My new dunga

[Silk]

Goodby NX Coupe.

Hello Levin.

The 1990 Nissan NX Coupe has reached the end of the road, it has rust in the front pillars. It's a targa roof, and the A pillars are just decoration, the real strength is behind there...and I'm the guy who checks this thing for it's safety inspection, so no, it's off the road. I've had it for 9 years, sort of accidentaly. It had a cracked head and the customer couldn't afford to fix it, and so left it with me. A few months later I fitted another engine to give it to my daughter, and to cut a long story short that's when I found out there was a debt on the vehicle - $4,000! The finance company released the car to me, but wouldn't remove the debt, so I couldn't sell it on...and that why I've kept it this long. As I got rid of other excess vehicles, the NX remaind, and has been my personal runabout for the last 5 years.

I'm back at the dealership, and we get first choice at the trade ins, the Levin was traded on a $30,000 BMW, just something they could drive in and leave I guess...tradein value of $200. Not what I want, but it'll do until I find something else, preferably with a towbar. It has a cracked top radiator tank, a stuffed rear shock and a typical Corolla knock from the rear swaybar mounts. Dents in every panel, even the roof, trashed interior and the drivers door doesn't lock. But no rust and mechanically sound.


It has the 4A FE, the Nissan's GA16 DE is a better engine - chain drive and VVT. Just a Corolla coupe, same as the NX was a N14 Pulsar coupe. Oil sites have us using 20-50 for this engine, maybe 10-40 if it's cold. I'll be using MSL, Mitsi's 5-30, as I drain the containers to catch the dregs...after a couple of months I can fill a 4 litre.

 

[SumpChump]

Heck, here in Wisconsin USA that car would be "as new" for that vintage and fetch a good price. Somebody would drive that for 5more years.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[aquariuscsm]

I like that NX coupe! I remember those well. I saw a MINT condition 200SX yesterday. Looked as if it just drove off the showroom floor. Wish I would've seen who was driving it to see if they'd wanted to sell it.

 

[daves87rs]

Miss that NX....

 

[SpencerHSS]

Got to love cheap little beaters. The Levin is cool, but I've never seen the nx coupe here in the US in person. Have fun with it!

 

[DeepFriar]

NX was, is, a great car along with its brother from another mother, the SE-R (nee Sunny 2.0). As old as that thing is (92) I still get kids at car washes and elsewhere coming up and wanting to know if I want to sell it. I occasionally go around it with my little hammer and see if I have the dreaded A-pillar rust, it was a common problem.

 

[Silk]

The rust is behind the A pillar. The outer panel has a lip on the bottom, this collects water and the bottom rusts out. When I got the car in 2006 the left pillar had been repaired with filler, and I did the right side in 2010. Last year both sides had some rust bubbles, so I took the bog out to redo it....and then saw the rust on the inner pillar. Rust killer, lanocote and bogged up again, but gave it a year, and now that year is up.

Not what I wanted to end up with, but after they decided to classify my Pajero as a light truck because it was diesel, and the rego cost climbed, I got rid of it - sitting in the drive all week, and driving a couple of km to the lake for a walk it wasn't worth keeping. The NX coupe was surprisingly more useful than the Pajero - It would take a 209 litre drum (50 gal) in the back, and once carried a 180 litre hot water cylinder, took the mower and weedeater too. The carrying capacity of the Levin is very limited by comparison. The Levin has aircon, I ripped that out of the NX Coupe - but it had a targa roof, who needs aircon. Because of the possibility of repsossesion, I kept nothing in the NX, and would park it in the city roof off, just take the keys and walk away. Love having a car you couldn't care less about.

Thought I might run a flush through the Levin before I change the oil this weekend - pulled the stick, and nothing on it. Maybe the 20-50 would be better afterall.

 

[addyguy]

I remember when those NX's came out; always thought they were a fun-looking little car!

What make is the 'Levin'? I get that it is Toyota 1.6L-powered; but is it a Toyota? Just never heard of it at all, and i know a bit about Auz cars...

 

[DeepFriar]

Originally Posted By: Silk
The rust is behind the A pillar. The outer panel has a lip on the bottom, this collects water and the bottom rusts out.....

The NX coupe was surprisingly more useful than the Pajero - It would take a 209 litre drum (50 gal) in the back, and once carried a 180 litre hot water cylinder, took the mower and weedeater too.


Not the same problem then, just the same result. The Sunny problem is that there is a small drain coming down through it from the drip rail. Inevitably it gets stopped up and holds moisture. Voila, rust. Helps contribute to the same problem further down at the rocker as well.

