how many people here actually work on there own cars? seriously???? i know i have done everything to my car since i got it with the exception of a custom tranny mount and my kaaz? i have done everything from clutch lines to blown engine's, not to mention that i also help my friends with an sr20 swap into an 86, s13 s14 and my friends 800 hp supra. i know my car inside and out and ive touched almost every bolt on it. then i come on here and ask a question about an upgrade on an ecu and i get some super street mechanic who stays online reading other ppl's posts and magazines all day, trying to act like i dont know anything. this is the reason i dont even come on here anymore. i really want to know who does there own work and who is getting raped by a mechanic? everyone who does your own work i applaud you, seriously i do. but the people who dont why dont you run this throu spell check and tell me about my car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ive done everything....engine swap, clutch, flywheel, full exhaust, rad..the list goes on and on aandddd onnnnn! And im in the age group that gets flammed the most

 

i would work on my own car, but i'm too busy with everyone else's.

 

I -REALLY- hope you're not talking about Rynberg's posts . . . . .

EDIT: Who's post are you talking about anyways?

 

The only thing that I don't do myself is engine diagnosis.

 

i don't have one yet but i plan on doing everything, and if i need any help, my uncle has a shop about a 30 minutes from my house, and i'm sure he'll let me work on it there, and maybe help if he can (i have no idea if he knows anything about rotaries)

EDIT: i mean, it's YOUR car, you know it better than anyone else does, and on top of that, it's a rotary, and IMHO i think that they're really interesting and i think that they are/can be better than piston engines (JUST the pistons alone are 4, 6, 8, or 10 moving parts in engines that are much bigger/heavier than a rotary, compared to an engine that has only 3 or 4 moving parts and is very light) it's just that i think rotaries aren't as widely used, so there's less advances in them

 

I do all of my own work and think that is a large part of the experience of owning an FD. As with any group, there are people on this forum who are genuinely knowledgeable and helpful and others who just get off by throwing rocks at everyone else.

 

I pay someone else to do it (usually at a much lower rate than you'd think because its after hours stuff) unless its little maintenance things... simply because its my only car right now and i don't have the time to screw something up and have the car down for a week and i don't really trust my skill at this point. soon i'll be getting another car and then i will become my own mechanic (i'll also be getting a house and having a place to work on it).

 

FD is my life, I work on that **** in my sleep

 

If this is the case, then the question is your rotary-specific knowledge. So bringing up the S-AFC is a pretty wild question. I've never worked tunable ECUs, and the question raised a flag even to me.

Modifying rotaries is more about fuel supply and tuning than bolt-ins. Working with the stock car isn't anywhere near as complicated - you simply bolt/unbolt parts as needed like other cars. Well, unless you want to revisit your experience with blown engines (and that's making the big assumption it was a rotary).

The person spending all their time online would be me, not Rynberg.

Rynberg is a very sharp and experienced guy, and he recognized your questions as lacking some basic background knowledge about RX-7 tuning. If you can't handle direct discussion, then your ego is probably too fragile for the internet in general. I don't think his post was out of line, and I GUARANTEE you would have posted the same thing if you had been in his shoes. Instead of posting polls, I suggest you run a search for threads started by that user. You'll get a good idea of what they really do.

Which leaves only this question: if you hadn't been online, when would you have figured out the S-AFC was a bad idea?

Dave

 

By not doing work on your car, doesn't mean you know nothing about it. I know my car better than anyone, but do not have the tools or the time to do the work myself. You have the time to work on your car that's good for you and your pocket, it's not rocket science after all, its bolt on pieces, you didn't actualy "MADE" the car. This doen't mean you know more than me or anybody else.

And by the way i am here every day and rynberg looks like a guy who knows his ****.

 

I disagree with raceer1, you can learn all you want about something but if you have no experience doing it, then you should not be giving advice in that subject.

I remember when I was going through Auto Tech certification there were some guys who were great at learning and got good grades, thus, they believed they knew everything about cars. However, they consistently misdiagnosised problems because they lacked experience. They may be great mechanics now, but at the time they were useless.

All I’m saying is that just because you read and study diagrams and how-tos, does not mean you can skillfully diagnose a complex problem on a complex vehicle.

