Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys

Just finished getting my new spark plugs around 8pm tonight and took the car out for a drive for all of about 5 minutes. Pulled up at the lights and the car (unmarked commodore) next to me didnt pull right up to the line so immediately i was suss on him, then the fact that straight away he pulled into the lane behind me at first chance confirmed he was a cop for me. Anyways so after he follows me for a good five minutes on come the lights etc. Asks me to pop my hood and says "oh yeah nothing really under here ay, oh wait see that hole down there thats a defect" so in short i got defected for having a hole in a panel for my intercooler piping and i have to somehow get it fixed and then show queensland transport, which is going to be kind of hard. He also defected me for my number plate placing but forgot to write than one up so haha to him.

Has anyone else had this problem or knows how to go about this?

Thanks in advance

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/167477-intercooler-defect/
Share on other sites

Which panel? Did you cut the reinforcement behind the front bar, or are you talking about a small hole in the engine bay near the fuse box on the driver's side? Something else?

If it's the reo, you're in trouble. If it's the hole in the engine bay, and you haven't cut through a chassis rail or anything (lol) it's the first I've heard of that being a defect, sounds like he was just a prick who couldn't do you for anything else. I'd be interested to know if this is genuinely defectable.

Re the number plate, it has to be flat (ie not bent) and visible from directly in front of the car, it doesn't have to be dead centre. If yours is all of these things, he probably didn't book you for it because it's legal but said it to try to scare you.

hey mate i have a 34 with a hole that was cut to make way for the intercooler on my car , ive been defected for this as well , Paul Xtreme motorsports on compton road cleared my defect of course for a small fee , however i do know Scott from SMP performance can get you one as well , My piping hole is under the battery and it isnt a defect i would suggest you get on to one of these guys or any other reputable mech and get it sorted out

Edited by 53XYN

Hey thanks for the replies guys. its the hole near the fuse box that allows the piping to run down to the cooler

53XYN - Did they actually do anything to the hole to clear your defect? e.g strengthen it. Or did they just write you a letter saying that the hole is ok? and if they said it was ok, does that not clear you of the defect and therefore you dont to pay the fine and lose the point ?

Thanks :banana:

Hows this i just got pulled up AGAIN lol, i've never been pulled up before and now twice in 3 days, they didn't get me for anything this time just the usual RBT and license check. They were asking me if i had a criminal record and how many traffic infringements i had .. seems a bit random

Hey thanks for the replies guys. its the hole near the fuse box that allows the piping to run down to the cooler

53XYN - Did they actually do anything to the hole to clear your defect? e.g strengthen it. Or did they just write you a letter saying that the hole is ok? and if they said it was ok, does that not clear you of the defect and therefore you dont to pay the fine and lose the point ?

Thanks :whistling:

Hey bud Xtreme installed the cooler kit for me on my car they actually cut the whole etc.. yes they did change one thing put rubber all roaund the inside of the hole so now it looks like a factory hole .. apart from that nothing .. hope that helps

I am in the same boat at you... My car got defected yesterday for the exact same reason. Was told to get an engineers certificate for it to pass. So this morning I called a mechanic that does engineer cert's and was told by him that I did not need one. As long as the hole is not in the chassis rail then it is fine and is not a defect.

I also got defected for not having a break light in my rear window. I have an 1993 R32 and my car did not come with one. It was complied without one so i thought i didnt need one. Does anyone know anything about this?

Also my car is sold and the new owner is ment to be coming to pick it up this afternoon, can i sell it to him with a defect? Sorry to hijack...

Legally i dont thing you can sell the car unless the defects have been cleared by the DOT, once they clear them all up they then write you a nice little file display for your number plate record and your on your way, Then you can sell the car!... It would be like selling the car which has unpaid fines whatever they are on it.

Hey FOG35, to clear the defect are you going to walk in and tell them that it doesnt affect the chassis rail, or get the bloke to write you a letter saying that? Also are you located in queensland/brisbane? When you provide this information to them you should have the defect lifted and the fine wouldnt be payable correct?

