Advice on nissan pulsar gtir

[Iang84]

Am looking at a couple of these around the 3.5-4k mark are there any weakpoints that I should be aware of or just the usual on a car of this age

[Marf]

Rust
Clutch pedal mounting point breaks away from bulk head - fairly expensive fix. If its already been done it should be ok, anyone with a bit of nouse will have welded it stronger than stock.
Gearbox casing is weak, input shafts like to break free of the box

Other than that a very fast and capable road car, easily tuned to 320hp or so with bolt ons. GT28 range of turbos bolt on, can rechip the stock ecu and remap it(Nistune)

Edited by Marf on Friday 10th December 15:19

[grim_d]

Marf said:

Rust

Absolutely, it's almost 100% that the rear arches will be bubbling and rusty, it comes from the inside out so it's not "just surface" as some people may say.

Not a terribly expensive fix for a decent bodyshop, you may get lucky and find on that has had it's arches sorted or a recent import that hasn't gone yet, in which case, get it protected asap.

Other areas of rust are the sills, especially at the rear, again not terribly expensive to fix, especially as it's hidden under the sideskirt.

The floor pan in the middle (where rear passengers would put their feet) where the 2 panels join, this may be unique to me as it's not something I have heard of on others but mine is pretty bad there, going around the spot welds.

Marf said:

Clutch pedal mounting point breaks away from bulk head - fairly expensive fix. If its already been done it should be ok, anyone with a bit of nouse will have welded it stronger than stock.

The majority of cars will of had this sorted or will be is possession of a clutch pedal support bracket, if not the bracket is around £10 and solves the problem. The later cars came with the bracket from the factory.

Marf said:

Gearbox casing is weak, input shafts like to break free of the box

This only seems to be (mostly) true with power levels higher than stock and with hard launches, but yes, the boxes are known to be the weak spot, a bit of mechanical sympathy goes a long way though. Under normal driving (with a tuned car) stripping teeth off the gears seems to be more common.

The above is just from research though, I don't have any experience of blowing them up

There is supposed to be development of a solution to the weak case problem but I think it's still in it's infancy, there is a thread about it on the OC.

Apart from the above it's mostly the usual stuff on old cars, when looking at cars check the floor rails, people jack the car on them when they are not meant for it and crumple them up, generally not an mot failure but depends on the garage, looks crap though. They do cost a lot to run but they are great fun, I can't wait to get mine finished.

Head over to the forums for all the info you could possibly need

www.gtiroc.com
www.nissangtir.co.uk

Edited by grim_d on Saturday 11th December 00:59