What mods have you done that failed

[GCRXR6]

If I may carry on from a response to another thread from 2011G6E, regarding suspension mods.... Let's be honest .. What modifications (suspension or otherwise) have you done to your machine, and found it was a fail.. come on be honest now. And no flamin' each other please. This is a "commit it" and "admit to it" therapy session.

[TheSneakiness]

Unichip on my AU ute

Tuned made 121rwkw, plugged the bastard up and got 141rwkw.

[fat4D]

Spent a few minutes trying to think of a mod that was a dud an it was hard to come up with one. I've done lots and lots of not the best ideas but looking back still enjoyed lie process. Although I did come up with one.

I put one of those 'short shifter' eBay specials that was nothing more than shortening the gear stick, and couldn't understand why when changing fast I couldn't get it into gear to find out it was machined badly and was fouling on the front of the gear boot surround

[fat4D]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

Unichip on my AU ute

Tuned made 121rwkw, plugged the bastard up and got 141rwkw.

Oh yeah! My big one how did I forget! I got my car tuned using the hp tuner or what ever it's called... massive waste of time and money I went from 280rwkw and 16psi using that and with the xcal3 made 330 on 14psi

[Sprint]

cutting down shifter handles, always a regretable senario.

[Nikked]

HD clutch in the XR....

[Thunder]

Long before i learned the difference between progressive springs versus compressed springs: I fitted a set of lower/firmer compressed springs to a car. At the first speed hump taken at speed, the springs unset, and the top mount plate moved off the coil. Needless to say it was an expensive lesson. Next time use cable ties lol!

[tex]

$1200 for a PowerChip from Basenco back in the day, fitted to my brand new EF 5 speed, stock made 118rwkw, chipped made 115! All it did was raise the rev limit by 300rpm and increased fuel consumption by about 50%.

2 exhaust systems on my BAXR8 sent the power and torque backwards, one a custom stainless 3 inch, the other off the shelf twin 21/4.

Set of Genie Try-Y headers on the same car, that lost torque across the rev range. Then just to really sink the boots in, I was one of the first to get a CAPA Flas box (first series) paid around 1600 bucks for it back in early 2004, with one of their generic tunes, and it made exactly the same power and torque.

Sure shifter was added to the 5 speed, and what do ya know, made the shift 10x worse, noisey, and notchy, and baulked even more - it remained on the car for all of 10 minutes test drive!

A NZ made full exhaust system on my BFGT, that lost 5 rwkw and some torque. Another off the shelf exhaust system that increased the sound, and made slightly more power (around 3 rwkw, but lost torque off idle through to mid - high rpm)

Dyno validation of engine mods is essential as I learnt that just because something sounds faster - by no means does that gaurentee it is!

[Silver Ghia]

Have to go back nearly 40 years with my FB Holden wagon where I spent a couple of hours in the dark under the car banging away at a rusted exhaust to install a hotdog muffler bought from kmart. Only because a mate put one on his EJ (still the grey motor) and I thought it sounded good.

Lasted one day, I got fed up with all the noise and before others started complaining I put the old centre muffler back in the following night.

All the other mods on that car were good, including converting the original valve radio into a stereo with the kmart plastic box speakers in the back (really cool), and the wipers to electric from an EK (were vacuum on FB's).

[GCRXR6]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

Have to go back nearly 40 years with my FB Holden wagon where I spent a couple of hours in the dark under the car banging away at a rusted exhaust to install a hotdog muffler bought from kmart. Only because a mate put one on his EJ (still the grey motor) and I thought it sounded good.

Lasted one day, I got fed up with all the noise and before others started complaining I put the old centre muffler back in the following night.

All the other mods on that car were good, including converting the original valve radio into a stereo with the kmart plastic box speakers in the back (really cool), and the wipers to electric from an EK (were vacuum on FB's).

Ahhhh the sound of a hot dog. I put Can-am extractors and hot dog on my XA in 73 (as she came out of warranty). Yeahh .. noisy . I had to put a second one on to tame it a bit. Those plastic box rear shelf speakers ... cool man (mine came from Repco if I remember). After about 18 months on that shelf in the sun, they were buckled into something nothing like a box. I decided to put on a set of air "adjustable" shocks for towing my saloon car and trailer. what was I thinking. The thing handled like a drunken sailor when not hooked up to the trailer. They came off real quick. We learn by mistakes ... you only have to admit to your action being a mistake and act on it.

[HULK EF]

Used some "supercheap blue induction piping for a pod filter in a "housed box" apon the engine bay getting up to temperature, giving the car a bootfull in any forward gear the engine seemed to be suffocating but ould come good when backing off..
-took me 60 seconds to relise when the pipe was warm it was collapsing in on itself when flooring it and strangling the engine of air.

[Benny D]

mine, although wasnt a fail for the application it was intended.
was more a fail of car safety and defect rules... :/.

my old XE. back when i was 17 on my Ls. wanted to stick some 6x9s in the partial shelf.
after a whole day with an angle grinder and tin snips i had hacked the crap outta the partial shelf.
worked fine, speakers sit nice n flush and strongly mounted.

only issue is its a bit illegal to cut the partial shelf .

the same car even recieved a yellow sticker for winscreen having cracks in it and bald tyres, went over the pits fine. haha

[dimka100]

I failed unbolting the plastic cover of a 1JZ-GTE engine ... then I realised I should not install any mods LOL

[XR6T0Y]

DRL's......Nuff said

[HULK EF]

when was alot younger i installed red/blue stobe lights under the front of my old ef fairmont.. everyone loved them- except for the cops. -did not go down to well, lets just say i got out of a ticket by de installing them fast.

