Greetings, I've posted a few times already, but since I have a truck coming I thought it was time to set up a dedicated thread. I found out about importing trucks from Japan around August 2022 and started doing a bunch of research online. At the time my personal vehicle was a Mercedes station wagon, but it had a few drawbacks: 1. No AC. I wouldn't drive it during the summer when I otherwise would have, but I didn't want to drive it in the rain and snow either, so it sat. 2. No ability to carry dirty tall things like bagged trees without destroying the interior. 3. Parts were drying up as it hit 40 years old this year. Unfortunately, I loved it. It was 'grey market' and weird and I had to order the service manual from Germany. I felt I had to sell it and get a truck because it didn't fill my needs any more, but I'm not really a fan of any of the trucks sold in the US in the last twenty years. Happily, around the same time I started seeing Japanese fire trucks on trips to Seattle. Some research led me to the truck part of the whole 'JDM' import world. I spent many months torn between standard 'light trucks' (Mitsubishi Delica truck, Nissan Vanette, Mazda Bongo, Toyota Town/LiteAce) and mini trucks, but eventually settled on starting small. I only need it for landscaping and home improvement stuff, and like in Japan, if something is too big for the kei truck the right thing is probably to have it delivered. Also, the smiles per gallon are much higher. I settled on buying through the auction system, since AC and ideally an automatic transmission were important but domestic dealer prices for those vehicles were way higher than I wanted to pay. I went through Pacific Coast Auto Imports as a broker (which is necessary to buy at auction), not least because their broker fee was in yen, and the exchange rate meant that their broker fee was $750 vs. $1,000 charged in dollars by most of the US places. I spent three months using their auction tool to watch for trucks I wanted to bid on. Two of those months were December and January, which was unfortunate. The trucks dried up during the holiday period, which stretches well into January since New Years is the primary celebration. I started looking at 'cheap' trucks, but somewhere along the way I started to hear about the wild shipping charges people were paying for parts (like $100 - $200 for 5 kg, which with auto parts is really easy to hit). I also read here about the trouble people were having with '90s Hijet parts being NLA at the dealer. I decided to bid more on better-rated trucks and get one that already had the parts it needed, as it were. In terms of which make of truck to bid on, I made a pro/con list with the following criteria: Are local dealer parts available? Can I do a chassis lookup? Is there a free FSM? Is EFI available? How much AT community knowledge is there? Mitsubishi and Daihatsu came out on top, with Daihatsu only coming up short on the local dealer parts. So I bid on a few trucks...and was the penultimate bidder EVERY SINGLE TIME. It felt like there was one person out there who wanted the same trucks and was doing their best to foil me... Happily, I only needed to win once. I've attached pictures of the winning truck, the auction sheet, and the decoded chassis number.
The inspectors notes on the auction sheet are that the seat(s) are dirty, the headliner is peeling, and there are small damages all over the exterior. There are 31,708 km on the truck, it's an automatic, and it's the highest 'Appare' (wonderful) trim level. It has the DOHC EF-GS engine, which unfortunately has a variable venturi carburettor instead of fuel injection. So much for EFI availability...but it does mean an extra 1 KW over the SOHC engine. I was pleased to bid on this truck because the cab was so straight (easily 75% of otherwise OK trucks have cabs that someone kept bears in) and the bed was rough enough to not feel bad if I use it, yet there was no rust reported on the inspection. My winning bid was ¥452,000 ($3,324.14 on March 6 when paid my bid). In order to avoid slowness, wire transfer fees, and poor exchange rates, I used Wise to send the month to Pacific Coast. It was pretty painless, but it took a few days for the money to leave my account. I was nervous until it did. I opted for Pacific Coast to have the truck shipped to their lot instead of direct to the port, so they could take pictures and video and give me a heads up about anything I might need to do. I specifically wanted them to check the transmission and see if the 'PWR' button lit up like it was supposed to. Apparently if it doesn't, you need to recap the transmission controller board. Otherwise the transmission won't shift. But this was my first surprise - they couldn't find any 'PWR' button when it got there. You can see the blanked-off hole for it in the third picture next to the steering wheel. Writing from the future, I now know that 1997 was the first year of a different, all-hydraulic automatic transmission. So much for AT community knowledge... Pacific Coast will post their video walkthroughs to YouTube with permission, which I gave.
From the Pacific Coast lot, the truck went to the port to await shipment. I was told there was a good chance it would make the end-of-March sailing, which happily it did. I got an email on 4/1 with the ship and schedule: VESSEL: EMERALD ACE V.86A ETD YOKOHAMA: 4/4 ETA TACOMA: 4/18 With that knowledge, I could visit one of the vessel tracking websites and see its progress. I was able to see when it docked in Yokohama and which dock, so I went on street view and found the lot I figure the truck must have been parked in for loading - see the second and third picture. As of this writing, it should be in Vancouver BC on 4/18, which means it will be in Tacoma a day or two later.
