Cost of maintaining a classic car

[=Enigma=]

Have you ever tried to find an air filter for your original twin carbs engine? You will never find. The only option is the K&N at 50 bucks you can clean and put back.

I beg to differ....I bought one at my local parts store a year ago, and here's one online for you.

http://www.courtesyparts.com/air-filter-1970-1972-240z-p-569040.html?cPath=7724_7752_8889&

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Edited June 11, 2009 by =Enigma=

[hls30.com]

they are generic parts that fit a Chrysler, GM or a Ford product and they will fail only after a few months and cause more problem on your electrical system.(believe me....i have facts)

Your facts and my experience differ, I have been into S30s for more than 30 years. When a Alternator looks just like the one that came off(down to the manufacturers cast housing-and works flawlessly for 124K and 10 years on my '76 2+2 I find it tough to agree with you.

It is lifetime warranty because it is garbage

to bring you back and buy more parts that most of the time are not available to their network.

It looks like You missed the part where ALL of the parts I listed earlier are currently in stock at my local store-and generally stay that way, and I have used the Warranty three times-that is three times in 97 replacement parts(I keep the warranty receipts), one Alternator(in 12-after three years), one Master Vac( in 2 quite possibly my fault), and one injector(in 37 DOA) Granted my quantities are too small for a meaningful statistical analysis of chain wide failure rate, but over all just over a 3% failure rate is acceptable-given the convenience of warranty fulfilment.

On a daily driver, I would rather take a 3% failure rate with seriously convenient local instock position and a far lower price than a 1% failure rate with a five day turnaround at a higher price with shipping on top of it!

Have you ever tried to find an air filter for your original twin carbs engine? You will never find. The only option is the K&N at 50 bucks you can clean and put back.

Again, ALL of the parts I listed above were in stock-including the Fram airfilter(Though I do admit, the KNN has to be ordered)

Cheap parts are not making an old S30 Z reliable.......and believe me, I have learned from the last ten years.

Sometimes the same cheep parts are sold more expensively elsewhere.

I would not say that we need deep pockets to maintain an early Z but if the new member wants to buy for his pleasure of the hobby, cheap stuff to service his car is not the right way to go.

My opinion only......cheap price VS long term reliability

I agree better quality parts are a good thing, I simply have not found a need to research a quality difference. When there is only a price difference, and no proven quality difference, the low price wins.

If I had complete specs to compare, I would buy the better spec'd part. To my knowledge, no parts supplier (MSA, Black Dragon, Napa, AutoZone, Rock Auto, etc. actually publishes a quantifiable and defendable quality difference.

"Ours is better than theirs", "we are the best", "nobody beats our quality" etc are the same "reasons" the owners of the "higher end" Marques felt that at they were superior before and took consolation after being whipped by S30s at the race track. Hype and feelings are not proof.

I recently had to buy a replacement tire for my truck, I went in to my local Goodyear store,(the tire was warranted, but not covered)and got a price for the tire of $189.99, plus $40 for mounting and Balancing. I called Tire rack from the Lobby and the same brand and Model of tire was $93. The manager came over and essentially told me that he would knock $20 off, but scoffed that Tire Rack sold only seconds...and he could not price match a first quality tire and a second. I bought the tire at TireRack, Picked it up the next day and had it mounted and balanced by Asian Automotive for $20. I know the equipment used to mount and balance my tire was far better at Asian Automotive, and as the owner did it himself, I expect the experience and knowledge behind it was better too.

I Prefer to get higher quality-and expect to pay more for it, I just have to know I am getting higher quality to pay more.

I am like most people, when I find a satisfactory answer, I quit looking for one.

Will

Edited June 11, 2009 by hls30.com

[srbigbutt]

I've been daily driving my 280z for a year and a half. And its been great and very dependable. So far it has been very low maintance. The only parts I had to replace because of failure so far were a clutch slave cylinder, window regulator, and an alternator.

