valve clearances

[bleh]

i was getting tired of the valve tap from excessive miles without checking the valve lashes so i decided to correct em a few days ago. i just finished doing them today... i stripped one of the adjusting nuts and had to replace the nut and the screw. what a bad experience that was. it shouldve taken me a little over an hour on the 16valve, but no, i forgot the torque wrench and it instantly turned into a 5 hours job...

this is the dumbest part: napa didnt have the adjusting screw or nut, neither did conway. the honda dealership didnt have them but could order them, before doing so i asked the price and they said $2.76 for the nut alone! my last option was to go to a local machine shop to see if they could help me out. the guy goes to the back and pulls out an old core takes off the cam and rockers, unscrews it and just gives it to me for free.

lessons learned: 1) use frickin torque wrench on everything. 2)never go to dealership unless you have connections

anyone have some similar experiences to share?

[GIR]

1) Don't use a torque wrench on everything just on things which need fine adjustments. Or else you will bend your torque wrench and it's a pretty expensive tool to replace.

And yes you shoudl never trust sales reps, they are pretty much money hungery wolves and will tell you anything when it comes to selling you something easy but won't lift a finger when it becomes hard for them.

My S500 used to stutter in some RPM ranges. My father told me it was probably because of the programming and just needed to finetune the software a little. It was still in the warranty period so I took it over to the MB dealer instead letting my father tincker with it.

At the front desk a sales rep. told me that it was "normal behaviour" and I should drive around with it for a few 1000km's and see what happens. After stepping out the store I called my father from my cellphone and aksed for his oppinion. He told me he would call me back.

Because my father has a well known garage he knows just about every dealer and junkyard. He called a buddy of his who works as a mechanic at the dealer I bought the car. My father asked him wether he could hook up the computer and adjust the values. After that my father called me back telling me that I should drive it into the garage where the guy would be waiting on me.

The sales rep. looked at me funny when I drove towards the workshops instead of the exit.

Anywayz my fathers buddy hooked up the computer and adjusted the values. While he was doing that the sales rep. entered the workshop and look around the car. He asked the mechanic what he was doing, the mechanic told him that he was reseting and tuning my software so the car wouldn't stutter anymore.

Funny thing is that normally they would've charged 80 euro todo this very very quick and little job, but my fathers buddy didn't charge me at all.

He told my father that the sales rep. complained to the directors about taking jobs and not charging but then he told the directors that the sales rep. gave me wrong advice and if I would've driven the car for another 1000km like that the engine was sure to destroy its self which would've cost the dealer a hell of a lot more money. Because of the inconvenience and the wrong advice he thought it was appropriate to drop the charge.

Lessons learned, always listen to your father. Don't trust sales reps.

[bleh]

sorry it took so long to respond. that is some intense crap. i cant stand the fact that most car salesmen really dont know much of anything about cars.