1990 240sx: Rain leaking into trunk & Power seatbelt problem & Knocking noise.

[XxBLiNdxX]

Hope i'm doing the topic right and I guess I should of done a search but I figured I would lead by example by making this topic searchable.

I have a couple problems and would like some info on how to fix.

1) When it rains I get water into my car. BIG problem since I'm in California and everybody remembers last year.It leaks into my trunk probably from the headlights but I'm not sure where to start lookinh. Some also gets some how on the back seat bucket area. It creates mold when it rains for a while.It build up in the trunk about 2-4 inches of water in the spare tire area when it rains pretty good. Please help on how I can solve this problem?

2) Power seatbelt problem. The mnotor for it sounds like it is working well, but it stopped going back and forth after it looked liek it was dying since it would only go half way. I can now move the seatbelt assembly on the rack but can't get it back on track. Is there a easy way to fixed this?

3) knocking noise: It was happening when I rebuilt my engine and would happen all teh time. I changed my oil at 500 miles since the engine was rebuilt and put Full Synthetic Plantinum $5 a quart oil and put it in. Now The knocking noise goes away pretty quick but still there and at start up I get aceeheeeeeeeeheheh Those that explain thje noise?...lol Lets just saw a load rattle for about 2-3 seconds and light rattle for about 2 minutes.Any suggestions?

Hope I did my thread title right. Please everyone lead by example and make this forum searchable by doing the topics coorect and lowering the NISTECHS load since he is helping everybody out here for FREE! So let's give him a hand and make this better for everybody. Refer to the topic at the top of the page. THANKS

[NISTECH]

Hope i'm doing the topic right and I guess I should of done a search but I figured I would lead by example by making this topic searchable.

I have a couple problems and would like some info on how to fix.

1) When it rains I get water into my car. BIG problem since I'm in California and everybody remembers last year.It leaks into my trunk probably from the headlights but I'm not sure where to start lookinh. Some also gets some how on the back seat bucket area. It creates mold when it rains for a while.It build up in the trunk about 2-4 inches of water in the spare tire area when it rains pretty good. Please help on how I can solve this problem?

Pop your trunk and run a garden hose in the channel between your trunk seal and the edge of the trunk opening. let the water run down over your tail lights. Look inside the trunk where the tail lights come throuh the body. See if water is coming in around the lights. If so you need to remove your tail lights, COMPLETELY remove ALL the old seal goo from the light and the body of the car. Remove the bulk of it with a putty knife,coat the putty knife with pust penetrant [PB blaster or something similar] This keeps the goo from sticking to the knife. coat it frequently during removal. After you get the bulk of it off the car and light use a rag soaked in brake clean to wipe the body down. DO NOT spray brake clean directly on the paint , it will destroy your clear coat.Dont let the rag contact the paint outside the tail light are as it to can damage your clear coat. On the light itself ,sparingly spray brake clean on the channel the goo is in and wipe clean with that same rag. Dry both surfaces well then use some household rubbing alchol to clean both areas and air dry. You are now ready to lay down you new weather sealer. You can buy the sealer at your local dealer. Just ask them for some tail light sealer they know what it is. You lay it all the way around the light in the channel. only one pass is needed put the start and finish point at the bottom of the light so it is down and over lap it about an inch. reinstall the light.

2) Power seatbelt problem. The mnotor for it sounds like it is working well, but it stopped going back and forth after it looked liek it was dying since it would only go half way. I can now move the seatbelt assembly on the rack but can't get it back on track. Is there a easy way to fixed this?

Your belts should still be under lifetime warranty take it in and have it repaired.

3) knocking noise: It was happening when I rebuilt my engine and would happen all teh time. I changed my oil at 500 miles since the engine was rebuilt and put Full Synthetic Plantinum $5 a quart oil and put it in. Now The knocking noise goes away pretty quick but still there and at start up I get aceeheeeeeeeeheheh Those that explain thje noise?...lol Lets just saw a load rattle for about 2-3 seconds and light rattle for about 2 minutes.Any suggestions?

You are going to need to try and isolate where this is coming from. Is it from the upper end or lower end of the engine? is it a knock or rattle? You can use a long screw driver or a engine stethescope and listen for where the noise is loudest. Another trink that tends to isolate engine noise is to pull plug wires one at a time while its making the noise. If the noise suddenly goes away you have determined its lower end ie rod bearing crank bearing in some cases.

Hope I did my thread title right. Please everyone lead by example and make this forum searchable by doing the topics coorect and lowering the NISTECHS load since he is helping everybody out here for FREE! So let's give him a hand and make this better for everybody. Refer to the topic at the top of the page. THANKS

Aww some one that reads stickies Your thread is perfect. I appreciate your help big time. The site is getting busier and busier and so is my life so its becoming increasingly more difficult to keep up on it. Fortunitly Chris has been puttin in more time lately as well so we are hangin in there.

[teddy]

The oem sealer for tail lights is rubber butyl I believe. Aside from the dealership, you can purchase this at a parts store like Napa for fairly cheap.

