JFP in PA

PowerFrame is a grid alloy technology, not a lead oxide retention system. Johnson controls, by-the-by, also owns Optima.

Retrofitting an Optima is no big deal if you use a commercially available kit, it becomes a 5 min. install. One thing I would like to know more about with the Duralast is how do they deal with the plate shedding issue that tends to shorten these battery's life spans (Optima uses a patented spiral winding process, hence the "six pack" appearance and vibration resistance claims).

Actually, that price is slightly higher than the Optima where I am ($150-160, but battery pricing is geographically sensitive), and the Optima weighs in at 37.9 lbs. Only major advantage the Duralast has is that it is a direct fit.

If they have done LN retrofits, they are good candidates for the new product. I've been told by the source that the installation tools are the same and the procedure only varies to account for the oil line that comes off the spin on adaptor and into the bell housing area to feed the new insert. So your indie is half way there already. I'm not sure how Jake and Charles will be handling the training, but I'm sure that they can come up with some accommodation like a DVD course or the like for the really long distance installers like yours. More years ago now than I care to mention, I visited both Wellington and Christchurch on a business trip, you have one magnificent country; I hope to again have the chance to see it.

I'm sure there will shops overseas that are interested in becoming involved, that happened after the first retrofit introduction. You may want to drop Jake a line to see if there has already been any interest in your area.

Have you washed the car recently?

Headaches called "rollers", which sell at near scrap metal prices...........

The AC drains are beneath the car, blow where the heater box sits (item #4): Your problems sound more like the water drains for the roof tray (#1 & 2).

I am amazed that your cat broke up yet did not code.

Jake and Charles are going on the basis of how many DIY installs come to grief when compared to those done by someone with both knowledge and experience. Very early on, judging by the number of phone calls we got from some pretty distressed car owners, all of Charles and Jake's efforts to make the install as idiot resistant as possible was not working, as it became obvious that God had sided with the idiots. We got calls from people that had no idea they needed to lock the cams down with the engine at TDC before pulling the IMS flange off; calls from people that tired to bump the engine into TDC using the starter after removing tensioners and the IMS flange; and I don't know how many calls from people that had just shut the car off and pulled it apart without locking down anything, only to now find that the IMS shaft was off to one side and they could not install the new bearing. My personal favorite was the guy who had actually suffered an IMS failure, had an engine full of metal, and still did the refit even after multiple experienced installers told him not to do it. Once back together, the 996 did not make it another 20 miles. And in every case, the car owner somehow found a rationale to blame Charles or Jake for their problems. I can't imagine what Jake and Charles call logs must look like........ Charles and Jake are small business owners, they do not have a huge staff to take product support calls all day long. Yet they tried to help all comers when the installs went bad; which quickly became an all consuming effort that left little or no time for anything else. Based upon this history, I can full appreciate why they have moved away from the retail sales market for these products; relatively few "professional" installers had problems, and those that did were willing to spend what was necessary and learn what their mistakes were, and how not to have the same issue again rather than arguing that the product/installation instructions/tools/procedures were at fault. And based upon the number of successful refits done since the products were introduced, there is nothing wrong with the system Charles and Jake created. But basic human nature found ways to make it not work. Single row bearing car are the largest "at risk for a catastrophic IMS failure" segment of all the cars produced. The Pelican system is basically a new OEM bearing on a stronger center bolt (the OEM bolt can and does fail). Worse yet, the Pelican system replaces an OEM dual row bearing with a single row and a spacer in engines that were OEM dual rows. Yikes! Why you would want to take out a bearing because you had no way to predict when it might fail, and then replace it with another one with the exact same potential for failure is beyond me, much less to replace a better bearing with it. The cost argument simply eludes me; your $15-20K engine, not to mention the resale value of the entire car, is riding on that one part. Why wouldn't you spend just a bit more to get something that is proven to work better (LN ceramic refit), rather than a product little to no proven history and a very limited installed base? Just to save a couple bucks? Someone is always going to copy a successful product with something "almost as good, but cheaper", but that "almost" can quickly come back to haunt you........

You can get enough oil in the bearing with it not having a seal on the flywheel side. I'm not really sure that oil getting in the tube is that much of an issue other than lowering the total amount of available oil.

They are all major manufacturers of bearings, and supplies to most OEM's. I wouldn't be concerned about using any of them.

That look mostly like the IMS is leaking, but I would still replace the RMS with the PTFE version anyway. Be sure that you use both the Loctite Flange sealant and Green wicking Loctite on the stud when doing the IMS (you will find the details in the LN IMS instruction which can be found online).

I believe that is correct, the COTS bearings are the ceramic hybrids introduced by other parties in an attempt to come up with something cheaper; but without the installed base and performance experience that LN has gained over the past few years, how good the COTS units are is an unknown..........

There is really no advantage, but potential disadvantages to going to an oiled style replacement filter. Use the OEM or buy a Wix/NAPA Gold replacement.

The 124.00 MAF is an early (2000 model year) e-gas unit; if you went from the 124.00 to the 125.00 (now discontinued) or 125.01 your DME will need to be reflashed (PIWIS or PST II only) to accept it. That said, the P0410 and P1411 are secondary air injection system failure codes, not the MAF, but are often mistaken as MAF related codes.

The gearbox is fine at every 30-40K, but use the OEM gear oil when you change it, and be sure to always remove the fill plug on the trans before you take out the drain plug. For the way you use the car, stay with the OEM style pads.

The oil (and filter) should be changed at least annually, or every 5K miles.

Just removing the rear seal on an OEM bearing will get oil into it without issue, which is a common "stop-gap" procedure for the 2005 and later cars where the bearing cannot be swapped out without taking the engine apart. There is more than enough oil movement to accomplish this. As far as design differences, LN has the installed base (literally numbering in the thousands installed and running), so they definitely have the proven experience edge. While your post did not mention the car's year, from your member data, it appears you have a 2003 car, which would be a single row style bearing. Long before I would go experimenting with COTS ceramic hybrids, I would seriously consider Jake Raby's recently revealed pressure lubricated solution, which uses freshly filtered oil under pressure to lubricate a replacement with no moving parts, making it a permanent replacement. While not as cheap a fix as a mix of a COTS bearing and Pelican bits, it is a once and done proposition, so it has economic advantages of its own.

Probably caused by the display's tap on the CAN bus, which I believe is how the door control unit's communicate. Remove the tap and see if control returns.

Very few systems can reset the airbag MIL in these cars, the PIWIS and Durametric are the most common useful tools. Airbag codes are sometimes "ghost codes", meaning they are triggered by a false reading rather than a true event, so clearing the code and waiting to see if it comes back is an advisable step.

Very nice!

Recheck it once it is back in the car and the car is sitting level.

It is a bit "fiddly' and time consuming, but not overly hard; DIY discussion here: http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php/topic/30329-oil-fill-tube-q/?&p=160714&hl=%22tube%22&fromsearch=1#entry160714

That is targeted more at a shop; you can actually buy single pages if that is all you need. In the end, it is legitimate, it is current, and it "comes from the source". Plus, when you think about it, back in the day when the manuals were still in print, you paid $2300 for the 986 set, plus another $1800 for the OBD II diagnostics manual; and that only covered one model car. The online subscription gets you access to anything they have for any model. Perhaps not what a DIY wrench would see as a deal, but it really is not that bad. You could always lease the PIWIS unit itself for $17+K a year, and get it that way.............. :help: