I may be out of line here but this seems like a good place to post these thoughts.
I reckon anyone thinking of decarbing an almost new engine at less that 150,000km (which almost all of these cars are) has either too much money or too much time on his hands.
Give 'em clean oil, clean fuel and drive 'em right and they'll run that sort of distance easily with no issues whatsoever. You could drive one of these cars new out of the showroom and around Australia twice virtually non-stop except for oil changes and not put a spanner near them.
On this note (and please don't take this the wrong way, and I don't mean to dissuade genuine improvements) but in my view the biggest killer of most cars is over-tinkering by well-meaning but often inexpert enthusiasts who convince themselves there is a problem or that something needs "improving" but then make a pig's breakfast of it by over-solving the problem.
This unfortunately has a compounding effect as the cars age and they get passed from second to third hand and so on, as later owners are either fixing problems that their predecessors created or are themselves increasingly inexpert tinkerers, as dicated by the nexus between reducing age bracket and the increasing affordability of the cars as they age to the younger set who by definition are less experienced in 90% of cases. The limit to this process fortunately is the driving age of around 17 but there can be a lot of misplaced enthusiasm or even crass stupidity between the ages of 17 and 25-30.
This latter affordability "advantage" is further "enhanced" by the fact that the majority of the cars that have suffered at the hands of the tinkerers actually devalue faster than normal, but that advantage is lost against the added cost of fixing the mistakes and dodgy workmanship.
Food for thought, I hope.
I was reminded of this the other day when I saw an ancient Fiat 500 'Bambina' here with a huge wing that towered above the roof of the car. I was sorry that I did not have my camera.
Last edited by Doug_MPS6; 16-06-2012 at 12:08 AM.
CP_e Standback & PNP; CP_e 3" SS Downpipe; Corksport FMIC with Top-mount K&N filter & OEM Ram CAI; Turbosmart BOV; Dashhawk; Prosport Boost Guage; JBR solid shift bushes; DBA 4000 Wiper-Slot front rotors; Hawk Ferro-Carbon HPS Street front brake pads (@ 69,000km); Sumitomo HTRZIII's in 225/45 x 18