Law of Murphy at Play for This Daily Driver BNR32

[louis110]

Yeah man, sucks donkey balls.

no way man. Thats suckss. Reminds me of my lemon when I first got it. When will you find out what it is? Did you have any over heating?

No overheating. Right Drive opens Tuesday, so I guess I'll find out then. I lucked out just now, since I have to report to work on Tuesday an hour away from here I won't be able to go into Right Drive to drop off the car keys. I called just now (they're still on holidays) to see if there was an emergency number or something and to my surprise Ryusuke their mechanic picked up the phone. He was working on his personal car and happened to step inside the showroom for a moment. So he waited for me there and I dropped off the keys with him.

Update: Oops I guess I owe you guys an update on this issue. Turns out the A/C compressor seized, causing the accessory belts to snap. Belts replaced, A/C disconnected. That is the fix for now.

[Snake556]

That's awesome of him. Ryusuke's the man!

[Harvey]

Nice car!! Keep up the good works!! Hopefully it is not something too serious.

[louis110]

Winter Update- ARC, 100K, Tints


ARC intake finally installed, and it only took me 4 hours lol. I had to remove the intercooler piping to get to the bottom maf. took a while to get the piping back on. I also had to dismount the hid ballast because it was located underneath the filters, making fitment of the new ARC box impossible. I don't know where to mount the ballast so it's just tucked between the filter and the rad support for now lol.


New timing belt kit with Nismo reinforced timing belt. Bringing this stuff to PUR Auto to get it installed along with a N1 water pump this weekend. Good for another 100K!!

I also got the driver and passenger windows tinted to 25% to match the back windows. Looks quite good with the black theme, but I haven't taken a picture yet. Job was done at Audio Heaven (they also installed my alarm there).

[louis110]

Pur Auto is awesome!

So I dropped off my car with Vlad at Pur Auto a couple of weekends ago, and just picked it up yesterday and couldn't be happier with their service. I went in to get the timing belt kit changed, and swapped out the old water pump for a N1 pump. Pur Auto went above and beyond and addressed areas of the car that I didn't even bother with.




Since my car was a turn-key operation, I assumed that most of the basic mechanical stuff was looked at when the car landed in Canada. Not quite the case. Vlad asked me if I wanted to change the spark plugs and I gave him the go ahead. Upon removal, he found that the ignition harness was dried up, brittle, and had a bunch of broken connectors (which he had to vacuum bits out of the cylinders). Furthermore, my car was running on 3 different types of spark plugs which really surprised me because I thought the plugs would have been one of the first things to be changed when I bought the car from Right Drive.



I was also very pleasantly surprised to find that they had repainted my timing belt cover, resealed my corner light which had condensation build up in it, did a minor wire tuck, and fixed the contact on my battery, all at no extra charge. They even threw in an oil change with Motul oil.



Thanks again Vlad, I'll definitely be returning to Pur for future work.

Also got myself a set of HSD HA's. Can't wait to install these.

[GTRADDICT]

Awesome man! It's nice to have a good shop that can be trusted. Build a good relationship with them. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

I really like the way your treating your GTR. The car will serve you well.

Nick

[Sharkus29]

Gorgeous car man! how do you like your N1 water pump? Any problems with it when your cars sitting at idle?

[curtisgoodman]

did that tensioner kit come with golden grade 9 bolts or silver bolts?

pics of golden fail bolts

http://forums.gtrcanada.com/gt-r-project-cars/24606-rb26-rebuild-15.html

sweet coil overs btw

[louis110]

Gorgeous car man! how do you like your N1 water pump? Any problems with it when your cars sitting at idle?

I quite like the N1 water pump as I can hear it working (makes a satisfying winding noise) but it's hard to say if its had cavitation problems at idle. So far nothing wrong with it.

Yesterday 04:38 AMcurtisgoodman
did that tensioner kit come with golden grade 9 bolts or silver bolts?

pics of golden fail bolts

http://forums.gtrcanada.com/gt-r-pro...ebuild-15.html

sweet coil overs btw

I can't say because the tensioner kit didn't include the bolts. I'm not sure if the shop reused the original bolts or used new ones but based on the picture they sent me, looks like silver bolts. interesting how the gold bolts sheared like that though.

[louis110]

Big Update!

Sorry guys, I've been pretty busy, and in all honestly, a little lazy too haha. Quite a bit of work done on the car since I last posted, HSD coilovers installed, summer wheels back on with the tires painted, CF JUN front lip and Top Secret rear diffuser installed, changed the brake rotors and pads, and some more gremlins popping up.

So I took a Saturday with my buddy Chris to install my HSD HA coilovers. These are the ones with the aluminum shock body. I hand tightened the spring perch lock collar to set the preload and I had the coilovers measured out and adjusted prior to the install.

Huge help!


Stock vs. HSD


In!


All the threads were greased with general purpose grease, and the some lubricant was sprayed into the ball joints in the top mount.



We had to set the ride height a couple of times, but overall I went with a 1.5" drop in the back, and 2" drop in the front which gave me an equal ride height all around. I put it on full soft to break in the coils. The ride is night and day. Even on full soft, the handling was incredible, while still being comfortable. Set it harder though, and get ready for some organ damage lol. Can't beat these for the price, excellent coilovers: 9/10 overall.



The next day I went out to get Testor model paint and a small brush to paint the lettering on the tires. DO NOT DO IT THIS WAY!! It took a really long time, and it flaked off as soon as I drove off. I ended up buying a white tire marker from Canadian Tire, and a red Testor paint marker, both of which work brilliantly. Easy to apply, and they last forever.

Painted tires = Big win!




A couple of weeks later I finally installed the CF JUN replica lip, and CF Top Secret replica diffuser that I got from C-Unit's group buy. The lip didn't come with predrilled holes, and it fit like poop. Combine that with a DIY job from a guy with no body work experience lol. It took me 5 hours to install a stupid front lip. The weave wasn't very good either but you'd have to look closely. Fitment = 5/10.


The diffuser was a little easier to work with. The holes were predrilled, some modification to the diffuser was needed to clear the exhaust and the mounting points on the sides. It came with mounting brackets (I used 2 out of 4 supplied, two of the brackets were useless). I didn't get pics, but one mounting bracket was used to fix the center point on the front of the diffuser to the underside of the car, the other was to attach the back of the diffuser to the license plate bracket. The sides mount into the existing holes for the rear mudflaps. I took it on a little test down a familiar road, and the car definitely felt more stable above 80 km/h. +1 for aerodynamics!! Fitment = 8.5/10.





After finding a day in my hectic schedule, I was able to book an alignment appointment at Speedstar in Markham, ON. Their new shop is freakin incredible, it's like a high end boutique. Really good service there, they kept me informed of the progress of the car, and were very friendly. Unfortunately they don't have much experience with Skylines, so they had to find specs off the net to load into their machine. I dealt with Elliot, super nice dude, ask for him if you ever deal with Speedstar.


Oh and look, a super done up R35, no big deal.



Next to go were my brakes. I was running OEM stuff and they were squeeling like hell. I went to PUR Auto to get brake parts since I was planning on doing the job myself, but they offered me a great deal on install so I hired them to do the whole job which took a huge load off my back. Went with DBA 4000 slotted in the front, Brembo blanks in the back, with Sumitomo pads all around. The pedal feel is a lot stiffer now, which is a good thing. Pani (who did the job) even painted the center hats black to prevent rust.




I also bought Alpine replacement speakers from Esh here on the forum. Pics and install to come.

The car has also been experiencing some mechanical issues.
- The car has been hesitating, and it got worse and worse. I cleaned out the MAFs which seemed to have solved the issue, but I still feel a slight hesitation from time to time.
- The car is leaking oil. Pur thought it was the turbos, but when I took it to RightDrive they got a better look at it and determined it was excess engine blowby. Time for a catch can!
- Pur and RightDrive both noted that my power steering pump was leaking. The culprit is the copper crush washer. Still needs to be fixed.

[louis110]

Speaker Install

The stock speakers in the GTR were not doing it for me. Now I'm not by any means an audiophile, but I certainly like listening to my tuneskis in the car with some pretty smooth bass. The stock 8 watt, POS, paper speakers were blown in the front, and sounded pathetic. Even my parents' Corolla has a better sound system.

I bought a set of Alpine SPS-600 (80 watt) speakers to replace the back and SPS-400 (45 watt) to replace the front from a forum member. They were already mounted to brackets so it was perfect.


Re: POS - notice how the foam around the speakers have completely disintegrated


New hotness



The only problem I ran into was that the existing screws for the front speakers were too short and I had to wait til the next day to get the proper hardware. For OEM replacements, they sound awesome. Silky smooooth.

[Oakville]

awesome man, looks sweet.

when painting the tires, did you just paint the yokohama or the entire sidewall?

[DreadedFist]

I'm loving this car and the thread. Keep up the good work, mang. Nice to see a clean R32 GTR!

[OntarioR33]

I have to say I loved reading your story. And I truly beleive as Skyline owners we all are we can relate to this story in some way. But we all come to the same conclusion. Owning a skyline has its downfalls but overall they put a smile from ear to ear on our faces daily. I hope your Skyline brings good times to come man, just like all of ours have! You deserve it! And have a blast!

[louis110]

awesome man, looks sweet.

when painting the tires, did you just paint the yokohama or the entire sidewall?

I painted the Yokohama and the Advan lettering, then sprayed tire shine over it when it dried.

I'm loving this car and the thread. Keep up the good work, mang. Nice to see a clean R32 GTR!

I have to say I loved reading your story. And I truly beleive as Skyline owners we all are we can relate to this story in some way. But we all come to the same conclusion. Owning a skyline has its downfalls but overall they put a smile from ear to ear on our faces daily. I hope your Skyline brings good times to come man, just like all of ours have! You deserve it! And have a blast!

Thank you very much guys! I think the most satisfying part of owning this car is getting respect from other enthusiasts like yourselves that are active in the scene. Compliments paid by some gawker will never compare to those paid by someone who knows what it's all worth.