Kook's Customer Service.....

Has anyone ever had a issues with your Kook's products? Back in May 06 when i bought my headers and y-pipe. I had an issues installing the y-pipe. After contacting them several times and doing what the asked, getting pics what not to show the problem. I could never get a straight answer, i would leave PM's on LS1tech for George R stating the situation and all i would be get would be and i quote "CALL ME SO I CAN TALK TO YOU" or "i will call you monday morning about this sorry I had problems with my phone's at the office" and "I Just got back from sema call me on monday so we can figure this thing out for you"

Thats all over a months time span. Soo i call and he's either not there (and i leave a meassage ) or noone answers the phone.. I understand that you get busy.. But how hard is it to leave a note your computer that your need to call this guy back?

Soo after 2 more months of dealing with the same old crap, ( and the car being down which was my only means of transportation ) I took the y-pipe and cut it to make it fit right. It was a somewhat simple fix but for what i paid for it i shouldn't have to cut anything! Plus i'm not the best welder out there.

Now just last month i had unfortunately hit a rock that crush the drives side header and wiped out the y-pipe.. I was just wondering if anyone else has had the same or similar situation. After the whole y-pipe deal, i don't think i'll ever buy a set o kooks again since the never made it right for me....

Sorry rant over.. Just had to lose some steam...

i dealt with customer service only once. it was a female, dont remember her name, but she was extremely nice and helpful. my problem wasnt technical so maybe thats part of it.

Jethot! The headers are cheaper, they have a lifetime on the coating... customer service is pretty cool. They put you on hold forever but htey call back and make sure everything is taken care of, and plus they fix headers for free as long as they are Jethots. when my header was busted they were got a new one to me within a week.

Jethot! The headers are cheaper, they have a lifetime on the coating... customer service is pretty cool. They put you on hold forever but htey call back and make sure everything is taken care of, and plus they fix headers for free as long as they are Jethots. when my header was busted they were got a new one to me within a week.

I like what i hear! I"ll consider them.. Wish i would have just gone with them before i spent a $1100 on the kooks!

I know everyone's experience is different, but personally I felt like they had decent customer service. Here was my situation: got a set of the headers listed below and first off I noticed that there were no name plates on the headers, which I kinda wanted because after all I did pay some $800 for the headers and wanted to show it off. :cool: Called and got in touch with George R and he suggested that I take them somewhere and have the plates welded on for around $10. Wasn't too happy about that, but I figured if he didn't want them back bad enough to stick his free advertisment on them, then I was just going to leave it off. So that was the first thing. Next thing was when I did all the work to get them into the car, I figured out the primaries were not dimpled so I could get the bolt in. Note: didn't know what to look for because this was my first set of headers to install. Anyhow, he asked me for pictures,which I promtly sent, and then asked me if I thought I could dimple them myself, to which I responded absolulty not. It would have been my luck to break a weld dimpling them or something. So, he asked me to package them back up and told me UPS would be at my house tomorrow to pick them up to send them back to their shop. Got them back in about a week or so, plate welded on and primaries dimpled. So I would have to give them a 7 out of 10 for customer service. The minus three was for wanting me to weld the plate on at my expense. Also for asking for a free hat for the troubles and getting a stinkin lanyard. :rolleyes: Who uses a lanyard?

I would order again if I was getting headers for another car, unless there was something better and/or cheaper out there. To me, the fitting is awesome and I would never go with anything other than stainless.

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to buy Kooks and this is kind of discouraging to hear. For the price, they should fall to their knees anytime a customer stands up.

i bought mine local and the shop i ordered them from ordered them witout the emmisions hookups, the shop i bought them from callled kooks and kooks paid to have them picked up so they could weld on the emmisins peice. i have no complaints, but thats why i beleive in buying local so they deal with the bs and not me

For the price, they should fall to their knees anytime a customer stands up.

I agree that they should as well.. We pay a pretty penny for these headers they treat us like its are fault and for use to fix it..:confused:

I had NO issues with my headers and i LOVE how they fit.. But from my y-pipe issues to Harvey and them asking for him to tak on the name plate and to dimple the primaries is just being lazy and not taking the responsibility for something they did wrong or forgot to do..

