Sentra SER Spec-V's (learn me)

I love GRM, a big reason being the learn me threads. SOOOO much info can be gleaned from them. Its like a FAQ for a specific car, except true gearheads are giving the info.

There is a MINT 2002 Sentra SER Spec V (one with the helical LSD) with teh 6 speed for sale near me. Guy wants $6k, has about 110K miles on it. It also comes with brand new winter tires.

Should I get things in motion to try to get it? It is CHEAP for the car, I can't find one in Alberta that is within $1k of the price, and it looks/sounds like it is immaculate and has been maintained well. The search on the forum doesn't really turn anything up :(

Precat failure is the biggest problem parts of the honey comb would break off and go back into the motor.Other than that pretty good cars.

Haha, yeah, I'm looking at that one too if it's the one on Kijiji. Not really seriously though. No worries.

Anyone else have any info? I'm considering on efor my wife. There is one here near me for 2k but needs an engine.

oughtta be able to source a motor easily. same as altima right?

or swap in a VQ!

Does it have the optional brakes? (Brembo's IIRC) The "stock" brakes are not adequate, yet the giant upgraded ones were massive money. Gearboxes like to fail if not maintained also. Otherwise, sweet car.

the heck you say? I thought it was the same 6sp's the maxima had.

I said if they weren't maintained. Ever seen the fluid that comes out of one of those babies after 100K? Or what the clutch looks like after a bunch of drag starts? I'm just saying it's no T56. The notchy shifter had a lot to do with the bad gears / synchros IIRC.

they have a bunch of them always on ebay. i would look for one kept stock as the heavily modified ones might have been wailed on

My wife had a '03( I think the '02s had oil usage problems, but not sure).

Hers was a normal SER ie non spec v, and it really needs that lsd. Was a good car got it at 13xxx and traded it in for a SRT-4 at 36xxx, the only issue we had was that nissian used a bushing instead of a bearing for the clutch throwout, idiots. It was squealing and howling anytime you used the clutch, I think there was a recall/TSB for it, but the dealer said if they got in there and said it looked like we abused the clutch it would be $500 just for the labor to put it back together....

You know, around here you can get a SRT-4 for under 10K....

2.0dohc wrote: .... You know, around here you can get a SRT-4 for under 10K....

My wife doesn't like the look of a 'neon'

I bought an 02 Spec-V new off the lot. I really liked the car. I only sold it b/c I was working on finishing my engineering degree.

The pre-cat failure thing is an issue as is the oil useage. I'd say the perfect car to get would be one that is mostly stock and unriced (hard to find) but with a header installed early in it's life to avoid the pre-cat problems. I think by now the one's with oil ring problems would have already been found.

I believe the Brembos only came on the '04 or newer cars, but they were a lot uglier in the front end. The '02-'03s can retrofit, but the stock alloys don't work with the big brake calipers.

They are pretty torquey and a lot of fun to drive, but the long stroke motor runs out of revs really fast and you end up shifting a lot. 1st gear is kinda useless sometimes. Other than that go for it.

i have heard that torque steer on those things will yank the wheel into oncoming traffic if you're not paying attention.

i think i heard that miss-shifts were a problem with some err, younger drivers, where they'd go 2-1 instead of 2-3 while running through the gears. this would obviously lunch the valvetrain and possibly take pistons with it.

The one I'm looking at needs an engine because of the precat issue. The main issue that's holding me back is that I went to look at it and the red paint was really faded and oxidized. I don't mind doing an engine swap, but my wife wants something that looks good.

I test drove one when they were new.

I kept thinking cheap car with big engine during the whole test drive. Also the torque steer was insane.

mw wrote:

2.0dohc wrote: .... You know, around here you can get a SRT-4 for under 10K....

My wife doesn't like the look of a 'neon'

Just get her to drive one. Once she gets into full boost, if she is like my wife, she wont care its a neon

I have an 03 Spec-V and it has been a good car except for some of the previously mentioned items. The throw out bushing is getting noisier and the 2nd gear syncro is bad. The 6 speed tranny is not a great shifter to begin with. The screws that hold the butterfly valves for the two stage intake manifold will come loose. The fix is to pull the intake apart and loctite the screws. I didn't catch this soon enough and lost one of the screws in the engine. Thankfully it did not do any damage as far as I can tell.

What year Spec-V has the issues with the butterfly valve screws falling off, and destroying engines?

mapper wrote: I have an 03 Spec-V and it has been a good car except for some of the previously mentioned items. The throw out bushing is getting noisier and the 2nd gear syncro is bad. The 6 speed tranny is not a great shifter to begin with. The screws that hold the butterfly valves for the two stage intake manifold will come loose. The fix is to pull the intake apart and loctite the screws. I didn't catch this soon enough and lost one of the screws in the engine. Thankfully it did not do any damage as far as I can tell.

How can that not do damage?! Man, you got seriously lucky.

psteav wrote: How can that not do damage?! Man, you got seriously lucky.

Banged up the spark plug and put a few scratches on the top of the piston but I think it was pulverized/melted enough before it hit the exhaust valve.

FYI, Nissan's fix is to put Loctite on the screws but they never issued a recall.

^Sounds like some of the #$@#$# Protege's in 2k3. I was "fortunate" to have a screw come loose immediately following the auto-x run, instead of during. The car still runs ok, Mazda denies it's a problem, at least in my case.

Nathan

I test drove one back in 2000 when I was searching for a newer car. That was the time when they gave you a NICE laptop bag for test driving it. Lots of torque, handled nice, but I freaked out the sales person because I didn't realize the redline was so fricking low. I was bouncing off the rev limiter for a couple a seconds thinking I had 2000 more rpms to go.

P71 wrote: Does it have the optional brakes? (Brembo's IIRC) The "stock" brakes are not adequate, yet the giant upgraded ones were *massive* money. Gearboxes like to fail if not maintained also. Otherwise, sweet car.

Really? I'm still on the original pads on mine - never had any trouble with them. I can believe that they would heat up pretty quick on a road course, but for autocrossing and street driving the stock brakes are fine.

Strizzo wrote: i have heard that torque steer on those things will yank the wheel into oncoming traffic if you're not paying attention.

You definitely heard wrong on that. The torque steer isn't bad at all; it's got unequal length drive shafts, and the LSD tends to keep things pretty straight by limiting wheelspin. You can feel a little movement, but not much.