While waiting for transport, I've been working on ordering everything that I know for sure I will need, based on what I saw in the inspection and based on basic service needs. The only actual damage or missing pieces requiring replacement are two of the bed plugs, and the driver's side wind deflector (see pictures). I spent quite a while on Partsfan trying to determine the part number of the plugs, but I couldn't decide which tiny blotch in the diagram was the right plug. If anyone has any idea, please let me know. Last time I checked there was one used one for sale on Yahoo Auctions, but it was expensive and unlike many used parts the seller didn't give the part number. I'm thinking I will probably just remove both wind deflectors since they are an accessory and I'm not planning to run with the windows cracked very often. I have an order out with Impex for an air and fuel filter, and five oil filters. I like to just buy a box of dealer oil filters at once and work my way through it as I do oil changes. I also got a selection of sealing rings for all of the components that have oils that need changing: Transmission pan / engine oil pan drain plug washer 90044-30281 Rear diff fill plug washer 90044-30237 Rear diff drain / transfer case fill plug washer 90044-30178 Transfer case drain plug washer 90044-30055 The front differential should also have drain and fill plug seals, but again I couldn't identify the right blotch on the parts diagram. I bought several of each kind of washer, so I'm hoping I will already have the right one. (Update: the front diff takes two more 90044-30178). I also added a valve cover gasket 11213-87211. So far working with Impex has been similar to ordering from Yahoo Auctions through Buyee or another forwarding service: They order the item(s) on my behalf, package them if there are more than one, and handle the international shipping. It's a little scary because you don't know the exact shipping costs ahead of time, but all of the items have weights that can be put into their estimator tool. This was all light stuff, so I did OK. Yahoo Auctions doesn't provide item weights, so you can get into real trouble if you aren't careful. I placed and paid my order on 4/1, approved and paid for a substitution for a higher priced part on 4/3, and paid for international shipping this evening (4/9). Not super fast, but they have consistently lower prices (sometimes by up to 30%) than Amayama, Megazip, or Yokohama Motors. They also charge in yen, so I benefit from the exchange rate.
I have also been watching Yahoo Auctions for service literature. When I bid and won the truck I assumed that the service manual that someone scanned and posted here would be sufficient, but it turns out that that manual doesn't actually have any information for the EF-GS twin-cam engine. Apparently the manual was released in complete form with the introduction of the s1xx series, and then supplements were released with every minor refresh. The supplements only contain the differences from the original manual. Unfortunately for me, because this is a 1997 model, I need ALL of the supplements released up through 1997. Lucky for me, I found a listing for supplements 2 - 4 on Yahoo Auctions and was able to buy them. It also came with the corresponding 'explanation' manuals, which are system overviews and a lot of tabular data. The 'repair' manuals proper only contain diagnostic and repair procedures. The same seller also had a wiring diagram book, which I also picked up. It may turn out to be redundant or less useful for the pickup, compared to the van. I'm going to keep my eyes open for the #1 'explanation' manual, since the supplements don't have a lot of information about some of the basics, like the suspension, that didn't change through the production run. It was flipping through the 1997 supplement that I discovered that my truck, though automatic, doesn't have a transmission computer or transmission solenoids like the previous models. It's a different, 100% hydraulic, automatic transmission. I'm hoping that parts availability will be better, since those solenoids and the 'computer' are NLA, but it does mean that I can't rely on the (English speaking) community knowledge I thought was going to be available... Between the online manual and my supplements, I was able to assemble a list of service fluids I would need. There are so many different oils... Engine oil: SF 5W-30, 3.1l Transmission fluid: Ammix DIII Multi, 1.5l (change) Transfer case oil: Ammix Gear Oil GL-3 75W-85, 1.6l Front diff oil: Ammix Hypoid Gear Oil GL-5 75W-85, 0.61l Rear diff oil: Ammix Hypoid Gear Oil GL-5 SAE90, 1.3l Coolant: Ammix Long Life Coolant, 3.8l (per the owner's manual) Brake fluid: Ammix Brake Fluid (per the owner's manual) The fact that the transfer case, front diff, and rear diff each take a different oil feels a little ridiculous. Here's what I've decided on for fluid changes so far: Engine oil: Mobil 1, $30 / 5 qt at Amazon, $37 Autozone/O'Reilly. (much cheaper than Idemitsu) Transmission fluid: Any JASO 1A fluid should do. Mobil 1 Synthetic Multivehicle is JASO 1A, 6 qt for $60 on Amazon. $6 clearance at Autozone, $12 O'Reilly. Transfer case oil: Redline synthetic MT-85, $22 / 1 qt at Amazon. GL-4, listed as replacement for GL-3, brass safe. Few options available for this kind of oil. Front diff oil: Redline synthetic 75W85 hypoid, GL-5, $25 / 1 qt at Amazon. GL-5. Rear diff oil: Ravenol SAE90 GL-5, $20 / 1l at Amazon. Other single-weight oils are marine. I like using synthetic where I can - I ran Mobil 1 in my 1980s station wagon for a decade. I have some Toyota Extra Long Life Coolant for our car, so it would be convenient to just use that in the truck too. I'll have to consult the owner's manual when the truck gets here. I do know from the inspection that whatever is in there now is red. (Update: The internet thinks that Toyota Super Long Life and Long Life aren't the same, so I'll probably use regular (red) Long Life to be safe.)
The big item that will need attention is the tires. I know from the inspection that they are dated 2011, which is well beyond the seven-year safety limit, and they aren't 'DOT' stamped anyway. The original tire size is 145R12, which isn't really available in the US, but it looks like people are having success with 155/80R12 as a close substitute. They are only 10 mm larger in diameter, so the change in the speedometer reading is less than 2 km/h at the highest speeds this truck will ever see. That's well within the margin of error of a mechanical speedo. I'm a little torn between two options: Les Schwab will sell a Thunderer Mach 1 set with a 50,000 mile tread warranty for $480 balanced and mounted. They are all season and have a load rating of 77 (412 kg), more than adequate for a kei truck with a 350 kg payload rating and 750 kg dry weight. I favour these tires because of the tread warranty. I have both inherited and bought tires without a tread warranty and regretted it every time. They suffered rapid tread wear and in one case multiple broken belts. But there are a couple of other tires from Haida and Linglong available in similar sizes that are 8 ply and have a higher load rating. They might save me from squished sidewalls if I happen to overload the truck, which it sounds like people end up doing all the time. I would have to order them online and find someplace to mount and balance them. I think I'll stick with the tread warranty and ease of installation for now, and see how the Thunderers work out.
My Impex order and the original documents for the truck arrived today, within hours of each other! The Impex order took 13 days from paying to receipt, so not too bad. It actually took longer to get from Impex (on the back side of Japan) to the airport in Osaka than it took to get from Japan to my house. It's fun to have all of the red and black Daihatsu boxes, but I was disappointed to discover that the valve cover gasket did not come with plug seals like I assumed it would. There was also no hardware for the battery cover, so I'll have to figure something out until I can get the right stuff. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Pacific Coast sent me the owner's manual and other glove box papers along with the export documents! Not only does it have the owner's manual, what appears to be every single inspection report since the truck was new was stuffed in a plastic envelope along with the rest of it. The first one was in 1999 at 7,023 km, and the most recent one is from 6/2021 at 30,215 km (currently at 31,7xx). Each inspection seems to involve an engine oil change at the same time, including the last one, so I probably don't even need to change the engine oil when I pick it up! It tempts me to just get a transport permit and drive it home from the port.
Some more highlights from the inspection history: 2013 22076 km, replaced left and right (illegible) cap kit for the rear brake cylinders; replaced wiper blades. 2007 18422 km, replaced wiper blades, air filter. 2005 17567 km, replaced lower radiator hose. 2003 15287 km, replaced wiper blades, cleaned carburettor. 2001 13184 km, replaced 'number bulb' (license light?). This is of course only service performed at inspection time, so I can't assume nothing else has been done. But I'm going to have to assume I'm dealing with a 26-year-old timing belt, all the other oils, etc.
Vesselfinder.com updated the ETA to Vancouver to May 2 . It sounds like the US Customs turnaround at the Port of Tacoma is 5 - 7 days, so I'm definitely looking at pickup around the middle of May now. There are some local meetups I'd like to attend that are coming right up, so hopefully I actually have a truck to bring!
I mentioned in my first post that I spent about a decade driving a 1980s Mercedes station wagon. The diesels, which it was, are notoriously underpowered. Since kei trucks have the same reputation, I started wondering the other day how the two compared in power-to-weight ratio. The wagon does have double the power of my truck, but it weighs a lot more. Sure enough, the truck is going to feel like a rocket: Wagon: 65 kw / 1570 kg = 41 W / kg Truck: 32 kw / 750 kg = 43 W / kg (Other vehicles for comparison - near the bottom of the page)
After a long wait, the Emerald Ace has finally reached Tacoma! It made a brief stop in Vancouver, BC yesterday before heading south. I could see it waiting at anchor for most of the afternoon, after which the tugboats appeared on either side. A few hours after that it was at the dock. This should mean I hear from my customs broker tomorrow or Monday, and get to pay their fee and my chicken tax. Then the pale mythical wardens of the treasure will examine it for 3 - 7 days before I can go pick it up.
