What cheap RWD car to buy for winter? 200SX? E30 beemer?

[Jezz]

There's no such thing

Eh?

[tDR]

There is no s14b.... only the s14 if we're being pedantic (official line) but owners of the facelifted s14 are known to call them an s14a.

[Jezz]

Oh ok. They all call them that when they call to ask for parts. Guess you learn summit new every day!

[GeordieSteve]

Jezzy.... PM be details please

[Jezz]

Pm sent mate.

[Nick1980]

I happen to know where there's a s14b for £1250

 

Hmmmm, interesting......not sure if I really like the S14 though tbh - something dodgy about its rear end! That's very cheap though....what's wrong with it?

 

Does anyone know anything about E36 Bmw's? They're very cheap now too and are meant to be more refined, but I've heard they're less fun than the E30's?

[monkey3]

I don't know how interested you are, but I actually have an e30 318i that I will be selling shortly (although probably a bit too much for what you want to spend).

 

The reason being is that I've had it for 5 years and spent an absolute fortune on it (£2500 for an e36 motorsport body kit and full respray for example).

I got it originally and after about 6 months discovered that the cam was shagged and bits of it had fallen off, so went about rebuilding the engine.

Needless to say, I got carried away and did a full rebuild.

 

I then went down the route of twin weber 45s, spent untold on it and it never ran quite right. Anyway, at the beginning of this year, I decided enough was enough and that I should get a real car and so I did.

 

Currently in the process of putting it back to normal fuel injection, but since having the supe, I just can't be bothered.

 

Anyway, I would heartily (spelling?) recommend an e30 (mine or otherwise) as they are a really fun car to drive.

[Nick1980]

Cheers Monkey, sounds like you've spent quite a lot of money and effort on yours, but I only really want a motor that I can have fun in this winter but not really care about if anything happens to it, and I'd feel guilty doing that to your car! Plus, like you said, you probably want more for it than I want to spend

 

Thanks for the recommendation though - seems like an E30 is probably the best option if I don't end up getting a supe anytime soon. Unless anyone has any other suggestions of course.............

[piehound]

whoo hoo this 1 i do know about

 

i had an s13 for years great car great fun but the tailgates always rust and they are prone to big end failure i know mine did . but for the right money you cant go wrong .

i now have an s14 which is a diffrent animal much smoother ,more powerful no major isues unless its a s14 not a 14a which case the manifolds crack, too easy fix though if you source an 14a one and swap em over , i did .

mines got full service history just hit 100k and drives better then most 40k cars , in 3 years and over 50k miles i have had to change the fuel pump as it failed , other than that the only things i have had to do is plugs etc all part of the servicing, mine isnt standard either its running 14psi boost which really gives you a kick in the ass at 2.8-3k rpm so theres an abundance of power.

it weighs nothing and is a whole lot of fun in the wet or dry, as for speed well its got plenty of that i have seen over 150 leptons on mine 1 spirited drive back from south wales on a private road of course and it had more in it although at that speed its drinking fuel like a soop lol

mines up for sale at the mo over on the sxoc for £2800 and is a fine car.

if i hadnt found the soop i would drive it until it dies and trust its reliability to go anywhere anytime , in fact the soop and the 200 are up for sale and the first to go i will quite happily keep the other, if you get a good well serviced 200 you will not have any probs at all, the other thing with the 14a is and the intercooler pipes crack cheap fix but still a pain

 

in fact now mines here in case anyones wants it http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=53087

[Nick1980]

Bout bloody time you replied Piehound, did you not see your name in the first post?!

 

TBH it would have to be a S13 if I went for a 200SX. Anything in particular you think I should be looking for to avoid a crap one?

[piehound]

yeah if aint got full service history leave it alone

the tubbies do go around 70k depending on how they have been handled

also the tubby gaskets go its not exspensive but its a tw*t of a job to do

also the tie rod bushes fail (cheap and easy 10 mins to swap bars over)

try to get an exuctive as its got leather and aircon and look for the facelift fella after a k reg i think , check the bolster on the drivers seat , the brakes are cheapy cheap for discs about £50 a pair if you need em, fuel pumps can fail anytime after 50k with no warning and if you stall it when its cold it will not start until you take the fuel pump fuse out and turn it over

 

thats all the known faults so go get 1 just be weary of the big ends as they do let go fast when they do, listen carefully to them when you view

[Nick1980]

Cheers dude, much more info than I was expecting

 

I have absolutely no idea how to listen for a dodgy big end though!

