LashNeo

I had this issue sometime back. But after cleaning and servicing the brake system it went away and never came back. But only the ABS light was ON in my one. If both ABS & Hand brake lights are ON; there could be a problem in another component of your braking system as well. Did you check for a drop in brake oil level, Worn out brake pads/shoes etc? Anyways; I think it’s better to get it examined by a reputed place before replacing any parts. I also don’t think that there would be any reason to replace the ABS unit due to a fault in an ABS sensor.

How about describing your requirements first? Without that we cannot help you choose na?

There aren’t any major issues with the engine of this model as Rumesh has said. But; I have seen one or two cars with issues with the distributor (including the one I owned several years back). There’s an oil leaking problem from the distributor which is somewhat common in this model but it can be fixed relatively easily. Although the engine is somewhat better; you may have to live with several other issues with this model. you can see my ownership experience of 4 years in this thread. This model is also famous for weak suspension components such as C.V joints, Shock absorbers etc. So, be ready for some frequent visits to the garage if the suspension system is not in good condition. And please carefully inspect the car you are going to buy as there are so many FB14’s in the market which are actually lemons covered in candy largely due to severe abuse and poor maintenance. Also; that mileage of 162,000 seems to be bit low for a car of that age. Better to check for any service records as well. By the way; have you evaluated any other alternatives rather than going for a FB14? I’m telling this because with my experience I have noticed that this model does not age well. In other terms; life time of most of the components in this model seems to be low compared to some other models of the same age.

Ok. Let’s say that you find two ford Lasers for sale. One is in relatively bad shape but the country of origin is Japan. Other one is in awesome condition but it’s from Singapore. Which one you would buy??? Seriously… We are talking about a car which is almost two decades old and the last thing that I would worry about is the country of origin. If you love to have a ford laser; just hunt around and find a good specimen which is in good condition with maintenance history. If you find one to your liking; would the country of origin matter anymore from there onwards??? The quality of the specimen would speak for itself wouldn’t it?

BJ5P’s are designed mainly focusing on performance and handling. Hence, the steering is a bit stiff compared to most of the other sedans of the same league. If there isn’t anything wrong with the steering system; just don’t worry. Initially; this is something that is a bit difficult to get used to but you will get a long after sometime. In fact; you will start loving the stiff handling at high speeds.

Try 'E-Bay' or 'Alibaba'. That's the easiest option.

How about the space? Isn’t it an issue to you? Initially you thought of buying a sedan and now you are looking for smaller hatchbacks.

Cannot comment on Good Year as I have not used them. Have briefly used Bridgestones on my previous ride before selling it and from that brief usage I can recall that it was good. However; I can definitely recommend Dunlop. I was running on GT’s on my front which lasted for about 30K Km’s. But the road noise and roughness was always an issue for me. There was this annoying vibration which appeared whenever I hit the 100kmph mark on the highway that could not be diagnosed by anyone. But once I switched to Dunlop all the issues are gone. Maybe there was a manufacturing fault on the tires which resulted in the vibration. Overall; my conclusion would be that all the above reputed brands would always do better than the cheap Chinese stuff (Definitely would do better than LING-LONG ). and there won’t be much of a difference among them. So; better to stick with one of those reputed brands and you won’t regret.

No idea mate.. My knowledge in Auto gearboxes is minimum

So far no issues. I did not ask them to replace the gear oil last time as I was not sure that the fix would be a permanent one and they re-filled the old oil after the repair. It’s a bit blackish but not too bad. Therefore; I’m planning to change it to Mazda M-V during my next service. By that time, I’ll be able to make a better judgment on the repair done by Nilwala as well. Based on that, I’ll be deciding what to do. If the gearbox seems to be holding up well; I’ll replace gear oil to Mazda M-V otherwise no point in replacing oil. By the way; if you are hoping to take your ride to them in April, don’t forget about the new year break. There will be lot of rush during that period nah? Early April would be better I think. J

OK guys… thought of updating what happened to the gear box issue of my baby. As previously mentioned; I had issues with gear shifting especially during quick acceleration and the reverse gear did not engage in mornings. I took it back to nilwala few weeks ago and they dismantled the gearbox again and the car was ready the next day. When I asked about what was done; they said a reverse hub was gone and they fixed it. It seemed like they did not like to share exactly what they did. It’s rather understandable as they have sort of a niche market when it comes to auto gearbox repair and maybe they don’t like to share their knowledge with others. I took the car for a test drive and everything seemed to be ok. They did not charge anything for the fix as well. So, I took the car home and have been using it without any issues ever since. I have done over 1000Km’s after the repair and therefore I think it’s safe to say that they have given a permanent solution this time. J

