My 1998 200SX SE-R (and a few questions)!
Hi everyone! I finally decided to register thanks to some advice on Reddit. I've always loved these cars and finally I was able to purchase my own in 2009 for $3,400.
The car was in great shape, and the best part is it only had 47k miles! It's now up to about 90k miles, and the only major maintenance I've had to do is replace the clutch. Everything else has been great. I think it may have been in a small accident because alignment doesn't seem that great, despite having it aligned at 2 different places about 4 times in the last 3 years. I'll try to dig up a picture of the car from the day I got it, it was really in very good physical shape. Also the internals looked great so I'm sure it was true to the odometer reading.
I've only done 2 upgrades to the car. An Injen CAI, and a Greddy bolt-on exhaust. I kind of want to get headers but I can't find a good deal on them, and honestly I'm not sure if it'd be worth it.
Any who, on to my questions
1) Because I was so proud of the car when I get it, I decided to use full synthetic oil for every oil change since I've gotten in. Am I an idiot?
2) The clutch grips well and doesn't slip or anything, but when I press it, it feels kind of grindy sometimes. Is that something wrong with the clutch itself or is it maybe just the bearing thing in the middle of it? No mechanical problems but kind of an annoyance that I want to make sure gets fixed next time I do any clutch work (upgrade, or what have you).
3) The struts/shocks on my car are completely out. It's very obvious when you drive it, and I've also been told that my shocks are the reason my back tires developed flat spots. I'll attach a picture of what they look like. So since I have to replace the shocks, I'm thinking maybe I should take this opportunity to drop my car a little. Again though, i want it to be as cheap as possible. On Ebay I can get a set of 4 OEM struts for around $150, and some lowering springs for like $50. Can I truly get away with lowering my car for $200? I don't want to burn through tires quickly and I'd rather not kill my shocks earlier than usual because of lowering my car, so if those are two risks I'm running then I'd rather go another route (or not even lower it at all). Do I need any sort of camber kit? A few years back, the guys at Firestone told me they weren't able to properly align my car because of some bullshit I don't remember now, but they were trying to sell me a $150 part, that they had to order, to properly align my car. So obviously I told them to pound sand.
Thanks in advance for any replies. I know I wrote out a lot of stuff but hopefully somebody can chime in. In the next year or so I plan on getting myself a new car (something more family oriented), but I want to keep this as a project car (I eventually want to turbo it).
Here's a picture of what the car looks like right now (I know it's not the prettiest thing but I love it).
And here's a picture of the tire flat spots I described in question 3.
The car was in great shape, and the best part is it only had 47k miles! It's now up to about 90k miles, and the only major maintenance I've had to do is replace the clutch. Everything else has been great. I think it may have been in a small accident because alignment doesn't seem that great, despite having it aligned at 2 different places about 4 times in the last 3 years. I'll try to dig up a picture of the car from the day I got it, it was really in very good physical shape. Also the internals looked great so I'm sure it was true to the odometer reading.
I've only done 2 upgrades to the car. An Injen CAI, and a Greddy bolt-on exhaust. I kind of want to get headers but I can't find a good deal on them, and honestly I'm not sure if it'd be worth it.
Any who, on to my questions
1) Because I was so proud of the car when I get it, I decided to use full synthetic oil for every oil change since I've gotten in. Am I an idiot?
2) The clutch grips well and doesn't slip or anything, but when I press it, it feels kind of grindy sometimes. Is that something wrong with the clutch itself or is it maybe just the bearing thing in the middle of it? No mechanical problems but kind of an annoyance that I want to make sure gets fixed next time I do any clutch work (upgrade, or what have you).
3) The struts/shocks on my car are completely out. It's very obvious when you drive it, and I've also been told that my shocks are the reason my back tires developed flat spots. I'll attach a picture of what they look like. So since I have to replace the shocks, I'm thinking maybe I should take this opportunity to drop my car a little
. Again though, i want it to be as cheap as possible. On Ebay I can get a set of 4 OEM struts for around $150, and some lowering springs for like $50. Can I truly get away with lowering my car for $200? I don't want to burn through tires quickly and I'd rather not kill my shocks earlier than usual because of lowering my car, so if those are two risks I'm running then I'd rather go another route (or not even lower it at all). Do I need any sort of camber kit? A few years back, the guys at Firestone told me they weren't able to properly align my car because of some bullshit I don't remember now, but they were trying to sell me a $150 part, that they had to order, to properly align my car. So obviously I told them to pound sand.Thanks in advance for any replies. I know I wrote out a lot of stuff but hopefully somebody can chime in. In the next year or so I plan on getting myself a new car (something more family oriented), but I want to keep this as a project car (I eventually want to turbo it).
Here's a picture of what the car looks like right now (I know it's not the prettiest thing but I love it).
And here's a picture of the tire flat spots I described in question 3.
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