Tips and traps - vehicle modification

[the_bluester]

Unfortunately the car was off the road (Despite it being probably no worse than moss R51s with the same KM on board) as I decided that it was not safe enough to have my wife and kid in and there are no aftermarket options for it in Australia. If I had motre time up my sleeve I would have got one of the US master cylinders to see if it was suiitable. The cylinder itself is seriously basic. They do not even have any bias hardware inside them. It is just a plain jane tandem master cylinder. Bias would be set only by brake rotor diameter and piston size in the calipers with any fine trimming by the electronic brake force distribution.

I hate to think what it would have cost if the car was still under lease. I know for a fact that while large fleet operators haggle and wrangle and basic service costs through a novated lease are around half of what the local Nissan dealer slugged porivate owners for, if you have something extraordinary then the lease company just passes the bill on to you. I had that discussion with them when I specified "Inspect and report only" on the brakes on my R51 and the dealer proceeded to call the lease comapny and then slug me over a grand for new rotors and pads that I was about to replace with aftermarket stuff all round. Nothing I could do in the end. Except take my business elsewhere.

 

[mgermasi]

Which way to go and how?

Thought I would try to help people with info on vehicle modification.

Hi, thanks a lot for running this post.
My comments are:
let's say I would like to install some modifications (available off shelf) and have them certified by an engineer, I rang several of them but no one was interested in even discuss it! Without even asking for the costs involved none of the engineers I contacted would certified 3 inches lift with standard tyres. None of them would even discuss installing a PRG UCA.
Now, on one side we have Shows like 4wd tv and magazines like 4wd action etc. showing how much more you could enjoy your beloved car in the outback if you had such & such lift kit or if you had the exhaust from such & such and how good looking you car would be if you install the accessories of such & such. On the other side everything you've just been tempted to go for it is illegal!!! So where do I stand? What kind of peer pressure is this? How all the cars shown in those tv shows and magazines get away with? Are they all illegal?
Hopefully I was able to explain myself properly. It is a very contradictory situation, it's like showing in tv how much fun and money you could have from selling drugs.

 

[Old.Tony]

Larger lifts are possible but I guess like in other areas, you need to talk to an engineer that does lane-change tests etc to get it done. I guess not all of them want to do it. There might be an issue with problems arising after the certification - it wouldn't surprise me if there have been some actions taken against some engineers after having certified lifts and now there's a bunch of them that are no longer willing to risk it.

They might have also been given a directive by the vehicle authority in your state to actively discourage these sort of things.

 

[qqc d22]

on that note has anybody or does anybody know a place in Qld that will cert 3" lift with aftermarket uca's preferable central queensland coast or brisbane?

 

[chule]

Try these guys

http://www.turnerseng.com.au/

A forum member (cant remember who) has used them for a body lift cert. I think he mentioned that they would also certify after market UCA's too.

Good luck

 

[mgermasi]

well if it worked for QCC d22 I'll give it a go a as well:
does anybody know a place in VIC that will cert 3" lift with aftermarket uca's?
Thanks a lot