Nissan dont use a real EGR valve in those engines, they utilize the camshaft phaser (variable valve timing unit) to change the timing enough that it can pull a bit of exhaust into the cylinders - Same thing is used by Toyota and didnt have this problem (it had other problems that caused oil burn)

Nissan's cat converter supplier provided some real scrap to install on the cars - Nissan were replacing those engines like free candy in the 07-10 vehicles - some as early as 5000 miles. Its not just the cylinders, in some cases the crank bearings were shot too.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

THANK YOU for explaining .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

My experience with Nissans was unusual. Only drove one, that an Altima with 2k on the odo that I rented in Seattle in '99. I had flown up from the Bay Area, wanted to check out my old hippie fair haunt in EA Wa near Canada. Maybe I'd have come to hate it but it was a nice running car and not slow. I just looked it up, 2.4 liter, 155 hp.

I was on highway 97, runs north from Wenatchee along the Columbia River, almost dark and I passed an old boy (I'm guessing) in an older pickup. Something about it must have given him offense because he sped up to stay with me at around 65 to 70 for maybe 10 miles. I'm thinking 'sorry if I stepped on your toes dude but thain't gonna be no roadside road rage incident here,' so next car I passed was on a long straightaway, I bumped it up to 100 and kept it there for about 10 minutes. Didn't see the guy again. Car just purred.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Those old KA24s were great engines...pretty damn durable. Nissan really lost their way in the mid 00s, between the awful CVTs and overall cheapening of the brand. Its a shame, they had good products before then.

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Those old KA24 were really durable and very strong. The 2.5 they replaced it with (QR25DE) is pretty nice but has some downfalls because of Nissan's own stupidity of cheapening out critical parts like headgaskets. That engine has a bedplate making its lower end quite stiff when compared to the KA24.

__________________
2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Oops, clearly I'm not well versed in Nissans - the CVT wasn't introduced until '02 - the one I drove was a '99, possibly an '00 (rented it in Oct. '99).

I seem to recall hearing that Nissan also cheaped out on electrical wiring, going with lighter gauge than other makers. Can't find it in a search just now.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

They havent gone thinner on the wiring but done something remarkably "french" - instead of using modular plug and play relays they made the relays into the fuse box. (post 2013 cars). Mercedes did this a long time ago (K40 relay etc) but their units are pretty reliable compared to the nissan ones.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

I own quite a few 1960's & 1970's Japanese Motos and was a working mechanic for many years and the Japanese' love of 18 gauge wiring for the entire vehicle including the headlights (!) was a thing in the 1960's & 1970's along with dim lights because of it .

The wires on my old Honda Motocycles is barely adequate and once a few strands of wire have broken things get tricky.....

That being said I do love my old Honda Motos and the Datsun PL620 pickups I had were pretty damn stout apart from the tin foil cabs & fenders .

Same thing with the 1972 Ford Courier (Mazda) mini pickup I drove , hard to kill but oh so delicate sheet metal .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I think the VQ was the beginning of their downturn in quality. I've seen far too many mid-00s Nissans with bum motors - many of which haven't even crossed 150k miles.

I've seen quite a few KA/SR/RB/CA that have nothing but HARD miles on them, and take it in stride without complaining.

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-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

Prolly cause of the cat coming apart and debris getting into engine.

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Jim

The Japanese car brands are polarizing. More and more people seem to have little interest in other than the Honda and Toyota Japanese brands. At least regionally. As time moves forward. Nissan, Mitsubishi,and Mazda seem to be getting squeezed out.

Again locally the old big three brands of cars seem to be almost dead sales wise. Other than their trucks. Kia and Hyundai seem to be steadily absorbing the old big threes car market share here.

Volkswagon products seem to be selling decently in areas that have dealers as well. Service costs on all brands when things need attention are generally very high here currently. So known or suspected reliability seems to sell more all the time.

Many of the big threes trucks are seeing far too many issues under warranty reciently. So they are leaving themselves wide open for a good replacement to appear.

Nissan and Mitsubishi's problems are self-inflicted. Mitsubishi hasn't made a decent car in memory. Their crap in the 90s was the worst you could buy. People remember that and associate their brand with "junk". The new "Mirage" they sell doesn't help that image. Nissan killed themselves with the crappy Altima with the CVT and junk engines that self-destruct. Rental companies buy them because they're cheap. People who don't know better or just want "a car" wind up with them off Enterprise lots. They're a brand synonymous with "junk" and have a correspondingly low resale value and customer satisfaction rating as a result.

Mazda is in sort of a different boat....their reputation was harmed by Ford. They were never as popular as Honda or Toyota to begin with, but Ford did them no good in the early 2000s. Nowadays they seem to make decent cars but not without their problems. Friend of mine has a 2015 Mazda 3 Sport made in Mexico. Apparently brake pads are made of unobtainium for the Mexico built models, even the dealer can't get them. We're currently looking into the feasibility of updating to the "Japan" brakes just to get pads! Stupid.

Toyota and Honda ride on their reputation from years past. As the owner of a modern Honda, I'm not sure they deserve the "bulletproof" reputation they have. Decent car, yes, but I wouldn't say any better than average.

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Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

The VG was a decent stout engine too. Not just the VQ but also there was a huge quality downturn right then...the first gen G35s practically fall apart, especially the interior. There are so many VQs out there, I wonder what the failure rate is -- tons of ratty ones but it might simply be due to volume?

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Mitsu and Nissan have been on a race to the bottom. Customers with appalling or no credit, cheapest cars on the market, etc. Mitsu hasnt really made an attempt to even release many new models. Nissan is similar, but at least put out a new model here and there (although the 370z and GTR are over a decade old)

Mazda has made some brilliant cars recently, their new 3s are probably best in segment, their small CUVs are also great. Mazda is hitting far above their weight and would probably be my choice in the new market.

Hyundai and Kia have been moving upmarket for 20 years, no surprises there.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I disagree with your 90s mitsu impression. The turbo cars were incredible and some of the best out there -- eclipse most notably, and 3000gt as well. You could say the same about the 300zx, 240sx and sentra SE-R too.

It just makes it much more of a shame how far they have slid.

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth