1986 Nissan 300ZX from North America - Comments

Throwout bearing went out at about 90,000 miles. I've been driving cars with manual transmissions all of my life and did not experience this type of a failure before or since.

Both lower control arms needed to be replaced around 70,000. No, I did not run the car up on the curb or jumped railroad tracks. Nothing more happened than driving over standard potholes. I had the car inspected prior to buying it and the inspection did not turn up this flaw. Upon contacting the previous owner, this was the second time this type of a repair had to be done on this car.

The dashboard was noticeably warped by 90,000 miles.

Alternator went out twice. The work was done at Nissan dealerships on both occasions, but Nissan would guarantee neither their workmanship nor their parts. i.e. Give us your money even if the part you just had replaced breaks again next week.

Vinyl portions of the seats started to come apart around 80,000 miles.

The car's undercarriage was hitting the drive shaft under moderate acceleration, such as getting on the highway. Nissan replaced multiple suspension components in the rear of the car to no avail. Nissan finally gave up and refused to work on the car. I went to three other dealers with a list of what was done to try to resolve the issue and they did not know what to do to fix it either. One of the dealers told me that it is a design flaw. You think?

Fuel gage failed around 75,000 miles.

Cruise control failed around 100,000.

Odometer failed around 125,000 miles.

Shift boot started cracking around 65,000 miles.

Driver side windshield wiper failed around 85,000 miles. This repair required the replacement of the entire windshield wiper assembly (both sides) along with the windshield wiper spray container... or so the dealer claimed.

Rust perforation appeared behind both rear wheels by 70,000 miles.

Paint chips were coming off the car for the duration of my ownership experience. The car was never repainted, according to a friend of mine who happens to repair auto body damage for a living.

If you think that the above are far fetched, there is one more item that helped me decide to never buy another Nissan product: dreadful dealer service. The car was serviced at four Nissan dealerships -- two in NJ and two in OH. The service persons at all of these dealerships acted as if they were doing me a favor by working on my car. In contrast, I have NEVER encountered this attitude at any of the Pontiac dealers where I took my current car. Pontiac is not known for superb customer service, and yet the Pontiac service is 100% better than that of Nissan.

I will spare you the many other, more minor maladies of the 300ZX I had.

The car did handle well, had adequate power, and was easy to drive on the highway.

Unfortunately, the long hood did make the car very difficult to drive on suburban NJ streets that have many stop signs and cars parked almost to the corner.

Maybe you had a bad 300zx, but I have had a few of these in the UK and I am a member of an 300zx owners club and never had or known of any of the problems you have had and NISSAN UK are very helpful here... I am sure many other z32 owners will agree...

Z32s are excellent sports cars and will give trouble free motoring if looked after like any other high performance car..

If it's an 86 model then it will be a Z31.

My wife got me a 1986 300zx for Christmas. we bought it for $500.00. I am working on it slowly. I had to take the gas Tank off and totally clean it out. replace the fuel pump, and the fuel gauge regulator in the tank. Also replace the fuel regulator valve under the hood. The car was sitting for about 5 Years. So I knew it needed the work. But I love my car and looking forward to getting it up and running and fixing it up the way I want it.

I have owned an 86 300zx turbo for about 7 years now. The car was originally sold in Wyoming. I bought it in Colorado and currently live in Wisconsin. It is a tough car to keep running well. When I purchased it with 90,000 miles it was driving good on a hot spring day. It seems like since then I have replaced most everything mechanical minus a new engine and a new transmission.

I garage it through the winter and tend to drive about 5000-10000 miles each spring through fall. I don't abuse it or race it, but I do own it to have fun. If anything I baby it. I purchased this car for about $3500 in 2001 running and driving rather nice with 90,000 miles. I'm 7 years in and up to about 140,000 miles. I enjoy driving it and others like to look at it, but I have put about $9,000 after purchase into getting it the way I want it and I still have running issues.

******Generally in order, I have personally replaced (always stock Nissan parts, or OEM) Tires 3x in 7 years, shocks and springs in rear, nonadjustable strut inserts into the front (new replacements for electronic adjustable struts were about $2500 for parts alone) & many $200 alignment jobs to combat tire wear and weird steering pulls (I have never hopped a curb). New fluids (engine, transmission, brakes, coolant), complete brakes F&R, exhaust, digital dash cluster, plugs & wires, fuel injectors (not under recall because they are out of parts), drive shaft rebuild, distributor 3x (once after shocking my mechanic full force right through the plastic cap), throttle position switch, idle air control, many vacuum lines, 2x batteries and new wires, new wires to all lights all the way into the driver controls, 2x alternator. Plus many other odds and ends.*****

After all this I can't find a mechanic to help get this thing driving the way I feel like it should, either through the four dealerships I have dealt with, or three highly recommended mechanics for Z cars. TPS, idle air, and vacuum lines have been a blind attempt at tracking my issues. I have good days and bad days. Mainly a bad day consists of flat spots and hesitations during acceleration. The response from throttle inputs seem delayed. When started cold it holds idle at around 6-800 rpm., when it warms it holds idle at 1000rpm, generally opposite of any normal warm up process, plus it is supposed to hold idle without the a/c @ 750rpm warm. I feel like it is running a rich fuel mix, but the idle air control adjustment screw doesn't seem to have any sweet spot and computer diagnostics don't show any codes. I have tuned the timing in per recommendations, and I use 91+ octane fuel without alcohol. (I have been lead to believe that the car was originally tuned to run at the high altitudes of WY vs. elevation in WI. (Typically octane ratings are higher at lower altitudes, and timing is usually optimum at slightly different times) )

I have always felt that the car is a nice balance between performance and comfort. It has a nice smooth ride and has plenty of power, and the interior doesn't come across as cheap (new in 86 this car sold for $19,600,$36,300 today). It is a very heavy car and is not a zippy guy around corners, but if you hit the gears right and keep the turbo going you can pull out of a corner with style. The car can have an unstable ride over a rough road, but on smooth pavement the car handles great at high speeds, (5th gear will at least take you to 145mph), but cruise control doesn't work over 79mph. Brakes could be better, like I said this is a heavy car! 3700lb.

I like the feel of the shifter, rather short throw and not gummy, but the transmission sync is slow compared to other cars from the mid 80s. (You need to remain calm, cool, and collected to make it into the gears quickly, no enthusiasm allowed.)

These cars have computers do a lot of work, very complex for it's time. Maybe due to the untested and primitive nature of the computer controls and electronics makes it prone to many of it's claims of "An absolute maintenance nightmare"

Z31s & Maximas of the time still have an open recall for leaky fuel injectors, but when I went to get mine they claimed they were out of the parts, thus ending the recall. They apparently leaked and caused fires due to certain gov't approved gas additives from the 80's.

The engine compartment is cramped and parts are scarce, making this car rather expensive to maintain. I wish the best of luck to - 16th Jun 2007, 00:27.

I would agree with the statements from the original post regarding Nissan service. The limited experience I have had with them I have never been satisfied by their workmanship, price, diagnosis times or policies, or general knowledge for the product they made, engineered, and sold.

I hope I provided a useful review for others.

I also hope that if there are any "sight unseen diagnosis tips" out there for my problems, I would love to hear them.

Send to kb300zx@live.com.

I have a '86 300zx. 172K miles, requires minor upkeep as vehicles do. love it and will never sell it. fun, cheap transportation. don't drive an old car if you can't perform tune-ups. blew away a new mini s cooper w/172hp on a windy road.

You don't go buy an older car made for racing and want someone else to do the work for you. If you're gonna do that, go buy you a 01 Focus or something... Seriously, you can't complain about the dealership. Learn to work on your car! That's all there is to it.

I sat in an '86 non-turbo 300zx when I was graduating high school. In 2006 my brother gave me the best Christmas present ever.

Since that day I've put on new : tires, fuel pump, spark plugs and wires, oxygen, fuel and of coarse oxygen/fuel sensors,2 alternators, battery.

The radio antenna went out last week and the gas door doesn't work anymore.

But still this is a great car for freeway driving.

I own a 86 turbo. These cars are very reliable. I think it handles just as well in the city as on freeway. If you have problems, most time it's caused by vacuum lines or could be EGR valve. As far as being sluggish, I disagree. I smoked a Mustang Cobra. My car is stock. Remember these are high performance engines, so sometime open them up; it may help cleaning it out.