Hello Everyone

[christodav]

G'day,

Just bought myself a Silver JZS147 Aristo, 1996 model. Can't wait to get it on the road! It will be around 2 weeks before it get conplience and registration. I will post some more pics as soon as I take take delivery of her.

It has leather, premium sound system, 18 inch wheels (aftermarket), sunroof, LSD, passenger and drivers airbag and the best thing; the famous 2JZ-GTE engine.

How many others here with JZS147's? Any from Victoria?

Cheers

Chris

[my baby]

G'day,

Just bought myself a Silver JZS147 Aristo, 1996 model. Can't wait to get it on the road! It will be around 2 weeks before it get conplience and registration. I will post pics as soon as I take some.

It has leather, premium sound system and 18 inch wheels.

How many others here with JZS147's? Any from Victoria?

Cheers

Chris

Hey Chris,

I have just bought a black 94 Aristo about 10 weeks ago I don't have leather but electric everything. I think it is absolutly the best car for the money that you can buy. I'm not in Vic but in Syd but its still good to know someone else in Aus with an Aristo. I had to do the timing belt about 4 weeks ago even though the car only has 74,000km (although not too sure how accurate this is!) because some idiot has done it before and hasn't put the plate that sits behind the harmonic balancer and in front of the timing belt back on. The result was that the belt began to slip off and wore through the timing belt covers and could have come off completly had I not noticed it. Anyway it cost me $500+ for a $5 part not being put back on. Pretty stressfull!. I'm looking at coil overs, I was thinking HSD but the HR series as I want something that is still comfortable to drive around on, on our magnificently well kept roads! And I'm getting new Hankook K104s as they are cheap ($250 for 255 40 17) and have that silica compound, so they are good tyres if you like abit of a hoon around!

I also want to get a boost controller so I can wind it up abit, as I've heard they run on only 6-7psi of boost. Anyway I'd like to know more about your Aristo and what you want to do with it and perhaps give me some advice on mine.

Gab

[christodav]

Hello Gab,

Nice to meet you!

I am still waiting for mine to get complience. I spoke to them on Thurday and they have done all the work but after more than 2 weeks still have not got the plates yet. Obviously they can't do anything as far as registration and delivery goes until they get the plates. Very frustrating! Dam DOT!

Anyway, the best thing to do is get yourself the last few issues of High Performance Imports magazine. The current one, #76 actually gives you 2 free mags, #63 and #64 in a plastic pack. No. 76 has Pt4 of their Aristo project car and how to install a merchanical boost guage. I think I'll look for a 2nd hand boost guage and go ahead with that one cos it seems pretty simple to do. Next issue I believe they will be adding a computer, front mount intercooler and exhaust. I have not got # 73, 74 or 75 yet so I am not sure what they did in those editions yet. In #63 they actuallt introduce the car briefly on one of the pages.

I am glad you found the problem with the timing belt B4 it caused damage. I actually contacted Castle Hill Toyota and ordered some TRD stuff and some OEM stuff the other day. All done via email and I will let you know when I get it. Amongst the order, I requested a Genuine Toyota timing belt and a set of Denso plugs. Go to their website and check them out. You may even be close to them being in NSW! No problems so far and seem like they know what they are doing. I just filled out the form they had on thier site with my body number and a few other details and it was as easy as that. I thought I would try some expensive TRD filters etc. I don't know if they are kind of a waste of money up against the genuine Toyota parts but but I guess they will be a talking point to show off to my mates and I could put a TRD sticker on the car and saythat I have the parts to match!

I have merchanic here close to home that had worked on all my other cars. He does alot of engine transplants. He put a new 7M engine in my Cressida after the harmonic balancer cam off my car in Tassie at 100km/h. Ripped the key off the crank. Luckly, I was able to get a tow onto the boat and we hired a trailer from Port Melbourne home. Anyway, he has been my merchanic ever since. I will get him to check the car out once I get it and I might get him to do a full check over the car and even if the complience guys have done the fluids etc I am thinking I will do it again to make sure. A couple of hundred bucks I figure can't hurt if it may mean lots of dollars later!

I am a bit of a tinkler. I usually do my own oil changes etc to save a few dollars, but I think its best to get the pros to check it out at least every 2nd time. I can do audio and I have a turbo timer on order as well and I think I may give that a go since I also got a harness which is meant to plug straight up to the car. We'll see.

Talk soon,

Chris

[Steve]

Nice ride there mate.. they are quick too!

