Necassary changes to imported car?

[Neil]

Just trying to weigh up and estimate some costs here, what are the vital changes to be made for a car coming here from a japan?
No longer need to change the km to miles anyway, so off the top of my head..
Underseal? - kevinod did you get this done? if so how much did it cost?
Rear window wiper? - !
Stereo?

Am I forgeting anything?

[Neil]

Also while Im at it (may aswell keep it in the one thread)...

Im going to get a service soon as it arrives and have the belt changed, I'll get it from camskill but does anyone know the price and a good place to go to actually get the job of changing the belt done? I rang advance pitstop which is where I normally use but they wouldnt touch it but gave me a number of another place that would, rang him and he wouldnt touch either

So im looking for somewhere good that can do all that, and ideally can also get rid of any minor nicks and scratches Im expecting it to have on the body, and give it a good polish or waxing and maybe even a full interior valet aswell.

In short if I go ahead with importing myself, I'm planning to drive the car straight from getting it registered to a garage in the hope of collecting an immaculate looking and running fto a week later... can anyone recommend such a place??

[kevinod]

Just trying to weigh up and estimate some costs here, what are the vital changes to be made for a car coming here from a japan?
No longer need to change the km to miles anyway, so off the top of my head..
Underseal? - kevinod did you get this done? if so how much did it cost?
Rear window wiper? - !
Stereo?

Am I forgeting anything?

Hey Neil,

I didn't get the KM changed to miles, I had heard rumours at the time that they were switching over to KM completely so I left it alone.

The underseal, no I didn't have this done, mightn't be a bad idea to have it checked out actually... I have a rear window wiper alright, but I'm told that its rare enough to have one. The stereo that comes with the car, *if* one comes with the car, ggoes from something like 70.0 to 88.0 FM, the only thing you can pick up is radio one, get very politically informed for a couple of weeks... ;]

What you can do with the stereo is get a band expander which will 'shift' the range the radio receives to the Irish FM range. However, the display on the radio will still say 70.0-88.0 somewhere. A standard stereo came with mine, and to be honest I reckoned the cost of the band expander could go towards a new or ebay stereo which is what I did.

I reckon the first thing you need to do on the car is check your belts, and if you're in any doubt about how new they are change them. After that do an oil change, etc., standard service stuff, as I'm guessing you may not get a service history with the car, or if you do it'll be in japanese, so you won't know how long any of the fluid is in the car.

Oh yeah, if the car has been idle for long, chances are your battery could be knackered. Mine was sitting in Japan for about 6 months before they finally got it shipped and when it arrived the battery was dead. Luckily we thought of bringing a spare battery with us in case.

You'll of course need to check your tyres, I had to replace 2 of mine when it arrived, and it would be a good plan to have a look at your brake pads and discs to make sure they've some wear left in them. Wiper blades might need replacing.

Another common problem of FTOs is the droplinks and anti-roll bar bushes going. This will be picked up by the NCT (like in mine) and will need to be replaced if they are gone.

Mine also had a very dodgy left front wing respray which I had to get sorted out, but hopefully you won't have that problem.

With regards to a good mechanic, the guys in Dublin swear by Paul Nolan, his details are in the Services page. I don't think he does painting or paint touch ups (but I could be wrong) but he does know his FTOs having done work for loads of the guys here.

hope that helps,
Kev.


Edit: dodgy way of putting something changed

[JD]

Paul Nolan will do the belts for you, and service etc. He knows his FTO's.
His contact info is on the Services page http://www.fto-ireland.com/parts.html , he knows what he's doing and he won't rip you off. He is up near Artane Castle.

For polishing, valet and dealing with nicks etc. you could try CarCraft in Fairview, here is their website, http://www.carcraft.ie
they did a very good paint restore for me recently, and are not expensive.

Good luck with it, let us know how you get on.

JD

[zacob]

On the subject of changing belts. I bought the belt kit off camskill which seem to be extremely cheap compared to the local mitsubishi dealer. Was recommended a guy who will do the job for about 450euro. Rang a few places all aroud the same price.

[Neil]

Cheers Kev and the rest of ye for the tips
I reckon I'll upgrade the stereo anyway, was pretty much planning to do that, I hope the damn thing has a rear wiper though... they dont have that listed on any of the sites I've seen (not counted as important I suppose?) and I think I'll probly leave the underseal then unless I have spare change left in the budget (highly unlikely by the looks of things ).

I'll give Paul Nolan a shout aswell. I hadnt thought the labour for the belt change would be that much.. tis a big job though I suppose.

I'll let you all know how I get on anyway...