Skywing Service Slip Sample - Uh?

Hello Mandarin Marvels (I’m tagged as such last time I looked, but am marvellous merely for how very little of the language I’ve acquired)

I’d appreciate some help with determining the gist of these. I forgot to get the service records when I bought the car, and when I tried later they said their accountant had them, but they sent me a few scans. I imagine they’ll have chucked the originals by now.

I was (and am) mostly interested in when the cam belt was changed (seller thought fairly recently but was vague on the details). 4WIW he said he’d sent me “big tickets” rather than routine servicing. He had some Mandarin, but maybe not much Mechanical Mandarin, and he may well not have known what a cam belt was in any language anyway.

I see “belt” written in English a couple of times, (presumably an annotation by the seller) but the price doesn’t seem high enough to be a cam belt change (unless its just the part?).

There are a couple of 4k plus items elsewhere (not annotated) with long Mandarin descriptions, and that’s more the kind of price I might expect, so I’d be especially interested to know what those are. I recall the seller described a problem that sounded like a blown head gasket, though, so it might be that.

Its also of some topical interest what type of oil they used, but that’s probably not on here, or especially important. I see 15/40W with an 800+ price tag, presumably not enough for synthetic from a dealer?

Thanks in advance, and apologies for the big boring pictures. I’ve sent them medium size as a compromise, but if it helps readability I can resend large.

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001 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

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001[1] by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

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002 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

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003 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

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004 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

Some of the pictures are broken for me and the ones that aren’t are too small to be legible, or maybe I’m just getting old.

Thanks.

I think I probably broke the first two since I changed the orientation on the Flikr site (they were on their side, and I figured I couldn’t really expect anyone to strain their necks as well as their eyes). Apparently that broke the link.

I’ll re-link larger. Alternatively, anyone who could be bothered (and there’s absolutely no reason why anyone should, its my fault I’m too lazy to learn Mandarin) could click on the URL to get to the original on flickr.

Phew! Flickr navigation is bad for my blood pressure.

Sending the landscape ones (which seem to be the most expensive, hence of most interest) larger just causes them to be cropped. If zoom doesn’t help, perhaps use the URL?

Sorry buddy, the originals are barely more than scribbles so you would have to get something clearer up for us to have a fighting chance.

Fairy nuff.

I’ve always secretly doubted that Mandarin script was in fact a functional system of communication, so its a result predjudice-affirmation-wise, at least.

First page (translating just the handwritten):

On the very left:
汽缸床燒掉 - Cylinder Housing (Bed?) Burned Up

Now for the items with prices:
機油 - oil - 4 bottles: $1,000
機油芯 - oil filter - 1: $150
水箱精 - radiator cleaner (?) - 1: $600
上條包 - bag of wires (?) - 1 bag: $1205
正時皮帶 - timing belt - 1: $850
時規調整情輪 - timing adjustment wheel (?) - 1: $650
熱水鐵管 - hot water pipe - 1: $580
水邦浦 - water pump - 1: $1150
鐵水蓋 - radiator cap (?) - 2: $200
節溫器 - thermostat - 1: $455
點火白金 - ignition platinum (spark plugs?) - 1: $210
高壓線 - high-tension wire (for spark plugs, I assume) - 1 set: $550

Mileage at time of service: 29,790
Next service mileage: 34,790

Well, I guessed on some of the translations, but you can always copy+paste and plug it into Google to find pictures, or into Google Translate!

Second Page:

齒輪N油邦 - gear oil (something) -1: $200
汽缸床總成及整理 - Cylinder (bed) assembly and fix-up - 1: $4900
汽缸床採裝含油汙清洗 - Cylinder (bed) disassembly, including oil pollution (caked on oil, whathaveyou) cleanup - 1: $4000
水N箱蓋 -1: $255

I’m getting tired… and the rest is really hard to read…

[quote=“shawn_c”]Second Page:

齒輪N油邦 - gear oil (something) -1: $200
汽缸床總成及整理 - Cylinder (bed) assembly and fix-up - 1: $4900
汽缸床採裝含油汙清洗 - Cylinder (bed) disassembly, including oil pollution (caked on oil, whathaveyou) cleanup - 1: $4000
水N箱蓋 -1: $255

I’m getting tired… and the rest is really hard to read…[/quote]

Not surprised you’re getting tired. Thats great. Thanks very much.

I’d guess all that “cylinder bed” stuff is consistent with a blown head gasket repair and cleanup. (Seller said they’d had a major fault involving white exhaust smoke shortly after purchase.)

Your specific mention of “timing belt”, however, is especially reassuring and exactly what I was after. I believe this is an interference engine so it’d be wrecked if the belt broke. If I didn’t know when it was replaced I’d either have to replace it as a precaution, probably prematurely, or I’d have to drive with my fingers crossed.

Thanks again.

No problem! I was getting tired not so much because the first two were a bit blurry… but because people tend to write in simplified when they write really fast… reading simplified hurts my eyes! LOL

Third page: 發動皮帶 - starter belt (?): $380
冷氣皮帶 - A/C belt: $380

On the fourth page (and other places), it doesn’t say what type of oil at all, just “motor oil” all over the place! On the fourth page is also brake light bulb, oil filter, basic stuff.