I was sitting here looking for some information and ran across your thread. I was surprised by many coincidences in your post. I just sold my Daihatsu 2 weeks ago. It was a 1997 Hijet Super Jumbo S100p automatic with AC. So, except for 2wd it's very much the same truck. It also had the EF-GS engine. The other similarity is how you and I both are very detailed oriented. I documented nearly everything I did to that truck. I have a log but never blogged or documented anything on social media. I've done everything you're planning and more. I did ; the timing belt,tensioner,water pump,cam and crank seals. The front brakes, ALL the fluids, pulled the fuel tank (for cleaning), replaced the fuel pump (aftermarket purchased at my work, I've been in auto parts for 41 years), removed the carburetor & replaced and re-routed vacuum lines. I also fiber-glassed two corrosion holes under the front windshield. During the course of owning this truck I decided to start researching the entire Kei truck world. So I am now gathering more info for a book and a you Tube channel. I'm currently creating content for the channel. I just bought (yesterday) a 1997 Daihatsu Hijet Van Appare from an excellent dealer in NC, JPN Auto Imports. I'm documenting the search, acquisition, maintenance and preperation for daily driving . I'm no videographer, so the format is a down-to-earth approach. I'm interested in your journey as a new kei truck owner. Also, I can offer assistance with issues you may have with your truck. Despite what you might have read, your truck should have a small module associated with the transmission (it's located in the plastic box in front of the shifter). This is a weak area with Hijet & Atrai trucks. Replacements aren't available. I never had a problem with mine and I hope yours is trouble-free as well. I hope you're happy with your truck and keep going with this thread. I also use Partsfan and Impex, had a bad experience with Yokohoma Motors .
Well, I heard from the customs broker on Friday. And today I got customs release! That's pretty darn fast. I've taken the day off work tomorrow and arranged to rent a trailer, so watch this space!
Pick-up day! I rented a 5x12 tilt trailer from United Rentals, which I collected at 7 AM when they opened. It was my first pintle hitch. I think the trailer was intended for small asphalt rollers or something like that, because it was really stout. I think the weight limit was 7,000 pounds or something like that. Very, very overkill for this application. Normal people can't access port property without a 'TWIC' ID card, so I hired a port escort to take me in. The Port of Tacoma publishes a list of approved escorts, but it turns out that many of them don't actually escort the public. One only took old sailors to the sailors' club, for example. I used Sound TWIC Specialists, who actually do help people pick up cars and were very patient with me. I texted them when I was leaving and when I arrived at the port. I was instructed to wait in the 'truck staging area' for zone EB1. It's a laned parking lot just outside the gate. For whatever reason it was pretty quiet on a Tuesday morning, which was fine for me. I was very anxious about getting in the way of people who were actually trying to do a job. My broker gave me the option of calling the port myself or letting my escort do it, in order to get an 'ROD' (Record of Delivery) number. It serves some mysterious purpose, but you have to have one before you can enter the port. I waited for the escort, but they wanted me to do the honours. We had to wait while I was on hold with 'CS Breakbulk' (I have no idea!) to get the number. They wanted a copy of my drivers license to release it, so I took a picture of it with my phone while I was on hold and emailed it to them. That got me the number, so I could follow the escort into the port area. It was almost completely full of construction equipment. I was creeping on the port on Google Earth to find where they kept all the weird import cars, but this wan't the area I was looking at. Some port workers drove up and asked me for my ROD number and the VIN of the truck, and then drove away somewhere. I pulled into one of the loading lanes next to some giant trucks and waited 5 - 10 minutes before they drove the truck up from I have no idea where. Apparently the delay was for them to perform a jumpstart. It sounds like that's pretty common. My first drive was up onto the trailer. It took me a few tries to get far enough forward to make the trailer tilt back down. One of my tries was with the parking brake on, so my ownership was off to a flying start... I secured the trailer bed and drove out of the port before chaining up, so I could pay my $60 and release the TWIC escort. It took me a while to figure out where to put my chains without damaging paint (some leather gloves were involved), and then I headed down the road. There is a mini-mall just on the edge of Fife that has both US Customs and a licensing office a short walk apart, so I made my first stop there. Customs and Border Patrol has to perform a VIN inspection and stamp the import paperwork. It was the grimmest government office I've ever been in. There is a waiting room with a table and some chairs, a walk-up window with no one at it except for a red button, and two completely blank white walls. The third wall only had framed copies of all the ways you can go to federal prison. This was a Very Serious Office for Very Serious Business. Happily, they knew what they were doing and I knew where the chassis number was on the truck, so it didn't take long. I took my stamped paperwork across the street for titling. There's an office nearer to where I live that I find fairly accommodating (i.e., they actually want you to succeed in registering your vehicle), but they might never have tried to do this before, and I know lots of people use this Fife office for their imported cars. And once I stood in line for a while, it went pretty quick. I was curious about how they would represent the short chassis number as a 'VIN', but they used it as-is except for the hyphen. So the state thinks it's S110P133XXX. I also have a GVWR of 4,000 lbs, which would probably turn the truck into a pancake. Also, when did the fee for plates become $105??? It was about $750 all told for registration after all the fees; use tax was only about $450. And I live far from the transit assessment area, so it's even more if you live in Tacoma or Seattle. After a midway stop to check my chains, I was home! Happily, it started up without being jumped, so I could unload it and return the trailer.