[piehound]

if it sounds like its got a grumbly belly then leave it alone , its like a low down grumble to start with , top end is a higher pitched rattle like a tapping/rattely noise, which you wont hear anyway as nissans dont really do this ever ,

or to put it another way if it dont sound right leave it alone or ask someone who knows to check it out , if your buying a 13 it should sound like a sewing machine no noise at all only a clicking from the injectors

[Nick1980]

if it sounds like its got a grumbly belly then leave it alone ,

 

Now that's the kind of laymans term I can understand! Cheers bud!

[Jake]

i now have an s14 which is a diffrent animal

no major isues unless its a s14 not a 14a which case the manifolds crack, too easy fix though if you source an 14a one and swap em over

 

Interesting but confusing. Can you explain the differences between an s14 and a s14a and a 14a please?

 

(I might be looking for a cheap Supra-alternative weekday car soon)

 

Cheers

[piehound]

the s14a has the more slanted headlights,2 cats ,difffrent speedo and rev counter , the touring has side skirts and they sem to use clarion not sony stereos other than that there are very few diffrences 1 being the manifold is stronger on the 14a and it does not have an egr pipe (exhaust gas recirculater) which does sod all anyway exept make the 14 run a it uneven so we just take em off when doing the manifold swap, mines done, come and buy mine jake lol you will be impressed

[tDR]

yeah if aint got full service history leave it alone

the tubbies do go around 70k depending on how they have been handled

also the tubby gaskets go its not exspensive but its a tw*t of a job to do

also the tie rod bushes fail (cheap and easy 10 mins to swap bars over)

try to get an exuctive as its got leather and aircon and look for the facelift fella after a k reg i think , check the bolster on the drivers seat , the brakes are cheapy cheap for discs about £50 a pair if you need em, fuel pumps can fail anytime after 50k with no warning and if you stall it when its cold it will not start until you take the fuel pump fuse out and turn it over

 

thats all the known faults so go get 1 just be weary of the big ends as they do let go fast when they do, listen carefully to them when you view

 

I've listened to (and worked on lol) a number of s13's with big ends gone, at different stages of severity and many people are easily fooled that it's a top end rattle in the early stages - in 99% of cases it's the BE's on the way out. The best way to promote the BE's noise is to hold revs around 4k from the throttle body butterfly.... then let revs fall to about 2.5k and quickly blip the throttle again - early cases of BEs will make a distinct higher pitched rattle then.

 

Agree on turbo / manifold gaskets - a bitch of a job to do.... those 2nd and 3rd mani nuts underneath are an absolute to get.... and if you wanna do the mani -> turbo gasket with everything in situ, you'll need to bend a spanner to have one end at a 90deg angle. My preference is to just take the whole mani / turbo / drain assembly off together - the only problem then is the water pipes can be a bit of a bitch to get back on. And tbh, if you need to do this job on an s13 you're just as well to swap the T25 tubby to a T28 off an s14/a - perfect time to do it and will see you to 280+ bhp with the right supporting mods.

 

Pie - think the s13 exec was only available in '91 m8... most of the late models have leather, aircon and CD player anyways... as well as a pesky CAT. My '94 did anyways. The CAT can be instantly ditched though as no s13 needs one to pass the MOT (Nissan never presented emissions figures to the DVLA for an s13 with CAT).

 

I have a few short vids of my modded s13 - some on track at Knockhill and another of it flaming away lol. I'll upload em and post on here if you like.

 

HTH,

 

Brian.

[johnd-mkiv]

dont get an E36 bmw they are boring my sister has a 318is and my e30 was a lot quicker and more fun to drive. after driving my supra just over a week I would recomend the E30 over the s13 as they both catch you by suprise in the same way but the supra is a bit more controlable.

I was looking at the same thing you are doing if I could not find a supra and my choice was and e30 but a 325I;)