cloudz

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys. My Uncle knew a shop that could fix my handbrake for cheap so he made me take it there instead. I disliked the idea because I wanted to do it. When I got the car back things started to happen. My deck broke... so no more music lol. My power mirrors wont adjust from the button inside the car anymore0.o and I just noticed when i turn the car lights on one of the lights are off. Could they have damaged a fuse or some wiring while installing the front hand brake cable? Are there any wiring that are nearby there? I also heard abnormal engine noises. I think it's coming from my alternator or belt area. It's like a high pitched sound, but was only there when my fd is turned on in the morning before its warmed. Is that normal? What do you guys think my problem is? I was thinking of bringing it to a rotary shop to get everything inspected. Do you guys know how much something like that would run me? Thanks

96fd3s

Did you take note of your mileage before you took the car into the shop? Do you think they drove it?
Sounds like general FD electrical gremlins to me, from what youv said it dosent really sound like your problems are related to a hand brake fix...
Is this car new to you?

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

Um I don't know the exact mileage but it's still in the same area I think. I did notice they reseted the travel one though. I drove couple hundred miles on it, but now its back to 0. I don't know if they drove it, but they might have. Yeah it's new to me. I had an FC before this, but they are totally different. I think I read about the electrical gremlins, I totally forgot about it. The shop probably didn't mess up then right?

96fd3s

It dosent sound like the shop messed it up. Im unsure but at a guess disconnecting your battery might reset your trip meter so if they disconnected the battery to do your job that may explain that bit.
How long does the screeching sound last on startup? Its pretty normal for it to squeek for a second or so after a cold startup. I think its the belts slipping slightly as it gets grip.
Any more then a second and you may have a problem..(loose belt proberbly)

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

Oh okay. The screech is definitely more than a second or two. I'll check if it makes the noise again tomorrow and time it. It felt like a long time though. I think it was related to the clutch a bit too. When I started the car with the clutch it made a little sound and when I released the clutch it made the sound, but a bit louder. That only happened twice so far though. When people say bring it to a rotary shop do they only mean bring it there when people actually work on the engine? Like rebuilding it or taking it apart? Does other repairs or maintenance require a rotary shop?

96fd3s

People will almost always say take your car to a rotary specialist.

In saying that some things such as suspension could be handled by a normal mechanic.
Anything to do with the engine/turbos or anything that affects how the engine actually runs id say take it to a specialist if you cant do the work yourself.

You should learn to do the maintenance yourself. Oil changes, coolant and spark plugs should be something every FD owner is capable of doing on their car.

Unless your car runs like crap and the engine isnt running properly, you might be better off (save money) taking your car to an auto electrition if its just small electrical issues your dealing with that dont affect how the car runs.

edit: as far as normal mechanics doing maintenance, this is usually frowned apon. But as long as you dont leave it up to them to pick the brands/grades of supplies used and you specify yourself what oil / coolant/ plugs they use in your car then it should be OK. still not adviseable though.
FD maintenance should be carried out by its owner.

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

Oh I can do those you mentioned. I can do most of the maintenance. It's just the harder things that might give me trouble, like changing the brake fluid. So is my main solution to bring the car to an electrition? Do you know what I should do about the alternator screeching sound? Do you know how much a rotary specialist will charge for like a full inspection or check up of the car?

96fd3s

Im all the way in new zealand so have no idea about prices or where you should take your car.

If i was you though, I would try to tighten up the alternator belt by looseing the nut on the bracket, getting a friend to push/pry the alternater upwards to put more tension on the belt then tighten the nut back up. That may or may not fix your screeching sound.

As far as your electrical problems go, i would take it to an auto electrition...well because thats what they do. I also suspect a general auto electriction would be cheaper then a rotary specialist.
Your lights/mirrors etc arnt going to make your car explode hence i would not pay a full fledged rotary specialist to fix common wiring problems with lights etc.

GodSquadMandrake

The electrical problems sound like a grounding issue to me because they aren't centralized on one system.

As far as the alternator goes it sounds like the bearing is going out. To test it just loosen the belt and try turning the pulley by hand. It should turn fairly smoothly and easily. If it kind of jumps or feels notchy, you've got a bad alternator bearing. You can either rebuild it yourself, or I would actually recommend to just buy a rebuilt one. Make sure the voltage regulator and voltage pulsation dampener are installed on the new one. If you are missing the voltage pulsation dampener it causes feedback in your electrical system so you get a whining in the stereo, headlight bulbs blow out, and lights flicker. This piece is just a capacitor that absorbs little spikes of DC current and filters it out. If it is damaged or missing it will start to mess everything up.

About the grounds. I don't have the FD service manual with the list of ground locations but check the areas they were working in. If you're talking about mirrors and radio, those are grounded inside the car. The headlights should be grounded in the fusebox itself. If you don't have a manual it's pretty easy to spot the ground wires because they are just big black wires. To test it you need a multimeter set to Ohms and put one probe on the battery negative terminal, and then the other probe onto the negative pin where the fuse would insert and see how much resistance you get. Generally I like to get less than one ohm but that's pretty hard to get, usually it ends up being around 1.2 ohms after going through the chassis and fusebox. But running a nice fat ground cable, chasing the threads on the ground bolts, etc sure helps a lot. Good luck.

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

@96fd3s: Oh okay. I'll try to tighten it and see the results. I know what you mean haha, those electrical things are pretty minor, it was just that altenator sound that scared me. I'll find a electrition if anything.

@GodSquadMandrake: Hmm ground issue. I'll ask the mechanic if he touched any of those spots. Is rebuilding the alternator hard? How much does a new one usually go for? Could it be linked to my clutch somehow because I heard sounds when i pressed and depressed the clutches too.

Oh I was also wondering, Is the Greddy Pulley Kit worth the money? I think it eliminates the air and water pump( What do these two do?). Is the kit basically just a new belt and the pulley thingy?

GodSquadMandrake

The clutch noise kind of sounds like a throw out bearing. The symptoms are if you get the noise only when you are pushing the pedal and the clutch is riding on the throwout bearing.

You can get a rebuilt alternator for under $100 last time I checked, you just want to make sure it's quality. The rebuild kit is like $20 and it isn't very hard if you have patience and the tools.

I don't think these two problems could be related but until you actually diagnose the issue we will never know.

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

Oh okay hmmm, bearings huh. These symptoms seem to only happen from a cold start. After it's warmed up and driven a bit it goes away. When you mean diagnose do you mean doing that thing with the alternators bearing you told me to do up there?

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

I didn't know what electrition to go to, but i went back to the shop that previously worked on my hand brake to see if they could diagnose the problem. They Said they weren't good with electrical stuff and told me to go to the dealership. I went to another shop my friend recommended and they said they could inspect my electrical stuff for 40 and if they didn't find the problem they wouldn't charge me. What do you guys think? Should I bring it to the dealerships or let that ship check it out?

GodSquadMandrake

If it's electrical you don't hire a mechanic to do it unless they are a special mechanic. Just in general mechanics hate electrical problems because they are notoriously difficult. It takes a lot of knowledge, skill and sometimes special instruments to properly diagnose and troubleshoot electrical problems. Then the repair takes skill too and I've seen far too many wires just twisted or butt spliced. So maybe the repair works for a year, but after that you have issues again.

The likelyhood of you finding a mechanic to do a good job is pretty slim. They're either going to charge you some money to poke around at it and not find the issue, or they'll tinker with it and possibly break more stuff and do an unsatisfactory job and not fix the issue. And there is a small chance they might even fix it, but most likely there would be more issues further on down the road. So this is what people mean when they talk about finding a rotary specialist.

Honestly your best bet is either the dealership, or yourself. Hopefully your dealership has one of those guys that's been there for 25 years and knows everything and always takes his time to do a good job because he takes pride in his work. But you could very well end up with some high school kid working on your car too.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

No, don't take it to the dealership.

Rotorsports is in Santa Clara. Take it there.
http://www.rotorsport2.com/

The squeeling you hear is probably a worn alternator belt. Typical wear and tear unrelated to what the mechanic fixed with the e-brake. The mirrors are also unrelated to anything the mechanic would have touched to fix the e-brake. The headlight being "off" is probably the bulb that died. Again, basic maintenance. It happens with old cars. Don't get overly paranoid.

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

Oh okay. Yeah that would be terrible. So when you take it to a dealership it's almost like a gamble? Man that sounds scary. Oh rotorsports looks promising. Is that where you take your fd gracer7-rx7? Should I call for an estimation and ask about the problems?

cloudz

iTrader: (1)

I dont think any of my belts have been changed, do you think if I changed them it would solve the noise problem? How much would that go for?