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My car is the second legally imported JZS147 into the US. The first was DETAristo's. It's a November 1991 3.0V model, chassis number 4759, the first month of sale. According to http://www.soarerworld.com/aristo/aristo_production.htm, production started in May of 1991 so this was a mid November car right when production really got going. Of course its the twin turbo model with the 2JZ-GTE, I wouldn't import one otherwise. Its basically stock however and doesn't have the 5 speed swap.
One of the first things I started on was much needed repairs. The dreaded nitrogen accumulator seems to be totally dead because the bump motor runs all the time. The park switch in the shifter was broken so I couldn't take the key out. I had to remove the shifter and manually push the switch into park for it to release the key. Then the car just smelled bad so I had to clean it really well with a rug doctor. The brake booster is also leaking inside the car so I'm in the middle of rebuilding that. The hood struts and trunk struts were dead too so I replaced those.
After that, I began a Camry swap of sorts. Everyone commented that the car looks like a Camry and I wanted a sleeper so I helped it along. Before:
After:
The tails and center garnish are from a 1996 Lexus GS300. I had to relocate the lock cylinder a few cm to the left. The USDM tails also have only one stop lamp each but the JDM tails have two. The wiring harness has the same 4 pin plug regardless though so as long as you have that, you're good to go. The right tail lights seem to be faded a bit so I might have to delaminate them and polish them up.
The floor mats and carpets were pretty dingy. I'm not sure what other Aristo floor mats look like but the ones I have are incredibly thick and heavy. They look like this:
That's after scrubbing and cleaning with a rug doctor. I dropped the mat off at Don's Leather cleaning and they should come back looking better. $15/mat.
This is the hydro-booster or nitrogen accumulator or brake booster that I'm rebuilding:
I got a master cylinder rebuild kit from amayama.com. It takes 2 weeks for delivery from the UAE. I'm not sure if it'll contain all of the pieces I need. I know I'll need some other seals for the actual accumulator. I found a 6.22 MB word document from an old website with instructions on how to rebuild it. Basically you need to install a schrader valve with a 2,000 PSI valve core in the top of the nitrogen canister and replace all the seals.
Besides these things, the car seems overall well maintained and in good condition. It came with HID headlights and fog lights retrofitted, TRD suspension, a cool back window visor, 17" TRD wheels etc.
It also had these weird seat covers that I removed, PM me if you want them:
Those pictures are from before it left Japan. I haven't had a good chance or camera to take better ones.
It came with these sweet male enhancement mufflers:
They aren't too bad actually. The car is very quiet, they just look loud. The big chrome 3" tip exhaust isn't going with the Camry thing so I intend to change that eventually, hopefully to a single exit turned down style or something more incognito.
I actually have the Aristo seat vest on my office chair at work right now lol.
I got a machine shop to machine off the shoulder on the nitrogen cylinder so I could open it up today.
The piston on the right is covered in what looks like chewed up rubber bits from the o-rings. I'm assuming this was leaking because the cylinder had very little pressure. Now I need to find new o-rings but no luck at the local hardware store. This might be a challenge.
It took a month but I got the nitrogen accumulator and master cylinder rebuilt. The brake light is off now and the system seems to hold pressure. I have to work on bleeding the system a little more because there's a ton of air still trapped in the rear brake lines.
those seat covers and floor mats are awesome. Kinda glad i don't have to deal with the nitrogen accumulator but now you probably wont have to do this ever again! lol Nice build, i enjoy the toyota camry badges and painted center garnish too. looks sick!
So I took the car to a friend's house to do some more bleeding of the brakes. We got the brakes bled better so the pedal feels firmer. I think it actually felt better before all of this started, but thats always my experience with every car. Either its just a mental thing, or new brake fluid compresses more than old brake fluid.
On the drive home, the headlights totally cut out, and then all the lights cut out. Right in front of two cops too. I pulled into a gas station, turned it off and it wouldn't crank over. Its a brand new battery too that was fully charged. I guess the alternator wasn't actually charging or something. We jump started it and drove it back to my buddy's house. So its sitting in his driveway until I can get an alternator... I'm hoping a Toyota Supra alternator will fit.
The alternator is going to be rebuilt rather than replacing it. It'll save money and end up with a higher quality result.
While I'm doing that, I'd be a fool not to replace the belt and tensioner. Even though they replaced the timing belt at 32k km, it looks like they reused the original serp belt. I ended up buying a Genuine Toyota serpentine belt tensioner. Generally, I'm not a big 'genuine parts' guy, but there is only one serp belt and one tensioner on this car. It runs a lot and needs to be prescise. Continental makes an aftermarket replacement even but you can tell just by looking at the metal that its cheaper. http://www.ebay.com/itm/222014481035
Toyota P/N 16620-0W026. This part supercedes some older designs so hopefully it should work better than even the original. This is also for a 1993-1994 Toyota Supra.
For the serpentine belt itself, the PN is 90916-02310. I would prefer to go aftermarket because the newer designed belts actually last longer than the old 25 year old designs. So I'm going with a Continental 4060760 which is a 6 rib 1930mm / 76" long belt. It seems to be the same as the Goodyear Gatorback. I've seen other part numbers for 1955 / 77" long belts and I'm sure those will work fine too. If I do the mechanical water pump swap later, I can keep using this belt as well.
I'll pull out the alternator tonight and drop it off at the alternator shop for rebuild on Monday. Its on the turbo side on the bottom of the block so this will be fun.
I got the alternator back today. It was $129 to get it rebuilt. They didn't even clean it up and said not to actually use water to clean it so I reinstalled it dirty. Thats fine, this isn't a show car. I'm just waiting for the new tensioner and belt to show up now.
The Japanese radio goes from 76-90 FM and of course the US FM bands are 88-108 FM. I was able to pick up just one radio station before this, KMOJ, which isn't my favorite but better than nothing. The FM expander has three settings; 16, 18 and 20. For some reason, only 18 and 20 work so I get 94-108 FM or 96-110 FM. I'm missing 93.7 which is a pretty decent rock station. I don't know why the 16 doesn't work. If it did, I could pick up 93.7. As is anyway, the sound is pretty much perfect as far as I can tell for an FM radio.
The 12" subwoofer in the rear deck wasn't blown but the surround was totally gone. I know that technically you can replace the surround but I don't even know where to start. I ordered a replacement free-air subwoofer that should be similar, a lanzar DCTOA124 4 ohm, 92 db sensitivty. I'm not sure what the sensitive was on the old one, but the power handling was only 40 watts so I'm assuming it had to be at least 93 db of sensitivity and probably even higher like 96. So the replacement isn't going to play as loud with the stock amplifier but I'm not really sure how much I care. I will probably care eventually.
My one big thing with the audio is I want bluetooth audio and hands free phone, but I don't want to put in an aftermarket radio just to keep with the whole sleeper theme. So I got this:
That is a bluetooth FM antenna bypass. So what it does is it plugs directly into the antenna jack and it actually blocks out a programmable frequency and plays your music on that frequency. Its supposed to sound more clear than a regular FM transmitter plus it has bluetooth, a microphone and a control button for the phone. So I can hide this in the dash, keep the factory radio and have bluetooth. To me, this is pretty much all thats required to make a 1991 car livable in 2017.
It sounds like crap honestly. Some decent 4" subwoofers could beat that easily... It didn't even really fit in the hole and is sitting like 1cm up on one side. At least it doesn't buzz or rattle but the bass is really muddy and doesn't thump at all.
I installed the cabin air filters. It didn't originally come with them and was kind of an afterthought I guess. The part number was for a Lexus GS300 actually. Denso 4531003 $24.79 at Rock Auto.
Pull down the passenger under dash tray.It pops out on clips. Undo the two wing nuts and pull down the rubber plug.
The filters come with instructions and there are actually two of them. You slide the first one in and then slide it to the front of the car. Then the second one slides in. They have interlocking tabs.
They bend in half to make it easier to install.
The tabs go down and lock into the slots on the bottom cover. Lock that cover in and tighten the wing nuts.
1) Installed iSimple ISFM2351. This is a bluetooth hands free module for phone/audio. It uses an antenna bypass so its wired into the radio at the antenna plug. You keep the factory radio and add bluetooth. Notice the new phone button:
And the microphone goes here:
It works fairly well. The sound quality isn't astounding but that might just be the factory speakers or amp too.
Secondly, I installed COB LED lights for the puddle / courtesy lamps in the doors (4). I got these off of ebay.
They actually make a nearly perfect fit.
They have a foam pad on the back so you just shuv the wires in the bottom and snap the top on essentially.
They actually put out pure white light and it looks like a solid light source rather than a bunch of little lights like an SMD board does. I have to say that SMD's are motherf$#!ing bright but these are g$d@m motherf$#!ing bright.
Just in case you're curious, the come with a bayonet bulb socket adapter and would fit well in the non-sunroof dome light bulb tray.
You could easily add two in a row where the main dome light goes.
I won't be installing these like that however. The glare would be unbearable. For the map lights, I always prefer to use red so you can actually turn it on and use it while driving without making glare. For the main dome light, I might install one in a recessed position so it doesn't glare directly.
I also put SMD LED bulbs (31mm) in the rear C pillar lights. Those were a wedge bulb style. They actually came out more blue which while creating more glare, is totally acceptable because they aren't in your face and only illuminate when the corresponding rear door is opened.
02-19-17, 10:55 PM
My dual Jay Z Camry
