Review of Mishimoto Thermostatic Oil Sandwich Plate
 

I wanted to give everyone a quick heads up on my experience with the mishimoto thermostatic oil sandwich plate.

I purchased it through Amazon on July 16 and installed it two weekends ago. I used Mistimoto fittings and their plate adaptor (20mm) to attach the plate while I was installing an oil cooler. (DIY version with a tru cool cooler and stainless lines)

This past Saturday I was on the interstate when disaster struck. I started seeing smoke billowing from the rear of my car. After bringing the car to a safe stop I discovered that the oil level is so low it isn't on the stick.

I called my gf to get a ride back to my house and returned to the car with tools and discovered that the oring in the thermostat cap blew out. (See below pictures)

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/10/tunu3u5u.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/10/ezatynem.jpg

Being a Saturday afternoon in a small town I could not find a suitable replacement. There are also no specs listed on their site for it so I ended up towing the car to a shop till I can get the correct parts and have the engine evaluated.

Today I have learned that both underbody aero panels have soaked in oil ($127.50 a piece at my Nissan dealer). The spray also got into my front right wheel and has soaked into my brake pads and I lost 5-6 quarts of oil from the engine.

I attempted to call Mishimoto's toll free number and my carrier informed me the call could not be completed. I then emailed their customer service asking for someone to call me as I cannot get through. I received a reply asking what the problem was but no one called. I sent these same pictures to them and after a day of back and forth they are sending me a replacement o ring. The emails carried on so long they weren't able to ship today so now I'm looking at Wednesday before the parts arrive and probably end of the week to get the car back. I called the direct number and tried to talk to the person I was emailing and left them a message and they would not call me back.

I work at an automotive manufacturer and I bright the remains of the oring in for a look by our quality department. They believe that it was improperly installed at the factory which cut the o ring.

For $130 part, I feel this is unacceptable. Perhaps I am wrong but I almost lost (may have) an engine over a simple o ring.

I guess the point of this rant is to serve as warning to anyone thinking of using this part.

WOW! Bummer! :( Hopefully you just lost some oil and not the motor.

Yeah. The dealer offered to pull the pan and check on it for me for little charge since I let them service it. I'm hoping for good news. I'm really disappointed in the service and quality of a company that verbally has a good reputation.

That's Mishimoto for you. They'll come in here and try to spin it, but at the end of the day cheap Chinese parts with zero quality control will cause a problem. Hopefully the motors ok.

Good to know that now. I'm looking for a replacement unit now and an oil pressure gauge. I hadn't read much in the way of negative reviews and fell for what appeared to be a quality product. I will call the $130 tuition money. Got a nice paperweight at the end of the class.

Sorry brother, I hope it turns out well!


If you want the same brand and type plate that Stillen sells, you can buy them for $30-35 shipped

Gotta love those "no questions asked limited lifetime warranty" cHinese parts! mIshimoto will for sure pick up the tab for the $6.5k long block and labor. :ugh2:

Anymore info on those plates? (I'll begin searching as well) and yeah their warranty "only covers the Mishimoto parts". One benefit of the lack of phone support is the email chain. If they try to spin it at me I will post the entire conversation.

I live around the corner from the dragon and right now I don't trust this plate to make a run. I put the cooler in because I hit 260 F my last good run. Gotta have something I have faith in because there is no way to signal for help.

i would really like to see some more pictures of this setup... specifically what it looks like with the thermostat removed. You want to make sure that the threaded hole is even countersunk to accept the oring rather than just smashing it between 2 flat surfaces. If its not countersunk, you want to use a bonded sealing washer to seal that union.

Its hard to say from the pictures... but it really just looks like that oring is totally smashed in there, as if there is no counter bore for it to seal up into.

PM'd

wow what a POS...I feel for you, man.




looks like the section that failed comes pre installed too

Mishimoto needs to step up to the plate on this one and cover any expenses.

At the 0:45 mark in the video. You can see that one is countersunk for the o-ring. Wondering if the OP's is the same.

It's not counter sunk on the plate but I believe they tried to achieve a similar effect by reducing the diameter if the cap. When I can get the plate off the car I will do a full disassembly.
the specs on the oring are 3mm thickness and 15mm inner diameter. It's a beefy oring and to me it appeared it was jammed in the sleeve like you suggested.

