was the vendor a sponsor of m.net?

No, got them from upgrade motoring locally.

Damn - Too bad it's not an m.net sponsor ---
You could have "BASHED" them on m.net, so you could watch the fireworks:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...fireworks2.gifhttp://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...fireworks2.gif

I've heard about this happening to the subaru crew. I specifically bought something other than Tein because of their inconsistent product quality.

That is what confuses me. My friend with a WRX says that scooby people hate tein and say that they suck, while lots of miata people praise them. Too bad whiteline doesn't make miata stuff.

And I called tein and talked to a tech support guy who was much nicer than the vendor that I called, and he said to send the shock in for inspection. I may even drop it off tomorrow as their facility isn't that far away, but that all depends on if they can get a hold of the part that is needed in time. Hopefully the inspection will reveal that the shock was faulty, otherwise I think I'll have to pay for a rebuild and the part. I just want my car to be running again.

why not just make an adapter that goes over the rest of the threads?

Well there is the adjuster pin to think about that presents a problem.

BUT... I went to the tein headquarters today and showed them the shock and we figured out what caused the break. The shocks were installed improperly by the shop that did them. I would have installed them myself, but the vendor offered a good installation deal.

The bumpstop was in the completely wrong place, and was doing no good whatsoever, allowing the shock to bottom out and putting immense stress on the threaded shaft.

So now I need to get onto the shop that I bought them form and installed them and make them fix all (yes all the shocks have been installed wrong) of the shocks and probably replace a lot of the hardware on them that has been weakened by the stress put on them. I may just ask for another set of shocks as these ones have all obviously been damaged by the improper installation.

I'm just glad that I have Tein behind me verifying that they weren't over torqued (as the shop accused me of) and that they have indeed been put together improperly. Time to e-mail the shop.

I wouldnt email the shop. I would get it in writing from tein what caused the issue. Then go to the shop with your credit card statement proving you paid for the service there and the statement from tein. Then make them give you 4 new shocks and refund for the labor.

Do what Loki said. Considering the vendor that you bought them from installed them, Loki proposition should come out in your favor no problem.

If they say shit, just tell them to be thankful you aren't charing them the labor to remove the shocks and install the new ones.

Also you may want to take a friend. I don't know what kind of shop it is, but I remeber a story of a miata guy who took his car to a jiffy lube or something and they basically broke shit. He started to tell the manager that he neede to pay for repairs and the manager started yelling at him. When his crew heard the manager was in an altercation they started advancing on the customer (the story teller) and had shit like a huge wrench etc.

Bottom line..if the shop was trying to tell you that you were in the wrong and you come back and try to prove that they have to pay you they might try to intimidate you and get you to back down and crap like that.

Take a gun.
A big one, like philips. Have your friend video it.
Really though taking a friend is a good idea is some situations.

Thanks for the advice, I think I will do just that and get tein to write down what the problem was. I actually asked for something along the lines of this when I was at the tein headquarters today, but I haven't gotten anything yet. The other good thing is that the tein guys know the owner of this shop, and said they could talk to him personally as they know each other and hopefully this could be sorted out with their help.

But the other thing is that although I payed the shop where I bought the shocks for installation, they were installed by some other shop that had some kind of sudo partnership with the vendor. But on the upside on the invoice from the vendor it shows that I payed them $200 for installation, and as I payed them, it is their responsibility to sort things out with the shop that acutaly did the install.

And on the bringing a friend/gun I think I will just bring my dad, hes old, jewish'ish, intimidating, and has a very short fuse and often threatens to sue people. I think it will help to have him back me up, especially as I am a "young kid" (16) and the owners of the shop will probably not take me as seriously and attempt to intimidate me or something along those lines. The shop did accuse me of over-torquing the nut when I first called them, but the owner was quite nice last time I saw him in person, so idk, better be safe than sorry.

Again thanks for all of the help, I hope that I can resolve this stuff on Tuesday (damn holidays) without too much fuss.