New owner of a hardbody

[Rippy]

So my new little truck is a 1994 Nissan Hardbody. 4cylinder 2.4L engine I believe its the KA24E. It has 190,xxx miles. 4x4 5spd with a rebuilt transmission and a stronger straight cut 1st gear was put in it. Runs out excellent. Excellent truck but I believe it idles a little low and could get better gas mileage. This weekend I will start with the basics check the plugs, air filter, pcv, egr, etc. Do these trucks have an IAC valve?

I'm basically posting for any advice from other Nissan owners on maybe small important things to check and keep an eye on. Common issues, max MPG's, premitive maintence stuff like that. I know these trucks have a great reputation for durability and dependability. Any kind of specs or useful information would be interesting as well, I like knowing the history and the advancement etc. of the vehicles I own. Also any engine specs and information. I think the ka24e is SOHC 3 valves per cylinder and sequential electronic fuel injection?

My previous truck was a 91 F250 7.3L International IDI diesel 4x4. so this is a big change for me lol. thanks for ur time people

[carloslebaron]

Mine is a 95, and its gas mileage has been low since new, so I guess that if your truck consumes lots of gas, such is common with this trucks (I compared the gas issue traveling to New York and coming back driving my truck and later doing the same driving a 99 Honda Accord 4 cylinders, and the refuel with the truck was twice than the Honda sedan).

Perhaps others may offer better news about this isue, I just commented what I have experienced.

Best wishes.

[Rev_D21]

Welcome to NICO and congrats on your new acquired Hardbody! KA engines do have an Idle Air Control Valve. 4x4's tend to get the lesser mileage but that's the cost of owning a great truck like the Hardbody. Feel free to check out the factory service manual at http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/hardbody/1994/

Lots of great people here willing to help you out. Enjoy your stay. Post some pics when you have a chance and register your truck in our registry.

[RT22]

My only recommendation is full tune up first thing, change oil and diff gear oil etc just so it is all new. Then full tune up plugs wires and fuel filter, and air filter. Those are the best first steps on any used vehicle so you know you are starting out with fresh fluids and tune up.Also check timing, that can make or break fuel mileage big time. Hard to say these trucks have any weak spots other than timing chain guides which break after 150k, so keep an ear out for rattle at start up. Other than that the hard body is tough and cheap to operate. but if you have any issues post here someone usually has a great answer, have learned tons here from guys on the hard body truck. ALSO real important if you have an issue and resolve it POST the fix so we all learn more. Thanks and enjoy the truck.

[Q451990]

to NICO Rippy!

I got a nice MPG bump replacing my front O2 sensor on my 97 HB at 105K. Even though the old one checked OK, I think it was getting sluggish. I have found http://www.sparkplugs.com to be a good source, and it's super easy to replace on the HB... maybe 10 minutes hood up to hood down if you have an O2 sensor socket. I think I went with the NTK OEM equivalent.

There's loads of technical information in the factory service manual... check it out at http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/

Heath

[Novajoe]

I get about 27ish in my 2wd 4cyl 5spd (mostly highway driving). Honestly thats on par with newer trucks out nowadays. I keep the truck in pretty good shape. parts are cheap so it's pretty easy to do so. I also don't drive like a madman.

if you're expecting a 4 cyl truck to get the same mpgs as a honda or other 4cyl small car then you're just misleading yourself. Personally my extended cab weighs in at about 4400lbs. (probably around 4600 with the toolbox and extras that I lug around). That's over 1000 lbs heavier than your average small 4 cyl car. Sure you'll more than likely get better mpgs than a v8 truck, but I wouldn't expect it to be cheaper than a civic or something of that nature.

honestly i think a lot of people are just measuring their mileage wrong. The nissan pickup comes with a 60 liter(about 15.9gal) fuel tank. Chances are you're not going to use all of this or you would run out of gas. Generally what i'll do is I'll fill all the way up and wait till I've driven about say 300 miles and then fill up again. take however many miles you drove on your full tank and divide it by however much gas it took to fill your tank up again. That should give you a pretty solid number on your mpgs.

I just don't see how people could be getting 20-22mpg in their 4cyl 5spd 2wd trucks without them either driving the crap out of the truck or something being wrong with it. Even having a 4wd model shouldn't affect the mileage that drastically unless of course something is wrong somewhere.

[carloslebaron]

You are correct about how incorrect was my method of checking mileage between a hardbody and a Honda Accord, still I remember that the invesment of money in gasoline was very different, the truck made me pay more money for gas regardless of the size of the gas tank.

And yes, the truck is heavier, and I think that I will test it again one of this days to see how many miles per gallon this truck of mine makes. In case the amount is very inferior to what the truck is assumed to make, I might follow the change of the O2 sensor mentioned right above, because with the price of gas today, such a change might be worthy.

Thanks for your posting.

[Rev_D21]

These days the Hardbody is lighter than most cars.

[Novajoe]

These days the Hardbody is lighter than most cars.

Most compact cars (civic, lancer, cobalt, etc) average between 31-3400lbs. Subcompacts (aveo, yaris, crz, etc) are between 2800-3200lbs. This is going off of 2010 models. mid sized sedans can average between 3500 and 4100 lbs.

Of course if you compare it to say the chevrolet colorado, which weighs in at around 5100-5500 lbs...

Another thing I'd like to mention about measuring your mileage, if you have bigger tires than usual, you're odometer is going to register lower miles than you've actually traveled. So if you've got some big swampers on your truck you're probably getting slightly better mileage than you think. Of course having big tires is going to add more rolling resistance and hurt your mileage on it's own.