Tech Tips

With limited space in built-up areas, water restrictions and hectic lifestyles, it’s no wonder Do-It-Yourself car washes have become so popular. But there are a couple of pitfalls to be aware of. Avoid high-pressure hosing the wheels after you’ve been driving for any more than a few minutes – the blast of cold water causes rapid cooling of the brake discs and this leads to warped discs. If you absolutely must clean the wheels using high-pressure water, make sure you do it within the first few minutes of driving and the brakes are still relatively cool.

Many grey market Japanese import vehicles are equipped with a speed chime that sounds at a road speed above about 100 km/h. We don’t need to tell you how annoying this becomes after a few minutes of freeway or country driving! In most cases, the chime is mounted on the back of the instrument cluster and – once the cluster is removed – it is easily disabled. This photo shows the back of a Nissan 180SX instrument cluster. The chime unit is seen to the left with two wires leading into it. To disable the speed chime in most imported Nissans, all you need to do is unplug the two wire connector feeding the chime – the male end of the connector can be seen being held here. Voila - no more annoying beeps!

Here’s a simple one. When you’re doing home oil changes, it’s a good idea to do remove the oil filler cap before removing the sump plug. This will allow the oil to drain more effectively – you want to drain the greatest amount of old oil possible.

Of course, the opposite applies when you’re replacing a leaky radiator drain plug. Leave the radiator filler cap on when you whip out the old one and screw in the new plug. This minimises the amount of coolant lost during the process.

Nitrous systems that are hidden from under-bonnet view are becoming increasing popular. Be aware that any good nitrous system should incorporate some form of nitrous bottle temperature control. Why? Well, excess bottle temperature causes an increase in nitrous line pressure. This means more N2O is delivered than normally and you might have a hand-grenade’d engine on your hands! Many nitrous related engine blow-ups are caused by a lack of bottle temperature control. In this photo, bottle pressure is controlled using an insulated jacket.

At one stage of vehicle ownership you’ll need to have the brake discs machined – they invariably warp and vary in thickness over time. Rather than remove the discs at home, fumble around dropping them off and picking them up from the machine shop and refitting them, it’s much easier to book in for an on-site brake disc machining job. From as little as AUD$80 you can call out the professionals to do the job from start to finish – it’s simply not worth the time and effort to save only a few bucks to do it yourself.

Buying second-hand OE sound gear is an effective way to improve to achieve quality in-car audio. However, with new aftermarket CD/tuners now so cheap (often under AUD$200) you’ve really got to weigh up the value of second-hand OE head units. Also, be aware that a security code is needed to fire up a second-hand OE head unit – without the code it’s useless!

Here at AutoSpeed we get plenty of enquiries about engine conversions – some enquiries are achievable, some are completely off-the-wall. An engine conversion is real challenge - even when it’s supposed to be an easy ‘bolt in’. With this in mind, keep things as simple as possible. Stay away from obscure swaps and stick to ‘in the family’ upgrades – forced induction, larger capacity or multi-valve versions of your existing engine. Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

When using a hybrid turbocharger with a large compressor and a relatively small exhaust side (to help maintain good boost response) you may encounter problems with overboosting. This is because the wastegate can’t bypass enough gas around the turbine when the engine is running at high load. The common solution is to bolt on an external wastegate but, unfortunately, aftermarket external wastegates are very expensive. Another approach is to use OE external ‘gates, as used in various Audis and Porsches. Check out the US eBay website and you’ll find a whole lot of ‘em!

Under-bonnet bling is one of the reasons many people fit aftermarket gear. Polished blow-off valves, intercoolers, exposed filters and brand-name stickers are all seen as ways to establish cred. Unfortunately, it also makes it obvious to prying police eyes that your car is modified – and a visit to your local vehicle standards inspection station is usually followed shortly after.

To avoid these hassles, why not take the challenge to keep everything under the bonnet as stock looking as possible? The APS Phase 3 kit for the Ford Falcon XR6T is the ultimate example of stealth mods – you’d never pick its making about double the factory 240kW output!