It was pre installed and I did not tamper with it to avoid a situation like what happened. They told me the torque spec for that cap is only 10lbs. I'm no ME but that seems low. (I am a EE that grew up a shade tree mechanic)

:roflpuke2::roflpuke2::roflpuke2::roflpuke2:

Sure they will. They'll send him a new O-ring. Or, at best, replace the sandwich plate. Where you at, Tyler@Mishimoto? You guys going to fix the OP's motor if your POS killed it, or are you going to hide?

Per yesterday all they will do is overnight the oring as "all the warranty is the mishimoto product."

Now if someone there was running this plate and it failed I'd be curious what would happen.

China's finest strikes again. I hate to say it, but that's what Mishimoto is known for. Cheap parts that fail often. They'll have enough parts not fail, and some slick videos and sales reps who appear to care to get some supporters on a forum, but they're hit and miss on quality control. On this board alone we've got your failure which could have resulted in severe damage, and another member who had their thermostat fail, which could potentially kill a motor. It's not just here. I came from the Subie world, and they had the same reputation there.

I hadn't read anything negative about there parts and that's why I took the chance. It's now coming off the car and going back to Amazon. I sourcing another plate this week and I intend on spreading this info as far as I can.

Anyone feel free to quote and repost to
Other forums. I'm building a site devoted to this problem since I now have free time while my car is in the shop.

Anyone taking bets on whether the Mishimoto rep stops by this thread? They're Johnny-on-the-spot when it's a positive review. I'm taking the under for $5.

Mishimoto.......making tons of crap for all makes and models. We have a pile of leaky radiators and broken thermostats lying around the shop for the scrap guys to pick up! Never put this garbage on your car! Mishimoto "tries" to make as much money as they can stealing others designs and using sub-par materials. I had their thermostat fail @ 4k miles.....

I highly doubt they stop by this thread considering I asked twice for them to call me and they didn't. When I finally got through from my end they told me the guy I was talking. To was in a meeting and I left him a voicemail stressing the importance of having a phone conversation to attempt to find a resolution.

Never got a call.

Also I was told by a rep the o ring was revised during production and then the rep I was emailing said that wasn't the case. I believe they are hiding a major issue.

They're viewing the thread right now, and have been for a while, yet no response.

Hey Derraj06, I apologize that you had this experience with our products, and I would like to help you out in this situation. Please send me an email to tsylveser@mishimoto.com so we can further discuss your issues; I am more than happy to work with you on a solution.

We have a team of engineers at our facility in New Castle, Delaware that design and engineer all of our products. We then test our products in house for fitment and performance to make sure our customers are going to receive the highest quality product. We also have a team of employees that make sure our designs are being properly implemented at our factories. We take great care in our products and want to ensure that every customer is happy with the product they receive. We have had many customers that have purchased this plate and have been very satisfied. This is the first case we have heard of this component failing, and we want to work with you to understand the cause and get you up and running as soon as possible.

If anyone has concerns about our products or company, please feel free to contact me personally. I am here to help, and to listen to customer feedback. We want to continuously improve our products and company to meet our customer’s needs. :)

Thanks,
Tyler

Thank you for your reply. I will contact you momentarily in regards to this issue. I am curious however why it takes writing something like this on a public forum to have someone actually care about my problem.

I spent all day yesterday trying to talk to your service reps and all I got was we will send you another oring.

Because airing it publicly may affect sales.

Glad I got the Z1 Kit/25row/Thermo-plate and not ANYTHING else. Buy from a vendor who actually supports the marque rather than exploit it.

OP no eff'n mercy for this 'firm' who sold you this and made you post up here to get basic CUSTOMER SERVICE. Total BS. I hope your motor is OK!

Rip off capitalism at its finest. Very very sad.

@Mishimoto

The email address you posted returns as a delivery failure. Can you please review and confirm? Pat Muschamp at your firm has my contact information as well.

Thanks.

I really hope that was just a typo, and that they didn't knowingly post a bunk email address just to shut you up. Fingers crossed they take care of you, OP.

Sorry about that! My email address is tsylvester@mishimoto.com. :)

Email sent. Awaiting. Reply.

I will have a final diagnostic of the engine on Friday to those who may be curious.

And as a side note if you search "mishimoto thermostatic plate" or any reasonable derivative this thread is on top of the google search. Thanks the370z family for taking interest in this matter!

I support Z1 with a lot of my needs. As someone who puts a lot of research into decisions on cars (I work at a tier one supplier to ensure quality products ship) I feel a bit naive after having this happen. I never found any reason to doubt the product while looking at the web. That's why I have posted my warning because my car is has 22k miles and I may be making a major overhaul over a mis assembly.

