Japanese cars are known for their quality, fuel efficiency, and longevity. Buying a Japanese car is definitely a smart investment! If you take good care of your car, it’s going to stay as good as it was on the day your first bought it and as you know, the prices on a lot of these street machines keep getting higher. You can’t expect your car to keep running smoothly if you neglect its regular maintenance and upkeep. Despite being highly reliable and long-lasting, if you don’t take care of your JDM it may start to get very expensive to repair which is why you see a lot of ads of people parting out their cars.
If you want to know how to maintain the longevity of an older vehicle, you’ve come to the right place. This blog post highlights some care tips that’ll help you keep your Japanese car in top shape for years to come!
Pay Close Attention to the Engine Belt
Not just Japanese vehicles, but all cars have a serpentine belt in the engine that receives and distributes the rotational power to the water pump, alternator, and air compressor from the crankshaft. Since this belt undergoes a lot of friction, it gets weak over time. It’ll break down if you don’t pay close attention to this belt. You should check the engine belt after every 80,000 – 100,000 km to make sure that your car doesn’t give way when you least expect it. We all get annoyed when the mechanic says to change the belt but it is better to just get it done than worry about it before it’s too late.
Change Oil Regularly
If you want to ensure that your JDM continues to run smoothly and its engine health is maintained at optimum, you must make it a practice to change the engine oil after every 5,000km especially for turbos. Not only should you change the engine oil, but you should also change the oil filters regularly. Oil filters become clogged over time, and if you don’t replace them regularly, their efficiency will drop till they’re no longer useful. Change your oil filter once every 5,000km – 10,000km.
Inspect Tire Tread
We are all guilty of going sideways around the corners and burning rubber in our toys. As most JDMs are modified and are light it is important to check your tyres regularly. A 350rwkw S15 taking a roundabout quick with bald tyres will definitely give out. We have all probably learnt this the hard way. It’s not only illegal it is not safe! Always make sure your tyres are in good condition!
Don’t Ride the Clutch
If you own a manual vehicle and you’ve got a habit of keeping the clutch slightly pressed down after you change gear, you’re in for trouble. Riding the clutch refers to the practice of keeping the clutch slightly engaged at all times. This can lead to your clutch wearing out sooner than later. Most drivers rest their foot on the clutch out of habit without realising that they’ve kept the clutch pressed. Your foot should be off the clutch at all times when you aren’t shifting the gear.
Don’t Ride at a High RPM
Yeah, it is fun to hammer our street machines but they can only take so much punishment. Driving at a high RPM makes the engine work too hard, which can result in the engine’s components wearing out faster. You shouldn’t wait for the indicator to touch the red line before shifting the gear. Driving at a high RPM habitually or taking it too casually will only damage your engine.
Don’t Attend Illegal Meets
Yeah cuz we get it, you watched Fast & Furious at Broady or Epping cinemas and were inspired to go out and do some hektik s**t in your JDM but seriously those are just movies. Going to illegal meets is reckless as we all know what goes on there. Especially here in Australia, where you can’t even go take a dump without the government wanting to know about it, you don’t want to take your chances attending any of these events. With the CCP style surveillance that has been introduced here in Australia “for health and safety” you are definitely setting yourself up for getting your vehicle impounded.
As much as cars imported from Japan are reliable, long-lasting, and extremely fuel-efficient, they need adequate care and attention. The only way to maintain the longevity of an older vehicle is to give it the due attention it needs at the right time and not be hero.