Have both Jet Hots, Hookers and Kooks on three of my cars. Based ojn clarity of instruction, quality of product, and most importantantly the fit was perfect on the Kooks and I'll be buying from them again. I had a question, and was treated kindly and questions answered completely.

Jet Hot =crap

I had problems from day one with them......2 recaots and they only last 6 months and start peeling, had to ship em twice at my expence.....last time I was told my "lifetime" warrenty only cover 2 recoats or 2 years...whet ever comes first. POS junk............These were headers I bought through jet hot directly and had them coat them. Terrible company to deal with on all levels

If header installation is as big a PITA as everyone says, unless Jethot comes and takes them off everytime they need to be recoated, replaced etc. and then comes back to reinstall them, a lifetime/2 yr/2 time warranty just doesn't sound like that great of a deal to me.

I've had my jet hots for about 2yrs. The coating comming off just depends on how and where you drive the car. Mine has held up moderately well. The coating keeps the temperatures cool, but compaired ot to other header makers, I doubt they would even bother to recoat or warranty headers you return after a few years. Installation should take less than an hour of the headers themselves. only annoying part is installign the bolts, but unlike kooks you still have room to get to the oil filter. all headers rust or loose thier coating over time. With kooks the stainless steel prevents this, but in return they don't run as cool as the coated headers. I'd rather spend $500.00 on a set of headers I know can be recoated when needed, and are warrantied for repair free of charge.

If I buy Kooks, I'm getting them coated. My feeling is that I would rather pay more for something I know will only need to be installed once under the course of normal operating conditions. If the coating chips off the Kooks, I guess it's not that big of a deal. The only bad thing I've heard about Kooks is that they limit your oil filter options, but I guess there are also ways around that via oil filter relocation.

And if mdacton's comments are representative of the typical treatment of their customers, the lifetime warranty isn't really a lifetime warranty at all.

Maybe if I felt I could actually install headers in less than an hour, I might feel differently. Everything I've read leads me to believe that it's more than likely an all day job. Anything that reduces the likelihood of having to do that more than once is worth a little extra, imo.

When my headers were sent back, I asked about the coating and he told me he would do it, but it would be a waste of money. If I remeber correctly it had to do with the metal type. Said it wouldn't last anytime on the stainless headers.

BTC, just for your information, I bought a new set of engine mounts BEORE I did my header instal. Just heard to many horror stories about rubbing here and hitting there under WOT. Don't know if you've ever instaled a set of headers, but I would unbolt the motor mounts, one side at a time, and jack the motor up for clearance. I also had to remove the sterring knuckle. I didn't have to remove the driver's side motor mount, but I don't remeber if that was because the head was off the car or what. Anywho, good luck.

Harvey,

I've never installed headers and I'm not really looking forward to it. I have an oil pressure issue I would like to resolve before sinking that much money into headers. I mentioned to my brother over Memorial Day that I thought it might be a good idea to install new motor mounts if we put headers on the car. He felt it wouldn't be necessary, but that may have been due to the coefficient of difficulty. Is it hard putting in new motor mounts? What about the headers, y-pipe & exhaust? I'll be doing a cat back at the same time as I've already taken off my stock exhaust.

Someone on this site bought some coated Kooks around Christmas and posted pics. I think the thread title was Pics of My Kooks, or something like that. They looked sweet. I may try to contact him and see how the coating is holding up. I've heard that it should offer some benefit even on stainless steel. But if it's going to flake right off, I guess it would be a waste of money.

What kind of oil filter are you running? Is there an oil cooler on your car?

Did you buy your headers directly from Kooks?

If you buy Kooks, buy it because you want the stainless steel look.

As long as your operating the vehicle it's going to depreciate in quality over time. I brought jet hots because they offer to recoat the headers, and when I had a problem they didn't waste time in helping me out. I don't know about the other guy, but I spoke with several different people representing Jethot, and they were all very helpful to me. Stainless steel just looks cheap and unfinished to me, plus it's temperature control characteristics are different. But really, I didn't see a need to change kooks, when the $500 dollar already "ceramic coated" Jethots flow well enough for my set up.
I put the other 500 bucks into a better flowing exhaust. So lets see here...