I am in the same boat at you... My car got defected yesterday for the exact same reason. Was told to get an engineers certificate for it to pass. So this morning I called a mechanic that does engineer cert's and was told by him that I did not need one. As long as the hole is not in the chassis rail then it is fine and is not a defect.

I also got defected for not having a break light in my rear window. I have an 1993 R32 and my car did not come with one. It was complied without one so i thought i didnt need one. Does anyone know anything about this?

Also my car is sold and the new owner is ment to be coming to pick it up this afternoon, can i sell it to him with a defect? Sorry to hijack...

i have heard that if you remove the rear wing and it has a rear brake light in it from standard then i can be defected for it.

but if u did that id just get a rear window one and put it in hook it up, but other then that i cant see how he can defect you when it wasnt there from factory. just get soem info on when the car was stock and see if it had a rear middle brake light fitted, then show them it didnt.

I am in the same boat at you... My car got defected yesterday for the exact same reason. Was told to get an engineers certificate for it to pass. So this morning I called a mechanic that does engineer cert's and was told by him that I did not need one. As long as the hole is not in the chassis rail then it is fine and is not a defect.

I also got defected for not having a break light in my rear window. I have an 1993 R32 and my car did not come with one. It was complied without one so i thought i didnt need one. Does anyone know anything about this?

Also my car is sold and the new owner is ment to be coming to pick it up this afternoon, can i sell it to him with a defect? Sorry to hijack...

lol you can sell teh car with the defect, aslong as you get a roady and transfer the car into his name, then it is cleared as far as i know, ask nismo_boy :domokun:

btw- compliance for 32's did require a rear lamp unless under the 15yr rule, although some workshops have neglected to do this when complying cars among other things :P

lol you can sell teh car with the defect, aslong as you get a roady and transfer the car into his name, then it is cleared as far as i know, ask nismo_boy :D

btw- compliance for 32's did require a rear lamp unless under the 15yr rule, although some workshops have neglected to do this when complying cars among other things :)

You dont need a modification plate for an intercooler as they do not have a code for it on the mod plate currently (The guy who fitted my mod plate placed a code on my modplate for it and noted intercooler on my documentation that I got with the plate). I have spoken to State Traffic Task Force(STTF Qld) who confirmed there is no code for an intercooler. I WOULD FIGHT THIS IF I WAS ISSUED WITH THIS

You can cut holes in the engine bay as long as they do not affect the structural integrity of the vehicle when involved in a crash ie CANT CUT INTO THE CHASSIS RAILS also confirmed by STTF. This is the same with placing bonnet vents in your bonnet. YOU CANNOT CUT THROUGH THE BONNET SUPPORT RAILS AS YOU WILL GET DEFECTED. THIS ALSO APPLIES TO YOUR FRONT BUMPERS. YOU CANNOT CUT THROUGH OR INTO ANY SUPPORT FRAME IN YOUR BUMPER TO FIT YOUR COOLER.

There is a design standard relating to rear lights. Vehicles after a certain year 1989 I think (Dont quote me on it but I do have the info at work) if fitted with a rear brake light in the rear wing and you remove that wing, you must either fit a wing with a rear brake light or a rear light in the back window which is red in colour.

To get around a defect on your car you can deregister the car and get a rwc and reregister it or just sell it. AS STATED THE INTERCOOLER HOLE DEFECT IS GARBAGE ANYWAY. This removes your responsibilities for the defect notice and the vehicle can still be sold.

Bear in mind the new owner can be defected for the same item applicable to the previous defect notice.

If there is a defect notice attached to the car you cannot sell it to him. I know of one time a guy had a canary (Major Defect Notice) put on his skyline. Sold the skyline to another guy who got pulled up by the same officer who issued the defect. Both the previous and current owner were fined.

