My sister and her husband got another car they gave me their old 2001ish altima.
Looking for a few tips on repairs , it was my brother-in-laws car for work and he drove it daily 45 mins to his job so its nearly all highway miles, i think he bought it at around 60k ( 200 now ).
He maintained it pretty well and got it serviced on time. At the time it was crucial that it be running so he took good care of it.
Runs like a champ, I drove it 600 miles back home yesterday. Clean paint, no rust, cloth interior that just looks like its 10+ years old but is clean if that makes sense. No rips in the seats or anything.
Problems-
Small radiator leak, i think its a small enough leak to be fixed with the fix a leak stuff you put in it. I filled the reserve tank before we left and about halfway it was half gone.
I think that was all just taken to the radiator and not actually leaking out though, so i do think the leak is very small.
Alternator screw is stripped so i cant get to where the belt of the ac is to tighten it, every 10 mins or so the belt screams until it catches up with the ac on.
Not a real problem with it being winter though.
The exhaust has a small hole, i assume rust, right under the engine so its a little louder then it should be but not annoying loud.
Again i assume its there because its more front end noise then the rear so i dont think its the muffler or cat.
Breaks need servicing too.
The largest problem ( next to the tape player not working with the adapter for my iphone ) he said was the cv joints and tie rods (or whatever doesnt let the wheel fall off) need to be replaced soonish, he was told this by a family mechanic when he had it serviced a 4 or 5 months ago and it sat for roughly 3 months after that when they got their new car.
I live less then a mile from my job and i drive around town and very rarely go more then 10 miles so would the cv joints and tie rods be a major issue as far as stress? If they needed immediate attention is there something i should be or wouldnt be able to miss while driving?
Would a car savvy friend be able to see if they needed work pretty easily? Just to avoid any unneeded estimate costs.
If anyone is for some reason curious i can post a pic later this week once i get it washed, they have some crazy tree sap problems so its covered in that shit right now and looks awful.
This post was edited by slacker057 on Dec 23 2013 01:14pm