[XxBLiNdxX]

sigh....; ; <<<<<<<<< tears. Well i think it was the timing chain and those cheap bastard palstic guides or something. I was driving on teh freeway and snap. Sou8nds like teh timing chain is beating the inside of teh block at least tahta's what I'm praying it is. I guess I'm goign to have it towed back to my house tomorrow since I don't want to risk damaging it anymore. What shoudl I check first? There goes my whole freaking THanksgiving weekend.

[slipnfall]

I don't think your timing chain actually snapped: the engine would(highly unlikely) run at all. If that 's the case count on plenty of bent valves. The chain is external to the block BTW, beneith the front covers. My guess is you threw a rod or spun a bearing.

Good luck, let us know what you find out.Jamie

[XxBLiNdxX]

LoL, well I look like an *** and feel ripped off but here was my problem.

I did compression test on my car and I left the extender in the number 4 port and hook the spark plug up withpout knowing I did this. It ran fine for a while but then the 2" extender which I had no idea was in there burst and just fed up my timing and sounded extremely bad. The shop tehcnician also told me the spark plugs I had in there were the wrost kind I could get(Buosh Platinum+2). I still have a small chain rallte when I sccelerate but I figured I could fix that withe a new tensionor and new guides. Yeah I was hoping I didn't suck any valves or bend them since they were all fairly new, like only 1200 miles. So I drove for 1200 miles with a compression tester extenderholding the psark into place. Rookie mistake? lol\

Ohh yeha I feel ripped off since I got charged $156.25 for 4 new spark plugs.

[slipnfall]

Well that's good news, I suppose. Could have been worse, right? :-) Yeah $156 is pretty darn steap for just plugs, but how long did it take them? You probably racked up some shop charges for diagnosis. BTW I wouldn't use anything other than NKG BKRE5-11 plugs for the 240sx...they're called split-fires, but it's a single-electrode style.

[slipnfall]

Just to add to NISTECH's post: the lights are probably 90% of your water problems. However if you are getting it in the rear passenger footwell also(and it's not overflowing from the hatch area), check the weatherstrip/retainer above the doors. Look down at an angle(like you were on the roof looking down between the body and retainer): make sure there's a seal in there. You can use the water-hose method to make sure water is channeled away properly. On my coupe the sealant pulled away and allowed water to run directly down insite my B-pillar, and pool in the footwells.

[NISTECH]

I dont think 156 is too high in todays market for what they had to do. We generally charge 1 hour for a tune up which only includes replacing the plugs ,shooting timing and setting your base idle. Our shop hourly rate just went up and is $102 an hour [we are in california] The plugs your cost are I'm guessing in the neighbor hood of $4 bucks a peice x4 which brings just your tune up to $118. Which means they only charged you ~ a half hour for diag. In our shop you wouldnt of gotten away with less then an hours diag on top of the tune. comes out around $220. They had to remove the broken extender and recheck compression to be sure the peices didnt damage the valves or piston, and they threw in a whole new set. you got a fair deal. Besides you wouldnt of been paying that had you not made the mistake right? Consider it a pricey lesson on attention to detail when working on your car. Not to worry we all make mistakes I made a major fubar on a customers car 6 months or so ago being in to much of a hurry to get the job done. It was a $2500+ mistake. Fortunitly I was driving the car when the problem presented itself. My lesson was not only limited to the financial cost to fix the problem it was also one of the scariest things to ever happen to me while driving a car. I got the double whammy lesson with that mistake.

[slipnfall]

Put into perspective, yeah I can agree w/that price. I havn't had any experiance with labor charges. The only time was with a CONSULT diagnostic, it was ~$60/hr, and they pro-rated for the 20mins it took them, which I thought was cool.

[XxBLiNdxX]

Yeah I'm just used to my old mechanic that would of looked at it for me for free and would of just told me to buy new spark plugs, since they tore down his shop to build condos...bastards..... I got stuck with this guy. WHat cna you do except fork out the cash. Doesn't matter in two years I will be doing this all over again but with tons more cash to build my baby to show quality. In my dreams.

[NISTECH]

Yeah I'm just used to my old mechanic that would of looked at it for me for free and would of just told me to buy new spark plugs, since they tore down his shop to build condos...bastards..... I got stuck with this guy. WHat cna you do except fork out the cash. Doesn't matter in two years I will be doing this all over again but with tons more cash to build my baby to show quality. In my dreams.

He couldnt afford to stay in buisness otherwise he would have opened another shop.Thats why we cant do things for free. The bills need to be payed so we dont close down. In our buisness the TIME is the money. Thats what you are paying for.

[XxBLiNdxX]

It wasn't how much he couldn't afford to stay in business it was the building was leased out to like 12 difefrent mechanic shops and they all got pu tout on the street. He couldn't find a place to go since in this area there isn't that much retail space available to mechanics since it was all taken up. THe Santa Barbara area is horrible. He was a relal nice guy though, i got quoted $500 on something and he did it for $210.