Nissan PULSAR,hatchback

bulldogod, Nov 9, 9:16pm
What are these cars like! Looking for good reliable first car for daughter, if they are 4wd fulltime then do they use more gas!
mugenb20b, Nov 9, 10:44pm
Nissan Pulsar in general is a good car. They can have the odd minor electrical problem. Personally, unless you really need it, I'd keep away from 4wd models, and they will use a little bit more fuel. If it's an auto, make sure it's shifting smoothly and check the fluid level, colour / condition. If manual, make sure it changes gears smoothly, even when cold, make sure there's no whining sounds and that it doesn't pop out of any gears under load.
morrisman1, Nov 10, 1:37am
yea fulltime 4wd will add about 5% drag or thereabouts which means it will use a little more fuel, but nothing really significant. the added complexity of the 4wd version means its harder to get to some components, like the starter motor if it has an SR18 engine in it.

Speaking of engines, do you know if it is the 1500cc GA15 or the 1800cc SR18 engine, or even the 2000cc turbo SR20DET

Don't worry about reliability of these, they are pretty much as good as you will get. Insurance will be cheap, petrol pretty good especially if its a 95-99 shape one, they seem to be a bit better on gas than the earlier ones even though the engines are much the same.
bulldogod, Nov 10, 5:31am
Thanks for the info, I dont know what motor it is, one model Im looking at is Nissan Lucino 1995
mm12345, Nov 10, 6:08am
If it's a 4WD, then as mugenb20b says, stay away from it.
A plain "vanilla" 1500cc lucino/pulsar/sunny of that vintage is fine as a first car, cheap parts, mainly easy to work on, pretty economical - drive perfectly well - but not exciting (which is a good thing for a new driver IMO).
They do have a few issues, oil leaks, MAF sensor failure is common, but generally bullet-proof, including the auto trans (get it checked out before you buy).
spongefrisk, Nov 10, 7:52am
I have got a new NZ model. 1996 sentra hatch. Has a 1600 cc motor.
Had it for about 9 years now to run to work in.open road driving about a 60km round trip. Has now done 287000 kms.
In the time I have had it. From about 90,000 kms. I have done the brake cylinders, left front wheel bearing, replaced the fan resistor (cheap to do) and just serviced it every 10,000 kms. That's about it other than the usual tyres and wiper blades etc etc. oh some of the door trim material had to be reglued on.the foam underneath perished with age and it started coming off.
The only issue I now have with it is I am bored with driving it! It just keeps going. But I will get rid of it soon and treat myself to something a bit more comfortable to travel in.
megelo, Nov 10, 8:00am
I've had my Nissan pulsar hatchback for 5yrs. a good reliable car. Only had a few minor things needed doing.
morrisman1, Nov 10, 11:18am
Manual ones have a habit of gumming up the clutch cable, cheap and easy fix but often you don't realise how bad it was until you replace it! Symptoms are a heavy pedal and the clutch not biting very well.

They drive fairly well but benefit greatly from a stiffer rear sway bar. The factory ones on n14 you can almost bend to touch the ends together! n15 I don't think has a sway bar at the back, it has a multi-link beam setup which is particularly good, has more grip than the IRS setup on the n14 stock for stock.

My 91 sentra, 300,000km on the clock and all I have done to it is:
~ fan resistor
~ front wheel bearing
~ gearbox (old one was obviously not maintained at all!)

They are good cars but getting long in the tooth now and safety is questionable in them due to their design age. Cheap to run and cheap to maintain. I personally wouldn't run from 4wd as long as the running gear was in good condition.
bitchwitattitud, Nov 10, 9:32pm
I wouldnt go near it, find a 2WD one. The 4WDs have a 3 piece driveshaft and are expensive to replace hanger bearings. Rear shocks, rear brakes and hubs are all expensive to repair/replace.
mm12345, Nov 10, 9:57pm
Fan resistor seems common - had to do mine too.
Just to throw a minor spanner in the works, ours (97 GA15de pulsar) has done >200,000km now.Bought at 80,000km. Cracked head at 110,000km.I never stripped it down fully to try and find out why, perhaps water pump, perhaps something else.No sign of any issue beforehand, not running hot, no leaks, clean coolant, clean oil.
It was fine one day - dead the next. I bought a low km engine for $400, fitted it, no problems since, and I still think they're pretty reliable generally.
No matter how reliable a car is reputed to be, sometime sh*t happens, and even if you check it out thoroughly, sometimes you just get unlucky or miss some warning sign that might have been there.
morrisman1, Nov 10, 11:11pm
ive heard of them blowing head gaskets but never heard of one cracking a head. I guess anything can happen. The heads are a pretty crappy design as far as performance goes but unless you are chasing power then its not an issue.
mm12345, Nov 11, 4:30am
Was a bit messy.It pumped oil - a lot of it - into the coolant system, the coolant hose under the inlet manifold went ka-boom, and hot orange margarine went everywhere:
http://i50.tinypic.com/qst6a8.jpg
Cleaning the engine bay wasn't fun.
It might have been the gasket, but end result was that the head was cracked anyway.
morrisman1, Nov 11, 4:59am
yuck.
mm12345, Nov 11, 5:11am
Yep - brown oil & bright green coolant makes something that looks like it came out of a sick cat's arse.
The entire cooling system was full of it too - that was fun.No visible water in the oil though - or what was left of the oil.
I'm guessing it pumped very hot oil in fast, radiator cap couldn't keep up - and something had to give.
austingtir, Nov 12, 4:09am
Theres nothing wrong with the sr18 powered 4wd ones.The drivetrain is similar to a gtir except the gearbox is a 32 series instead of a 50 series.The 32 series manual is perfectly strong and reliable for that engine.IF looked after they should do very high mileage like all the 2ltr sentras you see on here.The problem is finding a sr18 manual 4wd.VERY rare.

Avoid the autos nissan autos in general are average.They are generally reliable but imo dont perform that well.

And avoid the ga15 motor its worth the bit extra to get the sr18 over it.
austingtir, Nov 12, 4:12am
That is extremely unusual for the hangers on the 3 piece driveshaft to fail.IF that happened to you thats incredibly unlucky or something else may have happened to your car like being lifted by a forklift when it was imported or something.
morrisman1, Nov 12, 4:27am
interestingly the pulsar 4wd with the sr18de has the low port primera engine in it, I don't know what kind of power its putting out then because the GTi has a high port engine and 140hp.

The low port has a roller rocker head on it and is a better design than the earlier ones from a reliability point of view.
morrisman1, Nov 12, 4:40am
I spotted that, I dunno whats up with the black engine bay though, could be a bit of history there. Its also the only one without that gay spare tyre on the back!