THE GOOD NEWS IS I HAVE FOUND OUT THAT THEY ARE RE WRITING THE GUIDELINES FOR MODIFICATIONS IN QLD. THE GUY WHO IS WRITING THEM HATES HOONS SO WE CAN ALL GET READY TO BEND OVER. BASICALLY YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CUT OR BEND ANY PART OF YOUR VEHICLE EXTERIOR AND OR ENGINE BAY WHICH WILL AFFECT INTERCOOLER FITTING ETC ETC. I WAS ALSO TOLD THAT REGARDLESS IF YOUR MODIFICATION WAS CARRIED OUT BEFORE THESE STANDARDS COME IN IT WILL STILL AFFECT YOU. MORE GOOD NEWS :)

Cheers

Imtorqing

Thanks for that usefull information mate, in regards to my situation, should i head down the to blokes station and basically tell him that its garbage and explain why? in the section on my defect notice for 'station' he wrote STTF, does that mean he actually doesn't have a station? perhaps i should write a letter to them

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Yuck. But it's kinda the same principle, moving timing around to make car run bad but sound good.... I went for a more spirited tuning drive to iron out a few things. Car no longer stalls, and it loved to dip RPM low when you clutch in. After tuning this (and the 4-5 tables that HPTuners/LS1 OEM ECU wants for idle air correction) it's now behaving somewhat normal. All expected because there's a new TB, new Intake manifold and that new TB which is 102mm vs 78... has an entirely different IAC passage which is smaller because ????? Unfortunately at this point I went to make further fine tuning changes to avoid it flaring up, you know... _tuning_ the HPTuners dongle died. Well to be more accurate - The USB cable died in a fashion that anyone who has ever charged a phone will recognize. After the app demanding I resync it 50 or so times (which all 'succeeded' but all failed) the device does not want to sync and I've logged a ticket with support to see if it's fixable. US Support said it was a 'storage issue' but after removing the SD card inside it and formatting it/fixing it the issue does persist. Unfortunately usually the fix is "Turn in your old dongle and pay $700 for the upgraded one" it's cheaper because I get some free licence credits I unfortunately don't need. However I'm 10 minutes down the road from HP Tuners AUS/VCM so at least I won't need to post it, and logged a new ticket for support over here. Definitely drives different. My SOTP dyno believes it's probably making 310-320kw instead of the 280 before.  It scrambles for traction a little now whereas it previously different. It drives like a bigger cam car up top even though the cam is smaller, likely due to the cam not being advanced 6 degrees. The timing is deliberately low and the fuel is very rich so who knows if this will improve on the dyno. It may, imperceptably. Also funny is removing the pineapples definitely makes the car squat more and axle tramp less. So this behavior of having more top end, squatting more, and scrabbling for traction more makes me think = more power. But I could have just been sitting on the threshold of that kind of behavior before. Time will tell if my butt dyno is calibrated right. I need the exhaust leaks fixed before dyno tune for obvious AFR related reasons - I repositioned the pipes but I'm not confident it's fully sealed even if it is better. At least the car does drive around while I cannot tweak/tune it for now. And I have aircon again. medium success!
    • Don't use that manifold. Please don't use that manifold. Sunk cost fallacy is not worth the later pain. None of these will be relevant to the change that will come from the different turbo and manifold. As in, the effect of the exhaust will be nil, regardless of what else is changed. And all the cam and fuel system stuff is not changing either way, so has no effect. The turbo and manifold (and to a small extent the wastegate)....big change.
    • Just wanted to say thank you for your input   my man (lead mechanic by trade) and I have done a heap of work as you can imagine just to make the hot side work with the dump pipe, stupid massive intake on turbo, trying to get the waste gate on was not fun.  I’m kinda getting to the point where I don’t know if I try and make this work and not throw all this cash and time away or do I scrap the lot and start again? the Apexi I’ve got was tuned for a few slight differences:   Tomei pon cams (mine are stock neo) Turbo smart 38mm external waste gate (mines 45mm replumbed) with stainless screamer pipe  3inch turbo back exhaust with high flow cat Sard 800cc top feed injectors Sard adjustable fuel pressure reg    
    • Out here E90s are the cheapest way into a sporty-ish car because everyone knows just how expensive the repairs can get. 8-10k USD for an automatic 335i. 
    • Noted. Have noticed BMW are more 'high maintenance' for sure. They've attracted my attention as I think the used car prices seem reasonable vs other options, and the extra quality overall vs a commodore / camry / corolla or similar of the same vintage is appealing, especially the interior, and they are more on the sporty side whereas the others mentioned can be more cruising or economical A-to-B only.
×
×
  • Create New...