If you get the IE FDS intercooler, don’t get the black one…

[Gunnarrrrr]

Here’s my one month update. or maybe two months. I ordered the FDS intercooler in black, took like a month cause it was a pretty hot color option at the time and they were back ordered. Now I’m wishing I got the silver one.

Not sure what kind of finish is used, assumed they were anodized but I guess not, because the rustoleum bbq spray paint on my ER Sport intercooler on my 1.8t seems to have held up better than this.

No, I don’t regularly take my car off-roading in sand dunes, nor do I power wash my front end with a media blaster as routine cleaning. this is just from normal driving:



The finish on the core has mostly flaked off, and now the end tanks are starting to chip and come off as well




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[awdconnor]

Oof, glad I went silver. Sorry this happened

[Jetta03]

Yuck. On one of my motorcycles I refinished the oil cooler (similarly chipped up from rocks) with POR-15 coating in black and it has held up like new for years. Might be an option here.
Cheers

[spacecase]

Are you running an RS grill? Just checked out my wagner intercooler after 2-3 months and the finish looks to be holding up strong.

[Gunnarrrrr]

Are you running an RS grill? Just checked out my wagner intercooler after 2-3 months and the finish looks to be holding up strong.

No, stock SQ5 B9 grille. Not even two months on mine. I’m guessing wagner anodizes black or something, seems like IE just sprays some shitty matte black stuff on.


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[Andy_FL]

Here’s my one month update. or maybe two months. I ordered the FDS intercooler in black, took like a month cause it was a pretty hot color option at the time and they were back ordered. Now I’m wishing I got the silver one.

Not sure what kind of finish is used, assumed they were anodized but I guess not, because the rustoleum bbq spray paint on my ER Sport intercooler on my 1.8t seems to have held up better than this.

No, I don’t regularly take my car off-roading in sand dunes, nor do I power wash my front end with a media blaster as routine cleaning. this is just from normal driving:



The finish on the core has mostly flaked off, and now the end tanks are starting to chip and come off as well




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Did you reach out to IE?


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[AldermanToffee]

The same happened to my Wagner. My CLM is still holding up pretty well.

Chances are an issue happened during the application of the paint. Reach out to IE, there’s a chance they’ll get this fixed for you. It shouldn’t happen.

[Gunnarrrrr]

The same happened to my Wagner. My CLM is still holding up pretty well.

Chances are an issue happened during the application of the paint. Reach out to IE, there’s a chance they’ll get this fixed for you. It shouldn’t happen.

Yeah fingers crossed, i’ll reach out to them when I get around to it. Just wanted to do a quick product review. Otherwise it’s a kickass intercooler


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[Sebastian Tu]

Woah, I had a black carbnlabs intercooler and it never did this. Sorry it happened to you man that's an eyesore

[QuickHandCam]

Pretty comical that the Chinese ones are holding up better.

People always say bad things about Chinese parts for some odd reason.

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[oesman]

People always say bad things about Chinese parts for some odd reason.

Because lots of cheap shit gets resold as premium shit or just cheap shit that breaks. China can make as good of a part as you specify. The downside is culturally, at least in my personal experience with Chinese manufacturing, their whole thing is doing things as cheap as possible on often thin margins and sometimes knocking off products without knowing what they're doing. Meaning "hey that's a cool widget, let me copy it" but not understanding the actual product, target customer, or science. If you work with them and you're very specific in what you want they can make very high end products for great prices. You will get into stupid conversations where they're trying to save a penny on something you're gonna resell for 300% margin and that penny makes the product massively nicer. Like hey don't package the product in cellophane that looks like it came from North Korea... Lots of little gotchas that I had to work out over multiple iterations when I worked with them. Expect first X batches to have flaws that are cheaply remedied and make absolutely no sense as a corner cutting measure to a westerner. To them those pennies add up and they think they're helping, not always realizing how much you don't give a flying fuck about 3 cents on a $50 widget you sell for $250. Unfortunately not all people working with China are willing to delay or not use a product batch because it's not right, so this further makes it seem like Chinese products are bad.

[ILLITE]

Pretty comical that the Chinese ones are holding up better.

People always say bad things about Chinese parts for some odd reason.

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I’ve had good luck with cheaper carbon fiber bits like lips and rear diffusers on previous cars. I’m not sure I’d trust a performance part, but people need to get off their high horse on parts such as visual parts.


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[Gunnarrrrr]

I’ve had good luck with cheaper carbon fiber bits like lips and rear diffusers on previous cars. I’m not sure I’d trust a performance part, but people need to get off their high horse on parts such as visual parts.


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I paid $100 for my carbon mirror covers on my B9 SQ5 from aliexpress. And I love them.


