Nissan 200SX Club - South Africa

Hey guys, I have a haedache and a half!

I Bought my dream car about 6 months back, Wil never forget my first drive in an SX!

From the second day I had the car I started expieriencing Problems!

1) The car somethimes just did not want to start!
It would start the first time i tried, then ideling uneven and then died,And just would not start at all! It hapend 2 times where i had to pull the car for more than 3 km before it Would start!

2) Then the biggest problem of them all,I have a 5-in-1 Cluster on the a piller,One day on my way back home the digital readout on the temp was too quick on operating temp! Suddenly the car started to boil. and at a robot it cut out. Then the weirdest thing happen, Looking at the temp readout, it went to above boiling, then down to about 25 degrees, Then back to boiling, and so it went on for about 10 min! I got it started again and went home, it stalled again, but got it going again. It stood in my garage for about a week. When I went to investigate I found it had a huge puddle of oil on the floor of the garage! I was convinced it was headgasket!

About n month ago i wanted to see if the motor would turn, i checked everything,and found the dipstick had more than half of the oil in, i Checked the water and that had to be filled, so i filled it up,The motor isnt running and I found a leak on the Motor, underneath the intake mandifold, There isnt a hole in the block, and it leaks right behind the Cambelt cover, Iets near the alternater

Can anybody help me plz! I only drove about a 1000 km in it before this happend! i mis my car so much!The chaepest Quote i got for the headgasket is R12 000! It is supposed to be my everyday drive!

Thank you!!

All That I need is info on what it could possible be!
Half of the Mechanics i visited dont even know the SX is a Nissan!

All of them start talking about all these tests: Compression test, Water presure test, Oil presure test. Each of the test is more than R1500 and everyone wants to pull the motor, and thats another R2000!? Just to find out whats wrong its more than R6500?! Not even opening the head, wich is another R1500!

Is it realy that expensive just to find out what is wrong?

Can anybody plz Give me a place where they know what a SX is in the Edenvale area?! And know what they are doing?

Plz People! im new to the Nissan 200 SX club, And new to the area!

Any help what so ever would be greatly aprieciated!

Any of the JHB guys can help this guy out?

P3g4sus wrote:
2) Then the biggest problem of them all,I have a 5-in-1 Cluster on the a piller,One day on my way back home the digital readout on the temp was too quick on operating temp! Suddenly the car started to boil. and at a robot it cut out. Then the weirdest thing happen, Looking at the temp readout, it went to above boiling, then down to about 25 degrees, Then back to boiling, and so it went on for about 10 min!

You boiled it dry, the temp sensor can measure the temp of the hot water which will read high when boiling, but once the water is gone its only measuring the temp of the air where the water used to be, so it drops back to normal temp or lower.

P3g4sus wrote:About n month ago i wanted to see if the motor would turn, i checked everything,and found the dipstick had more than half of the oil in, i Checked the water and that had to be filled, so i filled it up,The motor isnt running and I found a leak on the Motor, underneath the intake mandifold, There isnt a hole in the block, and it leaks right behind the Cambelt cover, Iets near the alternater

Mine blew a hose under the intake manifold and overheated, that may be your leak. That fact that you are leaking oil as well does not bode well, could be blown head gasket, or a very warped head.

Thank you Guy!

I have checked the block for sighns of oil, You know how difficult that is on an SX! The first sign of oil i can see on the block is down at the sump. The oil has no water in it, and the water has no oil in it!

The fact that the water is leaking when the motor is not running is not something im used to!

The leak is near the front of the motor. its not underneath the intake manifold, sort of infront of it...

Do you think i must pull the motor?

The ca18 motor has a lot of rubber coolant pipes around the front of and under the intake. Any of these could be the cause of your leak.

As to whether or not to pull the motor, that depends on what the problem is, how difficult it is to fix with the engine in the car, and what other damage may have been done when the engine overheated.

A compression test would probably tell you if there is any other internal damage, but should never cost near R1500.

Check your waterpump, mine leaked on the shaft and I had to replace, also check, there is a T-piece on your bottom radiator hose that goes into the block, these get rusted bad and I had to make one up.

Guy wrote: A compression test would probably tell you if there is any other internal damage, but should never cost near R1500.

Can i do a compression test on my own? And how do i do it?

What does it normally cost?

How strong is the CA18DET motor`s headgasket?

Richard wrote:Check your waterpump, mine leaked on the shaft and I had to replace, also check, there is a T-piece on your bottom radiator hose that goes into the block, these get rusted bad and I had to make one up.

How much is a waterpump?

Is it diffucult to change?

I rather hope iets the waterpump! The motor has 180 000km on it, dont know if that can Help you guys to think what it could be!

Waterpump, old pipes etc. they will be fairly cheap and not that difficult to change.
Take your car to a radiator shop and ask them to do a pressure test, I did mine some time ago and they charged me R50 this will normally show any leaks in your piping or radiator etc.

I would suggest you change all your hoses going forward due to these pipes being very old and worn out. I went to a spare shop and matched hoses to my samples.
Call me if I can help, I'm no fundi but I have experienced all your problems. 083 5488 400

Thank you richard.

The thing is i dont want to start the car, so i cant take it to a radiator shop, but will make a plan! in wich area are u located?

Will call you a little bit later!

No problem, I'm in Florida, West Rand.

Thank you everyone who posted reply`s!

Im going to pull my motor out this weekend! Going to fix what needs to be fixed!

Hopefully i wont skrew it up!

Wish me luck!

Nice one mate!

You won't screw up... just follow the FSM normally good info in there. haha

oh and good luck!

Thx man.

Im just struggleing to vind the FSM for the S13 with CA18DET!!!

If someone could give me the url I wil be most Aprieciative!!