It seems that these cars are seriously prone to busted trannsmissions and blown motors... it makes me wonder how hard you can drive these cars (03-04) or bring them to the track under basic maintenance without having expensive oopsies because the cars may not be able to handle it...

How tough are these cars under harder driving, daily driving and basic maintenance? What can they handle?

 

Mine gets beaten at the track all the time, 103k on the clock and still going. Larger oil pan , oil cooler and radiater is all i have done to keep it going other than normal maintenance.

 

The engines are pretty good, but your main concern at the track is heat. Cramped engine bay = a lot of heat, so if you watch and listen to things you should be ok. The more cooling mods you do the better. Same goes for F/I, it's just going to be a big problem at track conditions

 

VQ= great engine

 

DE ftw

 

Where are all these blown motors? I have never heard of a VQ35 blowing up other than FI conversions. Some tranny's have been problems; I have an '03 with almost 90k and never had a problem. And I drive it pretty hard sometimes.

 

My 04 was at the track(road course) 4 times this year. I drive it quite hard on the track as well. No over heating or brake problems. I also have no aftermarket oil cooler or other mods of that sort. As long as you perform basic maintenance and properly warm up and cool down your car during track sessions you should be fine. I usually spend 20 minutes max on the track at once time to keep tire, brake and engine temps at reasonable levels. I also look over my entire car before and after hitting the track and check all "paint markings" on suspension and brake bolts to make sure none of them backed off.

 

+1. 74k miles, six track events, a year of auto-crossing, and its held up well. I do get the oil burn, but its a problem with most rev-ups.

 

VQ's are bulletproof.

 

Orginal owner of 03 Touring. 100K miles and the motor is still strong. I have rattles but can deal with them. Never heard of a blown motor.

 

Doesn't seem like you have spent much time reading posts by actual owners

Blown transmissions are not common - some have had transmission issues (grinds, etc), which were replaced by Nissan under warranty. Others had no problems. Blown motors are extremely rare unless boost was introduced with improper tuning/planning. My car is an early 04 (mid 03 build date), never had any engine issues when my engine was stock (had lots of track time too). Have since built my engine out of choice, and it's worked very well. Zero transmission issues ever, still on the one that came with my car.

Anytime you track a car, you have to expect some level of increased cost. It makes no difference what car it is

 

why don't you read the responses on the other threads you created three years ago asking the same type of questions?

 

It does seem odd to ask these questions being a member for so long. IMHO if you actually drive the car hard you should be able to gauge somewhat what's acceptable and what may damage the car.

 

03 Z 130k miles on mine and the only issue I have is I found a little oil in my spark plug hole, besides that Transmission and Engine run perfect. I don't track mine but its a DD and I push it once in awhile. I drive a 5AT though, I read something about the 5AT trans being a bit tougher?

 

i drift mine, and im basically stock, and never had a problem other than my 3rd gear syncro going ahile back but had that replaced under warranty. and i dont think you can put the motor thru any more punishment than while drifting. just like everyone else said keep up with your car

 

blown motor NA??? I dont think I have EVER heard of that here!....maybe under boost...but even thats rare due to bad set up or crap tune/no tune

 

There have been a few heavily tracked cars that blew the motor NA