I hear yah there guys about neglect. We have two 1995 B13 Sentra's that were bought new and neglect is not the word for it. I've been told they had regular maintenance while under warranty although that was 3, almost 4 years ago...even then I doubt they were. Since then, having the oil changed is a luxury. Seems like everyone in my family just didn't think oil changes were necessary. The Sentra I have was driven by my 3 brothers and sister. Even when I never had my license I was the only one that washed it and cleaned out the inside. Back in Jan 02, 3 months after I got my license(no need before with 4 other driving the same car) it thought I'd do some regular maintenance, e.g. air filter, fix holes in exhaust, get oil changed. Well, I had this done over about 2 weeks and every time I got more and more power...I was actually laughing when I first took it for a drive.
Before Jan. there must have been well over 10,000 miles before the last oil change and I'm sure this wasn't the first time.
My mother's car, now that's a different mess all together. Unless it leaks oil or something needs to be replaced in order to get it changed it's not done. The car has 196,000 Km's(116,250 miles) on the GA16DE engine. The car was knocking/rattling all the time (even after the timing chain guides were replaced). It would stop if you topped the oil up a bit due to a slow leak. To keep the noise away, you'd have to over fill oil. I took it on myself to jack the car up, change the oil and while I was at it, change the transaxel fluid which was never done before, especially after the 116K miles(like I said, neglect isn't the word). I'll admit, she idled a bit better but engine noise was extreme...I guess the gummed up oil was gone and revealed how bad the engine really was.
Well, 4 months of this...(my question...why not earlier...anyway)...the car was in the garage for a week and it turned out the bearings were gone, 5 needed to be replaced for $12 each. The day after when I drove it, yeah...it was quiet but felt sluggish. Then a day later the engine light came on but would go off again after an hour or so driving. Instead of taking the car back to the garage...my parents just keep on driving. After a more than casual cruise with a few members of our local Import club
NFImports she started to rattle again just like before. There was well over 500 Km's on the bearing before I went on this short cruise but it sounds as if they failed again. Like I told my father...regular oil begins to sheer down after 1600km's, you can't expect it to last beyond 10,000 Km's, the intervals which it is usually changed.
When I get my car back on the road next summer, the first oil change will be Mobil 1 Tri-syn and after that I think I'm switching to AMSOIL. I read an article somewhere that total cost of a car over it's life span(cost of car, gas, repairs), most people only spend 0.5% on oil changes. It makes me sick so people (my family in particular) expect a car to last while not getting regular maintenance done and think the car will never break down. My mother said she'd never have another Nissan (she wants a Sidekick or some Sport utility...haha, enjoy I say)...although my dad is starting to believe what I say and he says an Altima will be his next car.
Sorry for my long rant...just thought I'd share my experience...hope you learned something.
