Driving in Japan vs. America
I remember back in college, I needed a new engine for a broken-down car I was driving. My mechanic sold me a "low mileage" replacement engine from Japan, which was very affordably priced yet had only something like 12,000 miles on it, making me wonder how such a thing was possible. I was living in San Diego, a place where you regularly put 150,000 or more miles on a car during its life, but Japan is very different from the U.S. Although it isn't exactly a small country, the kinds of driving one usually does there is quite different from the U.S., with city streets instead of speedy freeways, and plenty of stop lights, one-way streets, and of course fumikiri, or train crossings, which everyone is required to stop at. Comparing how much distance you can cover in an hour of driving in the U.S. vs. Japan can get quite ridiculous.
How is the driving in your country?
Driving in Japan is different from the U.S. Many more people and stoplights.
posted by Peter in Japan at 6:19 PM
2 Comments:
I've sold JDM auto engines for years. Like you say, they're typically very low mileage units. A few things to look ask you mechanic are:
1) How is the engine tested? While it's low mileage, it might not have been maintained. In my experience, it is not unheard of to get a Japanese engine that looks fantastic but is sludged up on the inside. You're probably not going to deal with that having only 12k on your engine, but sometimes I get a 30k engine and have to throw it away because of sludge!
2) What type of testing is done on the engine? If the engine is not compression tested, leak down tested, and spun tested, then you should stay away from it.
What kind of engine did you replace, by the way?
10:13 PM
Oh, it was a long time ago, hard to remember. One of the Dodge light trucks with engines built by Mitsubishi sold at the end of the 80s. Yes, Japanese DO NOT maintain cars or know anything about them. My wife once opened the hood of her car and said, "I'm not sure which one is the engine."
5:10 AM
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