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

I have all the HPI issues with the Aristo, they have been talking about putting the intercooler in since issue 73 but the first one they got they realised it would be too much work to put it in so they ordered another one that they showed in the last issue. But it is still really good to read - they got a quarter mile in it that was only 0.2 of a second slower than a new Aristo!! (tested in 199? something)

Thats funny about your harmonic balancer coming off at 100kmh in your Cressida as I had a conrod go through the engine block at 100kmh in my n13 Exa (although it wasn't funny at the time as I'm sure yours wasn't). That car was a nightmare for me I had to do CVs, shocks, head gasket, bottom end berrings, whole engine transplant (after conrod incident) and many other constant problems, and I did all the work myself. There were many hours spent underneath that piece of crap. But no more. I only do oil changes and other basic mechanical requirements now on the Aristo, everything else is done through my mechanic.

I had to get new cam gear and crank seals, and I got them through Castle Hill Toyota, so I know their excelllent service. When I called and said Aristo the guy knew exactly what I was talking about and even knew the model numbers of the two Aristos out here. And the parts arrived in only two days. They were great. When I was trying to find a harmonic balancer plate I called them and he let me know that the plate was the same as the 1JZ. This made it easier to call wreckers and just ask about the more common 1JZ rather than only asking after the2JZ. I have reccommended CHT to other LOC members as I have not encountered another company that is so good to deal with and has the availabillity of parts that is so important to us with grey imports.

You were saying you can do audio. I've been calling around to try and get my FM frequency to be normal rather than going from 70 to 90. Can you help!!! Everyone that I have called just passes me onto someone else who then has no idea what to do. (Iwant to keep the original head unit). I have heard there is a box or something but I havn't been able to get onto anyone who can help me. Any help would be apprieciated. Maybe when you get compliance and see the FM stereo you may be able to work it out as I have no idea with that sort of stuff.

Anyway I hope you have no probs with compliance or rego. When I did my rego I had two reciepts for the car and one of them was in yen so I took that in and just told them that it converted to $3,000 aus dollars and so I only had to pay stamp duty on 3g rather than what I actually paid ($13,700). I'm not sure about Vic though as this was through NSWs RTA. I bought the car through a dealer so I didn't have to do compliance as they did it for me but I had to wait almost a month, as thay have only x ammount of plates thay can do each year and the month I bought the car they had already filled their quota, so I had to wait.

But now I have my baby and I told my girl of five years that she has been bumped down to number two! I hope you have the same wonderful experience with your Aristo as I have with mine. I absolutely love it.

Make sure you look at the radiator as they often don't put coolant in and I recommend changing the oil right away and get some decent oil into her as you just dont know whats in there. Also check the brake and power steering fluid. Also the fan is driven by a fluid pump so check that too, it takes dextron 2 or more (I put dextron 3 only cause I couldn't get 2).

Let me know when you can drive it as I want to know how it is. Also, this may be of interest to you but some guy (I can't remember his name) has asked about doing combined buying for parts for our Aristos, it is in the "looking for Aristo wrecker" thread. Seems like a good idea.

Anyway nice to meet you Chris and I hope we both have great fun with our Aristos!!!

Gab

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

I just saw the wrecker thread again and realised it was you, so I guess its just you and me who want to combine to get parts! Sorry about that.

Gab.

[christodav]

Gab,

Thanks for the info. I am going to pick the car up on Saturday morning. I can't wait. The really cool thing is that I am picking up my brand new Mitsubishi 380 Platinum from work tomorrow (Thursday). I guess that will help the wait! I know which car I will be driving on the weekend though! I am so lucky! 2 new cars in the same week!

I have bought all the gear for my first service and I will make sure all the stuff you mentioned gets checked out. I'll probably get the transmission serviced as well.

Hmm, haven't thought of the radio to be honest. I guess I will find out on Saturday and I will let you know. I can recall a brief chat about it and I must admitt that I did listen to the radio before I purchased the car but I didn't check out more than one station. I have found this guy on the internet and he lives about 15mins away from me! http://www.catronics.com.au/index.html I'll have a chat with him and I'll let you know.

As far as audio goes I played in a band full time for two years and done sound engineering professionally. After working with huge sound systems car audio does not scare me at all. Although it can be a really big pain in the butt - confined places and all - yoga positions!

Anyway I will post again on Saturday and let you all know how I go.

Chris

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

I am waiting to hear about your new Aristo!!! You are pretty lucky with two new cars in one week.

I have gotten an adapter for my FM. It cost me $20 from Autobarn and it just boosts the frequency by 20 mghz so you can get normal radio. And its really simple to install - just plugs straight into the ariel jack.

