Supprise Breakages... Tell Your Story Or Saga...

[GTRNUR]

Hi Everyone.

I use my R32 as my company vehicle, which makes it a great for writing off "mecahnical repairs" on tax, but its a pain in the ass when things break... like today.

Today was a busy as day for me today. Left my first customer and was 1/2 a block from the second customer, pressed in the clutch to change gears and I hear something snap and the clutch pedal hits the floor and something falls on my clutch foot. Oh CRAP!

Drove the rest of the way there in 2nd gear, pulled over and discovered that what i'd felt fall on my foot was a piece of heavy gauge fence wire. It had been used to attach the clutch pedals upper support to the chassis. It had been put in there back from when my GTS4 was an auto and had been converted to a manual. I don't know if that was when it was in Japan or australia... but JESUS CHRIST I am so over finding supprises.

Fixing it took a half hour where I got a nice high tensile 10mm bolt and bolted it to the chassis. Clutch has never felt so good as it does now.

I've lost count of how many of these supprises i've come accros with this car....

Broken exhaust studs

Overheating due to blocked radiator (found after replacing water pump)

Dodgy as hell stereo wiring...

Its just a fuse (said the owner)... replaced aircon clutch and a shit load of wiring later...

Who else has been screwed by dodgy work done by previous owners? Post up your story and share your pain!

Cheers,

Ian

[B. J.]

nasty!

sounds as good as the Rb20det (NICS) conversion in my last 31... *shudders*

bought it un-rego'd, passed blue slip with only a ball join in need.

gearbox was noisy, but i soon discovered that 5th was non existant... replace RB20 gearbox...

went home to the country (Orange) for a weekend, drove up our drivway, had to be towed out, long story short, the tensioner and idler bearings had packed it in, not only that, but the previous owner had put the tensioner in back to front.

nothing like bent valves, $1300 in towing, repairs, new parts and labour had me with a happy Rb20 again... but during the fix some electricals were knocked, or whatever, and from that day on, i had a really really shocking cold start problem, to the tune of a tin of Aerostart a month.

othere small things like a leaky pinion seal on the diff, a dead fue pump (on a main street) having a Power-steering pump die, which in turn put p/s fluid thru my alternator, burning it to death whilst at the In-Laws... where do you get an RB20 Alternator in LITHGOW... out of a VL thats where...

cursed car! I should have drifted it, thats the only time it worked properly... sideways!

[Haysey]

Bought car, drove for a week, went to start one morning dead as shit... fuel pump kaput

about a year later drove up to Newcastle for a bachelour day/night, did the thing, headed back late that evening, car lacking power, thought it should hopefully get me home, hammered down the highway, car lacking more power, shitting myself been on highway for 45min middle of nowhere, passed gosford somewhile back, fark car worse, car so bad that trucks are honking me and flashing at me whilst im chugging along in left lane, had to get off highway, took next exit, ended up on old pac doing downhill, thought i would make it back to gosford, old pac started to go uphill.

Bang car died would not restart, no lights around, one bar of phone reception, had been relaying details to gf on phone about my whereabouts incase i was killed.

anyways, called a LEGEND towie, waited 2 hours, (he came from syd) 2 cars passed me and only one stopped.

Verdict, $300 tow home, $300 bosch fuel pump brand new the next day (first time replaced it with a 2nd handy)

[SilverECR33]

Well ok here goes,

It was quite a shock, I really wasnt expecting it, it was early in the morning and stuff, u know half asleep, and u cant even open ur eyes properly. maybe cause im a smoker, i know one day ive got to quit.. hmm i say that so much, which i never seem to be able to do, 1 time i lasted 3 days, that was it.. yea..

Oh yea.. anyhow, I was so shocked, and it like was so loud. it scared me, i wasnt ready for it to break, i dont think i took much care to begin with always opening it up hard , got in trouble for it alot. Not just off mum!, but even my mrs.. then again she does it too.. hmm wats the go there.. i dunno but .. what was i talking about again?..

Ohhh. yea.. thats right.. I opend the fridge door and the Shelf fell of and Everything broke!!! OMG PK!

[R32Abuser]

1st week of owning my 93 32 Gts-T i was driving around and noticed the clutch pedal started to get really heavy...Kept driving andyway i was probably about 0.5km from home and the thing would not go into first. Having just got my liscense i was like shit ive done a clutch, its all over. Anyway got home (just) and the next morning clutch pedal was flimsy as macca's cheese. Blown master cylinder on the clutch, 250 later from Mr. Nissan and she was all sweet.

Driving around in town in adelaide and i noticed the idle revs were getting low and the lites seem to be dimming, so i did all in my power to keep the thing from stalling, but allbeit still stalled and was stranded for and hour and a half waiting for the old boy to take a look. Jump started the car for about 15 mins and then had to ring the tits outa it to get it home without running outa power. One alternator dead the next day. Not only this, about 6 months later it died again but in not so hazardous situation.

