places to check a potential skyline

[DarkCoupe]

Hi all,

I am currently looking at buying a R34 GT-T, and I have found a couple of nice examples that are on sale privatly. They are located near the Brisbane area (but I am located in Sydney).

Other than having a check done by the RACQ (btw... can you tell me if this is worth the $$?), can any of you recommend a place where they can check my potential buy for a fee? somewhere reliable who know their skylines and can tell me if it's a lemon or a rocket :wassup:

if you can help / advise me ... I'd appreciate it greatly thanks.

[Zoix]

order one in, so cheap and should be good.

www.svi.com.au

and www.prestigemotorsport.com.au

gavin woods do a good job and if east side mercury motorsports.

[Ska]

Before I bought my R33 I took it to be RACQ inspected, but they told me it had to go to the operations centre in Eight Mile Plains to get it done as it was an import. So I couldnt take it just to any old RACQ to get the inspection done.

Anyway they went over it with a fine tooth comb, the guy even mentioned in the report that the seat rails were showing wear, meaning one or two of the teeth were bent, and he was not happy with that.

More importantly he pointed out these HUGE cracks in the 17 inch rims which were on it, on the inside, I never would have thought about looking there, anyway got a new set of mags plus some other minor stuff sorted and I was happy as larry, saved me potentially buying a whole set of mags out of my own wallet so definatly worth the ~$200.

Also now I know about him Gavin Woods does mech inspections and pressure testing, plus he knows a fair whack about Skylines as every time I am there to get my car serviced there is at least 5 or 6 waiting there

[BelGarion]

also make sure that you get it checked to make sure the car isnt stolen or still financed and the previous owner has skipped town so to speak

this has happened to a few people and left them ruined when the bank finally tracks them down and reposseses the car, as there is nothing the new owner can do about it

[Yotis]

also make sure that you get it checked to make sure the car isnt stolen or still financed and the previous owner has skipped town so to speak

this has happened to a few people and left them ruined when the bank finally tracks them down and reposseses the car, as there is nothing the new owner can do about it

This is called a REVS check and there is another check you can get done too .. but cant remember off the top of me head.. Give DOT a call they will be able to tell you.

Before I got me car from a car yard.. I got a RWC and a full RACQ inspection done.. The RACQ inspection I admit was worth the money.. it found quite a few things that I wouldnt find normally (as I aint a very knowledgable car person). They have however failed to pick up other little things, but I guess nothing is perfect. From memory my RACQ inspection cost over $100 (130 maybe)?, and it was slightly cheaper for me cause I'm a member as well.

Good Luck and post some pics when you get da beast.

[Yotis]

Just found the name of the other check.. its called wovr...

Goto Dept of fair trading and ask for the glovebox guide (a guide to buying and owning a car). Its very helpfull.

[knore]

Get Gavin Woods to check it for you

DO NOT take it to RACQ for the test.

Trust me, i went there too, my experience with them is .. oh its an import .. ok then.. this this and this is broken.

this this and this is illegal etc etc

[predator]

well its probably the truth but anyhow..

[DarkCoupe]

I rang RACQ and they told me I'd have organise for the owner to take it to eight mile plains. They said the "master check" will cost me $192 dollers.

I am considering two cars at the moment:

Car 1 (click here): This guy is only negotiable a couple of grand, and he wasn't very flexible as far as getting him to organise a time for an inspection.

Car 2 (click here): This guy was heaps more flexible, also negotiable down a couple of grand, and he said he will pay for half the $192 RACQ check, and also perhaps drive it down for me!! Only downside is Car 1 has a nicer kit, lower kays (hopefully genuine)

Any thoughts? What do you think is the better one? I am going to fly up and have a personal look before handing over the $$, but I'd prefer to check to ensure it's not a lemon first before forking over money for a plane ticket.

[Muz]

DarkCoupe,

Mate either of those cars would be a great buy. 18 months ago I paid $35500 for a 98 model with mileage unknown (had a set of Nismo gauges installed and dealer either didn't know or want to know what the actual K's were). It has much the same in the way of extras as these two do so the price is definitely right. Mileage sounds about right for that year model (general rule of thumb is 10-12K per year approx). Don't worry about the RWC as they are not worth the paper they are printed on. Get the RACQ check or Gavin Woods to have a look. The RACQ one will certainly be truthful. Whether you want to know that or not is up to you.

The R34 is a bloody great car to drive and they become very addictive as they are very tuneable as most of the guys on this forum will attest to.

Cheers

[DarkCoupe]

I am definatly going to organise for an RACQ check.

Muz would you like to come check one out with me if I fly up?

[maccattack]

DarkCoupe,

I recently had a car checked out pre-purchase from Brisbane Turbo & Tuning at Woolloongabba. They seem to do a lot of work with skylines and were very thorough of their assessment of my car. Phoned me back with a full report and an estimate for any mechanicals so I could re-negotiate with my seller.

Past experience is to get someone who knows these cars specifically (especially turbos).

Good luck.

[Zagan]

the RACQ check would be worth the money no matter what you wanted to get checked out.

Generally if someone who isn't too happy about getting the car checked by RACQ, either knows there's stuff wrong with the car or don't want you to find out there's something wrong with it and don't buy it.