This would be terrible news for real petrol-heads. The latest model was such a novel looking and inspiring model when it came out. Honestly, even today it's far better looking than majority of the bland Jap's we see coming out from the major manufacturers like Toyota & Nissan. However, whether we like it or not it seems like the compact to mid size sedan market is been captured by roundish bland looking hatchbacks & crossovers..

Yes. I think what we can expect at the moment is replica's of Wolkswagen models under the 'Western' Logo.

I don't like to drag in politics to this automotive forum. but did you see the pictures of the foindation stone laying ceremony ? Honestly.. for the moment this seems to be just an agreement between Senok and the Government to build some sort of a vehicle assembly plant. Although Senok is the authorized agent for Volkswagen here in Sri Lanka i don't see any involvement of Volkswagen in this agreement at the moment. Did not see any representative from them in the ceremony either. We may have to wait and see what types of vehicles they would assemble and whether this would actually become a reality at all

They took 34k from me and i think it was 35k from Jimmy. I searched a bit on recon gearboxes before going to Nilwala and the price ranged around 45-50K in the places i checked. finally decided to go with the repair option with Nilwala due to the following reasons. My car has been with me for a long time and i have taken good care of the gear box during my ownership and i was pretty sure that this was a minor issue that can be repaired. There's no guarantee on re-con gearboxes and it's difficult to predict what would happen as time goes on as the condition is not known. The reputation on Nilwala was great even in the forum. In my case the issues that i'm having now are not that severe. It's just that the kick down mechanism is not smooth and shifting is a bit rough during hard acceleration. Probably just a minor fix. In terms of the repair; they told me that they'll be replacing any worn out parts and i think what they must have done is what NRX has mentioned. However, the gear oil they have put in was Toyota gear oil which is Dextron III equivalent. I told them that they should have put Mazda-V but there opinion was since this is a conventional Auto gearbox Toyota gear oil would be fine and Mazda-V is for Triptronics. They said that they have used Toyota gear oil previously and did not receive any complains. But i think this may also be contributing to the current situation with my ride. As there was no issue at all during the test run i did not make a fuss on this. But now i feel it may also be a contributing factor.

Hey.. My experience with them hasn’t been any better. If you could remember; I also had a similar issue. My BJ5P was not shifting during cold startups and the ‘HOLD’ button kept on blinking. After your feedback I also took it to Nilwala and they managed to sort it out and shifting was awesome for about 2-3 weeks. Actually it felt like brand new and I was driving like crazy. But that didn’t last for a long time. Now I feel that the shifting is sluggish. Especially during hard acceleration. The gearbox does not down shift quickly to generate the right amount of power. Therefore, it has become rather difficult to do quick overtakes. I took it back to them once but again as in your case the Main guy was not there. One fellow at the premises took my car for a ride but the issue didn’t pop up at that time as he was driving way too slowly. Haven’t been able to take it back since then due to my busy schedule. Since then; Once or twice the ‘Hold’ button also popped up stopping gear shifting and the remedy was to restart the engine. Also there were occasions where I felt vibrations when reversing during cold startups. Will be taking it back soon to see how they respond. So, with our experiences we cannot recommend Nilwala to anyone at this point isn’t it? As for adilhara’s issue; it’s hard to imagine that the gearbox of a car that was manufactured in 2008 would fail so soon given that it was properly maintained. Therefore; as mentioned by GayanR it’s better to start with an ATF change if no records on the last ATF change is available.

Hey Jimmy, I remember we discussed your issue here sometime back. Didn't Nilwala fellows give you a permanent fix for this issue?

I currently own a Mazda familia GS Special Edition which is a notch below the RS as it does not have a trip tronic gear box. My one's YOM is 1999 and actually a RS version was not released at that time and GS was the highest grade. The GS has all the features except the triptronic gearbox. If you need to know anything other than details on the gearbox i can share my experiences of 7+ years of ownership.