Another time driving from a mates house across town, i noticed the car didnt seem to want to boost at all, and would just backfire and splutter and have a big shit anytime i put my foot down. Anyway got home went to start the car in the morning...Dead as a doorknob. One fuel pump later (which was supposed to be higher flowing than stock...which it WASNT when i replaced it with an 040 earlier this year) and she was all sweet again.

Bushes have been f**ked and creaking for about a year now (money problems) which apparently done before i got the car.

Hmmmm thats bout all, but there are others, interesting to see im not the only one with that much bad luck.

[N1GTR]

Ive done my fair share of driveshaft and CV joint combo due to a broken engine mount

Just the CV itself was $220 each time, driveshafts are a lot more than that, and i have 3 broken ones here i use for paperweights. Expensive paperweights.

First one: I was going for a drive with a mate who's never been in a GTR, but he has a Porsche so he wanted to know the handling differences etc, anyway i gave it some stick in 1st on his driveway (about 150m) which is a corrugated concrete type......which was fine until there were oil/grease covered parts flying out from the spokes of my rims and hitting the wall next to me, that was the first one. That involved a tow truck and all the fun that comes with that.

Second one: Got it fixed, went to give it a test, seemed ok. Was driving to get a wheel alignment done and had to do a 3 point turn, as soon as it reached 3000rpm all i hear is a familiar BANG..crack...crack...crack and the shocks through the steering of course

Third one: (After another tow truck) Got it fixed by someone else (who i fully trust), they called me up and said to come drive it and see what i thought, being busy at work, i asked them to gently warm it up then give it a heap of stick, cause i didnt want to go all that way (nowhere close to my house or work) to drive it and break it again, they warmed it up, took it out, broke it.

Fourth one: The same workshop called me and said what happened, so i arranged for more parts, and being quite sick of the whole saga, i asked them to see if there was ANYTHING else not right on it - so i would just get everything fixed at once, they found the drivers side engine mount had given up, so, another CV and driveshaft was ordered aswel as nismo mounts - problem solved

Im really disapointed the first guy didnt notice what the second guys did - but you get what you pay for. The second guys have seen the car a lot since for upgrades though as they did such a good job

Oh, i also thought id killed a clutch on a hills run, which is about 130k's from home, limped it back home. Organised a new clutch and all that, only to find on the day i had to drive it to the workshop (it was going well enough to make the trip....just) that i couldnt engage any gears, so a tow truck later, it arrived half a day late. Turns out there was a small leak which was a $19.00 fix with the generous help of another GTR owner. New clutch, installation and oils etc was paid for, so that all cost me about $2400 instead of $19.00.

But its worth it when you can do this:

[Phantom32]

first week i got the skyline, i got pretty excited and was driving along eastern freeway with my mate in his also newly bought VL turbs.

we were doing some pretty stupid speeds from springy road all the way to hoddle. At one stage the car stalled at high speed, thought nothing of it, put it in neutral, car turned on and continued at crzy speeds til we hit hoddle.

at hoddle, the car stalled again, this time it wouldn't start. Smelt something burning then next thign we now a sh*tload of smoke is coming out form under the bonnet.

push the car to the side of the road, life the bonnet and HEAPS of smoke comes out - coulda cooked bacon and eggs on the engine.

One of the water lines to the turbo has split at some stage early in the evening, water dumped out on the road leaving none in the engine.

End result - did the head gasket and warped the head itsfel by a few degrees

Cost me heaps to fix up as the head had to be machined and acid dipped and all that.

**This was done in my early and dumb days, never again and strongly advise that no one else does it either**

[R33TOM]

it seems to me all these "surprise breakages" are from R32's, must be their old age catching up to them

[Abo Bob]

Yup, us guys with newer cars don't have these problems, we just blow the whole engine.

[SoFreshSoClean]

Not me with my stocker skyline! Never had anything go wrong except an ABS wheel speed sensor

[gtst25]

Yep a lot of r32's BUT also a fair bit of dodgy stuff going on too - a lesson to learn here don't buy if you're not sure what you're getting.

Also note that these are small problems when you take into consideration the amount of abuse/k's these cars would have taken to finally break.

Cheers

[LightAssassin]

1993 R33 GTS-T

Replaced all studs, only 4 broke in total but replaced all of them anyway.

Rear shockie leaked all it's fluid out, replaced both rear shockies.

Front left wheel bearing going, goes into Nissan Thursday to have both front bearings replaced.

Atmo BOV causing backfire/idle issues, replaced with standard plumb back bov.

Dodgey front speaker wiring, replaced with new properly installed wires.

Original gearknob falling to pieces, replaced with Nismo leather knob.

Rear seat bottom half not bolted in, found bolts on the floor and bolted back in.

Passenger side door lock not working, found all the rods were bent got lock smith to fix.

Pod without mounting bracket... it was just sitting there on the I/C piping jumping around, replaced with Apexi kit with bracket.

