Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey everyone,

I had a car inspected today I was about to purchase. Its a 1989 R32 GTS-t 4 door auto. The pre-sale inspection revealed:

ENGINE HAS VERY LOW OIL PRESSURE

Needs air filter - coolant overflow lid missing

Caster arm bushes split

Left hand steering rack split

Steering rack leaking

Left hand rear strut boot missing

Rear discs need machining

Exhaust system has heavy corrosion

Rust in boot floor

Right hand light has moisture in it

The inspection was carried out by the guys at Brisbane Turbo & Tuning Center Woolloongabba.

They said that fixing the low oil pressure problem would require the engine to come out and then be put back in and would cost about $2k to have done by a workshop.

What do you guys reckon about the report regarding the car? I'm not familiar with how serious or non-serious a low oil pressure problem is, along with a few of the other issues. If its fixed will the engine be ok again or is there a chance it has incurred long term damage? Do all the things on the list have to be addressed and are they expensive?

Are these problems consistent with many 1989 R32 GTS-t's? I expected a few small things to come up.

Opinions please

Cheers :)

Jeepers.. that's a fair few things to fix on it.. personally - if the person that's selling it really isn't prepared to fix it or atleast reduce the price than walk away.. as everyone says - there is plenty more out there..

the car i'm just finished buying had 4 things wrong with it that an inspection picked up - they fixed all of them..

do you want to inherit all these issues??

just food for thought..

They tested it using the gauge, but they said they made sure the gauge was working first, as sometimes they are a bit of a problem and don't work properly.

I still might purchase the car if the seller fixes everything. My question is, taking into account these issues, will the car be in good condition once the problems are fixed or has long term, expensive damage been done?

Anyone have experience with the low oil pressure problem and what does it mean exactly?

Thanks

If you think thats a bit list, you should have seen mine when i got a RACV check done. Made the dealer fix EVERYTHING, then sent it to the inspection again to make sure it was all done. Then it was all fine :)

they looked at the stock gauge I bet you.. idiots..

ENGINE HAS VERY LOW OIL PRESSURE

not much .. either the oil pump is about to go and destroy the engine, or its all fine and nothing to worry about.. So I guess you need to establish for sure what the problem is. Oil pump replace I am not even sure is a full in/out job?? Mine reads pretty low, but car otherwise seems to run fairly well, I think its more the gauge.

Needs air filter - coolant overflow lid missing

bit of a worry on the airfilter.. no panel filter at all? engine could have been sucking a lot of dust and things for months.. not good.. coolant lid.. somebody lost it :)

Caster arm bushes split

common in older cars (mine were gone).. probably looking at about $250 to get those replaced... will improve steering feel / handling so not a bad idea to replace anyhow.. at least you know they are stuffed.

Left hand steering rack split

I assume they don't mean the actual rack itself (hope not!).. Do they actually mean *rack* bushes or steering rack boots? rack bushes hold the steering rack to the chasis.. rack boots are $15 each, and 1 hour job to change both.

Steering rack leaking

can be expensive if you need a reco'ed rack put in.. depends if its a couple of drops, or major leakage. Few hundred dollars to replace the rack.

Left hand rear strut boot missing

(Suspension) strut boot?? They are the plastic protective sheathes that sit over your shocks.. not too much, again.. if stock shocks I wouldn't worry.. I assume you will replace with aftermarket sometime?? if aftermarket coilovers, could mean dust and grit has got into the shock, reducing its life, may require rebuild.

Rear discs need machining

yeah, they always do.. unless its below minimum thickness, that is not a concern. replace rear pads at same time - may as well.

Exhaust system has heavy corrosion

yeah, they get that sitting under the car exposed to a wet road.. possibly salt in japan. Stock exhaust, again, how long do you plan on keeping that on? Otherwise annoying as it will rust through eventually - require new exhaust system.

Rust in boot floor

A fair concern.. could be others lurking under body, sideskirts, etc.. if its not just a little bit of red /oxidisation (which should be attended to anyhow), thats probably enough reason to walk away.

Right hand light has moisture in it

yeah, most cars can do that.. it has been raining for nearly 2 weeks solid up here afterall..

Look in the end, are you getting a really good price? Are these things required for you to get the safety cert? Do you plan on modifying the car and replacing these items over time? or do you want to leave everything "as is" for as long as possible, and just enjoy the car as is?

It sounds like, if workshop does the work, you're going to be hit with a $1500-$2k bill for all that work (assuming oil pressure problem is just the gauge).. If the car is still worthwhile (checking the rust issue carefully) after that cost, then why not.

anyhow, hope some of my rambling helps a bit.

Not that it means anything but what does the odometer read?

The other thing I would be concerned with is not what they found but what they didnt find.

Did they perform a compression or leak down test? How much does the seller want for the car?

Good question. I'm not sure exactly how they tested but the guy who owns the car asked if it was a faulty gauge and they reckon they eliminated that from the equation. Is there any real way to test if the oil pressure is low if these stock gauges are so bad?

Car has ~66,000km on it. I'd be getting it for a tad under 7K.

For that price it might be worth persisting with.

Get another workshop to test the oil pressure with an externally connected guage to confirm what the first workshop has said.

Secondly, confirm how bad the rust is in the boot. If its surface rust, you should be able to clean it all up and re-prime/seal and paint it to stop further problems.

Other major place for rust in skylines is under the rear wheel guards, make sure there isn't any rust there, by inspecting feeling underneath or looking for the rust bubbles in the paint work itself.

If it costs you for another inspection it still has to be better then risking it and buying a lemon if your not fully clued up on car mechanical and physical condition yourself.

16yo car with genuine 66k on the clock, not likely.

I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole, even for the price (which would be pretty good if not for the oil pressure concerns).

On the other hand, if you can hook up a mechanical oil pressure gauge and do a proper test and it come's up good. Go for it. The cost of the the other replacement parts wont total more than 1k in parts and labour and you've still got a bargain.

Mine had a bit of rust in the boot. It hasn't got any worse in 2.5 years. It will be related to your leaking rear tail light most likely. Fix that and hit the rust with some converter and it'll be fine.

Its funny how many go "dont touch it all", and a few are "well its probably fine if checked out properly" :P

if I listed all the things wrong with mine when I imported (not that i really had a choice what turned up in the end) that any inspection would show up (half the same things as that car you are looking at actually).. you'd be going "no way".. Same price roughtly too.. But all of the things have been fairly minor wear and tear items, that could show up on a car 5 years newer and I fixed for low cost. Never has given me grief.. other than a fuel pump -- which was installed by myself, and not factory fit.

as others have said get a workshop to hook up a mechanic oil pressure gauge and get it rechecked if it comes out ok i would consider purchasing the car

mine has rust in the bottom of driver sill and some in the rear wheel arches that i slowly getting worse as i havent treated it (stupid i know) its fairly common now for jap cars to have rust in them as the quality of items isnt as good as it was a couple of years ago so you wont get the best of the best

mine has 98500k's on it and hasnt had one problem yet must say the best car ive had

it mostly comes down to what your happy with, if you think it is ok to you then buy it, if you have doubts then dont we can only offer an opinion but most ppl have been in a similar situation

i bout mine for 14k last yr prob spent about 1k on repairing things and replacing this includes timing belt and aircon stuff ive also spent around 1k on mods and thats all its cost me so far in 12months

