Here I go making someone mad I'm sure, but here goes...

Working on high horsepower vehicles is part of owning one and fully enjoying them. I think, and my opinion doesn't mean much, that if you take your vehicle to someone else to work on every time the oil needs changing then your really not a car enthusiasts, you are more of a temporary staple to the car you own. Full enjoyment of the vehicle means that you know your car inside and out or at least are willing to learn about it when the time comes. Sometimes this means a lot of hard work. Vehicles are getting more and more packed with crap, most of which help your car run better, but this makes them harder to work on. Most of the time, its really not harder, you just have to know what you have to do to fix it.

I ask a lot of questions on this forum when necessary and someone always graciously helps me out. Real car lovers never let someone else work on their cars unless absolutely necessary, then they make sure they are being treated good. Myself, I don't own an alignment machine, so I have to have that done, but I will disassemble the motor down to the last nut when necessary. Luckily, I haven't had to do that.

Well, nuff said, let the flaming and hate threads come...

BTW, this isn't directed at anybody. Sucks that cars are getting harder to work on but thats just part of it. You got to admit that cars are much nicer than they used to be and handle much better.

 

All of the specialty tools that are required kind of sucks, but it keeps companies in business I guess.

 

Well A friend of mine is and ASI certified mechanic at the dealership I purchased
the SS at and in a few week we are going to bring the SS over there on a Saturday
and put the car up on the rack and we will be taking all the pulleys off including the balancer and you will see whats going back on I'm learning from doing this myself
and my friend is just instructing me so Makes me better at repairing my own car.

 

Special tools are a a HUGE business. Sucks when u work at a dealership and they DONT even have the "special tool" that always pissed me off

 

I'm sure if you schedule a repair that requires a special tool they would generally be able to get all the tools in beforehand. Otherwise a one day or less repair job could take more time just because they need to find/purchase a tool.

 

LOL thats what u think. Usually it calls for someone looking for tools for an hour or two, then making something work, then cusing,then bleading , then alot more cussing, then 5 years later they get the special tool after the car is out of production

 

Why don the work like this?

 

Well Impala06SS you were right....


Thanks for saying people who don't work on their cars aren't real car enthusiasts. I try to work on my car as much as possible, but when you are 6'7'' and over 350lbs there isn't much you can do on a modern car like this.

I would love to work on my car more, but like you said I am not able to so I have to let others work on them. Someday when I own my own home then I plan on buying a lift, air attachment system and a lot of tools....but for now I have to pay out the nose....

The world has to be more and more PC every day, not asking for that, I just hope you aren't always a shoot form the hip kinda guy...

........Side Note That Got Me Thinking......
Also when did people start thinking these cars are high horsepower....I think my own definition of high horsepower is off...what do you guys consider high horsepower??

 

LOL. I'm 6'4" and 280. If my knuckles aren't a bloody mess after working on my car, then I didn't do a good job.

 

for a long time a car that was 3000lb- 4000lb and had 300+hp was a high powered car. now that might not be so true.

 

Wow!! Where do I start?

For a FWD, this is high horsepower. Not sure how many other cars that are FWD have over 300 HP. I am sure there are some, just not many.

You are right, there are many cars with more HP. I guess they are not high HP relative to what is available on the market, but it is still more HP than most cars that the real enthusiast can afford. Generally speaking, most high power cars that are on the road are cars that the average person purchased and then made many tweaks to the vehicle to increase the HP. There are always vehicles out there that will out perfom yours. People with an endless stream of cash can build a car with ungodly HP, and they do, but IMO, the average enthusiast, owns average, affordable vehicles, in the upper end of the HP range that they can afford. Can you buy higher HP cars, sure you can. But people who spend tremendous amounts of cash on their vehicles more times than not, have other people work on their vehicles because they can afford it. These are car lovers, not enthusiast IMO.

This was not meant to high jack the thread, nor make anyone mad. There are exceptions to everything. I'm not sure that personal weight/height can really prevent you from working on your vehicle. You stated you work on your vehicle as much as you can. I don't see where height would prevent you working on anything, it might even be an advantage in many situations. Weight could prevent you doing some things as easy as someone of lesser weight, but I'm not sure it would prevent you from doing all that much, you just may have to do things differently than others.

BTW, many "modern" advances in engine HP were created by the common enthusiast and then incorporated into modern engines by the manufacturers from what I understand.

Maybe I shouldn't have said high HP?? I still believe that enthusiast work on their own stuff if possible. If you can't work on your own because of personal limitations, than you fall in the "only if possible" catagory. Right?

 

Ok cool, I was just wondering how/what you guys classify a high power car...

I was thinking GTO, Camaro, Firebird, Vette etc has more of a high output car.

 

thats why i said 300HP. Think how many car in the 90's had over 300+ hp. most mustangs didnt evenhave that much. U had vette's, LS1 f-body's, TT 300Z, RX-7, car like that were the performance cars. Low to mid 200's were impressive in the 90's now in the new centry. 300 is fairly easy. But like impala06ss said not many 300hp cars are FWD. I can think of the High End Acura TL/RL have right around 300HP depending on model. Some of the turbo saab/volvos were mid to high 200 HP cars.

 

Is this the same tool that is used on a 2008 Impala SS? The reason I ask is because from the picture, it appears that the tool has a square drive and the spot below the lowest pulley closest to the passenger compartment on my 2008 Impala SS looks like it would take a six sided hex drive.

 

No idea if they changed it. My service book only has 2007.

 

Was Kent Moore Tool number EN-47988 used for the 2007s?

Can you describe in detail, or could you point out on the attached picture, where this tool is supposed to fit into the tensioner?

 

You see where the pulley is on the lower left of the picture. There is a square opening the tool fits in right below the belt thats going to the right. Straight up from that spring looking thing thats on the left of the dampner, but still below the accessory belt. It is kind of being covered up by the belt in the picture.

 

Ok, got it. Thanks for the explanation. I was able to find it with a light and a small mirror at just the right angle. Like you said, it is directly below the tensioner pulley at about a 5 o'clock position directly below the belt.

 

Here you go!

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/r..._ss/img162.jpg
http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/r..._ss/img163.jpg

 

Mines on 9-1593 and 1594. I think you have a different manual set but it's the same pics.