Jet hots
$500.00 :)
Free recoating service :thumb:
Free Repairs on Damage :thumb:
Retains Heat in Engine Compartment :cool:


:uhoh:
Kooks
($1,000+) :eek:
doesn't retain heat as well :yuck:
No Ceramic Coating :no:
According to this post, your on your own with repair service :death:

hard decision to make her boys and girls.

BTC, I didn't even try with the old motor mounts. I just heard stories about rubbing and hitting and they just scared me into buying new ones. The car at the time had around 130,000 miles, so I figured it was time anyway. They wern't too hard to change out. You'll need to take some rivots out, which I felt was the hardest part. It would help to have someone jacking up the motor while your trying to align the thru-bolt, but its not a must. I DID have an oil filter cooler on the car. You will not be able to run one with these headers. Word to the wise, take it out BEFORE you instal the headers. I had no idea I might have to take this oil cooler off. In fact, at the time I had no idea I HAD an oil cooler. Just didn't know what it was. It was a huge pain trying to get it out with the header bolted up. And, just for your information, after I deleted the oil cooler, I gained at LEAST 10 pounds on my oil pressure at idle. As far as oil filter type, I use the AC Delco PF454. I did this instal by myself on my back in my garage and without the problems, I guess it would have taken about 1-2 days tops. As far as the y-pipe, you can see that I used the Texas Speed & Performance X-pipe system for the LS1 cars. I took it to an exhaust shop and they had to do a little cutting on one side to make it fit, other than that it fit rather well. Only thing I don't like about the exhaust setup is the leaking band clamps where the system attaches to the headers. I got everything else welded. I think I might one day get some ball-and-knuckle connections put on there. I don't know if ball-and-knuckle is the proper name, but hopefully you know what I'm talking about.

Heatmaker, just so you know, I paid like $720 for my headers and $400 for the X-pipe system which came with everything you need. So for around $1,200, added shipping and exhaust shop cost, I got the whole setup. Didn't seem to bad to me. And I did make it clear that Kook's did pay to ship their headers back and fix them. I think his attempt at getting me to fix them myself was a long shot and he knew that because he didn't argue at all when I told him no. ;)

Kook's
Price - $720 dollars
Dealing with customer service - $0 dollars (Small Headache)
Recoating Service - $0 dollars (not needed)
Having headers that fit perfect, will never rust, retain heat better than non-coated, but not as well as coated, and the awe factor when people see the Kook's stamp...


Priceless. :p

heatmaker...jet-hot will not fix any damage to header......they don't work on or make headers......FYI i'm pretty sure they buy them from hooker.


How old are yours? the coating will come off within a year, they do not do a good job prepping and the coating they use is a water based ceramic.

Most companies use an aluminum ceramic coating that is alot higher quality. I have had to deal with them lots of times, they used to be sponsors here years ago.......many people had the same problems.

When people talk about getting their headers Jet Hot coated, is that the same company? Is the Jet Hot coating no good?

[QUOTE=mdacton;4664689]heatmaker...jet-hot will not fix any damage to header......they don't work on or make headers......FYI i'm pretty sure they buy them from hooker.
QUOTE]


Look at you mdacton... first we disagree with the LT1 vs. Ls1... and now your against the almightly jet hots too!

It is true Jethot does not fix the headers themselves, they send the headers out to another source that fixes the headers for them, but as long as it's thier product, they will pay for the repair.

My headers are about 2 years old, the coating has held up well. Only the areas where I scrapped them (very low car) actually show rust. The aluminum coated stuff last allot longer, but I'm not sure if it keeps things as cool as the "JET HOTS!"

I'm not too sure about that hooker thing, the flanges and tube routing are completely different on the jethots. Since Jet hot is a coating company, I'm sure they outsource thier headers to some 3rd world party. Probably why they don't fix them in house. They don't own a production facility.

When people talk about getting their headers Jet Hot coated, is that the same company? Is the Jet Hot coating no good?


Jet hot coatings has been around for a very long time. They were even featured on 2 Guys garage on the Speed Network. Jet hot coatings are the premiere coating company.Which is why There is now even a version of Kooks being offered Jet hot coated now.