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I LOVE seeing modified Nissans coming into work. For some reasons all the modified Nissans that do come in aren’t lowered an inch of the ground, have loud exhausts, or an aftermarket turbo. They are all clean and very nice looking and working on them is just the fun. 🙂
I deal with another kind of modified vehicles… Ambulances. Obviously they aren’t kid modified ricers, but getting techs to work on them is a royal pain. That being said, the diesel tech at the dealership that I take them to is probably one of the highest paid techs in the area… not simply because he is a good 6.0L Navistar tech, but because he was willing to deal with the modifications and learn it.
I really thought this was a great, well thought out video about what it was about though. I was young once and did all the wrong stuff to cars. Right now in my old age (32), I enjoy my very stock 1983 Porsche 944… it isn’t the fastest car in the world, but it was just right the way the factory made it. There is nothing wrong with messing with modifications though… that is how we learn.
🙂
yea your are right i hate working on modified cars more so jeep wranglers. seems like the new trend around here is lift your new jeeps and put offroad tires and wheels. but never take it offraod. well when it comes time to do a tire rotate they should pay extra alot more. those wheels are extremely heavy. i have to get another guy to help me cause i can barely lift one off the ground. by barely im hurting my back. some mods are okay i like to hear a nice v8 with some nice sounding exhaust.
Thanks Eric for your point of view. I figured that’s how the techs felt. And I understand their point of view. I would hate to work on someone’s car that they didn’t know what they were doing. Some mods are actually done to improve the vehicle. For example, I just added a shock sensor to my TL’s stock alarm. I don’t have a Type S, but there have been a rash of wheels being stolen from the TLS in the Acura forum that have been happening. I want to protect my vehicle from any theft.
Most mods now-a-days are done for looks. Yes, there are cold-air intakes and throttle body spacers and those kinds of mods, but for the most part I’ve seen mods that are more for looks.
The car being stock and being the best quality I cannot fully agree on. There are many things Acura didn’t get 100% on my TL. Not saying every car is 100%, but I would’ve expected a little more form Acura. It rattles like crazy and the transmission (also something you have agreed on) is crap. You have to baby it just so it can last you a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I love the TL, just would think Acura could’ve done a better job with this vehicle. I guess you’re right in saying after the turn of the century the Honda quality kind of diminished.
I also owned a 92 Integra. I don’t have it anymore because it was totaled by a semi in front of my house. In the end I think that car had 206K original miles. I had that car lowered for 4 years, carbon fiber hood, wheels and exhaust and that thing never gave me any problems. I did all the maintenance needed as needed.
For me, I do a lot of research before I add anything to my car. I am the type that love forums. I like seeing how something has lasted, or not lasted, for someone. What are the good parts, and parts you should avoid. I do learn by other people’s mistakes, although I do mistakes of my own.
I think there was a bigger response on Facebook. Hopefully you were able to see those comments. I think many modders know they depreciate the vehicle value, but they do the mods for themselves. I know I do.
Again, thanks for the video Eric.
Myself personally?, I would go for performance mods and not the visual ones since visual ones are too darned hard to get off right. I generally find that most visually modded cars looks like a dung heap on wheels and there are very few of them that I actually like.
But yea they can be a pain to own as well as fix due to spoilers scraping on the lift, on the curb etc, as well as the spoilers, skirts and whatnot limiting access to certain parts of the car and what not.
[quote=”georgelv1999″ post=72209]Thanks Eric for your point of view. I figured that’s how the techs felt. And I understand their point of view. I would hate to work on someone’s car that they didn’t know what they were doing. Some mods are actually done to improve the vehicle. For example, I just added a shock sensor to my TL’s stock alarm. I don’t have a Type S, but there have been a rash of wheels being stolen from the TLS in the Acura forum that have been happening. I want to protect my vehicle from any theft.
Most mods now-a-days are done for looks. Yes, there are cold-air intakes and throttle body spacers and those kinds of mods, but for the most part I’ve seen mods that are more for looks.