My apologies again for the typo on the email address. The correct email address is: tsylvester@mishimoto.com I assure you that this was simply a typo. Mishimoto is a reputable and well known company with four locations worldwide… we would not intentionally mistype an email address simply to avoid speaking with our customers. We value our customer feedback and input – which is the reason I’m on this forum and attempting to address concerns within 24 hours of the original post.

I’d like to address a few specific comments that have been made.

We do not “steal other’s designs”. We have a team of full-time mechanical engineers in our New Castle HQ just for R&D, product design, and testing. I encourage you to take a look at this video which highlights the design process of this actual product: Mishimoto Engineering Behind the Scenes - From Concept to Completion - YouTube

A statement was made that we have ‘zero quality control’. In fact, most of the products we use every day (Apple, Samsung, Nissan) are manufactured or use components manufactured in China. But unlike many companies, Mishimoto has our own facility in China with a team of Quality Control Engineers who conduct rigorous on-site inspection for every order. I’ll post some photos of our China office below for you to check out!

A comment was made questioning our Lifetime Warranty. The process is quite straightforward: simply email us a photo of the defect and a copy of the receipt and we will take care of it.

This is manufacturing, and as with any manufacturing, there can be a very small percentage of defects that may still get through. We put many controls and inspections in place to limit the amount of defects, and we stand behind the product with our Lifetime Warranty. We have thousands of very satisfied customers – it is very unfortunate that you seemed to have received a defective unit, which is why we are taking the time here to work with you and attempt to address the issue.

Now that I’ve addressed the above concerns, let me share with you the feedback from our engineers after meeting to discuss this issue.

It appears from your photo that the thermostat plug was not fully tightened. The way this product is designed is such that the plug will ‘bottom out’ against the surface of the sandwich plate when fully tightened. This assures the correct amount of interference/deformation at the O-ring to achieve a proper seal – and at the same time assures that it cannot damage the O-ring by ‘over-tightening’. Yes, there is a countersink upon which the O-ring seals. We do not just sandwich it between two flat plates.
You mentioned that 10 lbs does not seem like very much. The spec for tightening is actually 10 ft/lbs, which is quite high. Basically, it just needs to be bottomed-out against the sandwich plate and that will be sufficient.

Thanks,
Tyler Sylvester

Here are the images of our office in China.

http://i44.tinypic.com/14kjl3a.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/2elegbo.jpg

Have not made any claims as to the quality of the brand. Take that up with the others in the thread. I am only speaking from my personal experience and this is the only product of yours I have tried.

To the comment that the cap was not tight when I room this picture. I realize that as there is an oring sticking out the side. I am looking for my picture from when I installed to to prove it was snug. I did not tamper with this unit in any way before installing this plate because I did not want to chance a problem like this if it was not correctly tightened.

The pictures above are in a parking lot shortly after the car was stopped. I took them myself before disassembling the part.

Speaking with a co worker if mine who is a Mechanical engineer of 20+ years of experience in the automotive industry he felt 10ft/lbs was not a lot of force given a 370z engine can reach 100psi easily before it is warm. That is the basis of that comment. I have already stated I am an electrical engineer and do not claim to have a full knowledge of mechanical principles.

To the comment that the part is countersunk. I have seen pictures to show it is and I am not claiming they are not. Any comments I have made when it was being discussed previously were based on the fact I don't recall there being a countersink there when I was inspecting the car.

The facts of this are that I installed your companies product in good faith is was a correctly assembled and tested product and it failed within a week of install. I make no other claims as to the origins of its design or assembly.

maybe because that's where it failed? the OP stated he didn't even touch that part as it comes pre installed too. this is a failure straight from the factory.

Here are two pictures from install.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/11/ny2yre2y.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/11/sumebuvy.jpg

These show the condition when it was installed a week ago.

It couldn't possibly have been a factory defect. Just look at the video and pics of their office.

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I stopped on page three of Google search results. Rigorous inspection my ***. So Mishimoto, if the OP's motor is toast because of oil starvation, are you going to replace the motor or just get him a new sandwich plate? How far does that warranty go?

To your reference of your reference of a team a quality engineers at your manufacturing facility.

Do you care to explain how you ensure the cap has been torqued to the appropriate spec? How do you guarantee that the cap is flush to the body? How do you track traceability through the final assembly process?

I work as an engineer that installs equipment to ensure these things. Those are sincere questions.

Where do I find your traceability marks so you can review this data? I would be happy to provide you with any identifying information so that you can better analyze this failure.