How much wrenching do I need to know to own a mkiii?

[superpandapower]

I just read over Doom's post and the constant message is that any mkiii owner should be able to do the vast majority of work himself. Just how much knowledge and skill do I need?

I currently have an Infiniti G20 that I've learned everything I know on. I am comfortable with basic maintenance like a full tune up and changing the valve cover gasket. So overall, not much knowledge yet. What else do I need to be able to do to own a mkiii? I get the feeling that the level of mechanical skill here is miles and miles above my own.

Would I be in way over my head with a mkiii? Thanks.

 

[outofstep]

If you have cash to spare, none. If you dont, lots.

 

[SupraMario]

not much, its like learning any other car, just come and check out the forum and read up and post up to get answers to all your questions.
I dont have a lot of cash and im a college student but im able to maintain and keep my NA up and running as a DD.

 

[supra90turbo]

key word is NA.
if you're not totally comfortable with working on your car, buy an NA. troubles will still happen, but not as bad. it's a bit simpler than turbo, still a supra, and there's plenty of room to upgrade. start looking for a good condition NA supra and you will be in good shape.

plus, insurance is cheaper.

 

[wingman]

i didn't know jack about cars prior to my N/A...which is pretty sad for a guy with fairly good mechanical talent. I've fixed more stuff on my car in the last few months than I ever thought I would. After tearing apart nearly all of the car besides the engine bay at one point or another I've gotten comfortable with servicing it (other than stripping the PS rack), and am now looking at buying the turbo model.....the TSRM and haynes manuals helped too


i just wish there was more stuff I could work on with it without shelling out the $$$

 

[superpandapower]

Thanks for the responses guys. I kinda figured that NA would be a whole lot easier. Is it a lot more reliable too? Does the turbo require servicing particularly often or something? The only turbo I've ever been in long term contact with (old Volvo 760 turbo) never had any turbo issues.

Thanks. BTW, is the insurance difference actually significant?

 

[supra90turbo]

insurance will be different, by how much? i do not know.
the turbo doesnt require specific "servicing", but it's just an attention whore and you need to keep up with it, because if one thing goes wrong, and you dont fix it right away, you will have 5 problems. it's odd, but true.

the car just screams "pay attention to me!!!"
and if you dont, it will make you pay attention.

if you own a turbo, you should be under the hood AT LEAST 3 times a week.
i opened the hood and checked my oil every morning. every...morning...
just because.
at least your hood latch will never freeze up...



kinda OT...
anyone remember the 80s/early90's camry commercials?
"so reliable, you could weld the hood shut"
and it's true, with camry's... lol

 

[rakkasan]

if you own a turbo, you should be under the hood AT LEAST 3 times a week.
i opened the hood and checked my oil every morning. every...morning...
just because.
at least your hood latch will never freeze up.

:withstupi

It freaky, but it's like your car senses when you're doing (or not doing) your maintainance. If I don't pull the dipstick every other day, something goes wrong, but when I do, all is good.

As for the Turbo, they cause more problems just because they apply additional pressure on the whole motor, thus the multiple problems. You shouldn't let this deter you from buying a turbo, though. Do your maintainance & you'll be fine.

 

[hottscennessey]

wow thats funny that you have an infinity G20. I had an infinity G20 and i loved it until someone smashed into the back of it and totaled it, fortunately for me. I knew nothing about cars. I couldnt point to anything other than the radiator, alternator, or the battery and tell you what they were. Now, 6 months later i have learned so much about cars and i am so much happier. My MKIII is SO much better than that heavy piece of garbage. Infact in the past two months i tore down the engine, put on a metal headgasket with ARP's, new 550's, fuel pump upgrade and did an intercooler and hard pipe upgrade, a turbo upgrade, and a lot of wiring. You dont understand. Before my supra i couldnt even change my own oil. My car is running great now and i am so much better off. If you have even the slightest clue about cars and you can use your resources wisely you will be better than fine.
-Scott

 

[hottscennessey]

Thanks. BTW, is the insurance difference actually significant?

The insurance is practically the same. DO IT.

 

[Stretch]

If yo ucan follow directions yo ucan work on a mk3. All the steps for pretty much any job are either on this site, supraforums, or the online tsrm. The tsrm is golden since it trully is step-by-step simplicity at it's finest.
eric

 

[gixxer750]

you will learn.....because you will get seriously hooked on modding it...quickly.

I've owned my supra about six months. I just wanted a supra for a daily driver. I put an intake and exhaust on it, liked how it responded....

I now have a built, 400hp+ engine......lol....
In 6 months from buying the car, I have gotten that far.

 

[SupraOfDoom]

Me, I made a post about that? I don't remember it ! Although, I do believe everyone is more then capiable of doing things themselves with some hard work the motivation.

