Are R32 GTR's unreliable or just abused?

[jdmvip]

lol I see what you mean b@dass, I think it all depends on the Exporter and how many middle men there were.

My car says 46K on the odometer and I believe it because the interior looked new when I got it and nothing is worn in the least. Even the underbody looks new.

I bet I saw that Pulsar come in at WWL, it sounds familiar and it looked really rough.

[CDE]

I think it is not only a few dodgey exporters, but also importers.

However, my current car, a BMW 535i had 64,000 on the clock when I got her. And I believe that because it is in pretty nice shape. The interior is immaculate except for a droopy head liner, and the engine was fairly clean.

I have never seen a "nice" Pulsar. I love those cars, but every single one I've seen has been very rough.



Back to the OP - I think it all comes down to maintenance and how you treat the car. I had a GTS-t as a daily, and heck ya I would drive it hard sometimes, but it is no where near as hard as I would drive on a track. I think a stockish GTR would be reliable until you start tracking it. If I weer to track my future GTR, it would have a few upgrades such as an N1 oil pump and cooler, as well as a beefier fuel system. Then you know the oil will always be OK, and you won't starve the engine while driving it hard.

But some do come with pre-existing problems and that is unfortunate. That is why when I buy a GTR it will be in nice shape. Personally, I think an interior is a good sign of how that car has been respected. Also if it has original paint, and no major scuffs and a cleanish engine bay...I would assume the car has been well taken care of.

[Braden]

I was doing a lot of reading on forums like GTRC, Skyline's Australia/UK etc.. a long time ago and my impression was that the Skyline GTR with the RB26DETT was supposed to be "bullet proof" but it isn't as tough as people said it is.

You can find a lot of owners on any forums who have experienced engine failure, and some people swear it costs an arm and a leg to own them.

The thing that bugs me like most forums, is that these owners never talk about what they did or didn't do to have the problems they experienced.

I'm sure a lot of the owners regularly do clutch dumps at 5000+ RPM and bounce off the rev limiter to cause half of their problems, and possibly even the engine failures we're seeing are a dead oil pump due to abuse.

I personally believe the RB26DETT is quite strong and reliable and the problems people are having are probably caused by abuse and lack of maintenance.

What do you guys think? Do you know anyone who babied their RB62DETT engine and had unexpected engine failure?

Do you think GTR's are expensive to maintain as a daily driver, even when not abused, or are these just the words of people with a lead foot?

are you from the future?

IMO GTR's need a lot more work than a gts-t or gts-4 with the smaller rb20... GTS=DD GTR=not DD...

My gts-t has 152k km's on the odometer, came over into Canada completely stock. Has a possible engine rebuild. I will be sure to post when my engine blows. Although I am planning to have the engine to last past 200,000kms on the odometer.

[67bullet]

IMO I think any import you bring in is only going to be as good as you treat it. Being atleast 15 years old, even if the odo reads 50k, i think its more then worth it to replace things like your belts, water pump, change every fluid in the car. You have to remember how old it is, and even if it wasn't abused that these parts can be worn from use or age. And even after that before you start modding your car in anyway, if you upgrade the supporting mods before anything I feel you will have even better luck. I know for my evo the next things on my list are making sure all my different lines are in good shape, if not replacing them, and then doing the walbro 255lph fuel pump, and a new oil pump.

Another good thing to remember is that alot of these cars are in fact high performance sport cars. A brand new gtr is 100k, an sti 50k, evo 50k, etc. High performance = high maintenance.. no matter the year.

[Speed Stick]

Now that this thread is alive again. My buddies 92 Toyota Aristo that he recently imported had 35,xxxkm on it. The car looks absolutely mint and is completely stock but the steering wheel and shift knob are extremely worn out. Like badly. I keep bugging him telling him that his odo was rolled back before the auction or that his car was written off back in 95 and sat till about a year ago where it had the body work done so it could be sold to Canada haha.

Then there's my car which had 136,xxxkm when it came over and the steering wheel had wear but not nearly as much as my buddies Aristo, but I have a strong feeling that my odo wasn't rolled back. Runs perfect at 167,xxxkm.

And in Japan I don't think people bought GT-R's to drive nicely, we all know they were bagged in Japan. I mean if you know your only gonna be able to afford to drive the car for a while might as well beat the shit out of it and when it seems like something is gonna fail ship it overseas and don't worry about it anymore!

[Braden]

True... theres no doubt that most of these cars have been bagged.
I have a piece of mind with my car because the odometer has 160k kms (if it were to be rolled back it would of been down to 30-50k kms), and the stock wheel has appropriate wear, plus the car is in overall great condition and has been taken care of for sure. Honestly, if I were to guess the km's on it I would say no more than 100k kms... For example that one supra I looked at had 109k kms and was in a third of good condition as this car.
You just have to be patient, find something with documents, and have it checked over really good before buying...

[Speed Stick]

Exactly. And strange as it is my car came with the owners manual and a massive file of service records.....Which is rare.

[Braden]

I agree, thats a common misconception.
Saying "JDM cars are always in awesome shape, have all their documents for every work done to it, never have rolled back odometers, and have been maintained religiously" is just a plain lie... That actually seems quite rare...