I even liked their Facebook page and spoke at my dealer early on in front of a group of Audi enthusiasts about how great Stasis was – I’m so sorry!). I tried working with them, trust me, I did… it is clear they only want to make the sale and move on. I’m not saying all of the car’s problems land on Stasis but between the dealership and them going back and forth you end up not getting ANY support.
I don’t want anything from Stasis… I just want other consumers to be aware of the multitude of problems you’ll face if you have problems with any Stasis “branded” equipment.
11-21-2011, 04:03 PM
#3
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That is settled.
There is no way I would ever consider using Stasis for ANYTHING based on this review.
Thank you OP for saving me the time to consider the ECU tune.
There is no way I would ever consider using Stasis for ANYTHING based on this review.
Thank you OP for saving me the time to consider the ECU tune.
11-21-2011, 05:27 PM
#6
AudiWorld Senior Member
+1. In addition, I think that I won't be having my dealer install non-genuine Audi parts anytime soon. Between the warranty issues and general lack of expertise, it's better to go with a quality tuner shop.
11-21-2011, 06:30 PM
#7
AudiWorld Member
+2 Tooooo many issues dealing with Audi & Stasis = Headache! Thanks for the review!
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11-21-2011, 06:51 PM
#8
Great post, thanks!
So much for the price premium over APR acting as an "insurance". Sounds like a fairly horrific ordeal. The pipes install on the back looks just laughable if it wasn't so sad.
Thanks again.
So much for the price premium over APR acting as an "insurance". Sounds like a fairly horrific ordeal. The pipes install on the back looks just laughable if it wasn't so sad.
Thanks again.
11-21-2011, 08:11 PM
#10
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Are those exhaust a joke? Seriously, how can anyone sell anything like that? And how could anyone install something like that? Shouldn't they have stopped and said, wait, something's wrong here...that doesnt' seem right.