I spent the rest of the truck's first day home taking lots of pictures and taking stock of the situation. This truck is in really good condition! All the fluids were present and correct, and there are zero oil leaks of any kind. I peeked into the front differential fill plug and saw sparkles, so I have ordered all the gearbox oils. I know from the dealer door sticker that there are only about 1500 km and two calendar years on the engine oil, but unfortunately I don't know about any other fluid changes more recent than coolant in 2005 and I assume brake fluid in 2013. Sadly there is evidence of coolant seeps (dried pink crust) around the radiator hoses and a number of other fittings, as well as the bottom of the timing cover. I will have to address the cooling system as my first major work, but I should be able to do quite a bit of driving in the meantime.
I opened the air filter and found it dirty (and kind of moist with oil vapour), so I changed in the new one I had. I decided to go ahead and change the oil, even though it was literally still amber colour on the dipstick. Speaking of the dipstick, I was surprised to see that for some reason the transmission cooler lines are placed right in front of where the dipstick needs to go in order to be removed. It doesn't look like anything is bent or in the wrong place, but if that's where they are supposed to be it seems like really poor design. I have to sort of shove the head of the dipstick past them to get it out. I found it easier to access the dipstick after removing the jack, which lives under the driver's seat on top of that space. A long 'transmission' funnel was the only one that looked like it would keep me from making a huge mess over the engine compartment trying to pour the oil. I used Mobil 1 5W-30, adding a little over 3 l. The existing drain plug had apparently been tightened to within an inch of its life, since the washer was severely deformed. I bought a new washer, part no. 90044-30281-000, aluminium with sealer on both sides, 12 mm ID x 19 mm OD x 1.5 mm thick. Some of the old sealer didn't come off of the oil pan, so I had to scrape at it with a piece of aluminium in order to get a smooth surface. I tightened the drain plug with the new washer to 25 Nm per the service manual.
My tires arrived at the local Les Schwab yesterday, so I was able to take in the wheels to get them mounted. The spare is supposed to be part of the rotation pattern, but it clearly hadn't been and was very rotten. I got five new Thunderer Mach 1 155/80R12s. They were the only 12" tires I could find that were highway M+S with a mileage warranty. I've had a couple of experiences with cheap tires that did not come with a mileage warranty involving multiple broken belts on multiple tires and very excessive wear. Five 12" kei truck wheels, tires mounted, will fit in the trunk of a Toyota Camry with room to spare. I went to put them on, and ran into some difficulty. The owner's manual doesn't actually have a wheel nut torque, nor does the repair manual appear to. The 1994 'explanation' manual might have it, but I don't have access to that. All the owner's manual says is that when using the provided lug nut wrench, you should apply 40 - 60 kg of force at the end. So I did some math: The wrench is 250 mm long from the end to the centre of the socket, so the torque applied would be 1120 to 1500 kgf cm, or 109 - 147 Nm. This Japanese site was one of the few I could find with any information at all, and it gives 88 - 118 Nm. On our Camry it's 110 Nm. With all that considered, I went with 120 Nm. It's a little more than the Camry, since there are only four nuts per wheel, but it's in the middle of the owner's manual range and within the margin of error of the range given by wheel-size.jp. If anyone has a definitive source, or if I just missed it in the service manual, please let me know... Because the wheels were loose, the tire shop just did them up to 32 psi. The door sticker give two pressure ranges, one for two passengers and a light load, and one for full load. I started out with the full load pressure of 2.4 kgf / cm2 (235 kPa, 34 psi) in the front and 3.0 kgf / cm2 (284 kPa, 41 psi) in the rear. If it feels harsh, I'll let some air out.
For the convenience of other road users, I changed out the RHD headlight units for LHD ones. I used the cheapest-but-one Sylvania sealed beam units, promising a 'whiter' light. I didn't see much of an angle to the beam cutoff, so maybe it wouldn't have made much difference. But this is one of the few reasons I'm glad I don't have a later truck with bespoke headlight units and bulbs. There usually isn't a LHD version, so you have to use projector bulbs or hack up the housings or both.