Fifth page: 傳動軸NNNN - Transmission shaft including labour - $3200
4 bottles of oil 15/40W (is this a car or a scooter, I can’t figure it out!) - $1120
Front door lock (I guess this answers that it is a car)- $850
Battery - $1800

Okay, great, glad you are satisfied. Nothing about cam belt… but, I am thinking that the “starter belt” and “A/C belt” should be all the belts a car has… well, some cars have three belts. Well, that was February 9, 2009.

So, ed, tell us: what was NOT repaired on that car of yours?

seems like a new car now!

[quote=“urodacus”]
seems like a new car now![/quote]

I can guarantee you wouldn’t say that if you saw it. Looks an absolute shit heap.

I did, however, get the impression when I did my (very inexpert) pre-purchase inspection that it had been fairly well maintained mechanically by the last owners. I don’t think they knew much about cars, but they seem to have followed dealer service-schedule and advice, fairly rare, I’d think, in a banger of this age.

Sadly, I won’t be doing that, so its probably downhill mechanically from here on, though I’ll DIY what I can.

I THINK I have, however, slowed the rust, which was about to kill it, almost to a stop.

Its strange, (but not, I think, unusual) that people will cheerfully spend lots of money on mechanical maintenance and nothing on rust prevention, which costs very little to DIY, doesn’t risk breaking anything, and doesn’t require any special expertise.

When I bought the car the spare wheel well had clearly, judging by the state of the tools, been regularly full of water. All they had to do was push the drain plug out, but perhaps they weren’t aware of the problem, and “the pros” apparently didn’t think it was part of their responsibility to tell them.


DSC00323 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

“cam belt” = “timing belt”, I think. Probably “timing belt” is the more correct/usual term (my bad), but I think both terms are in use.

Correct.

By the way, what brand is this Skywing? I have never heard of it…

Daihatsu. Mechanically identical to the Charade, as far as I can tell, but uglier.

I think it might be a Taiwan-only model, though that seems a bit unecessary/weird from a marketing and production point of view, especially as you also get Charades here. If its locally assembled I’d guess/hope at least some of the mechanical components would come from Japan.

Expert opinion on here has tended to diss this car, relative to the other small cars in this market.

If Jeremy Clarkson had ever heard of it, he’d probably add it to his very, very long list of “absolutely the worst car ever ever made, bar none” (Jeremy doesn’t really understand how superlatives are supposed to work) and chuck it off a cliff. That’s entertainment. (Yawn).

Looks a bit like a small Subaru (not the Justy, but the other, quasi-booted one that I can’t remember the name of) Or a Volvo 340, but a bit smaller.

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DSC00296 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

The handbook had another name on the cover that I can’t remember, (Um, Seraph I think) but it got wet and I think I threw it away.

I’m getting to quite like it. I especially like that it does about 17km/l, but I hae reservations about 3-cyl engines, the carb is bloody complicated, the rear axle mounts look a bit flimsy, I wish it had a timing chain rather than a belt, and a 5-speed instead of a 4-speed box.

EDIT:Oh, and had a bit less metal in its oil. ENDEDIT

Oh, and was RWD. But then it’d be a Volvo 340.

Edit: Or at least might be mistaken for one. Then Clarkson would probably drive it into a tree.

That’d learn 'im

Subaru Tutto?

I always snigger at that name considering it sounds like ‘Baldy!’ in Chinese.

Subaru Tutto?

I always snigger at that name considering it sounds like ‘Baldy!’ in Chinese.[/quote]

Yeh, Tutto, that’s the one I meant. I’d guess it is to the Justy what the Skywing is to the Charade, (i.e. mechanically the same) but I don’t know that for a fact.

Seems quite a nice little car (a staffer here had one).The ones I’ve seen have all been autos, but maybe the CVT doesn’t hit fuel consumption as badly as a conventional “slush box”.

Subaru Tutto?

I always snigger at that name considering it sounds like ‘Baldy!’ in Chinese.[/quote]

Yeh, Tutto, that’s the one I meant. I’d guess it is to the Justy what the Skywing is to the Charade, (i.e. mechanically the same) but I don’t know that for a fact.

Seems quite a nice little car (a staffer here had one).The ones I’ve seen have all been autos, but maybe the CVT doesn’t hit fuel consumption as badly as a conventional “slush box”.[/quote]

The Justy which the Tutto is basically, was a fantastic little car. It had very few faults over the time I used to work on them, and I worked seven years on Subarus and would service Justys which would do well over 150,000 miles and were largely driven by farmers and land owners, so were treated quite harshly. Typical faults over time would be throttle body spindles, which would leak air at around 100,000 miles, rear top suspension mounts, and brake pipe corrosion, but that would be typical on salty British roads at that time anyway. The latter versions had an initial build fault with an overstretched wiring harness which went over the rocker cover to the injectors. The wiring would require lengthening as part of a recall, otherwise it would start breaking connections.

Overall the Justy was a legendary three cylinder mini four wheel drive which would take all the punishment that typical boggy, wet Britain would throw at it. It was always very good in the snow too.

holy f that is an ugly car! I just checked out some of your flickr, and I’m not sure whether I should congratulate you on your purchase or extend my deepest heartfelt condolences for what must be pure torture driving and working on that rusting death trap.

please don’t take any offense at all that, I’m sure you got the thing for a song :wink: