Official old grumpy assholes of zilvia thread

[dizzariot]

Originally Posted by soreballz

I don’t really get why so many people are hung up on this “s-chassis are rattle boxes” thing. I’ve driven a few S13s that had solid-mounted-everything and bare interiors, and those cars were certainly rattle boxes. But that wasn’t Nissan’s doing, it was their own. My ex had a bone-stock (minus catback) ‘91 coupe, and it had no annoying rattle issues. My coupe has JGS rubber engine and trans mounts, poly subframe bushings, and solid arms in the rear, no headliner, half a carpet... it was fine. Not as quiet as the ex’s stock car, but still far better than several others I’ve driven. The only time I ever had rattle issues was with a cheap short shifter, which I fixed after about a week, or whenever I had an exhaust setup that hit the body or the subframe.

These aren’t luxury cars. Fix your janky shit, lower your expectations, and if need be, invest in some proper sound deadening.

To be clear, it OBVIOUSLY isn't a deal breaker but the cars are noisy as all fuck.

'93 240SX: Garage kept, all seals are good, only had coilovers/RUCA and 16" wheels. Still loud.

'96 180SX: Possibly garage kept. It has coilovers/RUCA and 17" wheels. I replaced the door seals but I still need to get on the door strikers and those little washers for the door hinges. Besides the fact that I keep the backseat down and have an exhaust, the car makes a fuck ton of noise. Most of it comes from the front end.

'89 Silvia: Possibly garage kept. It has coilovers/RUCA and 16" wheels. Probably needs the door strikers/washers as well. Still makes noise.

All of this was to show that the cars don't have to be 'jank' to make noise man, it's just how they are. I don't think anyone is 'hung up on the fact' but we're grumpy old assholes.

[soreballz]

Originally Posted by spooled240

We probably have different definitions on what "fine" is.

Probably. I daily drove it for 8 years and 150k+ miles before retiring it with well over 300k miles. I regularly drove 4-5 hours one way for work, and made several 1500 mile runs between East TX and CA in it. It was fiiiiine. No earplugs needed, I could even drive without the stereo on, and my passengers had no trouble sleeping. Sure, summers without a/c sucked, but that’s my only complaint. Well, that, and the leaky sunroof. It really ruined sunroof cars for me.

Originally Posted by spooled240

I daily an IS300 with over 200k and it's very smooth and quiet. I know its not a good comparison, but it just shows the vast differences in build quality between the two cars.

My current daily is a ‘96 Ranger. It’s got all sorts of awful squeaks and rattles. If it didn’t have a stereo, I wouldn’t have my sanity. I’ve never been spoiled by daily driving a well made, newish car. I suppose I’m comparing my decent 240 to other examples of the same car, and other vehicles of that era, while you’re comparing them to better, newer cars that aren’t 80s/90s economy sports cars. It’s funny, now that I think about it, the last person who told me my car was loud in the cabin daily drives a 2nd gen GS400. If I daily drove a Lexus, I might be inclined to agree with you. Perspective is everything.

Originally Posted by dizzariot

To be clear, it OBVIOUSLY isn't a deal breaker but the cars are noisy as all fuck.

[words]

All of this was to show that the cars don't have to be 'jank' to make noise man, it's just how they are. I don't think anyone is 'hung up on the fact' but we're grumpy old assholes.

I wasn’t speaking specifically to anyone here. It’s a topic I’ve seen brought up elsewhere recently, as well. I saw it mentioned here and it got me thinking.

It’s entirely possible that I’m seeing things through some slightly rose colored glasses, as it’s been sitting for nearly 5 years and I miss driving it in a big way.
But as far as I can recall, squeaks and rattles were never much of an issue for me in that car. I mean, it was quite rough and noisy on my road, but I live on a pretty fucked up farm road that isn’t really low car friendly. And brick roads were a nightmarish scene of “holy shit is my car falling apart?” But on normal roads or the highway, it was perfectly tolerable.
Squeaks and rattles were certainly a problem in some other s13s I drove, fastbacks especially. Some of those were track/drift cars, others were salvage title shit box street cars. Mine wasn’t the nicest s-chassis around, far from it, but in terms of comfort, it really was heaps better than many others I’ve been around. It’s those other sort of cars I’ve always assumed give the 240 it’s rep as a rattlebox. I just assumed anyone who felt that way hadn’t driven a nice example of one. But, per the two of you, I guess that’s not necessarily the case.

[spooled240]

Originally Posted by soreballz

Probably. I daily drove it for 8 years and 150k+ miles before retiring it with well over 300k miles. I regularly drove 4-5 hours one way for work, and made several 1500 mile runs between East TX and CA in it. It was fiiiiine. No earplugs needed, I could even drive without the stereo on, and my passengers had no trouble sleeping. Sure, summers without a/c sucked, but that’s my only complaint. Well, that, and the leaky sunroof. It really ruined sunroof cars for me.


My current daily is a ‘96 Ranger. It’s got all sorts of awful squeaks and rattles. If it didn’t have a stereo, I wouldn’t have my sanity. I’ve never been spoiled by daily driving a well made, newish car. I suppose I’m comparing my decent 240 to other examples of the same car, and other vehicles of that era, while you’re comparing them to better, newer cars that aren’t 80s/90s economy sports cars. It’s funny, now that I think about it, the last person who told me my car was loud in the cabin daily drives a 2nd gen GS400. If I daily drove a Lexus, I might be inclined to agree with you. Perspective is everything.



I wasn’t speaking specifically to anyone here. It’s a topic I’ve seen brought up elsewhere recently, as well. I saw it mentioned here and it got me thinking.

It’s entirely possible that I’m seeing things through some slightly rose colored glasses, as it’s been sitting for nearly 5 years and I miss driving it in a big way.
But as far as I can recall, squeaks and rattles were never much of an issue for me in that car. I mean, it was quite rough and noisy on my road, but I live on a pretty fucked up farm road that isn’t really low car friendly. And brick roads were a nightmarish scene of “holy shit is my car falling apart?” But on normal roads or the highway, it was perfectly tolerable.
Squeaks and rattles were certainly a problem in some other s13s I drove, fastbacks especially. Some of those were track/drift cars, others were salvage title shit box street cars. Mine wasn’t the nicest s-chassis around, far from it, but in terms of comfort, it really was heaps better than many others I’ve been around. It’s those other sort of cars I’ve always assumed give the 240 it’s rep as a rattlebox. I just assumed anyone who felt that way hadn’t driven a nice example of one. But, per the two of you, I guess that’s not necessarily the case.

Driving a lexus fucked me all up. The smoothness of the inline 6 and the interior of the lexus made the 240 seem like I was driving a JGTC GT500 car lmao

[dizzariot]

Originally Posted by soreballz

Well, that, and the leaky sunroof. It really ruined sunroof cars for me.

(More words.)

Yeah. It's not a complaint so much as an accepted 'comes-with-the-territory' fact. I was trying to say that a lot of the cars I buy have had a good life and they still make noise. The funny thing is that I can say with 100% honesty that I've NEVER had an issue with a leaky sunroof lol. Weird as fuck since it's considered the 'norm'...but same goes for loud ass rattles, I suppose.

I spent all day driving my Silvia. 1hr+ to Mooneyes, then another 45min+ to UpGarage. I took the low roads (more bumps) to avoid tolls. The car actually seems to make LESS noise now that it's planted on coilovers. Go figure. The wind noise still gets in but that's what we all get for having cool-guy frameless doors lol.

Originally Posted by spooled240

Driving a lexus fucked me all up. The smoothness of the inline 6 and the interior of the lexus made the 240 seem like I was driving a JGTC GT500 car lmao

DUUUUDE. YES. LOL. A buddy of mine here had GS and when I would ride in it I'd find myself questioning my life choices hahahah. Before that, in the US, a close friend had a BMW and that shit felt like an airplane. If I parted out my SChassis cars then sold the stock cars for the 'going-rate' I could easily afford something like that...but I'm still stupid and still love pieces of shit.

[spooled240]

Originally Posted by dizzariot

Yeah. It's not a complaint so much as an accepted 'comes-with-the-territory' fact. I was trying to say that a lot of the cars I buy have had a good life and they still make noise. The funny thing is that I can say with 100% honesty that I've NEVER had an issue with a leaky sunroof lol. Weird as fuck since it's considered the 'norm'...but same goes for loud ass rattles, I suppose.

I spent all day driving my Silvia. 1hr+ to Mooneyes, then another 45min+ to UpGarage. I took the low roads (more bumps) to avoid tolls. The car actually seems to make LESS noise now that it's planted on coilovers. Go figure. The wind noise still gets in but that's what we all get for having cool-guy frameless doors lol.



DUUUUDE. YES. LOL. A buddy of mine here had GS and when I would ride in it I'd find myself questioning my life choices hahahah. Before that, in the US, a close friend had a BMW and that shit felt like an airplane. If I parted out my SChassis cars then sold the stock cars for the 'going-rate' I could easily afford something like that...but I'm still stupid and still love pieces of shit.

I just keep wondering how different things would have been if I put all the money into the IS instead of the 240. The 240 is fun but it comes at the expense of comfort(lightweight ftw). We'll see how the IS is with about 500whp. Seems like it would be a dream, but who knows it may still feel like a pig. Maybe someone with some experience can chime in.