When I first saw this van, Suenaga-san said I can get any parts off of it and gave me a marker. The body was CLEAN and when I went to see in the interior… I couldn’t believe it was super clean.
I asked what was wrong with it and Suenaga-san said the thermostat went out and the temperature got higher. I thought the head gasket was blown, but he said it wasn’t and showed me everything was good. No oil/water mixing starts up and all. He said the owner didn’t want to pay for the fixes and has another car to play with and so he decided to give up on the van. That set in motion that I wanted the van.
When it came time, I did an assessment on the Estima and asked if there could be work done to it and so Himura-san (another friend) did some work.
When I looked at the van, I was trying to get it all complete (with all the additional parts such as the roof box and other misc things I bought installed) before coming to Canada. That way it would be all done.
While those parts weren’t installed, the main thing was the maintenance. I did kind of post a quick overview of the maintenance and parts replaced, but I’ll go indepth on this post.
The original idea was that the van should be ready for a huge road trip from Vancouver BC to Banff (8hr drive). It didn’t happen, but at the time, it was about the van being READY. I wanted to make sure that I hit all the maintenance because I didn’t want to break down or have issues.
Thermostat had to be replaced, so I decided to just have the whole cooling system done. New thermostat, water pump, upper/lower radiator hoses and radiator. Fresh coolant added.
I also had the brake rotors and pads replaced with new ones. Hiruma-san also rebuilt one or 2 of the calipers as he said it was seized.
I also asked for spark plug and wire change.
Since the Estima was suppose to arrive in July, I figure that I need to have the A/C running. I didn’t know the condition, but paid for a new A/C compressor and refresh of refrigerant.
I also had the alternator replaced.
Air filter
new battery
I asked for new belts, oil change and timing items to get done. From what Suenaga-san said was the timing was recently done.
These items were my core concerns and I am glad they were done. I will probably have all the fluids changed out
