What did you do to your Civic today? (II)

[Enzym]

Went to the dealer today for an oil change and asked about them replacing the PCV valve.... I got quoted for $200 labor to do it lol.
Kindly said no thanks and just bought the part separately to replace over the weekend.
You'd think they would be mindful that it takes only 5 minutes (if that) to replace it!

That's almost $800/hour if my calculations are correct.

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[gtman]

You have to remember, the price includes the time it takes to tear open the plastic bag the part's in as well as the time it takes for the new mechanic to track down the shop manual to figure out how to install the valve. Plus the coffee break or two.

 

[Los1391]

Simple enough to do .
68k on the original.

S

 

[Bona]

Why is ANYONE even considering a BOV at this point? Frankly, it's stupid.

I guess the BOV peeps are the ones who want one of these too:

https://www.imwtuned.com/store/p17/Ricer.html

I can speak for myself, there is a lot of misinformation content on the internet, and even thou there is a lot of good information usually the wrong info gets seen first and convince the person to buy it since they look legit. Well I'm not ashamed to say that I knew some of the problems but wanted to test anyway, felt the car weird and the sound didn't appeal to my taste so I just removed.

 

[gtman]

I can speak for myself, there is a lot of misinformation content on the internet, and even thou there is a lot of good information usually the wrong info gets seen first and convince the person to buy it since they look legit. Well I'm not ashamed to say that I knew some of the problems but wanted to test anyway, felt the car weird and the sound didn't appeal to my taste so I just removed.

I hear you and I get it. Here's my take on all this.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone can do anything they want to their car. It's their car. A lot of us here just try to steer people in the right direction. Hell, I run a tuning reliability thread so you know I'm not going to recommend an aftermarket BOV.

And for me personally, if enough people in the know say something may be a problem for my car, I listen. Things like:

Injen intakes
BOVs
Octane booster

I don't have a lot of money and my car is a big investment for me. I want a fun car (which is why I tuned) but reliability is good too.

 

[dt10g]

Complete fiasco installing new wheels

Names currently protected as I work to resolve this... that may change.

---

Bought 4x POPULAR BRAND forged rims from RESELLER during Black Friday.

Checked the box labels when the rims received - all match my order....

Black, Matte, 18 x 9.5 +38 5x114.3

I looked at one of the wheels briefly just to appreciate it, but otherwise kept them boxed up to so as not to damage them. Boxes sealed, and undamaged.

Fast forward to Spring...

Ordered all-season tires and booked installation with TIRE SHOP

Drive 1.5 hours one way up the TOLL highway - because this shop is good.

Part way through the install, the tire shop fellow, very kindly informs me

"Sir, there's a problem with one of your wheels"

Already my brain is thinking "Oh for f#cksakes..."

I just had a feeling there was an issue with the wheels that I had brought to them.
At first I was thinking maybe one of the wheels was actually Gold or something.
But no...

He tells me,
"Our mechanic went to install your wheels and were confused when it didn't line up"

Then they realized that one of them was 5 x 120

They also sell this brand, and they asked where I got them.
They explained that they are DROP-SHIPPED anyway, so it would not be the RESELLER's fault

For f#ck sakes, what POPULAR BRAND sells 4 wheels and ships 3 of one size and 1 of another???

The Tire Shop even double-checked the box labels and sure enough, it says 5 x 114.3

What's that expression?
Oh yeah...

"Literally you had ONE JOB !!!"

So now I have to get in touch with Reseller (and/or Brand) to sort this mess out.

It also means that once I get the 1 correct wheel, ... unless I want to take Another 5 hours out of my weekend, and spend another $150+ on Gas & 407 toll highway fees, that I have to find some place around here to sell and install... one tire, and mount the 4 rims. All the reviews of places near me are ... questionable.

Also I thought about it... even if I had unboxed all 4 rims immediately, there's no way I would have spotted the BCD bold pattern difference. 120 vs. 114 is pretty subtle unless I lined them up side by side.

Even if I had had just tires fitted immediately, there's also a chance this would have been unnoticed. The TIRE SHOP who deal with this all day every day, didn't even notice until they tried to FIT them (I believe to their tire install machine but perhaps to the car hub itself).

So the only way to have picked this up, would be to either ...

1) Get out the Calipers and measure everything, despite the labels (!)
what am I supposed to measure the OFFSET too, and make sure they are ALL +38 ???

2) Try and install tires & wheels immediately.

And my last question would be ...
Who installs forged wheels in December in Canada?
NOBODY that's who...
so it seems unreasonable to expect one would pick this up right away.

 

[Los1391]

Damn @dt10g that really sucks. Hopefully the vendor can speak to the manufacturer and resolve the issue in a timely manner. Also hoping that size and bolt pattern aren’t sold out or backorder. Terrible way to spend your weekend tho!

 

[Enzym]

First oil change with my new civic since the end of winter, at a friend's who has a lift, it smelled of gas like crazy... This encourages me even more not to follow the maintenance minder and to do it at the beginning of winter and at the end. (~10,000km/year, I don't know how many km this oil had, minder at 30%)

Almost no rust, but still enough for a 2018 i think, I'm going to look for a "rust preventative" since I don't know that at all.

 

[RedCEXX]

I put mudflaps on. Cheaper ones, but they went on fairly easy.

 

[casper]

Hardest install of my life

Sometimes the stock oil cap feels like it’s going to dislocate my thumb… no more!

@ACUITY podium oil cap

 

[Enzym]

Hardest install of my life

Sometimes the stock oil cap feels like it’s going to dislocate my thumb… no more!

@ACUITY podium oil cap

I see you removed "Earth Dreams" too, good choice!

 

[casper]

I see you removed "Earth Dreams" too, good choice!

I bought the car new, and it never had that sticker… not sure why

 

[Robot3RK]

Got the ball joint and tie rod from Spoon the full Spoon Zero Bump Steer Kit set finally installed yesterday. An alignment is done as well. Bump steer issue is pretty much fixed now. The suspension geometry is a flatter plane -- now than V shape. The only con is now I have slightly less negative front camber than I was able to adjust to before. Also got these speakers recently. Will get them installed next weekend if it doesn't rain.
The ball joint and tie rods in the box without Spoon bag wrapped sealed are the old OEM ones.

 

[WF19]

That's almost $800/hour if my calculations are correct.

$2400/hr actually

 

[TonyTheTiger57]

I installed new lower control arms in the front, and added the Whiteline Anti-Lift kit. Major improvement in the car ride. I had bent control arms and had shaking around 70-80mph on the highway. All is gone. I aligned it myself for now. I will take it after I get my
Adjustable swaybar links. The OEM ones are wayyy too long. I have to jack the strut up in order to attach the links to my
Eibach swaybar.

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