Now don't get me wrong, I have had some issues with mine. (Valve lash popping off, fuel lines leaking, Clutch fan seized) But the Z community is freaking awesome. There are several helpful forums and very helpful members including this site the have helped me through them.

The only thing I can say about getting parts, is sometimes you have to call around and check to see if they have it in stock and you may have to drive to get it, if you need it right away. Almost all stores can order and get it to you within a day or so.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Hey Houston TExas, Where at? I live near Kemah

[richard1]

buying "reliable" parts at Autozone but my experience has not been a good one.

Two years ago, I bought a new alternator. Two months after it was defective. They gave me another one. In the same period of time it failed again. I made the decision to buy a nissan original rebuilt from NAPA and the problem was fixed.

Here in Vegas, it is impossible to find an air filter replacement for s30 models and it is not even listed as available at Autozone, Pep Boys or Checkers. My only option is to buy from MSA or Courtesy (plus shipping) and it become very expensive. It is the reason I switched to KN.

No problem to find original fuel pumps at the NAPA warehouse and even point sets, rotors and distributor caps with real brass components under the STANDARD brand name. they are the best products after the OEM Nissan parts.

Maybe it is because we are in the middle of the desert here but it is impossible to find major maintenance parts at local parts stores aside of NAPA and Carquest and they are not even listed on many of them.

We have an import parts supplier in town, Meyer Auto parts. They have jobber parts under the name of OEM. Once, I bought a distributor cap with aluminum contacts. my engine was idling bad. Even points sets from MSA are garbage and don't fit right with gap set right. The engine don't start at all because the parts are not manufactured to quality standards required to have the cars to run properly.

To conclude this comment, this is my own story with after market parts and how costly it can be to have good parts to have a reliable daily driver in what I consider severe climate in my case or just a week end driver to go to the grocery store.

I have owned several classic cars in the last twenty years and they have all been ground up restoration projects. My Z is the only one that has never been restored because there is no need to do it. My goal is to maintain as an original as far as I can but being able to enjoy it as a daily driver that i would not be shy to bring to a car show. It is far from perfect and not a trailer queen.

It is the way I enjoy my driver....shiny original paint, ugly original hubcaps, A/C serviced and.......I enjoy the ride.

[doradox]

Here in Vegas, it is impossible to find an air filter replacement for s30 models and it is not even listed as available at Autozone,

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/catalog/parts/partsShelf.jsp?displayName=Air+Filter&itemId=prod61166&isSearchByPartNumber=&sortType=null&totalPages=[i@10d5396&currentPage=1&vehicleNValue=&navValue=14200001&parentId=cat30056&fromString=&fromWhere=null&filterByKeyWord=&categoryNValue=&categoryDisplayName=Routine+Maintenance&_requestid=256002&_requestid=256078&_requestid=256087&_requestid=256098&_requestid=256106&_requestid=256119&_requestid=256129&_requestid=256137&_requestid=256149

[Bruce Palmer]

I'm wondering why there seems to be no reference to Carquest from any of you. We have pretty good luck with them having older Datsun stuff no more than next day from their DC.

[sblake01]

Richard does mention Carquest.

[srbigbutt]

Hey Houston TExas, Where at? I live near Kemah

I'm in Spring TX. Amazing how we can both say we are from Houston, but we live over 50 miles from each other and the drive would be well over an hour with no traffic! haha.

I haven't had much success with NAPA or CarQuest. Mostly because there are not many around me. I have had some success with Advance Auto Parts. They seem to be springing up everywhere around here.

[hls30.com]

Bruce,

Unlike my friends, who get blamed for everything when they are not around;), we don't have a CarQuest 'round here, so I have no experience with them to comment on!

Again, I can't say Autozone is better or worse than any other parts house, only that I have not needed to look further than their convenience because I have gotten good pricing on good mechanical maintenance parts from them.

Will