"Congratulations. You are now the owner of an Isuzu Fargo."
it was the "Congratulations" that set me off. You know how you wake up and for a moment you don't remember anything from the prior day? That was very obvious in this moment.
I don't want to get too far into my own emotions (not enough time...) but it was definitely a bit of a roller coaster to bid on and win a Japanese car that was (is still...) literally in Japan. For the first time!
Alright, so upon winning the bid, the auction broker definitely moves into action quickly. There's basically no going back at this point, unless possibly you can say "hey, just relist it right away". But that costs a few hundred bucks. And I don't know why you'd want to do that unless you suddenly learned that you didn't have enough money to pay the full fare.
The auction houses require you to get that vehicle the heck out of there when you win.
Japanese campers create a bit of a dilemma. They are usually a bit too large for a car transporter (at least, those in Japan which I guess are smaller?). So they need to be driven off the lot, and driven somewhere else.
Normally that would be straight to the port, where it sits and waits for shipping.
But my camper had an issue with the power steering, plus any other unknown issues that the initial inspection failed to show.
So the best course of action was to have it sent to a mechanic. My auction broker uses a specific mechanic that is down by the port of Yokohama. This makes sense because that port is typically where many vehicles are sent from when destined for the USA.
I had good faith in their mechanic and so I was on board to have it moved down there.
But oh...how far did it have to travel?
1,200 dang kilometers.
In the heat of it all, I failed to really consider how far away this was. My broker made it clear, but I figured the low bid I was planning to put in at the time would negate that transport distance.
I suppose it did. The fee to move it was pretty reasonable. Whoever did the driving...not of the transport truck...but of the camper itself, got a little road trip in. Granted, I heard that a ferry was also involved, but was it just between the two major islands?
And the fee and who was driving it wasn't really part of my concern, so much as the genuine possibility that it might break down during said drive. Or blow up or otherwise destroy itself.
It took a few days (or maybe it was a week?) but eventually I got word that the vehicle had shown up at the port mechanic!
This was great, because finally I could get some piece of mind about the condition of the vehicle. It was also my chance to get any maintenance done at the hands of a skilled mechanic who knew how to work on these vehicles.
And not only that, but the mechanic also took a ton of photos for me. I don't know if this was part of the deal, but I was very happy to receive them!
The photos were much higher resolution than the prior inspection photos, and worlds above the auction listing photos. Whomever your auction broker is, I would recommend trying to nab some better photos before the vehicle makes its way onto the ship. It could also help you identify any issues ahead of time (since you'll be waiting at least a month).
My main request to the port mechanic was having the power steering pump evaluated. Granted, I didn't want a bunch of tinkering to occur. I really just wanted to source a new pump and have it replaced, if the cost was reasonable.
Well, it turned out to be what I'm sure is reasonable, but still quite expensive. I know the work would have been stellar, but I was trying to keep costs low. I bought this camper for cheap, on purpose!
However, while it was still in the hands of the mechanic I did opt to have him look for a replacement pump. Possibly he could order it and just pack it with the camper when it shipped, or ship it to me. I think it's actually frowned upon to load a vehicle up with spare parts and then export it. Customs doesn't like that ;)
But I wouldn't get a chance to do that either! Apparently, the engine in this vehicle, an Isuzu 2.4 liter 4FG1, carries some very obsolete parts. At least the power steering pump is nowhere to be found. I won't get into my hours and hours of searching, but suffice to say neither me, the mechanic, or my broker could get an angle on a readily available pump.
There are a lot of sites out there for Japanese vehicle parts. My search primarily entailed the following sites:
www.partsouq.com (great diagrams, just put in your VIN)
www.amayama.com (good prices)
www.megazip.net (a good backup)
And yet, none of them carried the pump!
The only option was to order an OEM pump from somewhere (Isuzu?) that seemingly had to fire up their forge tooling again and cast a brand new one. The cost of that was nearly $1000. I even managed to find a few suppliers myself who could give me a quote, and the price was effectively the same. Plus, the lead time was 2 months!
Ultimately I had to come to terms with not getting an OEM pump (though I honestly haven't at the time of writing this...).
From my hours of research, it seems like any near equivalent pump will do, and it's just a matter of creating a proper bracket to attach it in the right place. Easier said that done I figure. But I won't know until I try to sort that out.
After a few days at the mechanic, and an otherwise clean bill of health awarded, I gave the okay to move the Fargo to the actual port. This is where the waiting game would begin!
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