How psychotic are you about car maintenance?

klrv6

Have a burnout party!!!
Joined
Jul 16, 2003
Exactly how particular are you about upkeep on your vehicles? Not just TRs but, drivers too.

I have my beater Sentra that more than likely have the head gasket fail before 150K, it's just the nature of the junk gasket Nissan used. Mine is getting ready to hit 100K. Do I replace the gasket when I can better control the downtime or just wait for it to go bad. When they do fail completely, it usually takes the bearings with it because of anti-freeze in the oil. My though is although it may be more work now, I won't have to be worried about it failing while I'm on the road. My daily commute is 200-250 miles with a 58.5 cent reimbursement from my employer. The repair would be paid for in just three days driving. All the sentra forum guys say to just send my oil out to black stone labs every oil change and see if anti-freeze is in it ($30) with shipping. I worry that it could be too late then. I'd rather just do it now.

I rebuilt the 4t65e in my 03 regal when I had three weeks off work. It had a known problem that would cause the O/D shaft to strip if not upgraded to a stronger shaft. I replaced all the parts that were known to have issues and have 18K miles on it since the rebuild.

How do you guy approach maintenance of your rides and fixing known problems before they become a big problem?
 
I never knew Nissan has junk gaskets? My brother's 1990 maxima has 250,000 miles on the stock unopened motor with no head gasket problem..My 300zx has 150,000 with no problems...Id say leave it alone and just dont ever overheat it (i.e. replace thermostat/coolant/waterpump) to make sure..The only real reason a headgasket would go on a non-boosted car would be that you overheated it sometime in the past..
 
I never knew Nissan has junk gaskets? My brother's 1990 maxima has 250,000 miles on the stock unopened motor with no head gasket problem..My 300zx has 150,000 with no problems...Id say leave it alone and just dont ever overheat it (i.e. replace thermostat/coolant/waterpump) to make sure..The only real reason a headgasket would go on a non-boosted car would be that you overheated it sometime in the past..

All the info I could find was that it was a supplier quality issue Nissan had for the 1.8 gaskets. Word is the felpro units fix the problem.
 
I agree with Bass and you... If you can do the work, I'd say do it now before it's a problem in the event it is a known issue. As Bass said, only way a head gasket would go is through serious overheating... Now, that said, Nissan's aren't alone in being known for bad head gaskets. Land Rover v8s are notorious for overheating due to bad head gaskets. Happens every 50-60k miles...The English never really got the concept of seals/gaskets and if you torque them the "right" way, you're guaranteed to blow the head gaskets. Took them until 1994 to figure it out. Now they use composite gaskets and torque-to-yield stretch bolts.
 
This thing will get new bolts as well. At $26 for the set, I'd be stupid not to replace them.
 
if your worried about the bearings, then get rid of the antifreeze and put some distilled water with RMI-25 in there.
 
I use to change oil every 3k on my 3.8 olds daily driver. I been slacking it to 5k to save money. has over 140k runs smooth. I use to wash & wax it but now the paint is losing its luster.

With the T, I put fresh mobil 1 at end of season. That way it goes into storage with new oil & ready for spring driving. Before firing it up I put a magnetic heater on the oil pan to get the oil nice & warm for fire up.

As for the WIFES Mini van I HATE THAT THING! :rolleyes:
 
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