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[QuickHandCam]

Because lots of cheap shit gets resold as premium shit or just cheap shit that breaks. China can make as good of a part as you specify. The downside is culturally, at least in my personal experience with Chinese manufacturing, their whole thing is doing things as cheap as possible on often thin margins and sometimes knocking off products without knowing what they're doing. Meaning "hey that's a cool widget, let me copy it" but not understanding the actual product, target customer, or science. If you work with them and you're very specific in what you want they can make very high end products for great prices. You will get into stupid conversations where they're trying to save a penny on something you're gonna resell for 300% margin and that penny makes the product massively nicer. Like hey don't package the product in cellophane that looks like it came from North Korea... Lots of little gotchas that I had to work out over multiple iterations when I worked with them. Expect first X batches to have flaws that are cheaply remedied and make absolutely no sense as a corner cutting measure to a westerner. To them those pennies add up and they think they're helping, not always realizing how much you don't give a flying fuck about 3 cents on a $50 widget you sell for $250. Unfortunately not all people working with China are willing to delay or not use a product batch because it's not right, so this further makes it seem like Chinese products are bad.

Agreed.

I use to do engineering work for a company that had the product made in China, shipped over, and they sold it as American.

Surprisingly good stuff, but only if they made it to our specifications. We made a killer profit on it, too.

It took a few months to work out details and get things right with them, but it was a great deal we had going on until the Trump tariffs cut them deep. I ended up leaving about that time, but from what I understand they were working out new price formats on products and even maybe expanding product line.

Some things are better to buy through reputable sellers, but downpipes aren't one, imo. But if you would ask me if I would buy a Chinese turbo or HPFP/internals then I definitely wouldn't. Too many tolerance clearances that I wouldn't trust.

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[Tyler@IE]

Luckily this does not look like a trend and is the first report of this issue we have seen. I'm betting this IC was not properly prepped before the paint was applied; apologies. I know our customer service team is replacing it for you with a brand new one in whichever color you prefer. You will have to install it twice; luckily, the B9 platform install is pretty dang easy and fast -but we are taking care of it for you. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to make it right.

[initiala4]

Luckily this does not look like a trend and is the first report of this issue we have seen. I'm betting this IC was not properly prepped before the paint was applied; apologies. I know our customer service team is replacing it for you with a brand new one in whichever color you prefer. You will have to install it twice; luckily, the B9 platform install is pretty dang easy and fast -but we are taking care of it for you. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to make it right.

Thats customer service!

[Andy_FL]

Luckily this does not look like a trend and is the first report of this issue we have seen. I'm betting this IC was not properly prepped before the paint was applied; apologies. I know our customer service team is replacing it for you with a brand new one in whichever color you prefer. You will have to install it twice; luckily, the B9 platform install is pretty dang easy and fast -but we are taking care of it for you. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to make it right.

He really is a lucky guy! All seriousness, good to hear he's taken care of.

[Gunnarrrrr]

Thanks for getting a replacement one shipped out in less than 24 hours from the first email I sent, you guys rock.


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[oesman]

I'm betting this IC was not properly prepped before the paint was applied;

That sort of thing is almost always prep, its one of those 90% prep 10% work situations, like tig welding. One of the bummers about learning TIG like I found heh, you spend all your time prepping metal and then welding for minutes haha. To practice I'd just pre-cut and pre-prep a pile of metal, spend hours doing it, then weld away.

[muffinman92]

Luckily this does not look like a trend and is the first report of this issue we have seen. I'm betting this IC was not properly prepped before the paint was applied; apologies. I know our customer service team is replacing it for you with a brand new one in whichever color you prefer. You will have to install it twice; luckily, the B9 platform install is pretty dang easy and fast -but we are taking care of it for you. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to make it right.

I have the exact same issue with mine on B9 SQ5. Tons of paint chipped off within just the first week of driving.

[Nvbs4]

I had a rev 9 intercooler it held up to the point that when i crashed going 50 it didnt break or even chip the paint lol

[smf4444]

im on the market for an intercooler rn was looking at this... any better suggestions or is this probably just an outlier?

[smf4444]

I paid $100 for my carbon mirror covers on my B9 SQ5 from aliexpress. And I love them.


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any idea if they fit b9.5?

[Gunnarrrrr]

any idea if they fit b9.5?

idk I have an SQ5 so I can’t really help u. our mirrors are interchangeable with b9.5 idk about the S4/5 situation


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[Gunnarrrrr]

Hopefully the new one lasts. Thanks to IE for getting this to me within like 3 days of emailing them.
IMG_8078.jpg


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[rlme36]

Hopefully the new one lasts. Thanks to IE for getting this to me within like 3 days of emailing them.
IMG_8078.jpg


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I don't have an IE FMIC, but am glad to see them standing behind their product.

Rob

[muffinman92]

I don't have an IE FMIC, but am glad to see them standing behind their product.

Rob

Keep us updated. Dreading going through the process of swapping a new one in if it will just happen again.

[Gunnarrrrr]

Keep us updated. Dreading going through the process of swapping a new one in if it will just happen again.

I timed the swap. left all the old mounting hardware in place and just slid the new one onto the old brackets. on the jack stands and back off the jack stands in 30 minutes. But i’ve taken my bumper off at least a dozen times by now


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[Tyler@IE]

I have the exact same issue with mine on B9 SQ5. Tons of paint chipped off within just the first week of driving.

If you have not reached out to our customer service team already, please do. :)