Nothing out of the ordinary has gone wrong with this great little car. Since I got the car from my brother (who bought it new) I've changed the exhaust system, the rear shocks, the battery and the alternator and all four tires. My other brother rebuilt the carburetor. All routine service for a car with 175000+ miles on it. Everything else is still the original factory parts.
Overall, this car is very dependable and a joy to drive. It always starts up in the morning and gets me where I need to go. It's never died on me on the highway.
It's a pretty tame motor with little torque, especially on uphill stretches. But on the highway it'll still get up to 40 miles/gallon. Can't complain!
The handling is superb and the braking excellent. No squeals on sudden turns and the "power assist" steering is nice on highways when you want the steering to be stiff and not soft.
The gears still shift nicely with no grinding or howling.
The inside is ergonomically perfect. For my 6'2" frame, there's lots of leg room for the driver and the seats are comfortable; I never feel sore or creaky after long trips. The dashboard is well-designed with everything in clear view (except for the defroster switch). And there's plenty of headroom. The back is, of course, a little cramped, but this is a subcompact.
The only complaint I have about this car is that while driving along it may suddenly die on me. And it won't start up immediately even if the engine is turning. But if I wait about 30 minutes it'll start right up again as if nothing had happened. I still haven't figured out if it's an electrical or fuel problem.
Your sudden stopping problem is caused by the distributor's electronic pack overheating. I understand better quality replacements are available. I used the electronic pack out of a junk '85 300ZX, based on a tip from a Nissan mechanic. It worked. It's been 5 yrs no probs. The change is a bit tricky, you must retain the 4 cyl distributor cams (internal) with the proper spacers in the proper order. I also added a very thin high temp gasket (you make it) between the dist. base and the cyl head, to break the heat transfer. Finally, you must use the correct dist. cap and rotor. The cap is vented and the rotor has an extra bit of plastic attached that acts as a fan. One source is WorldParts - Beck/Arnley part # 173-7979 (rotor) and #174-6932 (cap).
Good Luck, Don Carlstrom
carlstrm@exis.net.
I have had his same problem with the car suddenly puttering down and dying it's happened a few times, and I had a hunch that the carburetor wasn't getting enough fuel and a simple change of the fuel filter solved the problem, I downgraded to a less complex filter and it flows much more freely. All that you have to sacrifice is the stability of the filter housing and removed the filter containing unit, b/c that's an arm cutter and a half, when doing simple jobs like oil filter changes. The less stable filter will just be hanging by the fuel line, but it isn't hazardous, it is cleared away from all areas of high heat and not as cobbed as it sounds, just a little better flow to the mechanical fuel pump, this will also add years to the pump, by reducing wear and tear on the internals, which will come in time.
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