VR4 Owner's Manual from RAW

SiliconAngel

1 AYC Bar
Location
Perth, WA
First Name
SA, Trevor
Drive
'99 Legnum VR4 Black MT
Hey guys,

I've been going over the documentation I got from the RAW when I received my car. I noticed a curious thing about the owner's manaul - I don't think its for my car!

The first thing I noticed was all the pictures / diagrams show the interior of a Left-Hand-Drive vehicle, which made me wonder if either the diagrams were screwed up somehow or they were using a manual for the USDM version... Then I noticed there were no page numbers and the overview page references are pretty much useless, the key pictures and description are completely wrong, the dimmer switch is wrong, the climate control isn't even THERE (it has some details of a rotar switch setup for aircon, but no VR4 has this) and nor are the interior lights.

This is as far as I've gotten so far, but I'm pretty confused. Does everyone else have the same thing? Are all the workshops giving us a copy of the same manual? And if so, why are they allowed to give us an incomplete manual that's not even for our cars??

Don't get me wrong, buying an import I didn't expect to get anything useful in English for it. But then, if a RAW is required by law to provide an English copy of the owners manual, surely they should be doing that, not just cheating and giving people a hacked-up copy of the USDM galant manual... There are going to be plenty of people who buy these cars who won't have any other reference for their car (at least, until they hit Google up and find us or ClubVR4).

Thoughts?
 

leebutts

1 AYC Bar
Location
New Zealand
First Name
Lee
Drive
2001 Golf GTI
Hi Trev,

mine is the same - right hand drive interior images, no page/section numbers, header and stereo instructions all wrong.

I hadn't even looked through it until now - what a load of sh*t!

I wonder who we can complain to - DoTaRS?

Lee
 

SiliconAngel

1 AYC Bar
Location
Perth, WA
First Name
SA, Trevor
Drive
'99 Legnum VR4 Black MT
I don't wanna jump the gun here. I'd like to find out what the other RAWs are doing, so getting some feedback from someone with a car out of somewhere other than River City / Shogun would be useful. Then maybe talk to the RAWs and ask them what the go is? I don't want to go screwing with anyone's license or get them in trouble with the govt or anything... Well, unless they REALLY deserve it, but from my dealings with Shogun they've done the right thing, so hopefully clearing up this issue won't be any different. Who knows, maybe this kind of practice is perfectly acceptable? That's why I asked the question in the first place, really :)
 

Peter_D

Leaving Skid Marks
Location
QLD
First Name
Pete
Drive
Cab Colt & Evo 6
Gee when I imported my R32 Skyline I got a couple of photocopied A4 pages with tyre pressure info and how to change light globes. Very useful. Not!

I'll have to check the book we received when we purchased our car from the dealer.
 

hawks

Leaving Skid Marks
Location
NSW
First Name
Mark
Drive
Sold my 1998 Legnum VR4 Type S
Yep, I am in the same boat as you guys. The manual is completly fkn useless.
 
G

Guest

Unregistered
I did not use Shogun and I too received the dodgy US version. Maybe all workshops are given the same one?? Dunno.

WARNING/PLEASE READ!!!

I noticed under my bonnet I have the tuning spec sticker. My sticker says to gap my plugs to 1mm or 1.1mm I think it is, yet everyone here seems to buy 0.8mm gapped plugs. If you gap your plugs too large, won't it cause a big strain on the electrical system and a loss of power? I haven't changed my plugs yet, but when at the auto shop asked about plugs you guys recommend and he says "yeah it's either xxxx or you can get xxx-11 plugs which are the same, just gapped to 1.1mm and you can bend them back" I just wanted to also see if we get the same stickers which I am SURE we do!

That and my tyre placard says I'm allowed to have 215/45x17 tyres on 17x7.5 inch rims which the car never came with. I read in another thread though this was because one of the first cars to be complianced had the ralliart pack or something so it was put on file as a standard wheel size. Correct me if I'm wrong! I have three standard sizes there.
 

bradc

1 AYC Bar
Location
New Zealand
First Name
Brad
Drive
Facelift Manual 400hp VR-4 Legnum
no vr-4's ever came with 17" wheels, it's just something a compliance centre decided to put on.

As for the manual, I'd be complaining, you pay a lot for compliance, you should get an english manual for the right bloody car
 
G

Guest

Unregistered
From memory I don't think the Shogun manual has the "Tiptronic Shifter" in it either. Different transmission altogether. And yeah I noticed the air conditioning control thing being wrong too. The only correct one would be a U.K. market manual as they were official imports there weren't they.
 

SiliconAngel

1 AYC Bar
Location
Perth, WA
First Name
SA, Trevor
Drive
'99 Legnum VR4 Black MT
Hmm ok, thanks for your responses guys, sounds like I'm not just being a picky bastard then ;) I'll give Ben a call on Monday and see what he has to say. Stay tuned!
 

SiliconAngel

1 AYC Bar
Location
Perth, WA
First Name
SA, Trevor
Drive
'99 Legnum VR4 Black MT
Gee when I imported my R32 Skyline I got a couple of photocopied A4 pages with tyre pressure info and how to change light globes. Very useful. Not!