I also have a boost gauge and boost controller on the way that I bought off Ebay, so I'm looking forward to winding it up abit!!!

In the new HPI they finally put an intercooler in, its only a small one but fits in perfectly and they are available from ottomoto for $500 and something. Anyway definately get the mag (although I think you already do!).

Anyway, let me know how your Aristo is. And I'll talk yo you later Chris.

Gab.

[christodav]

OK, I'm a very disappointed boy at the moment!

The car, believe it or not was complied and registered etc with a faulty front strut. Now I knew that it needed to be relpaced and last week when it was time to pick the car up, the guys had failed to get a replacement strut from their supplier. I took the car home on Saturday anyway however, cos I couldn't wait and I said that I would drop it back once they had the strut and for them to replace it. Anyway, I dropped the car back to them on Tuesday and they still didn't have the strut . They then got it on Thursday only to find that they received the wrong thing! So now I am still waiting! I am hoping that I will have my car back on Wednesday or Thursday this week. They are still also going to give her a final detail etc and fix a few little things before the final delivery.

Now I only really got a bit of a drive and of course over 60km/h the shaking was almost unbearable! However, she was fast! And the engine etc was smooth. I can't believe that the Vic Roads guys checked the car over properly cos there is no way that it was roadworthy with the strut the way it was. I also dropped into a friend of mine who runs a tyre place and he checked her out. Perfect. Confirmed that it was just the strut and no other issues.

So that's where I am at.

BTW, the Mitsubishi 380 Platinum is a great car for the money and a pleasure to drive. I have now done 1050km in it and she is now run in I guess. I test drove an Aurion and I must admit I think I prefer it but the 380 had more for the same price. Bluetooth phone, sunroof, sports suspension, body kit etc etc etc

Yes and I have the HPI mag, I bought it on Friday.

Chris

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

That suck so bad. I can feel your pain in being not able to drive your new car. I really feel sorry for you. I had the same feeling when I had to do my timing belt. Although at least I got to drive it for a while.

The power is so good, and it is so smooth. I've heard you can rest a 50c piece on the rocker covers and rev it and it doesn't fall off. But I'm not game to try this but I've had the bonnet up and pulled the accelerator cable and the engine hardly moves. It's really good.

Anyway, Ihope you have it on the road soon! I can't believe the Vic Roads guy didn"t pick it up either. That really sucks.

I've heard the 380s are good, I think mitsubishi needed to pull its finger out in order to keep up and so thats why they invested so much in to it ($500 mil if I remember correctly). At least you have one good car to drive!

Gab

[christodav]

UPDATE

OK. I have the car back now. Everything is fine except the brakes need some attention I believe. I had the wheels balanced and the alignment done but when I go over around 80km/h I get a bad vibration through the wheel. The thing is that it seems to come and go to some extent. Also I am sure that it gets better or worse after braking. I am thinking maybe a warped Disc or something of that nature. I think the discs need a good machining as well. Again, should have been done I think at complience.

To be honest, I am tossing up whether to just go to my local brakes place (I have my other cars done there), and pay the money over, or risk waiting a few days without my car again to get the place I bought it from fix it. Unfortunately, I have lost quite a bit of confidence in them and they are a good hours drive away.

I really hate being let down like that.

I am not too worried as everthing else on the car is fantastic and the power etc is there no probs. The brakes may not have even been done in Japan. Who knows?

I agree with the engine thing; she is really smooth.....and when the turbos spool!

The 380 is a nice car, but it is funny that it is brand new and probably almost on a par as far as refinement goes with the Aristo and the Aristo is over 10 years old!

Chris

[christodav]

OK. Taken the car back today to the place where I bought it. See what happens.

Chris

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

When mine got done the guy put new pads on but the disks were warped. I reckon they are all dodgy, and I reckon they always know someone who is doing the compliancing etc so they can just get it through no matter what.

I just got my discs machined i think it cost me $25 a corner I cant remember but it wasn't much. but having said that you do expect to have that sort of thing taken care of by the guys you buy it from, anyway...

I just got some new tyres from Jax. The tyres were fine. I asked them to do a wheel allignment and when he came back he told me the steering arm was *BLEEP*ed (his language) he then told me that it was actually a knuckle joint on the steering colunm (same language). I had never had any probs with the steering at all but when I left Jax the steering wheel was 40 degrees off centre to the left and the car pulled to the right when driving. So I called him back and asked what he had done to it to make this happen He said it was because of the joint. I didnt really believe him so I took the car to my mechanic to look at. And guess what they had stuffed up the allignment and there was nothing wrong with anything. My mechanic did an allignment and the car is fine again. I called Jax back and got a refund on the allignment and cancelled my order of another two new tyres.