 

[SP 7M]

I believe it is Doom26464 that he is referring to.

There is some good stuff for you to keep in mind on this thread.

As far as the NA vs. turbo reliability issue goes, generally one would lean more toward the NA due to it not having all of the parts that the turbo requires under the hood. From my personal experience, I would be eager to rely on mine and my dad's Turbo models instead of my former 87 NA.

My dad's car probably has around 205K on it and he has had a BHG and a leaky exhaust manifold gasket (both after 190K), but they were the originals, as far as he knows. Other than that, there has been little to note.

I've done a decent amount of modifications to mine (listed in my profile) and I have had nothing but a few minor complications with it. Those were all involving the modifications I had done to it, so I can blame nothing on the car itself.

If you think that you may be inclined to get into upgrading your car, get a turbo. It's much easier to uncork some serious power from that than it is an NA. Whatever you do, you'll most-likely have a lot of fun with it.

Remember that everyone with a Supra had to buy a Supra or at least work on one before they were familiar with wrenching on it.

I think that your concern is fairly normal. Don't let a few Supra owners' bad experiences weigh heavily on your decision. There are plenty of us in the community that have a lot of faith in the MKIII.

Best of luck in your search. While I'm on that note-make DAMN sure that you thoroughly inspect and pay very close attention to anything that seems like it isn't normal when you're driving a potential purchase.

 

[doom26464]

yeah I wouldn't say its all that hard to work on a supra just I'm still in the process of learning it. Though personally I like working on my N/a better much more comfortable engine bay as the turbo there is alot of stuff all jamed in there. Though I think as soon as a I find a replacment turbo im goign to attempt to swap it out for my half ass broken one.

 

[Orion ZyGarian]

Age and having NO idea where the hell the car had been really detriments the reliability. I bought someone else's project car and dont know anything about it. I have no idea what potential problems can come out of it, so I'm replacing a bunch of stuff...spending an easy $2000 just making it reliable and better. Stuff like replacing all the oil lines with SS braided lines, oil filter relocation, new BOV, new engine harness, ZT2 wideband, new turbo and turbo related gaskets, new exhaust (DDP, Magnaflow muffler bolted to it, underbody exit), taking apart my engine to make sure its good for 400+ rwhp daily driving for 3+ years, FFIM, new FMIC, new sawblades, all sorts of random rubber hoses, such as from valvetrain to 3000 pipe connector thing, radiator hoses (probably new radiator too), Purple Ice conversion, new mesh grills, brake fluid, and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff I forgot

 

[89MkIII]

Buy a turbo!!!!! If you can't afford it, save until you can afford one. An N/A is a great car and it is what got me started in Supras - and I love it for that. But all a N/A does is make you hunger for a turbo. It's all you'll think about, especially after reading posts on this site.

A turbo is where the fun is at, and all the horsepower. Little modifications like exhaust and intake dont do dirt for N/A's in comparrison to the horsepower increases you'll get w/ the same mods to a turbo. If you are not a self tuner, unlike a lot of these guys, don't even consider doing a conversion to a turbo or swap down the road for your N/A. It just isn't cost effective if you have to hire someone else to do it. Save save and save till you can afford a nice turbo properly maintained, or ideally w/ low miles.

If you are happy w/ 300 horsepower(as an eventual goal), you can handle all the mods yourself to reach that point. The only thing you should need a mechanic to do is a metal headgasket, which is the first thing you should do to any turbo ma70.

So in a nutshell, from personal experience - going turbo from the get go will save you a lot of money and a lot of dreaming! :icon_bigg

 

[superpandapower]

Awesome guys. Thanks for the good advice. Looks like I'll be saving up more so I can afford a turbo as well as having enough to have a "issues" account that I can use to fix any problems with the car. Appreciate the help. I'll let you all know when I finally get myself a mkiii.

 

[Mr.SelfDestruct]

The only thing you should need a mechanic to do is a metal headgasket, which is the first thing you should do to any turbo ma70.

thats kinda what I was gonna say, only different, I was gonna say that if you bought a turbo, you'll want to know how to do a headgasket, because it can be expensive to have someone do it...

 

[supraman7mgte]

key word is NA.
if you're not totally comfortable with working on your car, buy an NA. troubles will still happen, but not as bad. it's a bit simpler than turbo, still a supra, and there's plenty of room to upgrade. start looking for a good condition NA supra and you will be in good shape.

plus, insurance is cheaper.

dont buy a n/a because you will eventually want a 7mgte. you can only do so much to a n/a,i know,that style was my first before i went to turbo. if you DO get a turbo version,just treat it with care,dont race it if you cant afford to fix it.there are plenty of good cars out there,just take your time finding the right car for you.make sure its mechanically sound.