RE: Shed of the Week: Nissan Primera GT
Discussion
ruprechtmonkeyboy said:
The old AC needs a 'regas' line and it's fitted with a K&N filter?
One for the avoid list methinks!
Its an old shed of a Primera, not one to worry about the provenance too much on One for the avoid list methinks!
The engine will still run with a K and N and aircon not working isnt the end of the world, I am more keen on whether the engine starts and runs ok, at shed money you have to make the odd sacrifice, £40 gets it gassed, may well be true.
Also had an Almera GTi - though IIRC the Almera was 7hp down, perhaps because of a slight restriction somewhere, maybe in the exhaust system? Was my first car after uni and took me and three mates up to the Lakes for a weekend of dicking around, cruising at a steady ton most of the way.
Not a fan of that paint though - purple and green aren't exactly popular colours to match.
Not a fan of that paint though - purple and green aren't exactly popular colours to match.
Actually not bad. The only thing that puts me off is the wonky aircon. I did a bit of googling and it's probably going to cost more to fix that you might think (unless you're good with the spanners in an a/c context). It's the sort of thing that you run until the MoT runs out and then scrap it. At this price level you'd only ever bother with 3rd party insurance,
I had one of these back in the day.
This may well be it as It was an R reg.
Sold it to a friend who ran it for another couple of years.
If I remember rightly he had issues with wheel bearings or drive shafts,not quite sure exactly.
These parts were unavailable from the breakers ,only available from nissan. They were prohibitively expensive
because they were unique to these cars and different to the GTle .
This may well be it as It was an R reg.
Sold it to a friend who ran it for another couple of years.
If I remember rightly he had issues with wheel bearings or drive shafts,not quite sure exactly.
These parts were unavailable from the breakers ,only available from nissan. They were prohibitively expensive
because they were unique to these cars and different to the GTle .
hornetrider said:
Ad said:
ABS has intermittent fault believe one of the sensors.
So fix it.Ad said:
Air Con not working probably just needs a recharge
So regas it.Seriously. Did anyone ever read 'just needs a regas' ever, and believe it?
But as for fixing an ABS fault and regassing the air con? Why bother on a shed? Will it increase the value? Hardly. Will it possibly reduce their margin by at least 10%? Likely. Let the wannabe shedee worry about these things. and just as the frigged air con may well need more than just a regas, the faulty ABS may be more than just a sensor. So what then, pay for a sensor and labour (if he can't fit it himself), and then maybe it's not the sensor, maybe he needs hours more diagnostic fault finding. All on a sub £1k shed, aye right then! Had exactly this on my old 166 with a faulty traction control warning light, never did anything about it and sold it like that as my local friendly Alfa specialist once had a hunt about with their diagnostic machine whilst waiting for me to pick up after an MOT and they couldn't trace the fault, only hypothesise about what could be the cause.
These are still a really good steer even today at banger money, just avoid rusty ones.
You'd never guess a crappy old Nissan saloon would be so good to drive until you get behind the wheel!
They have a very clever multi link suspension set up which gives brilliant handling, on track these cars are really well balanced, no understeer at all. On the road they feel very precise/nimble the steering is sharp but lacks any feel.
The chassis set up was over engineered for a cheap/boring family saloon/hatch (if you think its competition at the time was Vectra, Mondeo etc) and most Primera's were bog standard 1.6/1.8 and diesels so why did they give it such a good/expensive suspension set up?
The sharp handling and revvy engine is what makes this car special, its a nice engine to thrash they love lots of revs, goes well past 4,000 revs.
Why am I talking all this rubbish about an old banger that costs the same as set of tyres on my BMW? Because these are actually a hidden gem and I've been using one as a cheap fun track car.
Cost peanuts to buy, its 19 yrs old, done 130k miles, on its original suspension and its been brilliant, fun per ££ / miles ahead of anything else I've driven on track.
All we've done is fit some proper tyres (Michelin Ps3's, dot5 brake fluid, new oil etc). So far its withstood all punishment with no problems at all and on a damp track will keep up or in fact be in front of many far quicker cars that costs many times more this old heap! And the neutral handling is a revelation for a FWD family hatch.
Some pics of 'Vera the Primera
Brands hatch first time its been on track, 130 laps in one day no issues.
Castle Combe
No idea how many laps we did but clocked up over 120 miles flat out driving, no problems
My previous Gt at Castle Combe, this was a one lady owner car from new and she cried when she sold it and it was driven off (no joke!).
So, if you find a good one not only is it a fine shed of the week, its also a car you could take to track days thrash the living daylights out of it with no worries and then drive it home again. It might look like an old mini-cab but its got hidden talents!
You'd never guess a crappy old Nissan saloon would be so good to drive until you get behind the wheel!
They have a very clever multi link suspension set up which gives brilliant handling, on track these cars are really well balanced, no understeer at all. On the road they feel very precise/nimble the steering is sharp but lacks any feel.
The chassis set up was over engineered for a cheap/boring family saloon/hatch (if you think its competition at the time was Vectra, Mondeo etc) and most Primera's were bog standard 1.6/1.8 and diesels so why did they give it such a good/expensive suspension set up?
The sharp handling and revvy engine is what makes this car special, its a nice engine to thrash they love lots of revs, goes well past 4,000 revs.
Why am I talking all this rubbish about an old banger that costs the same as set of tyres on my BMW? Because these are actually a hidden gem and I've been using one as a cheap fun track car.
Cost peanuts to buy, its 19 yrs old, done 130k miles, on its original suspension and its been brilliant, fun per ££ / miles ahead of anything else I've driven on track.
All we've done is fit some proper tyres (Michelin Ps3's, dot5 brake fluid, new oil etc). So far its withstood all punishment with no problems at all and on a damp track will keep up or in fact be in front of many far quicker cars that costs many times more this old heap! And the neutral handling is a revelation for a FWD family hatch.
Some pics of 'Vera the Primera
Brands hatch first time its been on track, 130 laps in one day no issues.
Castle Combe
No idea how many laps we did but clocked up over 120 miles flat out driving, no problems
My previous Gt at Castle Combe, this was a one lady owner car from new and she cried when she sold it and it was driven off (no joke!).
So, if you find a good one not only is it a fine shed of the week, its also a car you could take to track days thrash the living daylights out of it with no worries and then drive it home again. It might look like an old mini-cab but its got hidden talents!
Edited by rallycross on Friday 24th February 20:48
Edited by rallycross on Friday 24th February 20:51
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