Hi, new nerd from Norway here

I'm not a professional technician and don't intend to work on other cars than my own and maybe friends/family in the foreseeable future, but I'm quite dedicated to being self sufficient when it comes to maintaining and repairing my own vehicles.

As a teenager I used to work at the shop where my father was manager during my school vacations. They were mostly rebuilding 50-60 litre V12 MTU diesel engines, but also did some machining on random things that came through the door. Of course I had to do a lot of mundane tasks there like washing parts and cleaning the floor, but I also got to do interesting stuff. Like grinding valves and seats, resurfacing cylinder heads, using liquid nitrogen and a hydraulic press to install new valve guides, using reamers to bring the new guides to spec, rebuild and adjust injectors etc. I also used the lathe and mill, although mostly to make special tools as needed. I learned a lot there, but I don't think I realized at the time how lucky I was.

As an adult I went to university and got a "sivilingeniør" degree (roughly equivalent to a MSc.) in mechanical engineering (HVAC), and for the last 17 years I have been designing HVAC and lately also sprinkler systems in buildings. Unfortunately, during most of that time I have been living in an apartment with nowhere to perform repairs myself, except for really basic stuff.

When we were looking for a house two years ago it was a requirement for me that it had a garage with enough ceiling height to install and utilize at least a portable 2-post lift. We had to search for a while, but now I have a nice house with a small garage which is gradually turning into a quite usable home workshop. My current project is rebuilding the 722.6 automatic transmission of my 2005 E320 CDI 4matic after a thrust bearing failure.

Given my background I think I have a good grasp on the mechanical and fluid dynamics side of things, but I've never been much into electronics. Up until 1-2 months ago I was under the impression that anything that was wrong with a car could be diagnosed by watching codes and recording live data from a good scan tool. Then I stumbled over some Scanner Danner videos on Youtube, and realized in certain situations there's nothing that can replace a scope. I've bought his ebook and plan on watching all his movies as time allows, as well as the content here of course. After doing some research on which scope to get, I ended up ordering a standard quad kit from Autonerdz a couple of days ago.


Geir Tore

Welcome to the group Geir