A list of faults

dancingdaisy

I was advised to come over here and ask/look for advice rather than getting myself bogged down with car finance. So if any of you kind people have some advice or ideas please feel free to contribute.


Ok, here goes...no laughing please at my pathetic car/list of problems.

I drive a 1991 Nissan Sunny, (I know, I know...) and it is falling to bits. In its defense it has been a brilliant car, I bought it for £250 6 years ago and it only had 28k on the clock, it has sailed through every MOT bar one and that was only a little bit of welding which cost £40, so I have been VERY lucky. It now only has 58K on the clock but is very poorly.

1) It jumps about like a fool every now and again, it's like I have a kangaroo in the tank, my mechanic always has a look, once he stops laughing at it, and he can't find an reason for this.

2) It loses power, especially when I overtake, try to go round a roundabout, basically in any situation when I need power.

3) It's falling to bits, all along the underneath of the car I can see peeling metal.

4) It stalls about every 50 yards when it first gets going, especially in damp weather, this is especially a concern on roundabout, junctions etc.

5) It cannot go up hills unless I hammer it in 2nd gear, sometimes even having to drop to 1st.

It does start first time though, every time. Every cloud...

Does anyone have any ideas about my list of faults? or what the peeling metal could be?

funkycoldribena

Seeing as no-one else wants to be brutally honest-I will be-its (s)crap.

dancingdaisy

LOL Thank you for your honesty.

I know it probably does need scrapping but I cannot afford another one.

It's been booked in with the mechanic at 2.30 so we shall see what he says. I dunno, you try to get yourself out of debt and get some savings behind you and they end up being swallowed up by stuff like this.

gilbert_and_sullivan

These are simple cars but you might need a mechanic of the old school to find the fault which will have to be found the old way, by a process of elimination, not by throwing new parts at it or getting the diagnostc machine to tell him.

If its not terminally rusty don't scrap it just like that, it might only need a good service, new plugs etc and the carb cleaning out, though if it has something like a burnt out exhaust valve then unless your mech is good, and cheap, it might not be worth doing.

spiro

funkycoldribena wrote: »

Seeing as no-one else wants to be brutally honest-I will be-its (s)crap.

Given they paid £250 and will probably get £50 for scrap that works out at £33.33 depriciation per annum which I reckon is brilliant in terms of money saving.

As to the 'peeling metal' this is probably called rust, lots of this era imported cars rotted away years ago.

colino

Well done for being a true moneysaving expert. If the engine is worn and a thorough service doesn't put it right it's a sensible decision to run it while its legal then throw it on ebay.

scheming_gypsy

possibly something between the dizzy cap to the spark plugs. Should cost about £40 to replace them all.

dancingdaisy

Oooh thanks all, you have cheered me up

My beast has served me well, yes she may be very old, look ugly and do 0 - 60 in 4 hours but she has been a trusty old friend. I think I would rather save her than scrap her and end up in debt.

My mechanic is brilliant, proper old school, been doing the job since Noah was a boy and he is incredibly honest, everyone I know uses him, so I trust him implicitly, if he says that she must go to the Nissan heaven in the sky then that's where she will go.

I would much rather save up enough cash and buy another car rather than pay 50% apr that's for sure!

Thanks again all.

Can you tell it is my first car?

TrickyWicky

The kangaroo thing sounds like gearbox trouble if you ask me. We had a car do this to us a few years ago and it ended up blowing a hole through the box and dropping bits of gear teeth out onto the road. Until the hole we had no idea what was wrong with it other than something was wrong.

The power loss and stalling could just be down to general servicing. Replace the air filter, new oil, new petrol filter, plugs, dizzy and HT leads etc. Fuel filters are a commonly overlooked service item yet they're easier to access and replace than many other parts.

If you've been hammering up hills in 2nd then the gearbox may well be on the way to the melting pot and it might not be cheap to replace it. I think you need to work out whats going to be best for you to do financially. I'd hit ebay and the local scrap yards and try to find a box and the cost of it.

For a first car though, you've done VERY well with it. Thats an incredible record for a first car especially considering the low mileage it had when you bought it for such a low price.

scheming_gypsy

TrickyWicky wrote: »

The kangaroo thing sounds like gearbox trouble if you ask me. We had a car do this to us a few years ago and it ended up blowing a hole through the box and dropping bits of gear teeth out onto the road. Until the hole we had no idea what was wrong with it other than something was wrong.

The power loss and stalling could just be down to general servicing. Replace the air filter, new oil, new petrol filter, plugs, dizzy and HT leads etc. Fuel filters are a commonly overlooked service item yet they're easier to access and replace than many other parts.

.

The kangarooing as well could be 'service' items as well as it can be a loss of power that's making it do it.
My Jeep did the same thing in petrol when cold but give it a rev whilst in park and it'll switch to gas and run fine. If i revved the engine when just set to petrol it'd struggle to get passed 2000 revs and just pop and bang.
Changing the HT leads has improved it, mainly as two of them just fell apart when taking them off.

dancingdaisy

It has always kangaroo'd since the first drive 6 years ago, it generally does it when I am not going at any speed and it soon sorts itself out. My mechanic has looked it over a couple of times and could not find a reason why, so I hope it's not the gearbox. It's more the losing speed that worries me as it could be dangerous. I am at that pain in the backside who sits in the slow lane of the motorway doing 60, no point trying to overtake as I lose speed not gain if I put my foot down, although if I am in a situation where I have to I find if I drop a gear it will get me past anything.

Well it's been dropped off, now I have that nervous wait by the phone waiting for the results. *gulp* My mechanic still says it's a brilliant car though for its age and the money I paid, he has MOT'd it every year and every year he tells me what a great car it is. So there is hope.