Came home for Thanksgiving break the other day to my brother complaining about a humming noise coming from my car. Finally had time to check it out today and found a good size bolt in the driver's side rear tire. Brought it to a friend of mine's shop to get the bolt pulled and the tire plugged.

After he finished plugging my tire, the mechanic that had been working on my car came up to me and started asking me about my car and where I got my intake. He pointed to a GP GT in the parking lot telling me it was his and how he had a GTP at home and then told me how he just replaced the motor in his GTP cause his old one blew. He told me that he had been racing, and beating, a 350Z when it happened because he put a new pulley on. I asked him what size and he replied "I don't know, it was at least half the size of the stock one." I then asked him what else he had done to the car assuming it was more than a 3.4 drop, he replied with nothing. :rolleyes:

I'm not going to go much further into it than that, you guys know what I'm getting at. I'm not judging his skills at as a mechanic because of that, more like just his automotive knowledge in general. I won't stop taking my car there either, I know the manager very well and I usually get a great deal there (my repair today for example was for free). I have no doubt he is a capable mechanic but it just surprised me that someone that knows as much about cars as he does would be so ignorant as to some of the very basics.

Regardless, I saw this as a perfect example as to why I insist on doing my own work. That way I know that it's done right and that, in the event that something does go wrong, it's no one's fault but my own.

You know six years ago not many people were aware of just how much KR these motors had. People were claiming all that was needed to run a 3.4 was a Ubend delete and a filter.

Remember these motors don't get the national attention as the all the small block V8s and out side of a couple of internet forums the info isn't really available to joe bloe when it comes to what is really needed to do some things to these cars.

Now if he proceeded to argue with you that he knows every thing then...

ZING!!!

I don't expect everyone to know how these motors work but I thought at least a certified mechanic would have a basic understanding of what is needed when dropping a pulley and what will result from it. The fact that he didn't even know what size the pulley was kind of stood out to me.

He is what I call a magazine modder. They see something in a magazine and slap it on without doing any more research.

On another note, I also do my own maintenance. I do it cause I'm lazy. What that means is, I do it right the first time so it never has to be done again. I don't want to be bothered doing the same job again, or taking it back cause it was done wrong.
Case in point. I had the intake gaskets replaced (leaking coolant externally) on my GP last Feb. It was $100 under the extended warranty I got when I bought my car. Today I notice oil in my garage. Looks like the intake gasket under the TB has started leaking oil afte 12K miles. Good thing I did not change to Mobil1 0W-30 this weekend like I planned.

It's in the nature of car modding that people make mistakes(hopefully learn from them), break stuff, repair it, replace it, rebuild it, and break it again. It's all part of the learning process, sorting out what works, and what doesn't.

And that ASE Certified arm patch doesn't make anyone all knowing & all powerful. They screw up just like the rest of us...you should have seen some of the cars I've worked on in the past, sent to us from dealers and other repair shops.