I do some oil changes and occasionally put the car in for a proper service, but even with basic car maintenance you really need to be shown how by your father (for example) to avoid dangerous practices (dropping the car on yourself) or damaging the car (stripping the sump plug).
Even changing a tyre it's easy to break a stud if you are inexperienced, especially these days as everything is tightened with air tools.
Hi Alex,
To all others that say you can do what I do.... YOU CAN'T . I won't clog up Alex's thread or spend my time justifying why either because honestly I don't believe I need to.
That is a big broad statement and I would have to argue. I would also argue that there are plenty in your industry that can't or shouldn't do what you do either.
The attached is all my own work apart from the roll cage as getting a logbook is easier if a recognised fabricator puts his name to it, and the final tune as I don't have a dyno or the experience to dial it up to the bleeding edge. I built the motor myself in the shed, admittedly without serious machining required, but checked all clearances, did the porting, all assembly, selection of the turbo and appropriate injectors and fuel system and tuned it at the track. When I had it properly tuned on the dyno it only picked up 5KW peak at the boost level I was running. I built the gearbox out of disparate parts of different boxes to select the best ratios available that were spread over several different originating models. Rebuilt the diff including re-configuring the LSD, taking it from puny to stunningly effective. Pretty much all of it still good after a decade.
Now nearing the end of a major round of fabrication and full rewire including the ECU wireout installing and programming the logic functions in a motorsport power control module and electronic dashboard including custom CAN messaging set up by me after the ECU maker did a firmware update to let me do it (As I was the first to ask him to finish an incomplete module to do it) enabling two way communications between all of the ECU, dash and power control modules, controlling functions that would normally need physical switching with CAN messages instead, The dash ECU and power module are not even all from the same manufacturer.
Some of us can, and some of us are smart enough to know what to leave to others to avoid being a demonstration of the Dunning Kruger effect.
Well done on your build Paul. Im still not going to get into the arguement suffice to say I stand by my ( general ) statement.
Just be careful not to save too much money by doing it yourself and suppling your own parts from eBay etc. to the point at which your mechanic can no longer afford to keep the door open for when you do need him. ( another general statement )
There are very few Ebay parts on the car. Fuel system stuff, direct from Bosch as Ebay "Genuine Bosch" is 99% likely to be fake, new turbo from a supplier in Gippsland who could cobble together bits I could not easily lay my hands on to build a turbo to suit Nissan's now quaint looking selection of flanges. Heaps and heaps of connectors through local suppliers (One of which is on Ebay and I buy from him there as he gives free postage compared to charging freight on his main website)
The only place that is giving me grief is the local Autopro I have been buying service stuff from for nearly 20 years, it has changed hands and become a Repco recently. To be honest they are competing with online suppliers as it took me years to break in the old bloke to just order in what I asked for and if I was wrong well tough for me, I would be paying for it anyway. Now I am back having to convince the new staff that I actually know what I am talking about and what I want.
What does get up my nose is some dealership costs, I can vouch for being charged over $60 for $10 wiper blades on my novated lease car. Sometimes they see a lease as a chance to gouge, like the tyre service I had been going to for 20 years until the smashed me full rec retail on tyres because it was a lease car. They forget that the money comes out of my pocket ultimately.
The other bit that gets up my nose is diagnosis via flowchart which some manufacturers insist that their techs use, don't follow and document every step on the flowchart on a warranty job, not getting paid. It takes diagnosis on complex systems out of the brains of some very talented techs and puts it in the hands of people who are not looking at the car in question, and starts with the assumption that if they did not think of it, it can't be happening in the field. IMO it is where things like Alex's "Needs a new gearbox" come from.
Ex RACV guy here, those things where awesome with an RB26DETT head on the RB30.
Nice work mate, and yes I have done almost all the work on my cars over the last 40 years. (saved a fortune).
cheers Dave
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_bluester
That is a big broad statement and I would have to argue. I would also argue that there are plenty in your industry that can't or shouldn't do what you do either.
The attached is all my own work apart from the roll cage as getting a logbook is easier if a recognised fabricator puts his name to it, and the final tune as I don't have a dyno or the experience to dial it up to the bleeding edge. I built the motor myself in the shed, admittedly without serious machining required, but checked all clearances, did the porting, all assembly, selection of the turbo and appropriate injectors and fuel system and tuned it at the track. When I had it properly tuned on the dyno it only picked up 5KW peak at the boost level I was running. I built the gearbox out of disparate parts of different boxes to select the best ratios available that were spread over several different originating models. Rebuilt the diff including re-configuring the LSD, taking it from puny to stunningly effective. Pretty much all of it still good after a decade.
Now nearing the end of a major round of fabrication and full rewire including the ECU wireout installing and programming the logic functions in a motorsport power control module and electronic dashboard including custom CAN messaging set up by me after the ECU maker did a firmware update to let me do it (As I was the first to ask him to finish an incomplete module to do it) enabling two way communications between all of the ECU, dash and power control modules, controlling functions that would normally need physical switching with CAN messages instead, The dash ECU and power module are not even all from the same manufacturer.
Some of us can, and some of us are smart enough to know what to leave to others to avoid being a demonstration of the Dunning Kruger effect.
Well I just arrived at Tabby...good trip 10 hours including a short nap☺.
I expected the gear box to fail but it held up☺.
Anyways as happy as I am that I made it I must say that I am not happy about the clouds.
Probably a good thing as they are a good excuse to have an early night.
It is such a shame there are folk in the world who dont do the right thing.
Alex
Ex RACV guy here, those things where awesome with an RB26DETT head on the RB30.
Nice work mate, and yes I have done almost all the work on my cars over the last 40 years. (saved a fortune).
cheers Dave
Still an RB20DET in my case, though when the god of the R31 (If there is such a thing, it is Shibata-san of R31 House) gets out after a few laps and has to be convinced it is a 20 not a 25 I must be doing something right.
I have an RB30 block in the shed waiting for an RB25 head, the 25 is easier to do and a lot more commonly used now. Though that one won't be a hand grenade motor built in my shed like the current one, the trigger for building it is the 20 breaking or showing signs of getting tired, been waiting since 2008 for that to happen!
I used to have factory workshop manuals for the Datsun 240K, the detail they used to go into was great, all the way down into the intricacies of valving in the auto boxes, and they were expected to repair them to that level.
Contrast that to my mates experience of a Mazda CX9 that the dealer wanted to put a new gearbox into and a diff (To fix a noise) with a quote of about $19,000!
I put a seal in the transfer case, changed the transfer case oil ("Life of the car" oil renowned for breaking down somewhere north of about 120,000KM and trashing the transfer case, often taking the gearbox with it) and put a new wheelbearing into it for about $300 and they did another 50,000KM trouble free before trading it as electronics were beginning to give issues and they needed a reliable car. I could probably have sorted that too, sounded very much like a crook crank angle sensor failing but I was away and they were thinking of trading anyway.
Spare a thought for the poor farmers that have been denighed the ability to work on their own tractors. John Deere and others, have locked the tractors into electronic management which can only be accessed by their dealer service people. Apparently, there is now hacked software available that is allowing farmers to take back some basic repairs. Sound familiar, it seems they have been watching the auto industry lock out owners and independent mechanics:
