Intro as suggested...

Well, after failing to buy from one member, was able to pick up my first VR4 from another. Might look familiar, except now with CA plates. Looks to be either an unbadged car or was taken off at some point...no way to tell which. But only has 117k miles and 2 owners (last one owning it for 17 years). I'm happy with it and just plan to do very minor changes to it but look forward to getting advice on different items that need replacing / restoring. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Don't have many pics but just these two...

And this one in daylight where you can see the flaws.

 

[AnotherNewb]

^ surf booards give you 5 extra hp and give you bugatti like downforce. Welcome to the community. Have fun with one of the fastest cars in the world (even faster with surfboards attached) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[broxma]

I've heard that longboards give upwards of 10.

Welcome to this small corner of the collective internet car interests collective.

/brox

 

Welcome to the org. Surf boards are at least 10 extra HP. You couldn't of picked a better car to go to the beach in. Are those rims polished?

As far as parts to replace or change, I would change the oil and do the timing belt first off. Check and see if the tcase recall has been preformed also. Then get your ECU socketed and capped by Keydiver. Go from there.

 

lol, thanks guys. Yes, this is a car that sees the beach 2-3x/week, thus the surf boards.

ECU is actually less than a year old so I assume I don't need them to be socketed and capped?

I am still trying to find out the last time the timing belt was done...but previous owner doesn't seem to be able to recall. Any idea on how much it will cost to get it done?

Thanks for the suggestion on the tcase recall...will def call tomorrow to find out. The oil was changed last week...but just to see what people suggest, what oil are you guys using? Dealer suggested 5w30.

For the rims, yes, they are polished but unfortunately, brake dust has somehow gotten caked onto the rims (I assume because it was polished) and I can't seem to get it off.

Also I noticed the tranny will grind in 2nd if I shift around 3k rpm. Otherwise, it's very smooth...any other rpm range. Maybe I should try the tranny oil recommended in the vfaq?

 

First off, I wouldn't "assume" anything when it comes to the ecu. Take the passenger side kick panel off and check it.

Second, Depending who does the timing belt,$75-100.

Third, 5 or 10w30 will be sufficiant.

Last but not least, I don't know about you, but generally I flush and replace all my fluids when I buy a car. Also your shifting problems could be your clutch master going bad. 1947 was shifting like sh*t too, and that was the problem,that and a little clutch adjustment.

Hope this helps, and good luck. Oh and BTW, you can get your paint code off your car and a can of clear, mask your rims, and paint them back to there original color. Looks alot better IMO.

 

[mikus]

Quote:
Second, Depending who does the timing belt,$75-100.


for the belt? Try $600ish shop for typical service. You should consider replacing the water pump, idler pulley, timing pulley, and could even go as far as oil seals & balance shaft delete. Or find help on a board to do it yourself - two people inc. one who has done it before, can probably knock this out in 3-4hrs (and I'd trust an experienced DSM guy over a typical shop mechanic for this)

Which fluids to use has been beaten to death here, there's no final answer but search & you'll have lots of reading material

 

[raptorWagon]

Agreed, there's much more to the 60k service mark than just the timing belt.$500-600 is what you can expect about the average to be, and if the car still has balance shafts then you have to add that belt into consideration as well.

It's better to replace everything in that area at the same time rather than have components with different mileage crap out(water pump, tensioner, pulleys, Balance shaft belt snap) on you and pose the possible threat getting tangled up in the timing belt and destroying the motor. That's a chain reaction of destruction waiting to happen /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif.