WutZheck

I'm going to make a long story, very short.

A little over a year ago, I bought an 03 z with 70k miles on it, from a little side of the road car lot as a consignment for their friend. I knew I should have bought a bone stock z like everybody said, but my mother convinced me to buy one with exhaust, headers, and CAI so I wouldnt have to dish out more money later on for these parts. I listened, and now I have had nothing but b2b2b2b2b problems with it. I dont think Ive had that car in my possession for longer than 2 months at a time. Now, the mechanic is saying I had a major oil leak and I have no oil in the engine and its beat to ****, and will have to be replaced. I really just want to sell it and put this POS in the past....but idk what I should do. I still owe 9k on her, also. I have saved up 2k for the past few months to fix her(since this problem happened 4 months ago), but idk if I should fix her and sell her, or sell her as is??? What would you do? Please help!!!
Oh and I also have very little knowledge about cars, so I cant really fix it myself and I would have no idea where to start.
Thanks guys.

jhc

Sorry to hear your troubles! A couple of things to consider:
▪ All you really need to do is keep it running, which means always make sure it has 5 qts of oil, who cares if it leaks? Top it off every week.
▪ $9k is a lot for an 03, you could easily lose money selling i
▪ Now is a good time to invest every spare hour on research. Make a list of repairs and put them in order of urgency. Learn how the repair is done on YouTube or DIY threds here. Spend $50 at Harbor Freight for basic hand tools, 3/8 metric sockets, box wrenches and screwdrivers.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

dboyzalter

iTrader: (3)

You still owe 9k on a 13 year old car? You did screw yourself on this one. Have you tried calling the place you purchased the car from? Maybe they could help you out and get you into a running car.

But other then that a non running Z you would be lucky to offload for 3-4k. Sounds like your in over your head on this one.

Sorry for the bad luck and best of luck.

dboyzalter

iTrader: (3)

Actually first thing I would do is bring it to a more competent mechanic. Unless your cluster was swapped out even a beat to **** for 70k miles engine shouldn't have major problems if kept mostly stock.

WutZheck

To the first two comments,
I bought it when I was 19 years old, 12k for the car, and a 3 year term. I had no idea what I was doing or anything. Just young & dumb, looking to get into a nice, fast car ASAP!

I took it to a shop here, and they said the engine was replaced. One mechanic even said it was a "junkyard motor", and I'm assuming the car was ran hard(im guilty of it too).

WutZheck

Also, I thought I should take it to another mechanic to have a second look at it, but I'm so afraid of getting screwed over. I feel so dumb when it comes to this stuff lol.

chatcher

iTrader: (3)

Low oil is not an indication of a junk motor. Fill it up and drive it. My bet is your fine on internals. Unless a compression/leak down test has been performed the status of your engine is truly not known. More details please.

1 reason you took to shop in first place?
2 codes you have?
3 any strange noises?

There is a chance you destroyed the motor but without some more info its hard to say. Many shops will take advantage of people that don't know better and many would rather replace a motor than fix it. If you ran it out of oil and drove it around you may have done damage. How often do you check the oil level? I would say if the body is good shape and the motor is indeed toast I would replace it and learn better how to keep this from happening again in the future (keeping a better eye on things)

WutZheck

I was driving down the highway, dropped it into 3rd hit the gas and something metal popped and left me rolling down the road with a trail of smoke. A few days before that happened there was this rattling noise that seem like it was near the pedals that progressively got worse over a few days that would only happen when if i was driving with the rpms high or engine braking.

chatcher

iTrader: (3)

Does the motor still turn when you hit the starter or is it locked up?

WutZheck

Nope, its locked up.

chatcher

iTrader: (3)

Sorry he's probably correct then. You can't sell the car for less than you owe so you have two choices. New motor or let it repo and buy a car with the cash you have saved up. The bank will auction the car for what ever they can get and you will still be responsible for the balance on the loan. Either way it sounds like a painful lesson is coming your way.

There are two ways to own a high performance car, deep pockets or very good mechanical skills. Its even better if you have both.

WutZheck

Well thats not exciting. Rough estimate on labor from a trusted mechanic?

WeightLimit

iTrader: (5)

I skipped through it but I bet you probably had oil consumption issues and you never checked your oil.

Your mom isn't to blame for your pick, a lot of cars this old are going to have problems due to neglect and abuse. My first Z an '04 had oil consumption issues. And all I ever had to replace was the water pump and it gave me 70k miles before I had to replace the valve covers. Which is another common problem.

turboed350z

well, thats a hit to your credit. consider it a lesson, dont buy something you cant afford.

you can either fix it, which could be upwards of 5k.

take a hit and get repo. there goes your money and your credit.

engine swap it, again, costly.

part it out and walk to work until the loan is paid off

NiLL

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Infiniti-Nissan-VQ35DE-REVUP-3-5L-Engine-G35-350Z-ZERO-MILES-05-UP-/281754262671?fits=Model%3A350Z&hash=item4199dcdc8f&vxp=mtr#vi-ilComp
This is a revup. He has non revups for slightly less.

venture210

Depending on where you are in TX OP, I might be able to give you a hand. I hope you're at least learning a little bit from all these problems

KornerCarver

iTrader: (2)

The best thing you can do for your credit rating is to continue paying for the car. The bank is owed $9K and you can bet they want their money. Letting the car be repossessed will make a ding on your credit rating for several years. The deficiency balance must be paid to protect your credit rating.

Lmvzuniga

I would try to save up and keep it, keep paying for it so you do not get it repo'd ( at least for me, I wouldn't want to take a big hit on my credit) take it to various shops/mechanics after you have some money saved up and see what is possible, if you can find a mechanic/shop that specializes more in nissans or have worked on a lot of Z's that would be better. If it comes to getting a new engine, you can always find a good one if you look around. A place near me here in PA that sells all parts & rebuildables with over 10,000 transmissions&engines instock, they are currently installing a vq35de with only 65k on it and giving me 100 day warranty for a total of $2,800 installed on my Z which has a blown engine.