19th Jun 2025, 22:38
Well, it's me again. Can't believe it's been 10 years since I bought this car and 8 years since I wrote the original review. I bought the car when I was 29 years old and this year I turn 39, this is the best car I've ever owned... and I still own it. I paid it off in 2019. This thing asks nothing from me except oil and gas. I haven't even been as meticulous with maintenance as I use to be these past about 50 thousand miles.
Well let's start were we left off at 97k miles. At around 110K the AC compressor stopped working. It was slow at first, like at idle it wouldn't blow cold and then when I sped up it'd start blowing cold again until one day it didn't blow cold at all anymore. Also around that time I replaced the serpentine belt bit, not because it went bad but just for peace of mind, it's a wear item. At 150k I replaced the manual transmission fluid just as preventative maintenance.
This is where it gets sad, at about 150k to 160k sometime around fall of 2022 the car was flooded by Hurricane Ian. I was living in Daytona at the time and the water got all the way up to the top of the fenders, the interior was destroyed. Once the water receded, I went to the car and checked the air filter, it was dry. I turned the key to the ignition and it fired right up. I ended up having to rip out the entire interior including sound deadening and rear seats, the only thing left was the two front seats everything else is bare metal. It was the only way to save the car and keep it from rusting.
Well, I thought to myself "I'm gonna keep driving this thing until the electronics start failing" right? Well it's been 70k miles since Hurricane Ian and the Sentra is still chugging along and still getting about 32 MPG. I'm at 232,000 miles today, still my daily driver. Yes it's loud in here without an interior or sound deadening, but I don't have a car payment and I trust this car to take me to Alaska. I'm still on the original clutch, it doesn't slip at all and I try to make it slip with 6th gear pulls and nothing. Oh I forgot to mention around 150k the struts and shocks wore out and about a year later I replace them with KYBs and they've been nice ever since. This car is a friend at this point... I don't know what I'd replace it with... I don't want to.
11th Feb 2018, 23:29
Original poster here.
The Sentra recently just hit 97,000 trouble free miles.
I replaced the factory spark plugs last weekend, not because it was running bad or anything, but because with 97k miles I thought it was the right time to change them out.
I replaced the factory NGK plugs with Denso iridium spark plugs. The job was very simple; the only snag I hit was that you do need a THIN WALLED 14mm spark plug socket to fit inside the spark plug tubes. A regular 9/16th socket will not fit inside the tube and you'll be running the risk of the socket getting stuck in there. The coils are attached with one 10mm bolt and there are a few of what I guess are vacuum hoses near the coils that have to be disconnected.
Overall, extremely easy to replace the plugs and the car is still running great averaging 35 MPG. I'll be flushing the coolant and replacing the manual transmission fluid in the next few months.