Making your Lancer more Australian via the aftermarket

[Mooman]

We all know that the Australian car manufacturing industry will soon close down but there is a way to support Australian parts manufactures even with our Japanese built cars. While modding and generally researching my car I noticed that there were a number of locally provided options.

Below is a list that is in no way comprehensive of some of the locally owned and/or manufactured parts that can easily go into our Lancers. I've not listed pure distribution companies (however some listed may source parts from overseas). If you know of any others or errors please contribute to this thread.

Brakes:

Pads:

Probably one of the best known brands for brake pads is Bendix, but there are others. Queensland Friction Materials (QFM or Friction Material Developments (FMD)) also manufacture pads for our cars.

Bendix: http://www.bendix.com.au
QFM: http://qfm.com.au/page/1/Home

Rotors:

Two well known suppliers of brakes rotors, Disc Brakes Australia (DBA) and Rotors Drums Australia (RDA). Both can provide direct OEM replacements or upgraded sports and track rotors.

DBA: http://www.dba.com.au
RDA: http://www.rdabrakes.com.au/

Fluids:

Oil and Brake fluid:

Radiator coolant and transmission fluids can be tricky to replace as doing so without the Mitsubishi recommended product can lead to loss of warranty.

However the other fluids such as engine oil and brake fluid can easily be replaced with Australian manufactured products, as long as the oil is within the recommend ranges for temperature and with correct API or ACEA specifications etc. and for brake fluid it is either DOT 3 or DOT 4 glycol based.

Penrite: http://www.penriteoil.com.au
Gulf Western: http://www.gulfwestern.com.au/product-category/products/
Nulon: http://www.nulon.com.au/

Filters:

Air, engine and transmission oil, and cabin filters:

Only really 1 supplier of filters and that is Ryco. They can be brought from almost any auto supplier and have direct OEM or some performance options.

Ryco: http://www.rycofilters.com.au/

Replacement parts:

Wiper blades:

Tridon supply a range of parts from replacement radiator and fuel caps to wipers blade and full wiper assemblies.

Tridon: http://www.tridon.com.au/

Electrical:

Battry:

Century batteries have maintenance free options for replacement.

Century: http://www.centurybatteries.com.au/home

Suspension:

Suspension can be a tricky thing as there are a lot of suppliers and some of them share the same manufacturer/Parent company with just their own branding, ie: SuperPro and Whiteline.

Springs:

When it comes to lowering springs probably the most recognized are King Springs and Pedders. There is also Lovells and now Whiteline.

King Springs: https://kingsprings.com.au/
Pedders: http://www.pedders.com.au/
Lovells: http://www.lovellsauto.com.au/index.php
Whiteline: http://www.whiteline.com.au/

Polyurethane bushes:

For performance suspension bushes there are a few options, SuperPro, Whiteline and Nolathane. Here they really are similar products with the key differentiation being colour (there may be differences in stiffness also) SuperPro is blue, Nolathane red and Whiteline is either black or yellow. Whiteline also supposedly sources their parts from SuperPro.

SuperPro: http://www.superpro.com.au/
Nolathane: http://www.nolathane.com.au/index.php
Whiteline: http://www.whiteline.com.au/

Coilovers:

Things get a bit confusing here. Pedders supply a coilover but it is just a re-branded BC racing unit. BC racing from what I can tell are a US company. The only locally manufactured coilover I could verify are from MCA Suspension.

MCA Suspension: https://mcasuspension.com/products

Wheels and tyres:

Alloy wheels:

Unfortunately Australia no longer has a tyre manufacturing industry but it does have an aftermarket wheel one. There are probably more than I'll list here and probably some made here but owned by foreign companies. A few recognizable ones are CSA Alloy Wheels (Owned by Mullins Wheels), Speedy Wheels and ROH Wheels. Bob Jane also have their range called Auscar.

CSA Alloy Wheels: http://www.csadirect.com.au/
Speedy Wheels: http://speedywheels.com.au/
ROH Wheels: https://roh.com.au/
Bob Jane: https://www.bobjane.com.au/

[ReeceCozaa]

this is brilliant! what a good guide, supporting the aussie car market with quality!

[Quismiff]

Peak Oil is another good Aussie business, they blend oils to Australian specs here, obviously using imported ingredients, I think if you buy Burson brand oil you're buying Peak Oil.

Burson Auto Parts
Peak Oil

[sarusa]

Great post Mooman! thanks. Have used Ryco filters about forever without a single hitch and Nulon fully synthetic for the past 20 years or more.
For now car on warranty,have waited till I got over 5,000ks and will be switching back to Nulon fully synthetic.
even though oils (Castrol Magnetec) included in my free services and there is no rebate if I don't use it.

Should take a can along and get them to put it in the can!!!!! Or maybe use it as a flush and then use the Nulon!

Would like to get softer progressive springs but no one can come up with them for the CJ.

As I understand it, all oils come from overseas. So is it Aus oil, if it aint synthetic, then it must be reclaimed!?
Or is it overseas oil further refined for our environment.

[bumblebee]

Great info here.thanks Moonman

[Mooman]

Thanks all for replies, to be honest I don't know what percentage each company actually is made here vs manufactured overseas. For instance the brake rotor companies used to be machined here but are now some are done in China etc.

I think the criteria I used was companies at least founded in Australia.

Would like to get softer progressive springs but no one can come up with them for the CJ.

As I understand it, all oils come from overseas. So is it Aus oil, if it aint synthetic, then it must be reclaimed!?
Or is it overseas oil further refined for our environment.

Sarusa have a look at MCA, specifically the XC range which are a comfort oriented coilover, but expect to pay over $2,000.

https://mcasuspension.com/suspension

Peak Oil is another good Aussie business, they blend oils to Australian specs here, obviously using imported ingredients, I think if you buy Burson brand oil you're buying Peak Oil.

Burson Auto Parts
Peak Oil

Some nice additions, I also wasn't sure about some 'home' brands such as Repco and Super Cheap Auto so kept them off the list.

[Lancer1993]

My wheels are CSA!

[bumblebee]

Wikipedia reckons Repco is now owned by an asian company since 2013. It was started 95 years ago in Melbourne though

[sarusa]

Thanks all for replies, to be honest I don't know what percentage each company actually is made here vs manufactured overseas. For instance the brake rotor companies used to be machined here but are now some are done in China etc.

I think the criteria I used was companies at least founded in Australia.

Would like to get softer progressive springs but no one can come up with them for the CJ.

As I understand it, all oils come from overseas. So is it Aus oil, if it aint synthetic, then it must be reclaimed!?
Or is it overseas oil further refined for our environment.

Sarusa have a look at MCA, specifically the XC range which are a comfort oriented coilover, but expect to pay over $2,000.

https://mcasuspension.com/suspension

$2,000. Ouch!! My car just got comfortable.

[powermad]

Great sentiment behind this thread.
SA businesses that serviced local automative industries are not all doom and gloom. For every high profile exit there seems a good news story featuring a company that has diversified to offset it http://theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/ind ... suppliers/ and http://theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/ind ... roduction/ for example.
SA unemployment is back to middle of the pack in terms of state rankings. Time will tell what impact the last round of Holden workers has...