I Don't know much about the Micro but I can share few things on the Liana. My brother in laws family has a Liana. They bought it as a brand new import somewhere in 2002 or 2003 and it has been with them since then. They run a family business and this is just one of the vehicles within the family and it has been used (actually abused) by the family, extended family as well as the business for more than a decade. However; it has managed to hold fairly well with all that abuse throughout the years. My BIL and his family don't hold onto troublesome cars for long. They usually keep one SUV, one Van, one Car and 3-4 lorries in their vehicle fleet to cater family as well as business needs. Throughout the period from 2003-2016 they have replaced all the others in the vehicle fleet but have been holding onto the Liana as it has become a family favourite. So, I can vouch for it’s reliability. It's a fairly spacious (plenty of head room) and comfortable as well. It also comes with one or two fancy features such as a nice digital gauge panel which is rare to be found in other models of the same era. However; you might find it bit difficult to source out body parts as it’s not a very common model here in SL.

Been there.. done that.. Have been running a BJ5P for 7+ years now. Had to take this decision few years ago when the car market was down. Instead of upgrading the vehicle; bought a land for 31 lacks. now the land value is nearly 50 lakhs. Car has also appreciated by 2+ lakhs as well. So, go and buy yourself a good piece of land on the contrary; if you prefer to upgrade your ride; better to look at other options rather than going for a bland car like a belta which actually won't give you any satisfaction other than owning a car with a Toyota badge.

Ok. Now it’s clear. When you said ‘Avoid N16 from your list’ I thought it had the meaning like "Don’t Buy It! Don’t Buy It !! it’s crap !!" etc. But your explanation is quit understandable now. Cheers!!

My personal preference would also go towards the BJ5P due to its looks and sportier nature in terms of handling and performance. But I would definitely not rule out a well-kept N16. It’s a comfortable and spacious ride which looks decent too. It may do less on fuel compared to the FB15 & 110 but that’s not a huge deal. May I know why you say that it’s better to keep away from N16??

@d7K. It seems like you want to own an old used car with minimum maintenance effort Therefore, I would like to give some general advice for you. All the cars you have specified above are aged nearly 15 years or more. So, what you need to realize is that they won’t be bulletproof by any means. You should expect one or two hiccups now and then. If you need a trouble free ride for a long period, best option would be buying a brand new one. But, as per current market dynamics, you know that it’s not possible to buy a decent brand new ride for that budget. So, you have to live with options such as the ones you have specified. However, All the models you have specified above are decent and reliable rides as per my honest opinion. They have been running around in our roads for a long time and have built their good reputation among local car buyers. If you treat them well, they will serve you for a long period. Different people will have different opinions on these models based on their preferences. But for me, there’s no such significant difference among these models. Hence, what you should do is find a well-kept specimen from the above models; preferably with maintenance history and complete any pending repairs before putting it to daily use. Try to find a user manual of the model you buy and check out for any parts that may require replacement based on the age and mileage of the car as specified in the service schedule of the user manual. Just don’t cut corners on this and replace any parts that may start malfunctioning in near future (old horses and other cooling system components, filters, suspension parts etc.). It will save a lot of time and hassle if you are not willing to sacrifice weekends at garages. Furthermore, find a good place which provides preventive maintenance services to service your car. Servicing does not mean just changing engine oil and giving a good wash. It should also include procedures that check other critical systems of the car like the brake system, cooling system, electrical system, suspension system etc. Replace any worn out parts of the above systems immediately. Don’t wait until they finally break up and leave you wondering in the middle of know where on a rainy night. By following the above procedures, you will be able to keep your car in good daily running condition. This advice comes from a bloke who has used a 17-year-old car for almost 7 years as a daily runner with few issues .

Not sure about prices for CS1 fogs. I guess it would be somewhere between 10 to 15K. How about giving a call and checking it with them? :-)

If you are looking for re-conditioned ones I would recommend 'Jap#n Lan#a Auto Parts' in Delkanda. I recently bought a pair of fog lights for my Mazda Familia from them and they should have fogs for Lancers as well. I’ve been looking for an original pair of Fogs for sometime. Most places had recon originals but they quoted high prices for partly broken and faded lights and they did not had the wire harness. Since my car originally didn’t came with fogs, I needed the wire harness to install it properly. However, after politely listening to my problem, these guys were good enough to remove a pair of BOSCH originals which was good as brand new from one of the bumpers that was on sale and gave it to me at a lesser price even with the wire harness.