Not only do I have to replace the head gasket in my 91, I just picked up a 94 Sambar with only 55000 kms on it but needs a new crankshaft along with gaskets and bearings. Looks like Yokohama motors has everything I need. Anyone know of a better place to get parts? I can wait for shipping from Japan, not in a time crunch.
Ended up ordering $2660 in parts from Yokohama Motors, ouch. At least I will have 2 great running trucks, one of which will be on the chopping block.
I use JapanParts. They are far cheaper than Yokohama, and do not charge an 8% "tax" on top of their inflated prices. The drawback is that you need to email a list of part numbers to them to order things. In the 5 years or so that I have owned my truck, I find them to be the cheapest and most reliable source for my needs.
Amayama, JP-Car-Parts, and JapanParts all average to be pretty similar in price. One may be more expensive than the others on specific items, but Amayama tends to have slightly more reasonable shipping rates than the others. A note of caution when it comes to parts resellers like Amayama, JP-CarParts, Megazip, and the like.. None of them stock anything, All of them order the items from Subaru when you order from them. As such, none of them actually know if a part is still available until someone tries to order through them. In the meantime, they say that everything is "available" or "in stock", when in reality more and more items are being discontinued every day. Basically, just because they say that they have it, does not mean that it is not already discontinued. Amayama is quick to refund for any discontinued items once they find out, but it is something to keep in mind. JapanParts checks availability prior to ordering as part of the emailing process. I have only had one part ever come back as unavailable after ordering because someone else bought the last one between the time I sent the initial email and the order was processed.
When I broke the oil pan(cast aluminum) on my carryvan while fording a river here in the philippines, I checked the websites of all the suppliers I could think of at the time. The only one which showed they had in stock was megazip, ordered from them and received in very short time. Since that time, I have made 6 or 7 orders through them and have always received the goods. Never a "unavailable" notice or anything. I have noted that their shipping charges have increased by a large margin lately, they state the shipping increase is due the the covid and they have had to do something alternate to their normal shipping. Please note that I live in the Philippines and this is only my personal experience, YMMD depending on your location. Fred
There is nothing wrong with Megazip, per se.. but they are quite it a bit more expensive than Amayama, JapanParts, and JP-CarParts. They arent as bad as Yokohama, but overpriced nonetheless. All 4 of them get their parts from the same places, so if one can get it, any of them can.
Agreed. Not the cheapest, but likely one of the fastest. 9 days for me from click to cart to front porch.
That is pretty typical for Amayama and JapanParts in my experience as well. 4-6 days for them to receive it from Subaru, and another 2-3 days to get it to me.. assuming it was shipped by DHL/Fedex/UPS. EMS is taking closer to a week nowadays, and surface takes 2-3 months.
@rkrenicki Amayama was WAAAAAYYYYY cheaper. I just ordered a crap ton of parts ( front/rear brakes, oil filters, air filters, fuel filter, Sun visor, rubber gate stopper, fender and mud flap). MegaZip was $736 (with a discount code), Amayama was $536. Exactly $200 less! Thanks for the heads up!
@rkrenicki I spoke too soon. Just got the updated invoice from Amayama and it came in way higher with UPS shipping at $411. That's right over $400 just for shipping. I just recreated the order with MegaZip and now MegaZip is cheaper. Amayama at $655 vs. MegaZip at $445. MegaZip's shipping was $195.
Yea, Amayama has been doing some really weird things with shipping in the last few weeks. They historically HAD been the cheapest when it came to shipping rates, but Ive had them try to say that a small-ish box of items was going to cost $700 to ship via Fedex.. but only $87 by EMS because of the "size of the pacakge".. even though it ended up only being about 12x10x6, which was far too small to start incurring dimensional weight rates. I guess I will go back to JapanParts as my go-to as while they do have higher shipping rates, at least they are upfront about them.
Japan Parts didn’t seem to have the parts I needed but I’m chasing 1997 Toyoace parts now vs. Kei trucks. MegaZip is by far the easier for me to research parts and Amayama cross-referenced on all but 1 part number.
Just for info - My last order from Megazip a few months ago came with higher shipping rates than normal. They explained that cause of covid, they had to do some alternate shipping than they used to do thusly the extra cost. They didn't explain further, but if one needs the parts - one needs the parts. Fred
I’ve had 3 orders from MegaZip in the last 3 months and once quoted and paid - the price was the price. The order I placed with Amayama had an initially lower shipping quote that ballooned by over 100% when it was time to pay. I went back to MegaZip and the price was the price. We’ll see as they still have to ship it, but my bet is it won’t change since I’ve already paid.