The car being stock and being the best quality I cannot fully agree on. There are many things Acura didn’t get 100% on my TL. Not saying every car is 100%, but I would’ve expected a little more form Acura. It rattles like crazy and the transmission (also something you have agreed on) is crap. You have to baby it just so it can last you a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I love the TL, just would think Acura could’ve done a better job with this vehicle. I guess you’re right in saying after the turn of the century the Honda quality kind of diminished.
I also owned a 92 Integra. I don’t have it anymore because it was totaled by a semi in front of my house. In the end I think that car had 206K original miles. I had that car lowered for 4 years, carbon fiber hood, wheels and exhaust and that thing never gave me any problems. I did all the maintenance needed as needed.
For me, I do a lot of research before I add anything to my car. I am the type that love forums. I like seeing how something has lasted, or not lasted, for someone. What are the good parts, and parts you should avoid. I do learn by other people’s mistakes, although I do mistakes of my own.
I think there was a bigger response on Facebook. Hopefully you were able to see those comments. I think many modders know they depreciate the vehicle value, but they do the mods for themselves. I know I do.
Again, thanks for the video Eric.[/quote]
I hate to tell you this but in my opinion the 99-03 Acura TL’s and CL’s were the worst cars Honda ever made. I hope you don’t own one of those, if you do, sell it. Trust me on this. From the time those rolled into the show room I knew it was over for Honda. Sad really. But that’s off topic.
I’m not opposed to modifications. In fact I’m for them, IF they’re done right. And 9 times out of 10, they’re not right. Anything but right. I think most of it is ignorance. People buy into the notion that bolting on parts will make their car better, faster, stronger, better than before. The truth is that most of these bolt on parts do little but empty your wallet. If you really want to make something modern go faster, you have to start from the ground up. You can’t just focus on one area, you have to take the whole package into account and have a plan from the start, otherwise you’re wasting your money in my opinion. Here is an example of a car that I feel was done right. I had the privilege of working on this car. I was sad when the owner sold it.
As for ‘re-chipping’ or ‘re-specking’ a car, this may be your only option with modern vehicles. It’s not the do all end all however. You also have to make sure you’re dealing with a reputable company or you’re going to get burned. In addition, I know you won’t pass an emissions test with a chipped vehicle. Most times those get reset to factory spec before they go to be tested. I’m not saying it can’t be done or shouldn’t be done but with physics there is always give and take. If you move the slider one way, another slider moves in a different direction. Likely, not a positive direction. This is why I say it’s difficult to modify modern vehicles. The engineers have already done everything mathematically possible to maintain a balance between performance, fuel economy, and driver comfort. Start messing with the system and the whole thing starts to get out of balance.
I found it interesting that the off road crown chimed in on this one. To be honest when I made the video I really didn’t have the off road community in mind but now that I think about it it’s worth mentioning. I have less of an issue with off road modifications because for the most part they serve a purpose other than vanity. There are still a lot of crappy off road mods out there, and also a lot of crappy off road parts. They can also be equally difficult to work on depending on what modifications were done. But once again, I feel that off road modifications in some ways are a little more practical than fart cans and big wheels.
I guess my biggest issue with modded cars from a technicians point of view is that they really do make a vehicle more difficult to work on. Not only do you have to eliminate problems with the stock systems, but now you have to deal with aftermarket parts that could be causing issues as well as the installation of those parts. Bottom line, if it’s not professionally done, it’s a PITA. And it’s rarely professionally done in my experience.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=72257][quote=”georgelv1999″ post=72209]Thanks Eric for your point of view. I figured that’s how the techs felt. And I understand their point of view. I would hate to work on someone’s car that they didn’t know what they were doing. Some mods are actually done to improve the vehicle. For example, I just added a shock sensor to my TL’s stock alarm. I don’t have a Type S, but there have been a rash of wheels being stolen from the TLS in the Acura forum that have been happening. I want to protect my vehicle from any theft.
Most mods now-a-days are done for looks. Yes, there are cold-air intakes and throttle body spacers and those kinds of mods, but for the most part I’ve seen mods that are more for looks.