Small hole in sidewall of front passenger side tyre, new tyres all round soon.

Digital Climate control buttons broke off, fixed them... took me 3 hours!

Centre console latch not holding, fixed it.

I'm upto 2 months owning the car now... *sigh* Almost due for it's major service (already have parts).

I bought a boost controller... that isn't fitted. Was going to purchase a FMIC and fuel pump but was waiting to get all my "small" issues fixed, and get everything tuned (has SAFC II already, cat back exhaust, Apexi Pod Filter). So here I am just fixing all the issues.

I can at least say if anybody buys it off me they won't have bullshit things appear like this. Yes I got a RACQ check, yes I looked over the car and had somebody else do it too.

Freaking car... I love it, but hate it all at the same time!

Edited November 28, 2006 by LightAssassin

[fr0st]

Had my power steering belt slip off the pulley and get munched when I hit rev limiter. To its credit, I'm pretty sure it was an original belt and the rubber was pretty much stuffed. $30 and 15 minutes putting it in and its all good again

[mad082]

95 r33 gts-t.

4 broken head studs (replaced all of them)

broken pivot bolt in clutch (6 hours lying on the floor under the car, and cost me 90 cents)

noisey front wheel bearing

noisey throw out bearing

had a fan belt starting to come apart

few cracked vacuum hoses

and for some reason the back tyres don't last anywhere near as long as the front.......... don't know why that could be.......

[LightAssassin]

and for some reason the back tyres don't last anywhere near as long as the front.......... don't know why that could be.......

Too much weight on the front... causing a loss of traction.

Please say no to fat chicks sitting on your bonnet while you drive, it will cost you in rear tyres!

[gts-4 dreamer]

so far, 97 s2 25 t, thrust bearing, my importer told me due to quick shift kit rubbing on clutch and building up small grit... not good for anything ! originally took to importer to fix issue, got back and was normal again for all of a week, bastard sprayed wd40 on the clutch and left it as it came back 2 weeks later, he stated above reason so now my car makes a high pitch squeeking sound on idle or while clutch engaged to gear, depress clutch sound goes away, crap... rear seal on gb where tailshaft meets gb, leaking gb oil, awsome, just refilled with redline shockproof light and hwile there find out hey... frign leak !, sooo next on my list... hmmmm got my cat back, got my front mount, want to purchase btmbl front/dump + thin body cat on next group buy.

[ctjet]

i bought a skyline... thats my horror story of a saga

[MANWHORE]

meh, half of the stuff that has been said above, was probably because the cars were either old, and or cheap and or the repair job was not done properly.

[gts-4 dreamer]

unfortanetly mine wasnt cheap, pretty dammed good except for thos 2 listen problems.

well its second hand.... wasnt expecting perfection but was looking for it eh

[Ruffels]

Hi Everyone.

I use my R32 as my company vehicle, which makes it a great for writing off "mecahnical repairs" on tax, but its a pain in the ass when things break... like today.

Today was a busy as day for me today. Left my first customer and was 1/2 a block from the second customer, pressed in the clutch to change gears and I hear something snap and the clutch pedal hits the floor and something falls on my clutch foot. Oh CRAP!

Drove the rest of the way there in 2nd gear, pulled over and discovered that what i'd felt fall on my foot was a piece of heavy gauge fence wire. It had been used to attach the clutch pedals upper support to the chassis. It had been put in there back from when my GTS4 was an auto and had been converted to a manual. I don't know if that was when it was in Japan or australia... but JESUS CHRIST I am so over finding supprises.

Fixing it took a half hour where I got a nice high tensile 10mm bolt and bolted it to the chassis. Clutch has never felt so good as it does now.

I've lost count of how many of these supprises i've come accros with this car....

Broken exhaust studs

Overheating due to blocked radiator (found after replacing water pump)

Dodgy as hell stereo wiring...

Its just a fuse (said the owner)... replaced aircon clutch and a shit load of wiring later...

Who else has been screwed by dodgy work done by previous owners? Post up your story and share your pain!

Cheers,

Ian

oh my god, you sound like my long lost brother!

i too have a gts4, found out little supprises every day

found out that it used to be auto, and has been converted....

also over heated due to blocked radiator (blew the head gasket, and only got it home this morning from the mechanics, new timing belt, idler, tensioner, headgasket, shaved head, new water pump, new valve stem seals, every gasket replaced, every hose replaced, new radiator, new thermostat, new clutch fan, etc list goes on)

broekn exhaust studs (its a common skyline thing) but yeah many of those borken for me too, now fixed

air con not working either

and dodgy stereo wring,

list goes on ... not to mention when i bought it, it had a full 1989 browny gts-t interior, how ever its a 1993 model and should have the bluey grey velour

lol.. just got home from bout 6km away in 3rd gear all the way, coz i couldnt get it into any gears

just lucky i got all the lights... hmm so shoul be getting towed to mechanics again soon

*sigh*