Oh no, That perfect Japanese Import you dreamed about finally did something it shouldn’t. What now?
You might be wondering where to start when your car goes on the fritz. Follow our handy guide before you lose your ****.
- First, do your own basic troubleshooting. Find a shop manual for your specific vehicle if possible, lots of times these have specific troubleshooting guides you can follow.
- Perform a Google / Youtube or dare I say AI search. With so many of these vehicles being imported now, someone might have already ran into your same issue and documented the solution you are looking for.
- Search/Post for help with your problem on some Automotive forums or Reddit, sometimes the answer already exists or is a few responses away.
- Look for local-ish parts suppliers, sometimes they post blogs/articles of their own that can assist with troubleshooting.
- Hire a professional. Don’t be afraid to get another set of eyes on the issue. It happens to the best of us and can’t always be avoided. If you are having trouble finding a local shop near you to work on your import, our best advice is to look for a specialty auto repair shop that works on luxury/import vehicles. From all of the ones we have visited, each one said they would work on our vehicles if/when the time comes. That being said, we have had our fair share of shops that kindly let us know they wouldn’t touch anything that was not an original US market model. Not everyone is willing to take the risk working on something they haven’t seen before.
We hope this information is helpful. Did we miss something? let us know.
