One of my great customers has provided this feedback to me which is far over my head... but sounds like it would be very helpful to some of you more intelligent folks. Hope its as helpful to you as it sounds. Though I've left his name off the information below, I will give him your name if anyone would like to ask him any questions. He gave me permission to post this.
Ron Gaus, aSmartCar.com
Hi Ron, Just thought I would write and let you know what I did. I was reading on the evilution website about dump valves for a smart. Companies have been selling them for the car but they have a 22mm opening which is too large for the smart and can damage the turbo. Forge Motorsports in the UK made one for Kane (evilution) to try that has a 12mm opening, which is the size the smart turbo requires, and he was saying it worked very well on his car. I called Forge in Florida and told them I wanted one but they didn't know about this 12mm one. They have been selling one for the smart but 22mm. I told them what I had read so they called their company in the UK and got me one. I installed it yesterday and it really made a difference in the speed of shifting, but even better response in the downshift and it virtually eliminates the lag that occurs when slowing down to turn a corner and then accelerating. I am going to test it for a week or two and if it continues to perform I will install one on my other smart. Aside from the improved shifting, they claim that a dump valve with the proper opening will increase the life of the turbo. Anyway I just wanted to let you know about this.. I'll keep you posted on how it works out.. Hope all is well with you and your family.
Ron, I forgot earlier to tell you that if anyone is interested in this valve kit, it costs 170.00 with shipping and the contact person at Forge Motorsports in Florida is Patrick. He will know all about the 12mm.
To be honest I was surprised that Forge Motorsport even listened to what I had to say let alone actually make on for me. Imagine that, they receive an email from a stranger telling them that they were wrong. All credit to them for listening.
The more of these special ones they sell, the better.
Bare in mind this is 450 only and $170 is very cheap, if we buy it the conversion rate makes it $234 before delivery.
I have a 450 coupe turbo .7l MB engine. Do you recommend this device for my smartie? If it would somehow preserve or protect the engine or help it perform better with less wear, I would definitely consider it. OBTW, Kane and Ron, it is a total pleasure to have the two of you on the forum. My auto and smartie ignorance is immense; really enjoy your input.
Thanks, BeSmart. I need to tell you that my mechanical and automobile knowledge only scratches the outer surface of what others know. My only advantage is being completely immersed in this car since the middle of 2005 and selling/driving them since early 2006. I do find myself in the enviable position of finding out about things that are very interesting... and sometimes scary. I received a call last Friday from a gentleman who said he was a special investigator for the state of California and was reacting to a resident's complaint about a smart car he had purchased. It seemed that the title was from Missouri (I did it) and that the wording Missouri used on the title made it seem like the car wasn't legal. Though the call started out sounding like this investigator wanted me arrested, it ended 40 minutes later with him promising to call me on anything to do with the converted smarts at anytime in the future. I made him an expert on the history of this neat little car in the US. He was amazed and had no idea of what path was taken before Penske's entry. A book should be written on this stuff some day. Credit Kane at Evilution for all the great website support, including his continued personal involvement, in making this smart mechanically "accessible" to the common man. It is not well known that the US is the only country that requires a manufacturer to produce a repair manual for cars sold within the US. Until the 2008 smart, that manual did not exist from Mercedes. It should soon be available. The pre-2008's, however, left a void that only Evilution had been able to fill.
"It is not well known that the US is the only country that requires a manufacturer to produce a repair manual for cars sold within the US. Until the 2008 smart, that manual did not exist from Mercedes. It should soon be available."
Ron,
This was my information, but I have not been able to locate the rule that that requires it (DOT, FTC, etc.). Where does it come from? This may be critical for owners located far from a smart service center who will eventually have to rely on local independant shops.
We need to ping on smartUSA about it.
Last edited by Old smart; 02-22-2008 at 06:06 AM.
Reason: synt.
Ron, if you find a publisher of the manual please post. I called Bentley publishing, publishers of the Mini manual, telling them of the need for the Smart manual because of limited dealer locations and the number of cars being brought into the country. Maybe a call from others would help.
"It is not well known that the US is the only country that requires a manufacturer to produce a repair manual for cars sold within the US. Until the 2008 smart, that manual did not exist from Mercedes. It should soon be available."
Ron,
This was my information, but I have not been able to locate the rule that that requires it (DOT, FTC, etc.). Where does it come from? This may be critical for owners located far from a smart service center who will eventually have to rely on local independant shops.
It will not a be an easy process if it will ever appear anywhere at all. Remember the vested interest that the manufacturer has in NOT providing this manual. Folks are forced (at least a higher percentage of folks are forced) into going to a dealership and not to their own mechanic, or even attempting self repair. Mercedes is not going to voluntarily release this information just because the US has a thousand gray market cars. In fact, everything I've heard so far indicates that Penske is telling its dealers to avoid the gray market repairs and even parts sourcing. My St. Louis dealer tried ordering three front end parts for me and after two weeks and a $1450 quote, the parts were said to have become "unavailable". I ordered the parts from my out-of-country source, had them in four days and had my local foreign car mechanic complete the repair for $780 instead of $1450. I do believe that capitalism will eventually win out and these dealers will begin to accept the money that folks would want to put in their pockets. I don't look for this to happen quickly, though. Keep in mind there are over 800,000 cars worldwide and yet no official repair manual yet exists for those cars... a reminder of the value that folks like Kane bring with Evilution's site.
Well thats not entirely true, according to what I hear, there are electronic repair/parts manuals on 2 or 4 DVD sets.
For those who have a pirated copy of this MB software run the risk ( if admitting to owing it) of many copyright infringements, that (if MB wanted to) could make things tough for that person.
Kane (Evilution) speaks about it on his website, from what I hear it is tough to install, but once (usually a dedicated computer running nothing else) installed FAR exceeds any printed manual you could ever buy.
According to what I read/hear, if someone was to acquire these DVDs, a separate computer that is at least 1Ghz processor speed, 40 Gig HD with 256 meg memory, running Windows 2000 ( maybe a out dated laptop) that also is uses something like this http://obddiagnostics.com/BR1.jpg would be the BEST back yard mechanics friend.
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