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A Mechanic's Life - Tales From Under the Hood

2976 messages,  Last post on May 25, 2013 at 7:10 PM

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     This topic is primarily for professional mechanics, current or retired, or ardent amateurs who would like to share the suprises, victories, tricks and challenges of working on the modern automobile. All Forums members are invited, of course, to ask technicians about their work, or comment on your own experiences dealing with mechanics.
 
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Messages Page 170 of 298

#1690 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [steve_] by thecardoc3

Feb 24, 2013 (5:15 am)

Replying to: steve_ (Feb 23, 2013 10:31 am)
Nowhere in the manual is "noisy" defined.
But I'm sure some ultrasupreme dexos46 will quieten things down nicely
 
My Bro-in-law qualifies remarks like that with, "If you cant dazzle-em with brilliance, baffle-em with BS."

#1691 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [gimmestdtranny] by thecardoc3

Feb 24, 2013 (5:33 am)

Replying to: gimmestdtranny (Feb 23, 2013 1:27 pm)
I agree, plus..bucket and shim systems go way longer between checks. They may be a pain to do when the check indicates it's necessary, but at least they rarely need doing
 
I had the head off of a Sentra late last year. When I got it back from the machine shop, I figured it would be far easier to do the valve adjustment before the head went back on. After getting all of the sizes that I needed I called the dealer and his parts guy replied that they not only didn't have any of the shims, they had never used any. He used his locator and he claimed that there wasn't a single dealer that had a whole set of the shims. The best that he found was a few that each had one or two.
 
I called up my machine shop and talked to them about the situation after I had talked to the shop that the dealer uses. Let's just say the machine shop had to be very creative to get the existing shims to work correctly.
 
I was glad I chose to address this before I put the head back on.

#1692 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [thecardoc3] by gimmestdtranny

Feb 24, 2013 (7:48 am)

Replying to: thecardoc3 (Feb 24, 2013 5:33 am)
the dealer and his parts guy replied that they not only didn't have any of the shims, they had never used any. He used his locator and he claimed that there wasn't a single dealer that had a whole set of the shims. The best that he found was a few that each had one or two.
 
Amazing, in that if a customer did have a car that needed adjustments (like your guy's Sentra) that they don't stock the ability to do the job. This speaks to them just throwing it back together with what may had they been the chosen shop to do the job..and probably charge the guy as insult on injury.
 
In future, try a few bike shops...they tend to carry pretty good shim stock, and work with each other trading sizes..
I'm not sure, but I suspect shim overall dimension sizes are probably not much different between car and bike engines? Putting that out as a question, but I think might be the case with similar sized displacement engines and valve trains....or at least bikes that are not tuned super hot with steeper cams and such. Possibly the thinner sizes might be harder to come by for auto use and milder cams?

#1693 of 2976 Re: Oil... A slippery subject. [thecardoc3] by Mr_Shiftright HOST

Feb 24, 2013 (8:43 am)

Replying to: thecardoc3 (Feb 24, 2013 4:46 am)
The proper weight oil is also important for hydraulic variable valve timing systems.

#1694 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [Mr_Shiftright] by isellhondas

Feb 24, 2013 (10:08 am)

Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Feb 23, 2013 10:22 am)
Many years ago, I bouught John Muir's book " How to keep your Volkswagen Alive"
 
He REALLY stressed the need for me to lie on my back every 3000 miles and do a COLD valve adjustment on my beetle and I did!
 
Funny thing, they never needed to be adjusted but I still did it.

#1695 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [isellhondas] by steve_ HOST

Feb 24, 2013 (10:17 am)

Replying to: isellhondas (Feb 24, 2013 10:08 am)
That was a classic, spiral bound to lie flat and everything. Mine seemed to benefit from the valve adjustments.

#1696 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [steve_] by isellhondas

Feb 24, 2013 (10:29 am)

Replying to: steve_ (Feb 24, 2013 10:17 am)
That was a great book and fun to read. I passed it along when I sold my VW.
 
I think I may have adjusted one valve one time but otherwise they never needed it.

#1697 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [gimmestdtranny] by roadburner

Feb 24, 2013 (11:46 am)

Replying to: gimmestdtranny (Feb 24, 2013 7:48 am)
Amazing, in that if a customer did have a car that needed adjustments (like your guy's Sentra) that they don't stock the ability to do the job.
 
And as I mentioned earlier, I know of at least one BMW dealer that never bought the special BMW tool needed to do valve adjustments on the S14 and S38 M motors, even though the SI system called for a valve inspection at 15,000 mile intervals.
Amazing is right...

#1698 of 2976 Re: Diplomacy isn't my strongsuit [roadburner] by thecardoc3

Feb 24, 2013 (6:19 pm)

Replying to: roadburner (Feb 24, 2013 11:46 am)
I know of at least one BMW dealer that never bought the special BMW tool
 
The odd part about that is one would think that would have been an essential tool, and in North America, the franchise agreements were worded in such a way that the dealers don't have a choice in the tool purchases. They get boxes shipped in and the moneys come right out of the dealers bank account. There are lots of dealers with boxes of essential tools that have never been opened.
 
That being said, before I went on my own, I was buying lots of tools that the shops that I was working in should have been buying. I had my own jack, and jack stands from my dealership days. I had my own scan tool, and oscilloscope. Heck I even had my own press and shop crane among many other items.

#1699 of 2976 Re: Oil... A slippery subject. [Mr_Shiftright] by thecardoc3

Feb 24, 2013 (7:53 pm)

Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Feb 24, 2013 8:43 am)
I've had several new customers from check engine lights that were the direct result of the wrong oil in the engine.
 
Meanwhile on my blog here is an example of "You can't tell if oil is due to be changed by just looking at it".
 
My Mustang, which gets stored each winter had it's last oil change Nov 9th. 2011 since I am teaching in Tennessee this week, we decided to sneak it out of Pa. But I knew I needed to change the oil first. So with almost
sixteen months and just over 4800 miles on it, here is what it looked like on the dipstick.
 
http://johng673.blogspot.com/
 
Yep, you cannot tell by just looking at it.

Messages Page 170 of 298

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