Determining True K's?

[bluesky4me]

As many would know...the true K's and the amount showing on the speedo of imports can be two different things! I purchased my s2 stagea with 38.000 on the clock...Although my head tells me this is false, the car has been checked out by a couple of "in the know" mechanics and they say it looks so clean that the low K's may well be correct. The wear on the drivers seat indicates high K's...the clean under body indicate low K's ( and I dont just mean clean looking)...Now to my point.. I am not that fussed about the K's apart from the fact that I know if the timing belt breaks because it has not been changed...it means an expensive repair...I know that in an r33 they was a tamper seal that could tell you if the car had the timing belt changed...and now my real point of the post.....does any one know of any other way to get a true indication of the K's that the car has done, or when the timing belt would need to be changed!

I know its all a bit convoluted but you know what they say about prevention being better than the cure!

cheers.

Scott.

[axe s]

If in doubt pull it out - is what i like to say...

For $ 100-130 for a belt and a few hours labour there's no real reason not to if your worried...

no idea how you would get accurate k's on the car... there's to many factors to say yeh it's got xxxk's on it...

[ステージア]

Accurate Japanese Log books would be helpful...

[wolverine]

i agree, i changed the timing belt on both of my imports. (and fluids and anything else that is consumable).

[webng]

i agree, i changed the timing belt on both of my imports. (and fluids and anything else that is consumable).

Don't they do fluids and all filters at compliance? I'm about to get my Stagea 83000kms) and was wondering if it needed the major service (timing belt) done straight away or wait till closer to 100000kms.

[rb26stagea]

Every used car I have owned, I have given a major service as soon as I got it - always factor this into my budget - i cooked an engine 5 days after picking up my second car, and have been paranoid ever since - it pays to cover your rear end - what's a couplke of hundred bucks for a service and new timing belt compared to the hassle and expense of a rebuild/swap?

[chook]

At compliance they will not touch diff, coolant, power-brake-auto fluid etc. best to get it done yourself with the fluids of your choice. In Japan they dont think long term, maybe 5 years max for their cars. Some things need to be changed immediately.

Also consider that 83000 japanese kms is probably equivalent to 160000 oz kms or more, as most of their driving is 2nd, 3rd gear in traffic.

My Japanese wife recently imported her 97 Pajero GDI owned since new, 48000kms, the diff lsd clutch packs had disintergrated, injectors were gunked up, auto was full of sludge....and i was shocked to find the original mitsubishi oil filter rusted on, she had it serviced every 10k, even the mechanics over their dont think long term. $2000 later it runs like new.

Edited June 25, 2007 by chook

[munchstagea]

A noisy tensioner pulley bearing can be a sign it is time to replace if you have nothing else to go on. This will be a rattle coming from the Timing belt area. Replace it for piece of mind though as already mentioned.

[autech_axis]

A few observations on this subject... I imported a UZZ31 Soarer (with 1UZFE V8) about 3 years ago with 70,000km on the Odo. Since I saw the car prior to compliance I was able to decipher various servicing stickers in the door jam that suggested that there was a possibility that kms were genuine - or at least the car hadn't been 'clocked' in the past 3-4 years. A sticker on the engine said that the cam belt had been replaced at around 67,000km. Regardless of this we recently did a 'major' at 100,000km, which included stripping the cam drive train and replacing water pump, idler bearings etc etc. We discovered that the cam belt was 'as new' which suggested it had indeed been replaced. However, the tensioner had been butchered when this was done, and the attaching bolt was seized in the casting. This required very careful repair. So the moral here is, trust no evidence, and do a major service before anything big lets go. (The Soarer now runs like new!).

Also, watching auctions in Japan over a number of years, it never fails to amaze me how 10+ year old cars can be put to auction with less than 100,000km on the clock. While recently watching to buy an M35 the average number of km for a 2002-2004 model was 50,000km. Clocking speedos is I'm sure widespread in the imports business - there are various dire warnings posted around the auction houses in Japan threatening fines for offering 'clocked' cars. Not sure how effective these are.

[Tangles]

Ive got log books. My series 1 was imported at 48,550 into qld by CoolPC, I got it at 78,000. At 80thou I did the timing belt etc etc etc. Was looking worn, didnt have the $$ budgeted to do it all, but better off safe then sorry. If you do it now, you dont have to do it again for another 80-100thou kms.