BTW, I do all my own work because I have the skill, time, and tools to do it. Plus, there is not a person I would trust to touch my car within a 1000 miles of me.
Yet, I still do not claim to be an expert. There are a lot of tuning techniques that I have not even tried and probably will never learn.
I DO NOT GIVE ADVICE ON SOMETHING UNLESS I HAVE DONE IT MYSELF AT LEAST ONCE.

 

I did the little things on my car. I'd rather pay to have it done, and use my time for other things. My time is valuable

 

I do all the work on my car (with the help of local friends); and I would have told you the same things as Rynberg.

 

does washing & waxing count for little things?

 

There is a WORLD of difference between wrenching, knowing how to rebuild a motor, etc., and knowing about tuning or the components necessary to properly mod a car. They aren't even the same thing. I didn't see a single post by anyone in that thread that was negative or condescending toward you. If you were offended by my posts in that thread, I don't know what to say. I gave you good advice without any attitude at all so I don't know what else I could have done.

The attitude that you HAVE to work on your own car to own an FD or know anything about it is absurd. Wrenching on a car takes tools, time, and a manual (or experience). I don't have a plethora of the first one and I definitely don't have enough of the second one to do all my own work. There is nothing wrong with paying someone to fix something if you have the money. I know a lot of very experienced wrenchers on this forum that wouldn't dream of rebuilding their own engine. Why? Because other people SPECIALIZE in that and would do a much better job.

As far as commenting on threads on the forum....I post here to have fun and to help people. There are some definite areas of these cars that I DO NOT post about because I don't know **** about that topic-- but you can guarantee I READ those threads and learn. I certainly have stuck my foot in it a few times, but hey, no one's perfect. I've never once claimed to know everything about these cars (I certainly don't!) and I have and do regularly defer to a few members here who REALLY know their ****. But I CAN tell you that I have helped people on this forum MANY times -- just as the forum has helped me figure something out MANY times.

Good luck with modding your car.

 

i do some small stuff wheres my friend Aleem who is the master guru of rx7's in my area does most of it. he did my non-seq conversion along with some other things. thanks bro!

 

I do all the work on my car. I know I could pay a professional to do a better/faster job, but I enjoy working on it myself and learning about the car (have a lot of that to do ).

 

A man (or women) must know their limitations.............

Your poll only gives all or none concerning if you work on your car.

Not that it really matters, but I do the major repair/mods on my car.

Now, when it came to engine rebuild I left that to the experts. I could have fumbled through it, but think of all the time I would have wasted.

If you do something everyday you get pretty damn good at it.

People seam to think the RX-7 is completly differant than any other car ever produced & requires "special" knowledge. Other than the engine, it's all the same.

So if you have "any" mechanical apptitute it's no big deal to work on.

 

I do everything except paint and body work....got friends for that though.

 

i do all the easy things, maintenance etc..hard things that i encountered so far like clutch swap etc etc, i brought to a shop..

 

I just wanted to bring up an overlooked point:

Just because you do the work yourself doesn't mean you are doing it CORRECTLY. Nor does it imply that your are knowledgeable. There are a vast number of people who know so much that doing the wrenching themselves is below their level.

An example: many of the Computer Science professors I have studied under can't do a lick of programming because their minds have abstracted too far from the code level. It doesn't mean they aren't fit to give you advice on your software application. It just means they can't give you an EXACT knitty gritty answer such as "put this line of code here."

 

you have a good point, but i've never met anyone in my life that's comforable with their automotive skills, but takes their car to a mechanic. (excluding people who live in apartments where you're not allowed to work on your cars.)

 

i take that back... except changine oil. i take my beater car to get the oil changed. $15... i can't hardly buy the stuff for that much, and it's not worth my time.

 

I do all the work myself except when I'm stuck...then if finance permits, I'll take it to a trusted person or shop. I personally know better about any of my cars by doing it myself. Trying to understand and read manuals and text from a forum is one thing but when you're actually work on the car and it's actually 3-D rather than 2-D is something else. Heck, I even tried rebuilding my own engine (didn't work out though). With that experience, I definitely know a lot more about the rotary and how difficult or how easily it can be...