I reckon he saw the car and thought this guy will be rich and have no idea about anything. Anyway I will never do anything through Jax again.

Anyway it's good having abit of a winge!!!

Good luck with the machining, hope there are no more probs!

Gab.

[christodav]

Hey Gab,

Was it the machining that fixed the discs or did you need to need to get new ones? You obviously has some sort of issue to get this done.

The reason I am asking is that I have dorpped the car back to the place where I bought it and the first thing they did was to get a wheel alignment and balance (again), but they say that my problem was still there. The steering wheel vibrates badly especially 80km/h +. When applying the brakes it also happens.

Is this similar to what you experienced?

Chris

[christodav]

Yeehaaa!

Pretty much got my ride all working now. Still a vibration here and there but I believe it is probably just the cheap Chinese tyres I have fitted. I will just have to start saving now for a decent set of 18 inch tyres.

I have got all the parts I need now to do a full tune-up. Denso plugs, TRD thermostat, TRD radiator cap, TRD Air Filter, Greddy top radiator pipe, Mobile 1 oil, TRD oill filter, Toyota timing belt, Toyota drive belt, Toyota coolant and Toyota fuel filter. It's taken me about 6 weeks of saving etc and all I need to do now is get my mechanic to fit it all. I am also planning on get the rear brakes machined and the auto box serviced.

I will let you know how I go.

Coilovers and exhaust the next projects?

Chris

[moooey]

Hi all :)

Looks like a real nice car christodav :)

I'm looking at buying one aswell but I have one question (thought I'd ask it here instead of creating new thread?).

Is it easy to remove that wing that some aristos have?

[christodav]

Hey Moooey, thanks for your comments.

You will be able to get one from Japan without the wing, or with an aftermarket kit. Like any bodywork, it will come off, however it will require some re-spray work. I think your best option without too much time and effort is to find one from Japan without it if you don't like it. To be honest, the factory boot spoiler looks alot better in the flesh than it does in the photos and believe it or not, as it was only an option in Japan, alot of the Yanks and Poms actually have made comments about mine saying how good it looks!

I am with you though, if I had a choice, I would go without it, but now I have it, I am not interested it spending money on a kit just yet as I am looking at other mods well before that! A decent second hand full kit would cost you around the $1000- mark plus fitting and spraying. The kits are generly all fibreglass which means they are probably more prone to getting damaged; especially the bumpers.

I am really enjoying the sleeperish look of my car at the moment. I am getting heaps of looks around town and its only been the other import car guys that seem to look and not have a puzzled loook on their face, but a grin as if to say, "I know what you have there." I love the look on the Commondore guys and girls epecially when I blow them away at the lights. I give it just enough to scare the heck out of them....not to mention me! I am not a hoon by any stretch, but I love having the 2JZ-GTE power under my right foot! :P BTW; My 65 year old father enjoys taking it for a spin too!

Chris

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

yeah i had probs with it.

When I braked it would shudder and it was worse when i was going faster, so I just thought the discs. But i just got them machined and it was fine. So if yours is still doing it I'd get it cheaked out, wel thats only what I reckon.

Still no probs with the steering collumn like the guy at Jax reckoned. So after my mech looked it over i still reckon the guy at jax was trying to take me for a ride. So lame.

I called the guys at Ottomoto about their coil overs about three weeks ago and they said they would have them in four weeks. So they should have them soon. I need them as I'm sure I've already said (my rear right shock finished), but the intercooler they have is so cheap! I can't believe it comes with everything for only $550. Its pretty good!

I'm still waiting to fit my boost controller. Iwas going to do it on Sunday then watch the F1 then take her out - but I thought that prob wasn't a good idea! Did you see any of it being in Melbourne. Every year I plan to go down but never get my *BLEEP* together. Do you follow it?

Gab.

[christodav]

Gab,

As far as the F1 goes, yes I am a pretty big fan. However, I must say, even though I live 40km away from the track I have never been. Hehehe, further to that, I probably have the opportunity to work there as I work for a BIG imaging company that has a stand at the GP every year to service the pro photographers gear! One of the guys took some great photos though on a 5D (hint on the company I work for) and I have a great close shot on my wall in A4 size of Truli wizzing around the track.

You do get to see more on TV, but I should go next year at least for the atmosphere.