[XRGhia]

Painting interior door trims...

Oh, and getting rid of the original heritage green for a dodgy as **** black paint job...

[Grunter]

Hyclone.

Although was positive it worked at the time.

[Erko]

Ag pipe for brake ducts....on a stocker.........I cant even bear to admit the rest. Hey, i was a kid

[GCRXR6]

Originally Posted by Grunter

Hyclone.

Although was positive it worked at the time.

Good on ya Grunter. At least some one was man enough to admit to fitting one of these things. It is strange though, how we do something hoping it works and are convinced that it does, until raw data froves otherwise.

[Mr Hardware]

partial shelf

parcel.

[Vesper Martini]

Twin Webber sidedrafts on my 1600 sport Escort, nobody could tune it and it was much slower.. eventually ended in flames...

[Nic302ef]

fitted an energy polariser and flux capaciter to my falcon in hopes of it goin fast enough to go though time, both systems failed.

Fitting 275 on the rear of an EF, gaurds rims and tyres all ended up unhappy

[DBourne]

Lowered my XR8 thinking it'd help handling, just turned it in to a pain. If an ant was on the road I'd scrap the shiza out of it.

[XRDeeze]

Originally Posted by Nikked

HD clutch in the XR....

hey thats exactly what I was gonna do, after my clutch is gonna go, why isn't it a good idea?

[LG17]

I guess it would be fitting a 4" down pipe as the exhaust from the extractors back on a mate's mini in about 1968.
Looked good!!

[JimStone]

WRC stickers didn't provide the avertised 100hp boost under the bonnet...


....and 1" SHS strut bar tucked under one strut mount bolt just added weight too

[290GTP]

Giving the monkeys in the speed shop, who sold me a set of Pacemakers for my XC 302, an extra hundred & something bucks to bead blast & paint them only to have the paint peel off as soon as we started the car up after fitting them.
I was only 17 & it really ****ed me off.

[EFFalcon]

doing N/A mods to an LPG 6...

[2011G6E]

Oh where the hell do I begin????

Some that rapidly spring to mind are the folllowing on cars I owned over the decades since I started driving in 1982:

* 1971 Mazda Capella I owned in 1982: It needed new spark plug leads, and being a white car with a bit of chrome under the bonnet, I picked the yellow silicon leads instead of the blue to stand out a bit. For some reason, the yellow leads (the brand escapes me now) had a reputation for cracking. Mine did. I had an aftermarket electronic ignition fited with a second hand MSD setup I got off a mate, so it had a bit of kick. I had it parked one night idling and wondered why it was a bit rough. I flipped the bonnet forward and in the dark could see the little blue flashes of light along the ignition leads. As I went to point it out to a mate, I touched the lead...

* 1979 TE Cortina I owned for about three years from 1984. It had a worked 4.1 x-flow with a bit of head work, extractors, but when I bought it it had the original single barrel carby and manifold. I fitted...wait for it...a HiClone type thing underneath the carby, and honestly thought it made more power...later I came to my senses and fitted a proper Cain manifold and 350 Holley.

* The same Cortina: a mate had a similar Cortina, a Ghia, and he was an engineer in the local council. He had turned up a full set of bronze bushes for the suspension of his Cortina "Just to see if it stiffened it up", and offered to do a set for me too while he was at it. I agreed.
Do I need to point out what that thing was like to drive after this modification?

* 1971 VH Charger I owned in 1983: I fitted new disc brakes on the front, and because I listened to some mates, I purchased race compound "steel" disk brake pads to it...because you know, that would make it stop quicker.
No. It. Didn't. They were worse than nothing when cold, they made the brake pedal wooden, and squeeled like a bastard until they were really hot, and also wore down the new disks like no ones business.

* 1974 LH Sunbird I briefly owned in 1984. With the four cylinder Opel "Black" motor. With a Trimatic. God forgive me. I tried all sorts of things to increase the performance of that abysmal engine, and at the local show I was taken in by a flash display of a "spark enhancer"...a coil looking thing that went on top of the ignition coil, and then you plugged the coil lead into it. You could buy one, or "for maximum effect and efficiency", you could buy one for the coil and one each to go on top of each sparkplug!!. I bought one, it cost me the grand sum of $25. Put that in perspective...at the time I was working on a farm taking home $160 a week...

* Then there were general things like lowering a car in the front and jacking it up in the rear, fitting much bigger jets to a Holley because that simply must mean more power, and so on...

There's probably more...but my memory has suppressed the traumatic events...

[STINKY NINJA]

Havent ever had a mod fail but my worst fail was just owning a lx sunbird with 2 flies and a flea with 4 cyl brakes
Not really a mod but i had loose wheel bearings on my xb ute so i tightened them right up without repacking and one collapsed at 60kph and i nearly pooped myself
Hey you live and learn,its all character building...