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

    • The other problem was one of those "oh shit we are going to die moments". Basically the high spec Q50s have a full electric steering rack, and the povo ones had a regular hydraulic rack with an electric pump.  So couple of laps into session 5 as I came into turn 2 (big run off now, happily), the dash turned into a christmas tree and the steering became super heavy and I went well off. I assumed it was a tyre failure so limped to the pits, but everything was OK. But....the master warning light was still on so I checked the DTCs and saw – C13E6 “Heat Protection”. Yes, that bloody steering rack computer sitting where the oil cooler should be has its own sensors and error logic, and decided I was using the steering wheel too much. I really appreciated the helpful information in the manual (my bold) POSSIBLE CAUSE • Continuing the overloading steering (Sports driving in the circuit etc,) “DATA MONITOR” >> “C/M TEMPERATURE”. The rise of steering force motor internal temperature caused the protection function to operate. This is not a system malfunction. INSPECTION END So, basically the electric motor in the steering rack got to 150c, and it decided to shut down without warning for my safety. Didn't feel safe. Short term I'll see if I can duct some air to that motor (the engine bay is sealed pretty tight). Long term, depending on how often this happens, I'll look into swapping the povo spec electric/hydraulic rack in. While the rack should be fine the power supply to the pump will be a pain and might be best to deal with it when I add a PDM.
    • And finally, 2 problems I really need to sort.  Firstly as Matt said the auto trans is not happy as it gets hot - I couldn't log the temps but the gauge showed 90o. On the first day I took it out back in Feb, because the coolant was getting hot I never got to any auto trans issues; but on this day by late session 3 and then really clearly in 4 and 5 as it got hotter it just would not shift up. You can hear the issue really clearly at 12:55 and 16:20 on the vid. So the good news is, literally this week Ecutek finally released tuning for the jatco 7 speed. I'll have a chat to Racebox and see what they can do electrically to keep it cooler and to get the gears, if anything. That will likely take some R&D and can only really happen on track as it never gets even warm with road use. I've also picked up some eye wateringly expensive Redline D6 ATF to try, it had the highest viscosity I could find at 100o so we will see if that helps (just waiting for some oil pan gaskets so I can change it properly). If neither of those work I need to remove the coolant/trans interwarmer and the radiator cooler and go to an external cooler....somewhere.....(goodbye washer reservoir?), and if that fails give up on this mad idea and wait for Nissan to release the manual 400R
    • So, what else.... Power. I don't know what it is making because I haven't done a post tune dyno run yet; I will when I get a chance. It was 240rwkw dead stock. Conclusion from the day....it does not need a single kw more until I sort some other stuff. It comes on so hard that I could hear the twin N1 turbos on the R32 crying, and I just can't use what it has around a tight track with the current setup. Brakes. They are perfect. Hit them hard all day and they never felt like having an issue; you can see in the video we were making ground on much lighter cars on better tyres under brakes. They are standard (red sport) calipers, standard size discs in DBA5000 2 piece, Winmax pads and Motul RBF600 fluid, all from Matty at Racebrakes Sydney. Keeping in mind the car is more powerful than my R32 and weighs 1780, he clearly knows his shit. Suspension. This is one of the first areas I need to change. It has electronically controlled dampers from factory, but everything is just way too soft for track work even on the hardest setting (it is nice when hustling on country roads though). In particular it rolls into oversteer mid corner and pitches too much under hard braking so it becomes unstable eg in the turn 1 kink I need to brake early, turn through the kink then brake again so I don't pirouette like an AE86. I need to get some decent shocks with matched springs and sway bars ASAP, even if it is just a v1 setup until I work out a proper race/rally setup later. Tyres. I am running Yoko A052 in 235/45/18 all round, because that was what I could get in approximately the right height on wheels I had in the shed (Rays/Nismo 18x8 off the old Leaf actually!). As track tyres they are pretty poor; I note GTSBoy recently posted a porker comparo video including them where they were about the same as AD09.....that is nothing like a top line track tyre. I'll start getting that sorted but realistically I should get proper sized wheels first (likely 9.5 +38 front and 11 +55 at the rear, so a custom order, and I can't rotate them like the R32), then work out what the best tyre option is. BTW on that, Targa Tas had gone to road tyres instead of semi slicks now so that is a whole other world of choices to sort. Diff. This is the other thing that urgently needs to be addressed. It left massive 1s out of the fish hook all day, even when I was trying not too (you can also hear it reving on the video, and see the RPM rising too fast compared to speed in the data). It has an open diff that Infiniti optimistically called a B-LSD for "Brake Limited Slip Diff". It does good straight line standing start 11s but it is woeful on the track. Nismo seem to make a 2 way for it.
    • Also, I logged some data from the ECU for each session (mostly oil pressures and various temps, but also speed, revs etc, can't believe I forgot accelerator position). The Ecutek data loads nicely to datazap, I got good data from sessions 2, 3 and 4: https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-2?log=0&data=7 https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-3?log=0&data=6 https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-4?log=0&data=6 Each session is cut into 3 files but loaded together, you can change between them in the top left. As the test sessions are mostly about the car, not me, I basically start by checking the oil pressure (good, or at least consistent all day). These have an electrically controlled oil pump which targets 25psi(!) at low load and 50 at high. I'm running a much thicker oil than recommended by nissan (they said 0w20, I'm running 10w40) so its a little higher. The main thing is that it doesn't drop too far, eg in the long left hand fish hook, or under brakes so I know I'm not getting oil surge. Good start. Then Oil and Coolant temp, plus intercooler and intake temps, like this: Keeping in mind ambient was about 5o at session 2, I'd say the oil temp is good. The coolant temp as OK but a big worry for hot days (it was getting to 110 back in Feb when it was 35o) so I need to keep addressing that. The water to air intercooler is working totally backwards where we get 5o air in the intake, squish/warm it in the turbos (unknown temp) then run it through the intercoolers which are say 65o max in this case, then the result is 20o air into the engine......the day was too atypical to draw a conclusion on that I think, in the united states of freedom they do a lot of upsizing the intercooler and heat exchanger cores to get those temps down but they were OK this time. The other interesting (but not concerning) part for me was the turbo speed vs boost graph: I circled an example from the main straight. With the tune boost peaks at around 18psi but it deliberately drops to about 14psi at redline because the turbos are tiny - they choke at high revs and just create more heat than power if you run them hard all the way. But you can also see the turbo speed at the same time; it raises from about 180,000rpm to 210,000rpm which the boost falls....imagine the turbine speed if they held 18psi to redline. The wastegates are electrically controlled so there is a heap of logic about boost target, actual boost, delta etc etc but it all seems to work well
    • hahah when youtube subscribers are faster than my updates here. Yes some vid from the day is up, here:  Note that as with all track day videos it is boring watching after the bloopers at the start.  The off was a genuine surprise to me, I've literally done a thousand laps around the place and I've never had instability there; basically it rolled into oversteer, slipped, gripped and spat me out. On the way off I mowed down one of the instructor's cones and it sat there all day looking at me with accusing cone eyes as I drove past. 1:13:20 was my fastest lap, and it was in the second session, 3rd lap.  It (or me!) got slower throughout the day as it got hotter.      
×
×
  • Create New...