[Sangetsu]

The Japanese car inspection process (which must be performed every 2 years) is quite thorough. Pretty much every part on the car will be looked at, and tested for proper operation. The windows must roll up and down, the doors must lock and unlock, the seats should move forward and back properly.

The car's body will be examined for rust and corrosion, structural repairs, condition of paint, etc. The windows will be looked at to make sure there are no cracks, no significant scratches, and no hazing of the safety glass in the windshield (this is a problem in some older cars). Tail light and turn signal lenses must be clear, clean, and not hazy.

The there is the mechanical inspection, which will include the belts, hoses, vacuum lines, wiring connections, suspension joints (ball joints, tie rod ends, shock/strut bushings), drive shaft u-joints, brake pad thickness, brake drum and brake rotor thickness, brake line condition, etc.

The fluids will be fully checked to make sure that they are clear and not contaminated in any way.

The emissions check will probably be the quickest and most easy inspection to perform and pass, Japanese cars in 1971 didn't run any cleaner than American cars of the same year. So long as your car is running well, and in a decent state of tune, it should pass okay. Make sure the air heater hose which runs from the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner is in place, and make sure that the valve inside the air cleaner snorkel is functioning. Make sure that the choke (electric or thermostatic) is hooked up and functioning.

There are a couple of things you can do to make your car run a bit cleaner for the test. First, make sure you are using a hotter thermostat. Many people sometimes change the factory thermostat for a cooler one in order to bump up the timing slightly, and get a little more power. This increases NOX emissions, and NOX will be one of the things they are looking at when they perform the test. It will also help to adjust the ignition timing backward by 2 degrees. This will also reduce NOX emissions. Make sure to install new spark plugs, Bosch Platinums usually run the cleanest.

I thought of bringing my GTO to Japan with me. It was a 2006 model, so passing the inspections would not have been difficult, but unfortunately I managed to total it out not long before I moved here. Luckily, there are plenty of interesting cars in Japan, and I've been shopping around for one. One of my neighbors owns a '70 440 6 pack Plymouth 'cuda, I've thought about asking him if he is interested in selling it...