Thread: So Im pretty pissed off right now with Aeroforce.

I've been talking about the problem a lot on here so I'll be short, gauge quit working, resetting constantly, started randomly one day.

Put everything... Head unit, pcm, everything back to stock. Still going on

I exhausted this forum, many other forums on the 3800 and GM in general scene, Aeroforce Customer Service. I tried Crutchfield tech support since they know electronics, Will Overkill wouldnt answer me on it, Intense wouldnt answer me on it, ZZP answered but had no idea. Got frustrated and gave up for awhile, eventually contacted Aeroforce again and they told me to send it in for testing and possible warranty replacement. This was about 2 weeks before my warranty was up. At this point it wouldnt even turn on most of the time... fuse on the OBDII port is good and scanner at work responds to it. Plugged it into my brother's car and out of 5 attempted it powered on once.

I sent it in, about a week later they emailed me and said it was fine, and were sending it back. I got it back, kept trying, kept attempting to troubleshoot. Sometimes it would turn on and stay on for 5-10 seconds and start cycling resets, sometimes it would cycle immediately, sometimes it wouldnt even power on. So warranty is up now, so I kinda said screw it and left it in my dash cubby hole by the shifter, plugged in. I just felt like it randomly stopped working, maybe someday it would randomly fix itself... since I had nothing else to do with it now since the warranty was gone and AF already said it's "fine".

Well, tonight I got in the car to leave my gf's house, and when I opened the door my dome light flickered a little.. I thought that was weird, but brushed it off. Started the car and immediately smelled smoke and started trying to find it before something went up... turned the dome light back on just in time to see a small cloud come from my cubby hole. The gauge smells burned really strong and wont even blink the LED's on top now, which it always atleast did that.

"Fine" my ass. The fuse to the OBDII connector was still perfect, 10A like it should be. I dont even know what to think now, I feel like they saw how close it was to warranty and just sent it back. I mean, it didnt work in my brother's car either... his car is a G8 and not compatible but it should atleast power on when I connect it.

Im just venting right now, this whole thing sucks.. I payed for the gauge new, it worked like a dream for about 6 months and has been a nightmare ever since.

I will never own an Aeroforce. I have heard so many stories about their terrible customer service and instances just like this (not too mention that the people I know personally, they have a 50% failure rate). There is a very well documented case on another forum I am on where every e-mail correspondence was included in the thread etc and Aeroforce still came on there and tried to make excuses while doing nothing to resolve the problem. It was ridiculous. I would think your best bet is to throw it away and never buy another.

You don't say how long it's been in use, lol. Yes, not that it should really matter, but things do break, not made to last forever. Built in obsolescence so to say... Also, the manufacturing process allows for defect, which is supposedly caught by quality control (laughing is ok). Venting is good as it prevents the ultimate kick that awaits the cat.

Well, if it fried and it's out of warranty, pop the case apart and look at the board. See what went up in smoke, (MOSFET, Capcitor or whatever) break out the soldering iron and fit it your self. Worth a shot eh?

If you don't want to mess with it, Ill buy it off you for 10 bucks shipped haha

Originally Posted by coolone

You don't say how long it's been in use, lol. Yes, not that it should really matter, but things do break, not made to last forever. Built in obsolescence so to say... Also, the manufacturing process allows for defect, which is supposedly caught by quality control (laughing is ok). Venting is good as it prevents the ultimate kick that awaits the cat.

Well it was "in use" about 6 months, that's when it broke... I "had it in my possession" about a year and 3 months, the warranty was up in August. I dont know about you, but I expect a $200 piece of electronics to last a little longer than half a year, lol.

If you don't want to mess with it, Ill buy it off you for 10 bucks shipped haha

Im not sure what Im going to do with it yet, I might take it out to the range with my buddy


Im also going to contact them and see what they say... who knows maybe between Black friday/cyber monday deals, and sending the bad one back to them, they'll work with me and I could get a replacement cheap or something. Part of me just wants to find out if it really was the gauge that was bad, part of me just really really likes the gauge and I want a new one that works.

No really. Dont shoot it. lol I want it if you cant do anything with it! :P

Ok, I promise I wont give it to Ol' 44.

Im gunna see if they'll take it back in exchange for giving me a cheap one, kinda like a pro-rata warranty in the spirit of the holidays... or maybe hopefully some kind of black friday deal or something. I'll contact you when I find out what Im doing with it. I emailed them today, hopefully they respond by tomorrow, or else I probably wont hear back til Monday.

Cool

Well, I emailed him and explained my situation. He offered to take a look at it, even though it's a little out of warranty.

So I sent it to him right away, he wrote back the the circuit board was totally destroyed, and that was really unusual. He was awesome enough to replace the circuit board in it for me, and sent it back 2-day priority.

Got it back today and set it back up... and IT WORKS! I drove around for about an hour and it didnt blink out once, updating instantly the whole time. (Sorry Adecker.)

So yeah, I dont know what was wrong with it before, and why they sent it back as "Ok" once. Since it burned out and he replaced the insides, it seems to be working beautifully. I wanted to give him credit for taking great care of me as a customer, he totally coulda told me tough beans.. communicated fast and then he also sent it back on 2-day priority, which was awesome, I think I was missing the gauge like five days total.

Year-long ordeal over!

Haha yay! I'm happy for you. I'm going to school for Computer/Electrical Engineering so I was just going to fix the board :P