Typical problems people have with the s14?

[m_240sx]

Hey there, can some of y'all who have 95 - 98 s14 tell me what some of the problems you may have encountered? Mostly if your s14 is still stock. I'd appreciate any information. Thanks,

[SoCalS14]

hmmm...yea its too slow. Need SR!!!! (or KAT for you hardcores)

[xyster]

the driver's seat recliner lever cover was broken off in my old s14. It is in my red s13 coupe, my old white s13 hatch, and my friend's s13 hatch, too.

[96_S14_SE]

In 143k miles (bought in 11/99 with 28k and all the rest have been hard with tons of drag runs and 1.5 seasons of autocross) I have had 3 problems. One is the valve cover gasket turning to plastic and leaking, which all nissans encounter and a 20 min job to replace. The other is the main harness shorting on the head killing my ignition circuit, which was a pain to daignose but an easy fix. And the last was my oil pan developed a 3/4" hole in it when a peice of L angle road debris went into it

Yup thats it Theyll run like a top for a very long time If maintaned properly their whole life... If you get one thats been neglected youll have quite a few problems like Ive seen on my ex GF's 91 that she got with 140ish thousand miles.

[candela]

I raelly have not had ANY problems with mine at all...The valve cover gasket I had to replace on mine as well, but I consider that I just happen on any car after about 100k. My recliner knob is fine as is everythign else.

Some typical S14's (s13's to) issues are 1)R. Diff plug is a ***** to get to when you want to drain and fill 2) it has a clutch dampner in it that makes it hard to bleed the clutch (http://www.240sx.org look in the faq how to fix it) 3) sunroof problems 4) stereo trim is very weak to begin with and gets brittle after time and usually cracks

Thats about all I can think of.... mine is awesome. Nissan makes great stuff, and as said above- if taken care of it will last a VERy long time.

I see you are definetly serious abotu getting an S14 from all yoru posts. They are GREAT cars man... After driving one and physically inspecting things you should be able to tell if it were taken care of. If it was taken care of then I wouldnt worry about any problems accept little maintenance things. its hard to find a abs/lsd one (mine doesnt have one)... butkeep in mind an LSd swap is very easy, plentiful and MANY people do them so dont worry all to much about that. The abs thign some people like, but I could care less about.

[extheflow]

trunk rattle...easy fix until you run out of adjustment on the latch,then it's a slightly less easy fix. and the recliner lever on drivers seat. oh yeah and lack of standard horsepower.

[whoflungpoo]

My wife's 97 (bone stock, auto, 98,000 miles): has some clearcoat peeling on the front fascia. The Cat clogged up and had to be replaced, AC trim cracked. Brakes seem to be easily warped, and squeek, rear tires wear more on the inside (but that's part of the territory when you have an independant rear suspension on a RWD car. )

My 95 (148k on chassis, 60k on transmission, 40k on engine, I/H/E, Tokico blues, Aerospeed springs, Rear upper control arm camber correction, Electric fan, ASP pulley, Battery Relocation)

I bought it with a blown head gasket, decided it would be cheaper to just swap another KA in it. Did an auto-to-manual swap at the same time. Everything else is cherry. bugs that i have to work out from the swap:-I pulled my EGR crap out, so it's throwing a code,-need to replace my crank angle sensor,-need to trouble-shoot my knocksensor.. it's not working for some reason

My advice: be on the lookout for some of the probs that we have mentioned, but by all means most of them shouldn't be considered show-stoppers. I <3 S-14's... i don't know too many people who have his-and-her's

[candela]

awwwww :icesangel

[m_240sx]

Yeah, I'm pretty serious about getting one, I'm driving around 150 miles to just check one out. Thanks for all the advice and tips guys. And soon enough I hope to join you guys as a lucky owner of the s14. Keep the comments coming though, it's certainly giving me hints as to what I should look out for.

[SilviaS14KA24DE]

well keep driving 150 miles. i live in ontario, ca, and drove 150 miles in deep san diego just to pick up my s14. good shiet man. Get one before the drifting craze explodes even more. stupid drifting noobs.

isn't it surprising APC brough drifting to america? now if they can only do something about their parts.

[whoflungpoo]

I dunno about the validity of APC bringing drifting here, as i've been reading in SCC for quite a while about it. APC may have helped sponsor D1 over here, but so did a multitude of other companies.... but that's a discussion for another time...

but yeah, m_240sx... as long as your willing to go on the long drives you'll eventually find a good one...

I'd also recommend taking a look at automatics. I bought my 95 for 2G's and spent ~750 in parts swapping it over. Seems like all the S13's have gotten swiped up and people are starting to look more at S14's, so in my prediction, pretty soon it's gonna be slim pickins for everyone trying to find a clean S14 5-speed...

[m_240sx]

Hehe, I don't know if you'd call me a drift newbie, but I have Jeep wrangler that I've gotten side ways on a lot of my fire trails that my group maintains.

How did you pick up a 95 for 2Gs? How many miles, what was wrong with it. The one's I've seen so far are in the neighborhood of 6k

[whoflungpoo]

I got it so low because it was 142000 miles, overheating under load, and it was an automatic.... I prolly would have got him to go lower, but it had everthing in my mod list on it except the header, battery relocation kit and the camber correction. I still consider it a steal though.

