Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Basically what the above person mentioned.....

Check condition of gear knob, steering wheel, side bolster on the drivers side seat, wear on the pedals, check alignment of km digits.

Take it for a drive, listen for any knocks in the suspension or a rough idle. Check for oil leaks etc.

Could someone please explain why it is so common for imported cars to have excessively worn (basically no leather left on them) steering wheels? Do Japanese drive with sandpaper gloves or something? Or is it from something else? Most cars you see here could have done over 200,000kms and the wheel isn't worn.

Originally posted by dan_the_man

apparently Japanese men who smoke, sit in traffic jams and pick at the steering wheel with their nails... frustration of some sort.

Thats why its only on the top half of the wheel

Well look at it like this...

If we exported our old VN Commodores and EA Falcons to Japan, what would they say about us?

The same thing we say about them!

ie. young hoon type who smoke more than just cigarettes, big type sound systems and wear on knobs, wheels and pedals from general bad driving. If you wear rings you wear out the steering wheel.

T.

Originally posted by jabtronic

Could someone please explain why it is so common for imported cars to have excessively worn (basically no leather left on them) steering wheels? Do Japanese drive with sandpaper gloves or something? Or is it from something else? Most cars you see here could have done over 200,000kms and the wheel isn't worn.

I've heard that it's because a lot of Japanese are fond of the bling bling and wear lots of gold rings which may cause excessive wear on the wheel.

There are exceptions to the rule though, mine was in excellent condition when I got it, and is virtually the same now (I don't wear any rings or pick at the wheel with my fingernails).

You might be able to see some small wear on the right on mine in this pic, this is from where the previous owner attached the "overboost" button for the boost controller. I never used it so I removed it.

Japan has one of the highest % of smoking population in the world.

"I've heard that it's because a lot of Japanese are fond of the bling bling and wear lots of gold rings which may cause excessive wear on the wheel. "

False. Many men don't even wear wedding rings.

I've walked through many, many japanese car yards and have consistantly seen cars with low kms. Wound-back odos are definitely a fact of life, but I have a feeling that happens far less than people think - particularly with high-end performance cars (though I wouldn't say a GTST fits under that category).

Originally posted by DaiOni

"I've heard that it's because a lot of Japanese are fond of the bling bling and wear lots of gold rings which may cause excessive wear on the wheel. "

False.  Many men don't even wear wedding rings.

So they're all just a bunch of neurotic steering wheel pickers then?

dunno, my s. wheel and g. knob were both fairly worn and my car only had approx. 43k km on the clock (logs to back it up). I simply replaced them with momo and feed items anyway

sweaty hands maybe? though they often claim that they don't sweat as much as gaijin...

i used to think that the condition/wear of the interior/exterior items would be a sure indication of the 'true' age of the vehicle. I remember when shopping around for a 180SX a year ago....saw one on sale for around 40-ish Kms on the odo....but the interior and engine bay condition was just shocking....dusty, faded interior panels...worn pads...etc etc...

Now with my 96 S2, it came with 36ks on the odo, immediately i thought "yeah right"....but i was amazed at the condition of the interior as well as the engine compartment....then again parts could've been replaced etc etc....so i didn't really care....besides it went really well...

Took it to 2 seperate workshops to get some servicing done and mods....and both(without me asking) commented on the immaculate condition of the under-carraige and the 'as-new' condition of the stock parts....so i dunno what to think now....

either way i'm getting one of them 'Super-Strong' timing belts done soon just to be sure.....

A real sharp shifty used car salesman will know all about winding back or replacing the speedo, and all about wear on the steering wheel, carpet, drivers seat, drivers door, and pedal pads.

What the bugger will not change though, is the brake discs. They may even have been reground by the previous owner, but they will be always be thin on a very high mileage car.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • I'd suggest the answer to the first question is at least a qualified "yes". I'll come back to that. Pineapples just don't do a lot to solidify the mounting of the subframe. They do a little bit, and that little bit was clearly helpful to me in the past, but the main thing they are intended to be used for is to tip the orientation of the subframe to try to either dial in more or less anti-squat. You can install them one way to try to increase launch traction, or the other way to try to increase lateral grip (at the notional expense of longitudinal traction). Or, as I did, you install them neutral, which only really offers a little bit of "snugging" up of the subframe. When I did pineapples, that was the only option. No-one had a machined alloy collar like the GKTech ones. There were some other options, but nothing like the slip in collars. And it is clear from looking at them that they occupy almost all the free space inside the rubber bush, so they will do a lot to stop them moving internally. So I thought, "that's the game for me!". Obviously the next/adjacent step is poly bushes, but what's the point in doing that with all the work and hassle required to change them over, when jamming (and I mean literally jamming) some alloy into the rubber bushes probably gives an equivalent, or possibly even superior result? So, to go back to your 1st question, I would suggest, for the investment of <<$100 and a morning spent lying under the car swearing and getting some sore fingers, it is certainly something you should try. Who knows? Maybe your situation is so severe that it doesn't solve it. But it might help a lot. If your problem is as severe as you say it is, the next thing to look at is what the rest of the bushes in the rear end a made from. Things like the Hardrace arms with hardened rubber bushes might be a good thing (for the purposes of having adjustability AND stiffer bushes). Otherwise, just poly bushes throughout could be a help. Or following in my fever dream footsteps and putting a lot of sphericals into the rear? Eliminate undersired movement to avoid the build up of resonances that cause the tramp. Also, if you have adjustable uppers in the rear, and you haven't put effort into adjusting the traction arms to minimise bump steer, there might be some advantage in that. If you don't want to go to the effort of doing it yourself (like I am pretty much forced to in Adelaide, owing to a lack of race alignment specialists) then surely there's a place in Melbs that is able to do it. It will cost $$, But that's life.
    • As someone who has pineapples, and horrible axle tramp... should I change these to collars? Is that what you're saying here? Why did you choose these instead of getting pineapples where you said you had good experiences of? I'd love to even attempt to get rid of axle tramp, I either get complete bogginess or absolute insane wheelspin, anything even remotely in between results in filling-removal axle tramp, to the point where launching the car is just not something I do.
    • Lucky for that, because putting ethanol in fuel only lowers the bulk cost of fuel if it's in 91 Add it to 98, 85% of it even and it quintuples in price. Strange physics. f**k you United, Gouging c***ts.
    • Not noticeably. Arguably, the catless turbo is going to work harder in a different direction, as it will spool up faster, go to higher speeds more easily. Only if it was tuned in the original condition. If it was a stock tune, using the AFM before and after the cat/dump change, then no, no retune needed. If the car is running on a MAP sensor, then it might well benefit from a retune. It might even run a little dangerously without a retune, but it could quite easily be fine.
    • We had this blend that uses 98RON + 10% Ethanol which brought it to 100RON. It's no longer available anymore unfortunately.
×
×
  • Create New...