With tires and lights sorted, I decided to take a 15 minute shakedown trip into town with my wife. People of the forum, we could not stop smiling. The truck runs great, the AC blows cold, and it's the first truck we've driven that made us feel like we were adults instead of 12-year-olds rattling around in daddy's truck (we are not tall or large). I think someone said that it's more fun to drive a slow car fast, than it is to drive a fast car slow, and they're right. After our trip to town, I was feeling my oats and decided to make a quick run on the freeway to see what would happen, if anything. Maybe it's the EF-GS's extra 1 kW, but even with the AC on it felt faster to reach freeway speed than my station wagon used to. Once close to speed, I was far from having the pedal to the floor, and the engine even sounded like it had more in it. The steering wheel was very solid side-to-side at all speeds. There's a fairly steep hill just south of where we live, and that was the only place where the truck actually couldn't keep up, and and by keep up I mean it reduced its own speed from 110 to 105 or so while I was flooring it. So I'm pretty darn pleased. There are a few issues to address: The brake pedal goes down farther than I would like before really applying any force. There is plenty of pad in the front, and I haven't inspected the shoes in the rear yet, so I'm thinking that either that's just how these brakes are, or that replacing the soft lines will help. I should do that anyway, so we'll see. On the freeway, there was a pretty significant vibration between 95 and 105 km/h, centred at 100. It was very speed-specific, so accelerating or decelerating at all would cause it to fade away, but at the right speed it would keep worsening. At either 90 or 110, everything was fine. And even at the worst of it, the steering wheel and the truck's direction were quite solid - it was more of a vertical vibration than side-to-side. I would love to hear people's ideas - I can't find anything loose that shouldn't be. The internet thinks that unbalanced tires is the number-one culprit, so I think I will want to have that double-checked. I've never known a tire shop to forget to balance or do it wrong, but I suppose it must happen. My other thought is that the shocks may not be dampening a natural resonance of the truck's short wheelbase as they should, or that they never could and it's just something that physics dictates must happen because of the size of the truck.
Congratulations on your 1st purchase.. nice and shiny however I would recommend a different strategy and practice next time you import to receive clearer data and a more mechanically sound unit. In any case, have fun with it and don't be nervous about replacing what needs to be replaced. Izumi from JPN auto import is an honest and fairly priced supplier - one of the few credible parts guys I recommend, I also have an English language manual if you need one. cb
Hi,maboyce! Congratulations on your s110p! I am Japanese and I know how the new s110p Appare Twin Cam AT+4WD rides. (sorry, forgive the incorrect translation) I saw your vehicle on youtube. I can assume that the previous owner was elderly and had not been used roughly. You have chosen the "Appare Twin Cam AT-4WD", the most robust and powerful kei-truck AT-Natural Aspiration of this generation. Other kei-truck AT vehicles do not have the combination of 4WD-AWD and AT, lack power, or have many inherent mechanical problems. The Appare Twin Cam Engine "EF-GS" is not so different from the EF-NS and EF-ES on paper, but when you actually drive them, you can see the difference. Japanese farmers who wanted a powerful AT kei-truck among this generation of light truck AT companies chose the Appare Twin Cam AT + 4WD.This is the reason why the existing Appare have a high ratio of AT. Mitsubishi AT 4WD also had power, but the engine becomes an oil burning machine after 70,000 km. Subaru cvt often breaks down and the repair cost exceeds the purchase price of the truck. Some advice The brake pedal feels soft: This car has had a slightly soft sensation since new. Perform general checks such as fluid leakage from the master cylinder and brake hoses, check each seal, and if they are OK. AT gearshift shocks are large: Yes, Don't worry. It has this characteristic since new. No worries. It is made so that even overloading will not cause problems. Japanese rice farmers increase the standard 3-piece leaf suspension to 4-piece and install rubber suspension protectors to work with over 1,000 kg load. Still, the Appare Twin Cam AT+4WD "AT" does not have any problems. This AT is tough. The model that the ECM of the AT fails is the model equipped with "PWR-Switch". What is the true maximum loading capacity?: Japan's Vehicle Transport Law stipulates that the maximum payload for kei-vehicles is 350 kg. However, this is only a provisional regulation when driving on public roads. Up to 700 kg can be carried without modification without any problem at all. Japanese farmers even overload their tires with factory tires.lol Reinforced leaf suspension is recommended when loading more than 700 kg. However, be careful not to exceed 1,200 kg. If the load exceeds 1,200 kg, the body frame will flex and the propeller shaft will easily come loose.If deflection does occur, immediate unloading will not result in catastrophic damage and the body frame will return to its original position. The s100p-s110p Hijet body frame is resistant to bending. In Suzuki's case, overloading operations with more than 1,200 kg will cause the frame to tear, which can be fatal. Enjoy your kei-truck life!