It turned out the overheating problem was a headgasket failure, but instead of taking the head off, getting it milled, getting new head studs and putting it back on.... i went with a different KA that i snagged for 450 that had 40k miles on it, an oil filter relocation kit/cooler and an ASP pulley.

[m_240sx]

that's awesome. I don't know if I'll be finding anything that low. And I really don't want a car that somebody has "done up" since I don't really know or understand the components that well yet.

I certainly don't want crap stuff either, so I'm willing to do it myself, and get the right stuff.

Thanks for the advice.

[SoCalS14]

All I have to say is, I love my 5-Speed S14, I paid 9-G's for her like three years ago, and she runs great. No problems thus far. I can remember, back in my honda days, of always truning my head when a S14 went by...Guess I had to join the club.

[matt4pl]

got my 96 base for 2.5k, although it had front end damage at one point in its life.... only problems ive had are the crank angle sensor on the distributor, but i think i messed that up, and ive replaced my thermostat twice in the last year. seems to be an issues with s-14.s my friend repalced his 3 times with the engine only going up to 125k or so. now he's got an SR yea, the radio trim sux, its nice to get a 5spd with lsd and all, but like its been said, those swaps are plentiful. oh yea, exhaust was rusted to i replaced that with a 2.5" catback and dual tip muffler off ebay and rear right caliper was sticking to cleaned and lubed that to fix it. rotors might be an issue, dunno though, just got new q45 rotors and used calipers up front

[candela]

Don't fret abotu overpaying either... I had been searchign forever to find my S14 as well. I ended up paying $5900 for a 95 SE'. Its above blue book for it but sometiems the demand and rarity of finding one withing 200 miles or so makes peopel shell out a little more. I drove about 90 miles to get mine and paid a good amount for it. I don't always base what others pay to come up with what is fair. Everythign on the car was in great shape and it had everythign i was looking for aside from an LSD (but at 130k i woudl replace it anyhow Im sure)....

After all these projects Ive done in the past-including S13's- I do not mind paying a good price for neic stuff at all anymore. Good luck on the search!

[j-z]

In 143k miles (bought in 11/99 with 28k and all the rest have been hard with tons of drag runs and 1.5 seasons of autocross) I have had 3 problems. One is the valve cover gasket turning to plastic and leaking, which all nissans encounter and a 20 min job to replace. The other is the main harness shorting on the head killing my ignition circuit, which was a pain to daignose but an easy fix. And the last was my oil pan developed a 3/4" hole in it when a peice of L angle road debris went into it Yup thats it Theyll run like a top for a very long time If maintaned properly their whole life... If you get one thats been neglected youll have quite a few problems like Ive seen on my ex GF's 91 that she got with 140ish thousand miles.

holy ****! the same EXACT thing happened to me in my 95. the harness shorted out on the head causing the ingnition circuit to blow. finally after a week of fidling with **** trying to figure out why i kept blowing the ignition circuit i gave up and took it to an electrician who spotted the problem in a matter of minutes. GRRRRRRRRRR was i pissed to find out how simple the problem was. thats one problem, and the other is that the ***** is too damn slow. other than that i love my 240.

[j-z]

after a one and a half month long search i finally found my baby for 3k. its a manual in perfect shape. i bought it with 111k miles. i got years of maintanance and dealer records. the car is clean inside and out. the body is as sound as can be, and not one bit of damage what so ever. the paint is perfect everywhere cept i have atleast 4 door dings on every side body panel which sucks. a/c is ice cold which is something im not use to, but love. i really lucked out on this find that i got from some rich fawker . thank you rich fawker!

[300max]

I've only had mine for a month. It's a 95 SE with all the fixins (LSD, ABS, ....). I live in PA. I flew to Tampa Bay and drove it home. The sweetest 1100 miles ever. The only problems are the radio trim, the frightening blue interior, and the lack of power. I'm changing the interior to black and the engine to a KAT.

[initial s14]

i need an UPPER CONTROL ARM !

[entity]

trunk rattle...easy fix until you run out of adjustment on the latch,then it's a slightly less easy fix.

Mine rattles also, I taped the metal part that it latches to and it fixed it.

[aspinballer]

yellowed headlights, screaming brakes.and if you dont have insurance.......passenger door glass=$2,098, just glass.

worst problem: no more competition, too easy.

[whoflungpoo]

if you dont have insurance.......passenger door glass=$2,098, just glass.

OMG.... if you paid 2 G's for a piece of glass, you got so freakin hosed..... I mean, they must have seen you coming a mile away...

I know of 2 S14's sitting in a junkyard right now that have the glass fully intact that you could get for less than 100.

[aspinballer]

oh, definately didnt drop 2k on glass; bought new door for $300

[whoflungpoo]

:-/ mebbe i misunderstood then... it looked as if you were saying you payed 2k for the glass.... not a bad find for 300 on the whole door...

[TachyonS14]

Only problem I've had is my pass. door rattles sometimes. Otherwise It's going strong.