MSD Sucks

[JayC]

Got one of Shane's cars at the house doing some work on it getting it ready for a trip to the dyno. Shane had a MSD DIS-4 he wanted me to install but didn't have the Turbo Regal specific adapter. Ordered a couple of them from Summit and they arrived on Friday. Due to unforeseen circumstances, had to cancel the dyno session today but I decided to go ahead and put the thing on anyway.

Pulled the coil pack off the car and installed the plate. Mounted the box, set the switches and screwed it all back together. Pretty easy install altogether. Crank the car up and it runs like sh!t. Sounds like it's got a dead cylinder. Disconnect the DIS-4 and plug the bypass adapter in to it, car runs fine. So I'm thinking I might have a bad unit or I'm stupid and had the switches set wrong.

Called MSD, first guy answers the phone. I proceed to lay it out for him. Wired it up, yea, works with the bypass plug, etc, etc. Obviously he was reading from a cue card and says "Well, you need to verify the wiring". I say "Umm.. it works fine with the bypass plug in place and the only wiring in there connects the ignition module to the coil pack so it has to be wired right." He proceeds to tell me that no, MSD fires the coils in a "special way" and that it indeed could be hooked up wrong.

So I pull the coil pack back off the car, disassembled the adapter and verify the wiring. It's correct and I get pissed at the MSD guy for making me doubt myself. Put it all back together, move the ground just for laughs and start the car up.. same sh!t.. sounds like a dead cylinder.

Call MSD back again. Go through the whole spiel.. verified wiring, etc, etc, dead cylinder, blah blah. This genius says "Well, I think you have a plug wire that wont hold up under our increased spark load." Huh? I say "Well, maybe I have a bad unit?" MSD genius says "Not likely, our failure rate is very low."

So by now, I'm pretty much convinced the unit is bad. I call TurboKid, which is actually where this unit came from originally and talk to him about it. After some discussion, he agrees to loan me another one to try it and see if it is indeed a bad unit.

I drive over and pick his up, bring it home and hook it up and start the car and it does the same thing. So now I'm starting to think I have a bad adapter module. As I'm looking at the unit and being pissed off, I noticed that at the very end of the extension cable they provide with the adapter harness, one of the wires has an odd bulge in the side of it. Figuring maybe the wire is actually cut inside the casing, I extend the power and ground wires on the MSD so I can plug it directly into the side of the adapter plate. Car fires up and runs fine.

I had an extra adapter so I pulled the cable out of it and swapped them and remounted the box, etc. It's hard to believe that 4 calls to MSD got me nowhere except them continually putting the blame on me as to why the box didn't work. Granted I probably should have figured it out myself quicker but normally stuff WORKS out of the box, at least once or twice anyway before it pukes. Now we get to have fun trying to return the adapter. I called them back and they weren't helpful on the return end of things whatsoever. I guess we'll just have to return it to Summit and let them deal with MSD.

 

[RICHIE HIGH PSI]

I agree MSD SUCKS for cust service....I am fighting them right now with similar issues

 

[wahoo50]

I had a similar experience with them. Had a MSD-4 to fail, when I called for help they suggested I do a search on their website for troubleshooting. Did this, and like majic, determined the unit was bad. Couldn't get any warranty help so I purchased a new one.

They also told me the reason my 'check engine' light stayed on was because I needed to add two adapters. Bought & installed them, engine won't start. Discovered they won't work on this setup. MSD won't accept them back.

By the way, this is on my Lexus. What bother's me most about the experience is they didn't seem to care about my problem with their part.

 

[Louie L.]

This is exactly why i hate em idiots. Search the MSD post in the S2 section years back. That box is the biggest POS. I had 2 ,Cals got 2 or 3 , Richie Kiebler had 3 or 4 of em..all junk.. My last one would only work on a stock ECM car.

Thats why I will not use a single piece of their stuff again. With my 2 i had to use some of their stuff..Now i dont have to use a single MSD part.:smile:

 

[JayC]

Yea.. Richie AKA TurboKid is where this one originally came from. It was included with a car Shane bought.

The car its on is a stock ECM car so I wasnt too worried about putting it on there.. was a royal PITA tho in the end. What should have been an hour job ended up turning into several hours and several parts runs.

 

[Lee_Burough]

I had a negative experience with MSD customer service too. I sent the part back along with the receipt (just like th first rep instructed). They kept the receipt and sent the part back with an unsat explanation. No more MSD for me.

I'm going to move this thread to the FEEDBACK section and leave a redirect.

 

[SGRIM]

I hope summit takes it back with no lip.... I will be asking for store credit though, hell Jegs has the same part $15-20 cheaper

Jay has alot of hours into this car, can't wait until Dyno Day!

Thanks bud!

 

[Otto J]

Tell summit that,They will match the price.
Also Summit is great with return stuff i have found

 

[SGRIM]

Cool, I hadn't thought about the price match, Thanks Otto!

I am now convinced MSD sucks period:biggrin:

 

[Louie L.]

I just saw an ad in the mustang magazine. MSD came out with a harness to run 2 of these pieces of trash in a COP Mod motor mustang. Jeez! I hope they work better for them guys.

 

[10secvega]

Summit has a really good return policy.
MSD is a joke,i use to work at Summit.Once a month a vendor would come in and give tech seminars.Me and a few of my friends where having trouble with there billet dist.The weights would wear out the pins and then stick in the rotor.All they had to do was install a simple bushing like GM does on there HEI's to cure the problem.
I bring my distributor with me to work that day,explain it to the MSD tech guy,he blows me off and tells me to send it back to MSD.If it cost over a $100 to fix it they would just send me a new one.So my $200 dollar dist is going to cost me another $100 plus shipping for a defect in there own product..
I tell the tech rep i will no longer recomend his dist,I wouldn't sell anything that i wouldn't use on my own car.

 

[Rodney87GN]

I think the only good thing MSD makes are plug wires.

Other than that....

 

[SVORay]

I did pretty good with their 6AL boxes.

I was going to drop a 2.3T into a DIS stang I had once but changed my mind and bought an SVO instead. It sounds like it was a good thing I didn't do that swap.

 

[CKBuick]

I had some good luck returning a dis4. I got a preproduction dis4 ho box to try out. I used it for prob a year before it took a crap ( missing real bad) called and got a rma number and sent it off. I figure I would get a thank you for testing the box reply. I called them after they recieved it and the guy said thank you for testing the box we are going to send you a new one for free! I got the new one and havent had a problem with it yet. :biggrin:

 

[J-B Racing]

Msd.../$%?&*(

It`s been over 15 years I have switched over to Mallory. You never have problems with Mallory. Every Car I get with some sort of MSD crap on it. The Car runs like $hit..

 

[TURBOKID]

Msd

I have had problems alot also. My BRAND NEW MSD-10 would not even fire my new motor at the end of last year. Now I have had a problem like I did with the V6 about 3 years ago. So I just changed the box and coil to a 7AL2 and will see if that fixes the problem this week when I take it back out.
It is very hard to talk to them people for tech help it is always someone else's fought.

 

[Louie L.]

It`s been over 15 years I have switched over to Mallory. You never have problems with Mallory. Every Car I get with some sort of MSD crap on it. The Car runs like $hit..

I have been running Crane stuff and it works flawless. Also their tech support doesnt make you feel like a nuisance. I had some questions and they gave me the direct number to the ignition engineer so that he could naswer some of my questions. Try that with MSD.