Which engine was in your NX? If you ever find another one the 2.0 engines for swap are still cheap but getting thinner on the ground with all the drifting demand. The forum owner at SE-R.net (a mostly dead forum now but you might still reach him) is owned by a fellow who is the most knowledgeable person on NX's I've ever seen. Wrong side out, he knows it.

 

[Silk]

It's a Toyota AE101, the ones with the 4A GE are sort after, being 5 valve with individual throttle bodies, this one has the FE, just the basic Corolla engine. The NX Coupe had the GA16 DE, which had variable valve timing on the inlet cam,pretty high tech for 1990. The NX Coupe came with GA15's, GA16's, SR18's and SR20's, some had LSD.

Both are used Japanese domestic imports (we just call them JIP imports), the 1990 Nissan being imported in 1995, the 1994 Toyota in 2001. We've been getting a huge amount of these imports since the late '80's, there are all sorts of wierd cars on our roads you'd only get to see in Japan.

 

[Silk]

I've been fixing a few things on the Levin - first thing was to flush the cooling system and repair the toptank, I don't want to put any money into this thing. Epoxy on a top tank doesn't work because as the tank expands under pressure the expoxy lifts off - so I tied it down with zip ties, no leaks so far. Drained the NX Coupe coolant and put it in the Levin.

A couple of photos of it's best side. Saturday and raining....but I still walked around the lake.

Sunday, a perfect day.

This lake we call Puketirini, although we used to call it Weavers, because it's the old Weavers open cast mine. It was left to fill with water, which took 10 years, there has been extensive planting, both native and exotic (trees you know), lots of walking tracks and bicycle tracks, boat ramps, jettys, diving platforms. Although a lot has been voluntary, it's also a PR exercise for the mining company - look what we transform our old mines into when we are finished with them.

The boundry on the far shore is a rail track where the coal train goes out to get coal from the open cast mine (Rotowaro, Lake of Coal) and behind that is Lake Waahi. You can see a white line on the far shore - that's a waka, or outrigger cannoe, the locals train here for the Waka Ama, a big competition. There is a barge moored in the centre, that's the dive school http://www.nzscdt.co.nz/ where they train commercial divers...this is a deep lake. Finally, a bit of litter by my car - that's some fireworks, we had Guy Fawkes on the 5th Nov, they would've been letting them of down here.

 

[eljefino]

So how are you going to get rid of the NX, just drive it to the bank that "owns" it and give them the keys?

Odd that your proof of ownership is subject to liens you or your dealer didn't even know about. Here, there's a pretty decent chance that if the registered owner holds the paper title, it's been paid off.

 

[Silk]

We have registration papers, but they are not proof of ownership - the reciept from the seller is. If a vehicle has a debt, it is transfered to the new owner, if someone has a lien on that car, they can reposses it. I'll just ring one of the half dozen ''cash for cars'' that advertise in the local rag, they'll probably give me a couple of hundred for it...so that balances out nicely.

 

[Silk]

I kept the Nissan registered under the previous owners name for 4 years, using his name on the documents, no signature required. That was good, no worries about parking fines or speed camera fines....he'd done a runner to Aust to escape his debts. They caught up with me in 2010, so put it in my name then. Not exactly legal, but I wasn't going to put my name on a car with that much debt. I can just say the car's mine, and put it in my name, but as I mentioned, they are registration papers, not ownership papers. Works for us.

 

[Silk]

I expected to have to wait a few months and save up for the car I wanted, but picked this up yesterday for $500.

It's a 1996 Volvo 850 T5. I was looking for a more useful vehicle with a towbar, and had my eye on one of these, expecting to pay a lot more for a good one. This one needs a radiator and was a non runner, but got it running today. A bit rough, but it'll clean up ok for my needs. A bit higher spec than our '94 C220...full leather, cruise control, electric memory seats, a few more airbags. The C220 is basic spec...taxi spec, they call it Classic. The C220 can do 130mph, the 850 T5 150mph....my motorcycle can do 105mph with a tail wind.

What a mission to drag it back from Auckland, I had to winch it on backwards, which made it unstable over 70kph, had a trailer tyre blow out 15km from home. Had a spare, but no wheel brace, so had to call in help from home. I have no photos of it on the trailer, but this is what I hauled it with.

Our workshop hack, a 2008 Mitsubishi Triton. These normaly have a 3.2 common rail diesel, I've seen one V6, and this is the only 4 cyl I've seen - we have it because no one wanted to buy it. After 09 they have a 2.5 diesel with more torque, and the latest one just out has a 2.4 with more torque again. The 2.4 petrol is not good for towing, the diesels put out max torque at 2,000rpm, and would pull that Volvo and trailer no sweat, the petrol makes less than half the torque at much higher rpm - in other words, it gutless.