I dropped the oil tonight and put the TRD oil filter on and Mobil 1 in. It seems to run alot smoother. I even used an engine flush which I have never done before on any of my cars but I figured it may be worth it due to the fact that most Japanese cars would have spent most of their life idling. My mechanic is going to do the rest of the tune-up later this week or early next week and the timimg belt etc maybe next month. I might even get the thing Dyno'ed then as well. Cost reasons.

Funny about you strut Gab, cos it was my front passenger one that was gone. Should they go after only 75,000km, or were we ripped off? I had mine replaced and I will keep it for the time being. I think I will go with those ones you were talking about as well cos $1350- brand new sounds good to me. Maybe you could tell me how they go on your Aristo first!

I hope we are helping others at least.......it seems we are the only ones talking here, but this thread is getting READ! Please feel free anyone to contribute!

Chris

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

I love F1. I am so jealous that your co has a stand- I can't believe you didn't go!!! I can't believe Webber, problems again, like he didn't have enough at BMW Williams. And Alonso and Lewis Hamilton with maclaren. I can't believe it was that guys first F1 race and he came third. And the ice man even smilled. And no safety car! It was such a good race I can't wait till next weekend where I'm pretty sure its in Maylasia. You should have gone!!! I can provide my email if you would like to forward that picture of Trulli?!!

I did an oil change on her last weekend. You have to get under the car to remove the oil filter (as you would know) and my hydrolic jack wouldn't fit underneath the car. So I had to get the standard jack out and jack it up then put my H jack under and get it up. And just to add to the frustrations my H jack doesn't go high enough to fit my car stands under the car so I had to use the two jacks to jack it up then slide under. Then after much huffing and puffing I managed to crack the oil filter off (took two soap washing of hands to get a good grip) as my oil filter "take er offa" -sorry can't think of name of tool, would not go small enough to get it off. So i managed to do it even with constant visions of the car coming off the jacks and squishing my head! Must get new car stands!!!

I have thought that: should there be so many probs with a car that has supposedly only done 75 kms? And i really don't know how accurate the oddometer readings are, I wouldn't be suprised if they had been wound back. But I just think that my mech has checked it out and there is nothing else wrong (fingers crossed) and that gets me through the nights!! But she feels good and handles well so I'm not too worried.

Yeah I noticed there are about 1000 views for this thread (although how many of those are from me and you!!) but yeah it would be great to hear from some other Aristo owners.

Gab

[christodav]

Gab,

I don't think we have veiwed this thread 500 times each....but you never know!

As far as the oil change goes - do yourself a favour and get yourself a pair of ramps. You don't have to pay a fortune for them nowdays either. It makes the job so much easier. While you are there buying them, also buy an oil filter tool , but make sure you get the smaller one. The best one I think, although, I don't have one myself yet, is the kind that attaches to your ratchet. I used a traditional one but still had trouble cos of the limited space. I think the other type is the go. Apart from that it was quite easy I thought, as long as you have the ramps!

Yes it was a fantastic F1 race. I only have a hard copy of the Truli, however I'll see if my co-worker mate can drop them onto a DVD for me and I'll see what I can do. He had hundreds of pics in high-res.

The other point I guess to make with a car that is just over 10 years old is that it is just over 10 years old. In Japan the car probably hasn't done as many km's but

it may have still spent alot of time idling in traffic. Not good for an engine.

And, when are we going to see a pic of your car? :gav:

Chris

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

My car is only 100mm off the ground so I didn't think I would be able to drive it up the ramps, but maybe there are ones with a much lower gradiant. My Dad has one of those smaller oil filter wrentches but he also lives down a 1km long dirt road with massive pot holes and the like and as I had also just washed the car prior to oil change so this didn't seem too appealing!!!

Anyway I will get one for my next change.

I tried to put some photos up but i couldn't do it unless I paid 50 pounds to sign up, so I decieded against it. Is this the only way you can get photos up? I would love to get some up, I spent a day out at Lithgow and took about thirty so I have some nice ones (I think).

Gab

[my baby]

Hi Chris,

I have been out for a bit as I lost my license for a DUI. It was so unfortunate. I had a big Sat night and had then planned to go to the beach with my girl on Sunday morning. We left early and about half an hour into our journey I got pulled over for a random breath test. I ended up blowing 0.055 and had to go to court for it. Anyway I lost my license for it. I found it very hard to deal with as I was always so vigilant about drink driving and didn't even think I could be over the next morning, But that was my mistake.

Anyway that explains my absence from this forum.

But I would however, like to know how your car is going and like to let you know what is happening with mine.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Gab.

[christodav]

Hey mate . Are you still around these parts? Have you seen me post elsewhere?

Chris

[mehmet]

Chris

Did you buy the car from a placed called karizma in melbourne?