Looking At Buying An R33, But Having Some Doubts (advice Would Be Great)

[LexDelta]

Hey everyone of the SAU

I'm pretty new around here, so I hope this is in the right section of the forum, excuse me if it isn't.

I haven't actually got a skyline yet but I've been looking into it for a few months now.

Theres one in particular I've been looking at a lot, I took it for a test drive the other day, its one thats rarely seen in my area (SA) and rarely in good enough condition like this one seems to be. Most of the good skylines for sale seem to be interstate...

I'm mainly looking for advice on a few aspects of the car, which I'm unsure about. But before I start on that, check it out here on carsales.com:

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat....aspx?R=8102993

Now I've already had a look around this forum, and I came across this thread here about buying skylines which was very helpful, but I have a few more particular questions. Note that I'm looking for a nice skyline which is good to drive and reliable (some weeks I do a lot of driving) but mainly I just want something enjoyable to drive which might stand out a little and turn a few heads + have good character (I'm tired of owning boring cars). Performance mods aren't really my thing, and this particular skyline I'm looking at might need to be un-modded a little to make it more street legal, I dont want to be defected any time soon...

Anyways, heres my questions:

• My main worry currently is the ECU and its 'legalness', clearly it wouldnt be an issue unless I got defected, but I want to avoid any problems in the case that that happens. The guy selling this car says he can throw in the original ECU (and a heap of other original parts) so I can switch the ECU back if I want, anyone got a rough estimate on how much that would cost? I'm assuming a re-tune would be required as well? Or is it as simple as just plugging the old one back in again?
  
• The car seems to be running a bit lean, (as mentioned in the carsales page) it can stall sometimes on a hot day. I took it for a drive the other day and it did feel like it wanted to stall on me initially, but once it warmed up it seemed a little better. Ive heard this can be a problem related to the ECU, more reason to change or tune it up again. Any advice?
  
• The speedometer is out by 20km/h. Now this not only means that thats an issue, but it means the KM's are out by a fraction as well, depending on when then speedometer went wrong. Also I've heard that this can be caused by people taking a dash from an auto skyline and putting it into a manual. The guy told me he had a second dash he was going to put in to fix it, but didnt want to cause it had lower km's and didnt want to mislead anyone with that. Hes offered to put it in for me before I take a 2nd test drive. Thoughts?
  
• The car in the pictures looks lowered a lot, its since been heightened a bit and is much better, but I may need to adjust it a bit more because its still a little low and might have troubles on some of the roads i drive on, plus my horrendous driveway. Estimate on cost?
  
• The wheels, they're larger on the rear, and hence more expensive. Is it easy to just buy, say, 245x45x18's for the rear as well as the front? Ive talked to a few tyre places and they seem to think its simple, and it would save me the expense of those wide rear wheels.
  

If anyone has advice Id love to hear it, and a huge thanks to anyone who actually read through all of that.

Looking forward to hopfully owning a Skyline sometime soon and joining in more discussions on this forum.

Cheers,

Alex

Edited January 13, 2010 by LexDelta

[GTR-N1]

From 1st appearances it looks OK to me Alex > get it up on a hoist and inspect with someone that knows 'Lines.

I'd want to check for rust, even tho' the advert says there ain't any + repaired damage.

Compression test pls.

If it were in NSW, I wouldn't feel threatened about defects, since the K&N is boxed in & the aftermarket ECU isn't much of an issue. I don't know what SA laws are about the ECU tho'

Can you use thick checkerplate to get over your driveway? I like the stance of the car as it is.

Yes I'd check on why the speedometer (& thus the odometer) is out...

[LexDelta]

Thanks for the reply terry. It might be selling to another seller this weekend, the seller has just advised me, but if not ill have another good look at it. Ill also get an RAA mechanical inspection done, so some people who know what they're looking at can check it over, which is better than what I can do myself. It costs a little, but should be worth it.

And yeh Ill have to do something about the driveway, but it shouldnt be too bad. The height in the picture is a bit lower than what it is now, it still looks nice and low, but is a more legal height and safer for driving over dud roads.

Edited January 13, 2010 by LexDelta

[LexDelta]

Anyone else?

Thanks to grigor for his long PM on the topic (I cant reply via PM yet because I'm under 10 posts)