Thank you for your kind comment, gary-3! It's hard to know sometimes with an older car what's normal and what's a case for concern. I will be less worried about the brakes now (but I have ordered new flexible brake lines anyway, since I don't know how old they are. The way this transmission shifts reminds me a lot of the way that my old Mercedes transmission was. It kept me from being afraid of old AT cars. It went 320,000 miles without anything more than a change of the external seals and a replacement vacuum modulator. I'm pleased to announce that I went back to Les Schwab and had then check the balance of the tires. They adjusted the fronts (under warranty), and now it's MUCH more stable at 100 km/h. I think that these tiny tires must need a really accurate balance compared to the 120" SUV tires they usually work with. Turning much higher RPMs at highway speeds because of their small circumference probably doesn't help.
After having the tires re-balanced, I came home and 'did' the gearbox oils. It was about a two hour job, one hour for the rear differential and transfer case, and one hour for the front. The truck is high enough I didn't bother lifting it, but just crawled under. The rear differential lulled me into a false sense of security by both being very accessible, and taking an oil that happened to come with a built-in filling tube. I used new sealing washers and torqued the drain plug to 50 Nm and the fill plug to 60 Nm. The transfer case was a little bit of a mystery, since the part diagram I have is very small and pixelated. I just knew the plugs were on the back on the left side. Happily it was fairly clear once I crawled under. There was a magnet attached to the drain plug, and it was pretty coated with brown sludge. I cleaned it off with a towel before reinstalling it. The gaskets are different sizes on this one. Since these oil bottles didn't come with filler tubes like the nice German ones, I cut the top off of the empty diff oil bottle, wiped it out, and used it as a funnel. I torqued both the fill and drain plugs to 40 Nm.
For the front differential, I had to remove the front left wheel and support that corner on a jack stand in order to have any access to the fill plug. It's right between the CV axle and the gearbox's mounting point. This part of the job was Not Fun because of the limited access. I MacGyvered a funnel extension using some extra fuel hose, plus a short section of some other random small hose that fit inside it, since the fuel hose itself was too big to fit into the fill hole. It had to be long enough to hold the funnel up outside the perimeter of the truck where I actually had room to pour. The drain plug was easy and on the bottom, but loosening and tightening the fill plug required a combination of ratchet extensions that had to be Just Right, since the brake caliper is in line with the plug. Torquing the plug had to be done one ratchet click at a time because there was so little room to swing the large torque wrench. There would be more pictures, but by this point I was covered with oil and dirt and didn't want to touch my phone. Eventually I got it filled. I torqued the plugs to 50 Nm with a new washer on the bottom one. I ran out of the right kind of washer (I didn't actually know which size this gearbox would take), so I had to re-use one of the old ones for now for the fill plug. I will replace it if it leaks. I was surprised by how clean all of the oils looked when I drained them. The only signs of anything amiss were the crud on the magnetic drain plug, and the sparkles in the front diff oil when I checked it earlier. It's a pity not knowing when they were changed last, because it may have been recent. But now I know for sure.
After this I wanted to do something standing up, so I worked on removing the cracked driver's side window visor / rain guard / wind deflector thing. There is a big chunk missing near the mirror. It is mostly held on by a foam adhesive strip, but there are two metal clamps that hook onto it and straddle the pinch seam under the door window seal. I pulled back the window seal (which was pretty loose, actually, with no adhesive apparent) to expose the clamps, and then went to work on the foam adhesive with a heat gun. I got one end to come loose, and then forced the clamp down and off of the door seam. That allowed me to work the rest of the visor loose and remove it. It left a lot of foam stuck to the door. I shaved down a lot of it with a razor blade (which was sketchy, so I don't recommend it), and then tried toluene, which is my adhesive remover of choice. It was slow but effective, but I noticed my rag starting to turn paint colour, so I had to give up. I was advised on my local kei truck Facebook group to try an 'eraser wheel', which I had never heard of, but seems to work just like rubbing glue residue with your finger until it pills and falls away. The rubbing just happens at 4,000 RPM chucked in a drill. I have one on order now to finish the job on Friday. I'm on the fence about replacing this window visor, or just removing the other one and doing without. I assume it helps keep water out of the door, since the window seal is so loose, but in my peripheral vision it always looks like the window is open a little bit, which annoys me. I also assume the fuel economy will be a little better without it. Since the truck has AC, I won't be trying to defog the windows or dry out the interior by driving with the windows cracked and the heat blasting like I used to do in my old car. Speaking of AC, if it has an effect on the truck's power I haven't noticed it. It just idles higher when the compressor is running.
