1984 Nissan Sentra XE review from North America

The alternator seems to need to be replaced every 5-6 years like clockwork since 1989. I haven't found a specific cause, but I've invested in a lifetime warranty unit so I'm not too concerned about it as I just warranty it out when I need to.

The starter bendix bushing wears out and as a result the pinion doesn't line up correctly with the ring gear. This is the typical screeching sound most front wheel drive Nissans make that were made in that era. I've invested in a lifetime warranty unit, but keep in mind that this is a design flaw and cannot be avoided. After enough time the ring gear needs to be replaced as well as a result of the flawed starter design. The only Nissans that didn't have this problem were the ones with direct drive starters, as opposed to the gear reduction drives.

In 1991 the transmission had to be rebuilt at 140000 miles. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

In 1997 the timing belt snapped. It was overdue for replacement. The E16 is an interference engine so when the belt snapped all the open valves were hit by the still moving pistons and thus a complete valve replacement was necessary in addition to the timing belt.

In 2001 the car started to burn oil. This was when the engine was completely rebuilt. While I was here I bored it over a little and put in a higher lift cam for more performance. Its nothing to be really enthusiastic about, but now it has more power than it ever has had.

My parents originally bought this car new and gave it to me when I graduated from high school. It is super reliable and extremely cheap to drive. The only mechanical problems that we've run into were either from regular usage or from neglect.

Whats really nice about this car is even though its 20 years old I can still get hard to find parts for it from the dealer if I have to. I haven't found any discontinued parts (except for the fuel pump since it's a California emission model).