The car being stock and being the best quality I cannot fully agree on. There are many things Acura didn’t get 100% on my TL. Not saying every car is 100%, but I would’ve expected a little more form Acura. It rattles like crazy and the transmission (also something you have agreed on) is crap. You have to baby it just so it can last you a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I love the TL, just would think Acura could’ve done a better job with this vehicle. I guess you’re right in saying after the turn of the century the Honda quality kind of diminished.
I also owned a 92 Integra. I don’t have it anymore because it was totaled by a semi in front of my house. In the end I think that car had 206K original miles. I had that car lowered for 4 years, carbon fiber hood, wheels and exhaust and that thing never gave me any problems. I did all the maintenance needed as needed.
For me, I do a lot of research before I add anything to my car. I am the type that love forums. I like seeing how something has lasted, or not lasted, for someone. What are the good parts, and parts you should avoid. I do learn by other people’s mistakes, although I do mistakes of my own.
I think there was a bigger response on Facebook. Hopefully you were able to see those comments. I think many modders know they depreciate the vehicle value, but they do the mods for themselves. I know I do.
Again, thanks for the video Eric.[/quote]
I hate to tell you this but in my opinion the 99-03 Acura TL’s and CL’s were the worst cars Honda ever made. I hope you don’t own one of those, if you do, sell it. Trust me on this. From the time those rolled into the show room I knew it was over for Honda. Sad really. But that’s off topic.
I’m not opposed to modifications. In fact I’m for them, IF they’re done right. And 9 times out of 10, they’re not right. Anything but right. I think most of it is ignorance. People buy into the notion that bolting on parts will make their car better, faster, stronger, better than before. The truth is that most of these bolt on parts do little but empty your wallet. If you really want to make something modern go faster, you have to start from the ground up. You can’t just focus on one area, you have to take the whole package into account and have a plan from the start, otherwise you’re wasting your money in my opinion. Here is an example of a car that I feel was done right. I had the privilege of working on this car. I was sad when the owner sold it.
As for ‘re-chipping’ or ‘re-specking’ a car, this may be your only option with modern vehicles. It’s not the do all end all however. You also have to make sure you’re dealing with a reputable company or you’re going to get burned. In addition, I know you won’t pass an emissions test with a chipped vehicle. Most times those get reset to factory spec before they go to be tested. I’m not saying it can’t be done or shouldn’t be done but with physics there is always give and take. If you move the slider one way, another slider moves in a different direction. Likely, not a positive direction. This is why I say it’s difficult to modify modern vehicles. The engineers have already done everything mathematically possible to maintain a balance between performance, fuel economy, and driver comfort. Start messing with the system and the whole thing starts to get out of balance.
I found it interesting that the off road crown chimed in on this one. To be honest when I made the video I really didn’t have the off road community in mind but now that I think about it it’s worth mentioning. I have less of an issue with off road modifications because for the most part they serve a purpose other than vanity. There are still a lot of crappy off road mods out there, and also a lot of crappy off road parts. They can also be equally difficult to work on depending on what modifications were done. But once again, I feel that off road modifications in some ways are a little more practical than fart cans and big wheels.
I guess my biggest issue with modded cars from a technicians point of view is that they really do make a vehicle more difficult to work on. Not only do you have to eliminate problems with the stock systems, but now you have to deal with aftermarket parts that could be causing issues as well as the installation of those parts. Bottom line, if it’s not professionally done, it’s a PITA. And it’s rarely professionally done in my experience.[/quote]
I own an 07 TL. So far one of the best cars I’ve ever owned. I’ve had an 06 Maxima, which is also up there. I’m glad I don’t own the 2nd Gen TL then. Sad to say the 3rd Gen TL has some of the same problems the 2nd Gen has. The trans on the 04-06 TL is trash, they revamped it for 07, but still very jerky. The one good thing about TLs is they hold their resale value very good. I got this one this year, with 63k miles, no damage or anything major for $17.5k.
I think modding also comes from experience. I can tell you I’ve learned a lot from doing the wrong things to my car. On my old Integra I cut the springs, then added the eBay coilovers. All that was trash. So I went with Tein coilovers, and that was by far one of the best things I did to it. And you’re right, there’s a lot of garbage out there that people buy in to. I’m not into the whole neon, LED underglow, big body kits, 28 inch wheels. My mods are subtle. Picture of my Integra the day it was totally by the semi. The ‘Teg was parked where the Semi ended. There’s a pickup truck between the semi and red car too.
[URL=http://s273.photobucket.com/user/georgelv1999/media/100_0451.jpeg.html][IMG]http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj237/georgelv1999/100_0451.jpeg[/IMG][/URL]I do personally think I would also hate working on modded cars if I was a tech, that I can’t lie about. You’re very right, not only do you have to deal with the stock system, but also maybe even with a hacked job some guy did in his backyard. But see, that’s why I hardly ever take my car to the dealer unless it’s work that needs to be done that only the dealer can do. And I think that would be one of the biggest points with this: If someone is going to modify a vehicle don’t expect the dealer to fix something they messed up. I know that if I lower my car I’m not going into the dealer to complain that my struts are blown.
So let me ask you, what about modding as far as like oils and other liquids that can be added to a car? What do you think about that? I mean, I know Honda extremely recommends that you add their trans oil specifically. But what if there are products out there that can match, and improve on their oils. You yourself added the synchromesh (I believe, can’t find the video) trans oil on your Odyssey. Can that be considered modifying? I think that one was done as a last ditch effort, right?
BTW, that Type R is very nice! If you didn’t know the owner from before (which I’m assuming you did) and you saw it come in to the dealer, what would you think of it?
Well I ended up putting a reman transmission in my Odyssey last week. So to answer your question, it wasn’t worth it. To be honest, unless you’re ready to really commit there is very little room for improvement over the stock Honda systems. BTW that year TL is just fine in my book. I wouldn’t mess with it too much or it will end up like your first attempt with the Integra. The best thing you can do for it is keep the original Michelin tires on it. Other tires just don’t seem to work out on those.
Hey Eric, I’m in the uk and I have a modified Rover 620Ti, which has the same chassis as the cd5 accord. You are right about the insurance here and I could only wish it was as relaxed as it is in the states to insure a modified vehicle. We do however, have insurance companies set up to cater for the modified car enthusiast which has made it easier to insure.
I also hate seeing or hearing about cars that have been modified incorrectly or irresponsibly by owners who make common mistakes only to blame the car for failing and not their lack of knowledge as a result of breaking something. As you mention in the video, alot of people want to see instant power/performance gains that make the car go faster but have total disregard to the gearbox/engine internals, braking systen or suspension. For instance on my car it uses a honda PG1 gearbox and we usually upgrade these with steel caged bearings to withstand extra torque from modifying the engine. This is commonly overlooked.. Also with the engine being turbocharged some people like to exceed the “safe limit” of boost resulting in ring land or piston failure. Most of these owners are quick to blame the engine..
I dont actually think people are trying to improve their handling when they slam a car to the ground as much as its something they feel looks “cool”. In the UK, VW’s are still very much the “scene”, slammed to the ground with small wheels. That said, I like a car to have a low stance but not at the expense of effecting handling or hitting the underbody everytime I pull onto the drive.
Anyway, always great to watch your videos and I will continue to do so!
Thanks
David
P.S. Glad to be getting rid of hub over disc 😉
Yeah..I used to work on Ambulances too. A real different animal and It’s surprising how much abuse they take. When I got a Ford Power Stroke to replace valve cover gaskets or the High Pressure oil lines on, I started wishing I had an alcoholic beverage in hand. It took an hour to remove the seats and light console before I could even see the engine cover. Something good came out of it though. When I refused to repair an O2 bottle leak where patience are cared for I got fired.
Modified wiring is my number one pet hate with modified cars. Cheap bolt-on external bits can easily be removed, but butchered harnesses can cause a whole world of pain!
I remember once spending an entire day troubleshooting a VW that ran on when the key was pulled from the ignition. None of the car’s factory wiring diagrams helped because the car had an engine conversion, so a completely different harness. In the end, it was traced to some shoddy wiring of an accessory causing a short, which kept the power relays energized when the key was removed.
Not sure of the year, but I know my buddy owns a proefessionally modified Acura Type S (IIRC it’s a CL). Has a boosted turbo, racing clutch, the whole 9 yards. No ricey crap (minus a video headunit and HID’s). He does actually race it too… But having looked under the hood (he gave me a jump last week) if he didn’t do his own work on it, the mechanic would be up the creek. No space and custom wiring/nitro hoses everywere…
As for poorly done aftermarket work, here’s a great example my buddy sent me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKH23bamIKU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2omY1vBzhEYou gotta love the 5 gallon bucket Speaker boxes… :woohoo:
I could never call any of your videos the best one, but I just watched this and once again heard some exceptionally well thought out intelligent rambling (thanks). Virtually every point you make resonates with me, and it’s yet another ETCG1 video that calms my work-related frustration with ‘virtual empathy’.
I work at a Mitsubishi dealer and we have the Lancer Evolution, one of the masters of modified bullshit. It’s already faster and better than 90% of production cars but it’s never good enough. A perfect example is that they need clutches every 50k and you have to take the exhaust out of the way to take the transfer case off so you can take the transmission off, and it’s designed to be reasonable to do (for 10 hours book time, like this). The exhaust is multiple pieces off the turbo so it’s easy to get room to work. A popular bolt on is a single piece downpipe that flows better but makes it hell to work on because you have to get seized turbo studs and nuts off to remove the whole thing instead of easily just removing the pieces that are in the way. I could cite at least 5 more time-wasting examples of common mods making it hell.
I’ve been a hardcore enthusiast from the beginning and what I learned doing numerous massive modification projects (and screwing a lot of stuff up and doing over again) was how I became qualified to go professional. I still have the Volkswagen that I learned on, and I wouldn’t wish dealing with it on anyone. If I sold it, I would require the buyer to pay me to write a service manual for it because many parts that wear out are parts for other model VWs. I even am starting to forget what year/model’s parts I need to get when doing maintenance and replacing worn parts.
A point on lowering. As you mentioned, most people use parts that aren’t of Daewoo quality to do so (or cut the springs or distort them with a torch) and it handles and rides like shit. I just want to put out here that with good money spent on quality suspension, it can really make a normal car go around successive corners like a Porsche 911.
Thanks for your input Fopeano. Yea, getting a modified vehicle into the shop is always a pain because most of the time the person that modified the car had no clue what they were doing when they decided the parts store bargain bin bolt on part was worth 50bhp.
It’s amazing some of the comments to this video. I wasn’t advocating people not modify their vehicles, I was suggesting that if they do modify them, they do it with some intelligence and not come crying to a professional technician when their vehicle doesn’t work right. I think the negative comments are from these very people that insist they’re making their car better by bolting stupid stuff onto it or hacking it up.
Thanks for your comments.
I can’t even explain how much money my service department and it’s techs have lost because of the front allowing modified cars (Mitsubishi Evolutions mostly) into the shop without ever charging them extra for it. They also price installation of aftermarket parts using flat rate times for factory parts. It’s insane but it happens because the manager is a EVO fanboy and wants to make all the other EVO fanboys happy
One guy’s car I’ve sunk so much free labor into that I outright refuse to work on it anymore. Everytime the car comes in the shop I tell my boss that he is an asshole, and everytime I see the customer I taunt him about his obnoxious shitmobile and how much money he owes me. I told my boss if he ever MAKES me work on that car despite my refusal, I’ll sabotage it and play dumb when it comes back with a light on. The car’s owner just more money than brains and he keeps showing up with parts he doesn’t understand, such as a turbo with the bearing section clocked to a different position to the oil and coolant lines don’t line up anymore.
“We’ll get ya right in” 🙁
Thanks again for all of your ‘virtual empathy’ Eric, you do a good thing for all sides of this business.
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