While I waited for the eraser wheel to arrive, I decided to do the last oil change I had left to do - ATF. This was another one I could do without even lifting the truck, which is pretty nice. Our Camry is too low to do anything at all, and almost too low to get the floor jack under it. The drain plug is at the rear left corner of the transmission oil pan. I removed it and let the fluid drain, then replaced it with a new sealing ring (the same rubberised aluminium one that the engine pan uses) and tightened it to 25 Nm. The transmission dipstick is also the filler, and it's most accessible from the access panel behind the cab. I cleaned and re-used my oil bottle funnel, since for some reason I have five or six actual funnels that are consistently useless for the things I actually need to funnel. I used Mobil 1 Synthetic Multivehicle, which is a JASO 1A standard fluid called for by the manual. It should take 1.5 l at change, but I felt like I only got 1.3 or so. The dipstick is VERY difficult to read - it's supposed to be done with the engine idling after running through all the gear shift positions, and then you take the lowest spot on either side that's completely wet. What actually happens is that the dipstick tube is bent, so the dipstick slides along the wet side every time you remove it and messes up the reading. After many readings I was satisfied enough with it 'cold', so I started the engine and let it reach operating temperature before checking the 'hot' position. I will definitely need to check it again after some more driving, and probably do a few more changes so I'm not running mixed fluid. There's no torque converter drain, so you can only drain about half the fluid at a time. Please ignore the crusty coolant seep in the upper left - they are everywhere. I plan to have a coolant weekend in the future, but I need to look inside the timing cover first and decide if I need to order a water pump or not. It feels wasteful to replace it when there are so few miles on it, and you can get at least one O-ring separately.
I also changed out the fuel filter while I was there. Mileage-wise it's not even close, but it was pretty brown and had the 'look' of plastic that is going brittle. It's at the rear right in front of the fuel tank. I used pliers to loosen and slide back the clamps, and pinched off the supply line to the tank with a small clamp. I was able to twist off the lines without dumping too much fuel and pop the filter off of its bracket. I put the new filter in its place and slid the clamps back. I left the ears of the clamp for the outlet hose in a more accessible direction for next time.
Once my eraser wheel arrived, I chucked it in the drill and tried it out on some tape residue on the bed. I found I had to apply substantial pressure to really get a clean result. I moved on to the door, and made pretty good progress. It took maybe 30 -45 minutes to do both doors, plus the time to go and get another tool battery. This was not kind to the drill or the battery - I got about 1 1/2 doors on a charge, and the battery was quite hot when it gave up. The wheel was quite effective, but by the end I had Whizzy Wheel dust in places I never even knew I had. It goes EVERYWHERE. It also leaves a bit of an orange residue on the surface in some places. Maybe I let it get too hot there? I went ahead and made a light pass with Goof-Off to remove the last tiny bits of adhesive and to remove the orange stains. I moved on to some Meguiar's polishing compound to blend the paint finish between where the visor was and wasn't, and then I had to wash the entire truck to get rid of the wheel dust. It was even in the window seals, so I spent some time running a damp rag along the inside and outside edges. But in the end it came up looking pretty good.
Can I just take a moment to say how glad I am this has air conditioning? It's way too hot in the summer lately to do without. I can't seem to notice any effect on the power or drivability with it on or off, even at highway speeds, which is a pleasant surprise.
With both new accessory belts finally in hand, I took an evening to change the old ones out. I'm really glad I did, because the old ones were a lot worse even than they looked on the truck. The rubber was so cracked it was just chunks clinging to the cording. Access to the bolts for the alternator and compressor was a little challenging with so many lines directly in front of the engine (2x refrigerant, 2x transmission cooler, at least 3 radiator + overflow...). The compressor has a lower fixed bolt (centre of the first picture), and an upper sliding one: The lower bolt isn't really visible from any angle a human head can take, so it has to be felt for under the belt. Both compressor bolts are torqued to 25 Nm. The alternator has a lower fixed bolt that lives in a little notch in a bracket that sits in front of it, but it is just visible. It too has an upper sliding bolt. The lower bolt is torqued to 40 Nm, and the upper bolt to 30. R&Ring the belts is as simple as loosening the bolts, then the belts, and then slipping them off the pulleys. When reinstalling the new belts, the manual gives a deflection range when applying 10 kgf to the centre of a given span for each belt: For a new alternator belt, it should be 4 - 5 mm deflection between the alternator and water pump pulley, growing to 6-7 mm after use. For a new AC belt, it should be 8-12 mm between the compressor and crankshaft pulley on the top span. I was able to get the proper belts in North America - a Bando 4PK715 serpentine belt from 'Belt Palace', and a Mitsuboshi 1290 V-belt through Amazon. Tensioning the belts is a little bit fiddly. The service manual shows someone using a hammer handle to lever out the alternator...on a van, where the engine is a lot farther forward. On the truck, the cab wall is in the way. I eventually got in with a long screwdriver from the passenger's side and was able to press the alternator up and out against the belt, while tightening the sliding bolt with my left hand. The compressor is a lot more accessible and I could get enough tension just pulling on it with my hand. I was busy grunting and fiddling during all of this, so the only other picture is this not-very-illustrative 'after' shot:
