The Top DSM Community on the Web

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. Log in to remove most ads.

Please Support RTM Racing
Please Support STM Tuned

2G Eclipse in South Korea

This site may earn a commission from merchant
affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

I think I am the first and only guy from South Korea ;)

Bc owning old cars is not a common thing in here, so Eclipse has been very rare now.

I get so many information about my car through this site.

I want to thank u all and it's very nice to meet u.

If u have any questions, feel free to DM me on insta(most fastest way) or write comments here :)
 
Oh so jealous. First, I miss living in Korea like crazy. Second to have a DSM there... man, so lucky.

@TSiAWD666
Hi John - I didn't even know you were in this forum LOL
I did buy that blue spring clutch that we talked about in Messenger and it's sitting here right now waiting for English Racing to come and get my car for the install.
I took some good high-res pics of it and posted them in my "build thread" which otherwise is pretty empty.
 
Last edited:
I think I am the first and only guy from South Korea ;)

Bc owning old cars is not a common thing in here, so Eclipse has been very rare now.

I get so many information about my car through this site.

I want to thank u all and it's very nice to meet u.

If u have any questions, feel free to DM me on insta(most fastest way) or write comments here :)

안녕하세요 and welcome to DSMtuners!
Can I ask you, in S Korea, are you allowed to do more modifications to your cars when they are old (like ours)? I mean engine mods mostly. Do you have to keep the engines pretty close to stock?
 
안녕하세요 and welcome to DSMtuners!
Can I ask you, in S Korea, are you allowed to do more modifications to your cars when they are old (like ours)? I mean engine mods mostly. Do you have to keep the engines pretty close to stock?
안녕하세요 :) and thk u for welcoming me.

First, whether the car is old or not, they r treated equally.
The supply and demand of parts are not smooth and the system is strict, so it is difficult to maintain old cars in here tho..

We usually use the stock engine while we keep overhauling. Maintenance costs will go up naturally.
That's why ppl usually scrap their cars that are 15-20 years old.
But, we can tune stock engine as long as emission pass.

Plus, when u want to swap to new engine, it can only be upgraded with the same manufacturer's engine which has larger cc.
I don't know the exact reason, but I think it's because the inspectors don't want to work :(
 
But, we can tune stock engine as long as emission pass.

Hmm, "as long as emissions pass". That could get complicated to explain maybe. I mean, for your car for example, which is a 1996 model, would it have to meet:
1.) The S Korea federal standard that was in effect for new cars at that time (in 1996)
or
2.) Some newer S Korea federal standard that is really meant for newer cars (which would make it almost impossible).
or
3.) Some standard that the testing stations test to - which is maybe looser than what the manufacturer had to meet when it built the car in 1996.
or
4.) Whatever the Japan standard was in 1996, which the car was built to when new.
or??

Know what I mean? If you can do any mods that don't cause your car to flunk the emission test, then it might or might not be possible to do some pretty good mods. You would have to know a lot about the test, seems to me, if you did want to push it as far as possible.
 
(I wanna make sure that my English is not good enough that could be some misunderstanding.)
I think 1) is right. CO, NOx, HC. just need to be within the limits. depending on age of the car.

It seems easy to say, but the standard is tight as environmental laws are recently strengthened.
So, it's hard to keep up with the old engines. Even 10 yo diesel SUVs are struggling with the test often ;(
And you were talking about the engine, so I simply answered with an example of an emission test.

Even the turbo installing needs to be examined, but YES ! we can mod our engine as far as possible.
I hope my answer is helpful :)
 
Last edited:
My father was in the military and we lived in Seoul a couple times. Also my mother is korean. I wish I could live there!

How did you get an Eclipse?
 
Even the turbo installing needs to be examined, but YES ! we can mod our engine as far as possible.

"Even the turbo installing needs to be examined". That sounds like what we would call a "visual inspection" which is something we had here in a few of the states. I never lived in a state that had visual inspections of this type, but my understanding of them is that they would check for things that were not stock.
So with the turbo for example, do you mean that you would not be able to put a different type (bigger) of turbo on the car? Or maybe the turbo could be what we call "stock appearing" but it is actually different and a little bigger than the original stock one? And this "stock appearing" turbo might pass inspection ok?

I can really understand the difficulty of language between Korean and English, because I at one time thought I might be able to learn a little bit of Korean. But I kind of gave up when I realized that the order of words in a sentence is basically the reverse order, from what we have in English. But at least you guys have one sensible alphabet. The Japanese have like, what, 3 alphabets? Sheesh! Haha!
 
"Even the turbo installing needs to be examined". That sounds like what we would call a "visual inspection" which is something we had here in a few of the states. I never lived in a state that had visual inspections of this type, but my understanding of them is that they would check for things that were not stock.
So with the turbo for example, do you mean that you would not be able to put a different type (bigger) of turbo on the car? Or maybe the turbo could be what we call "stock appearing" but it is actually different and a little bigger than the original stock one? And this "stock appearing" turbo might pass inspection ok?

I can really understand the difficulty of language between Korean and English, because I at one time thought I might be able to learn a little bit of Korean. But I kind of gave up when I realized that the order of words in a sentence is basically the reverse order, from what we have in English. But at least you guys have one sensible alphabet. The Japanese have like, what, 3 alphabets? Sheesh! Haha!
Yes. U r exactly right. Thanks for making it easier for me to answer :) :)

I have the same difficulties as u said. haha. The order of words is totally in the reverse order. :(
Even tho I'm not good at it, thk u for understanding my lack.
And also it's very happy that u have such interest to S. Korea. It was good to answer about my country hehe
 
I see. Is it Yongsan base.. maybe ??

Now, the price of Eclipse has dropped a lot, so I bought this car as my first JDM and first project car :)

Yes, we lived in Hannam as well as Yongsan. It's sad that Yongsan will go away but it is better for Seoul. I lived in Korea from 1987-1989 (Hodori!), and then again from 1993-1995. I returned to the US in 1995 to go to college. My parents continued to live there, then moved away to Okinawa, and then back to Korea for a few more years and are now retired in the US. I was able to visit a few times over the years and really wish I could have lived there as an adult. I plan to come back maybe in 2022 when I am vaccinated so I can see my family in Seoul, Kwangju, and Taegu. It might be strange but Korea feels like home to me, maybe because it was my last home before going to college.

I never imagined anyone in Korea would buy an Eclipse because it was JDM. What's more interesting is that the Eclipse is part JDM and part... UDM (US Domestic Market) :D If you need help finding parts we probably have better access here in the US, so please let me know and I'll do my best to help.

Your english is excellent. My korean is terrible. I wish my mother had taught me growing up but she wanted us to be American. I regret it very much. I studied for many years as an adult but I still have to watch Korean drama with subtitles!
 
Wow, welcome! Such an interesting thread. Brings back so many memories. I spent quite a few summers in Korea visiting family (my mother was born there). Most of my time was spent around Osan, Seoul, and a tiny farm town call Kimjae where I watched my mom help her parents in the rice patties most summers. We lived close by in Japan on an Air Force Base (hence my DSMTuners name), but I haven't been back to Korea since 1995 when I moved back to the US for college. I wish I spoke the language also, but my parents felt learning Korean wasn't as important at the time.
It's so interesting hearing some of the rules in Korea. They sound similar to what it was like in Japan although maybe not quite as strict. Can't wait to hear more about your car and what life is like in Korea! Thanks for joining and sharing!
 
Yes, we lived in Hannam as well as Yongsan. It's sad that Yongsan will go away but it is better for Seoul. I lived in Korea from 1987-1989 (Hodori!), and then again from 1993-1995. I returned to the US in 1995 to go to college. My parents continued to live there, then moved away to Okinawa, and then back to Korea for a few more years and are now retired in the US. I was able to visit a few times over the years and really wish I could have lived there as an adult. I plan to come back maybe in 2022 when I am vaccinated so I can see my family in Seoul, Kwangju, and Taegu. It might be strange but Korea feels like home to me, maybe because it was my last home before going to college.

I never imagined anyone in Korea would buy an Eclipse because it was JDM. What's more interesting is that the Eclipse is part JDM and part... UDM (US Domestic Market) :D If you need help finding parts we probably have better access here in the US, so please let me know and I'll do my best to help.

Your english is excellent. My korean is terrible. I wish my mother had taught me growing up but she wanted us to be American. I regret it very much. I studied for many years as an adult but I still have to watch Korean drama with subtitles!
That story is like wow .. Thank u for telling me ur story :) Yongsan is not like in that time. Unlike when the war was just over, Seoul get bigger and richer day by day. U will be very surprised how poor neighborhood has changed.

I'm registered now, but I already got so many information about my Eclipse from DSMtuners. It is like A BIG DICTIONARY OF ECLIPSE haha

always thankful for u all for helping me and welcoming me. Have a good day man
 
Wow, welcome! Such an interesting thread. Brings back so many memories. I spent quite a few summers in Korea visiting family (my mother was born there). Most of my time was spent around Osan, Seoul, and a tiny farm town call Kimjae where I watched my mom help her parents in the rice patties most summers. We lived close by in Japan on an Air Force Base (hence my DSMTuners name), but I haven't been back to Korea since 1995 when I moved back to the US for college. I wish I spoke the language also, but my parents felt learning Korean wasn't as important at the time.
It's so interesting hearing some of the rules in Korea. They sound similar to what it was like in Japan although maybe not quite as strict. Can't wait to hear more about your car and what life is like in Korea! Thanks for joining and sharing!
Hi :) thank you for ur words.

I thought Korea was a closed country, but it's amazing that there are more than I thought. And I agree that learning Korean isn't that important bc u know... there aren't many places that speak Korean abroad even nowadays. More, I know that it's really damn hard to learn Korean LOL

I wanna share the story of Korea as much as I could :) really thank u so much and have a nice day
 
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community
Boosted Fabrication ECM Tuning ExtremePSI Fuel Injector Clinic Innovation Products Jacks Transmissions JNZ Tuning Kiggly Racing Morrison Fabrications MyMitsubishiStore.com RixRacing RockAuto RTM Racing STM Tuned

Latest posts

Build Thread Updates

Vendor Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top