Reliable

[Omer F. Khan]

My '92 is hovering around 250,000 miles and it seems to me that it was 
way more reliable when I was autocrossing it every other weekend, taking 
it to trackdays, and generally driving it like I was running from the 
authorities.  I should note that I did rebuild the engine right after I 
bought it many years ago which has around 140k miles now.

In the last 6 years of it's life has been just daily driving to and from 
work, mostly in bumper to bumper traffic.  Sure, I won't lie, I still 
try and find the rev limiter a few times every week just to make sure 
the 'ol girl still has it.  She does.... but parts seemed to be going 
bad at an exponential rate the last few years. 

The transmission had 5th gear pop-out.  3 clutch plates have broken (all 
stock nissan, the springs just pop right out of the retaining plate).  
The alternator died no less than 4 times, which I finally fixed by 
getting a used one from an Altima which has higher output.  The gas 
lines broke, luckily while I put it up on ramps to change the oil.  The 
cat converter died.  Most of the valve lifters collapsed and I swapped 
them out with new ones. The A/C has stopped working for the 2nd time 
since I owned it. The stiff suspension has created creaks and groans 
that make me wonder if the front clip is just going to fall off one day 
while I'm driving... really, they are quite loud... I'd better check the 
rockers for rust... There are a few more dents in it than I remember... 
and on and on.

Even still, every time I go look at purchasing another car I just feel 
dirty and come running home to my classic.  I've tried out quite a few 
cars and the only one I found to give me close to the grin factor is a 
Mini Cooper S.  It's just too small though and used ones just don't 
depreciate.  Eh.

To be fair, since I fixed everything last year it has been relatively 
trouble free for the last 6 months. It's probably just a combination of 
the car getting old and the fact that I need to drive the snot out of it 
more often.

It's 5pm.  It's time for me to go find an off-ramp.  <grin>

Omer Khan
'92 White SE-R
'93 Range Rover Classic - Resto in progress
'99 Volvo S80 - The wife's "nice" car






Raymond A. Kawski wrote:
> So the battery died on my Max because of a stupid bug with the remote start that was just put in not turning the headlights off.     
>
> So I couldn't drive it this morning.   The Titan is getting the remote start put in today.  I tried to fit the battery from 98SE Turbo in the max and it didn't fit.  
>
> So I decided to just drive the 18 year old 381,000 mile SE-R because the weather was supposed to be nice.   61 right now.   
>
> Well the sucker started right up after months of winter hibernation.  Only issue was a tire low on air.  
>
> Pretty awesome that at 18 years old and 381,000 miles its rock solid reliable.   
>
> RK
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