Which is the real point behind the RACQ check.

If someone is happy to get it checked out then you can say that the car would be ok as the person wouldn't have anything to worry about.

Also if you pay to get the check you don't have to show the report to the owner and the RACQ won't give the report to the owner at all.

So the guy who wants to pay half is probably wanting to see what the reports says as well.

[wados]

racq is well worth and the revs check but you can get the racq done at zillmere on the northside of brisbane as well that where i got mine done.

[Spook's_Skyline]

RACQ do a good inspection

also in brissy i got mine done by chapman and chapman

told me a heap of problems which i got the dealer to fix before we bought it

[EVO83]

order one in, so cheap and should be good.

www.svi.com.au

and www.prestigemotorsport.com.au

 

gavin woods do a good job and if east side mercury motorsports.

I wish we could help import an R34 but we can not get plates for them There are only 2 ppl still able to comply the R34's and they have sold out of plates from what I have heard. If we get any plats I will post it up but if you want an R33 come see me I can help you out. As Zoix posted the our website is

www.svi.com.au

My names Zac ask 4 me.

[Spook's_Skyline]

Trust me, i went there too, my experience with them is .. oh its an import .. ok then.. this this and this is broken.

er, thats what you want form an inspection

u dont have to fix everyting on the list, but you still would want to know these things

my mate at work got an racq inspection on his r33 and they identified a stack of things (as well as said the suspension was too hard, exhaust too loud)

[predator]

So the guy who wants to pay half is probably wanting to see what the reports says as well.

Can be a bitch on the sellers behalf sometimes. I remember I had with an old car, a younger guy bought it "subject to satisfactory mechanical inspection", and paid a deposit.

Now this guy went and checked out the car for the inspection. The buyer ended up coming back saying "my family mechanic *said* it was exhibiting signs of worn headgasket and abnormal wear". But I was pretty dubious about that, and had no way to contact that mechanic to find out exactly what he did said. He could have actaully said "yeah, good car, but the headgasket is slightly down, but should be fine like this for a quite a while to come".

Sure it was an old car, but I had been driving it for years and long distances, in hot temperatures, etc and it was exhibiting to me absolutely no signs that the car had such problems. So in the end, I suspected either the mechanic was assessing at being in pristine factory condition (e.g. for a car under 5 yeares old) and not assessing it commiserate with age or price, or the potential buyer was distorting things to get out of the purchase.

In the end I had a strong feeling he had changed his mind on the car (as young guys do), and was looking for any excuse to get out of it. Ended up giving back his deposit (which i wasn't too happy about as I was still didn't suspect it had any mechanical probs at all), but a lot of being stuffed around. In the end another guy bought it about a month later. He bought it on the spot and I assume had no problems since - he just knew it was an older car and not going to be perfect for a car 15 years old.

Any car I think if you look hard enough you can find anything on a car.

My mate that bought a car over the weekend (which was an R33 actually), just took it for a drive, gave it some stick, let it idle for a bit, do a few full lock turns and that was basically it. Car drove fine and very smooth, made no funny noises, looked genuine, seller seemed very genuine and that was enough in his eyes, and mine. Will find out in the next few months, but i very much doubt anything is going to show up.

My car I bought privately.. took it up past 200km/hr did all the above, and again that was enough and never bothered with a mechanical inspection. Never had one mechanical problem in 20 months or so of ownership. If you push a car to its limits if it doesn't fail then in my eyes that is good enough Often i think mechanical inspections can be a wank, as afterall you are buying a 2nd hand car, and to be honest most mechanics are still grounded in the past pre-EFI and ECU driven cars, and I think a lot of users on here would know more about skylines and imports in general than your local garage mechanic these days.

I guess one of the things that *is* important, if not most important to assess the overall health of the engine, is getting a compression check done. If the engine is losing compression in one or more cylinders basically means the engine has to come out and be rebuilt, and its also losing power. Unfortunately that is a bitch of a bitch on the RBxxDE engines as its a 20min job just to get to the spark plugs themselves, then measure each cylinder takes a while. I don't even think most mechanical inspections go to this level these days??

If you can't tell there is a problem from driving it properly or giving it the once over, its not a major problem. If there is, you don't buy it. Simple.

[strutto]

Well said Pred... I agree with most of your comments wholeheartedly...

[Zagan]

The real point to the inspection, is to see whats majorly wrong with the car.

Doing high speeds and a few full lock turns are only going to show you that the engine doesn't go pop at 200klms, or the ball joints were ok at that time.

It hasn't shown you wheather the gearbox is ok, or will need replacing or major work done to it, any engine leaks or any other leaks, or any of the other problems that come up on old cars.

Had a car dealer saying the exact same things as yourself I don't know why your bothering to look at the engine or look at any of the penals, etc he was also saying there's not much point in going for a test drive as you can't tell jack really.

If you look at the cars well enough you can tell wheather it's been crash etc.

But overall the real point to the inspections to just to see what major things are stuffed or could be stuffed soon and need replacing.

Be pretty bad if you paid $20,000 on a car and found out 2 months later that you have to shell out $10,000 to get the engine re-built because the owner before you didn't run the engine in properly.