I'll have to check the book we received when we purchased our car from the dealer.
Pete, was that under the new vehicle import scheme, or the old one? There were very few requirements previously (a good thing for enthusiasts, not so good for Joe Average Consumer who's dumb enough to buy an import expecting standard local support and parts) so that wouldn't surprise me if you got it prior to 2002ish.

From memory I don't think the Shogun manual has the "Tiptronic Shifter" in it either. Different transmission altogether.
Yep, different shifter knob, doesn't show tiptronic in diagrams nor mention how to operate it.
And yeah I noticed the air conditioning control thing being wrong too. The only correct one would be a U.K. market manual as they were official imports there weren't they.
Yes, well, kindof - Ralliart did a special release of 200 cars, but that's it. Most of the cars over there are imports.

I believe there were normal domestic releases in NZ though, including the SOHC NA versions (correct me if I'm wrong NZ guys!). It'd be interesting to find out what (if any) manuals came with the NZ cars, or if they were all just imported due to their utter lack of import restrictions, with no English documentation at all.

The fact that so many of the images show a LHD vehicle, though, leads me to believe this is just a USDM manual - why in the world would you go to all that trouble if you were using anything else??
 

bradc

1 AYC Bar
Location
New Zealand
First Name
Brad
Drive
Facelift Manual 400hp VR-4 Legnum
One of my friends has an NZ New VR-4, I'll check with him and see if he has a manual.

I have a Japanese manual that came with my ST-R which covers all prefacelift models
 

SiliconAngel

1 AYC Bar
Location
Perth, WA
First Name
SA, Trevor
Drive
'99 Legnum VR4 Black MT
Hey Brad does one of your clients have a photocopier that will automatically convert to PDF? I have a few like that, rather useful ;) It'd be good to see what your copy contains...
 

VR-04-TT

1 AYC Bar
Location
NSW
First Name
Paul
Drive
2005 Liberty 3.0R Spec B
Heath from QLD who actually wrote the evidence package for the Legnums and Galants actually changed the evidence to allow for 17" rims. Which is good for us!! :D
 

bradc

1 AYC Bar
Location
New Zealand
First Name
Brad
Drive
Facelift Manual 400hp VR-4 Legnum
Trev, I have a photocopier that will do that!

To be honest it doesn't really contain anything useful, there is only about 5 pages of stuff that is actually relevant.
 

gilly

Leaving Skid Marks
Location
SA
First Name
Simon
Drive
2000 Legnum VR4 Type S
mine is the left hand drive version, but I cant really see how the differences would really make a difference to anything.

Perhaps some instructions on how to use the climate control (and what all the different settings actually do) might be useful.
 

SiliconAngel

1 AYC Bar
Location
Perth, WA
First Name
SA, Trevor
Drive
'99 Legnum VR4 Black MT
Trev, I have a photocopier that will do that!

To be honest it doesn't really contain anything useful, there is only about 5 pages of stuff that is actually relevant.
I'd just like to compare some of the pages with the ones we've got, such as the interior dash cluster, climate control and the auto shifter. It would mean I'd have something to show a RAW when I say the one we have isn't for our cars as it should look like THIS.

Its cool if you can't be bothered - I'm just thinking out loud ;)

mine is the left hand drive version, but I cant really see how the differences would really make a difference to anything.

Perhaps some instructions on how to use the climate control (and what all the different settings actually do) might be useful.
For people like us, Simon, I agree - we will find the info we need by looking hard for it. But what about someone who buys a car and doesn't use the 'net much and wouldn't even think to go looking? If part of the compliance package is meant to include an owners manual, then it should include the owners manual, not an incomplete knock-off of a different car...
 

bradc

1 AYC Bar
Location
New Zealand
First Name
Brad
Drive
Facelift Manual 400hp VR-4 Legnum
I'll try, it is about 150 pages though, a lot of effort would be required!

Tell you what, next time I'm in Aussie I'll compare it to one of the manuals the Vic guys have
 

2000VR-4

Leaving Skid Marks
Location
Angle Vale
First Name
Jason
Drive
1988 Magna (Daily) 1975 GC Galant hardtop (W/End car) 1972 GS Galant hardtop, 1973 Galant GTO X-II, 1978 Galant (Scorpion) hardtop
I have just had a flip through my manual????????? Is it even for our cars??
Wrong keys? Electric seats? WTF?
 

SiliconAngel

1 AYC Bar
Location
Perth, WA
First Name
SA, Trevor
Drive
'99 Legnum VR4 Black MT
Wow Brad, the one we have is only about 60 pages... I really only want a few pages... Can you just do:

  • Interior diagram (should be near the front, showing seat and console layout with numbers and arrows everywhere)
  • Climate Control (diagram showing the interface is fine)
  • Auto shifter page (showing what it looks like and the tiptronic explanation)
  • The fuse section (showing the position of the in-cabin and engine bay fuse blocks - if this is different that's REALLY important!).

Should be six or seven pages? If you could that would be awesome!! I assume you still have my email addy somewhere?

I have just had a flip through my manual????????? Is it even for our cars??
Wrong keys? Electric seats? WTF?
Yea Jase, that was my reaction...
 
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