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Last tank bumped up to 37.1 mpg with the much warmer weather and a 150 mile road trip. I pulled the front struts to compress the springs and reposition the lower rubber insulators so they would not make ugly noises when I turned the front wheels. When I put it back together the axle shaft had popped out of the outer CV joint and I could not get it back in until I checked the snap ring and found it broken in two pieces. The boot was already broken so I managed to drive it to my neighbors repair shop and got a rebuilt axle which he installed.
Today I went after the front end alignment and realized the tie rod threads were not equal length on both sides. After setting the camber, which is adjustable with the replacement struts (not adjustable on the originals) and discovering the unequal length tie rods, I set the toe rods to the same length, set the toe to the correct dimension and test drove the car. It tracked well, straight with hands off the wheel, but the steering wheel was at about 11 o'clock instead of 12 o'clock.
Fortunately this model Nissan does not have a master spline. so I pulled the steering wheel and test drove the car again so I could get the wheel perfectly centered.
Now it is much more stable at speed, unequal length tie rods do crazy things to handling and it is now much more stable at speed and not squirrely at all. Also no creaking-squeaking front suspension when I turn the wheels a lot at low speeds.
For a while when I could not get the axle shaft back in place, I thought I was going to have to get the car towed to the shop to replace the axle, but the axle stayed in place the 2.2 miles to the shop. $150 later and 4 hours messing around with the alignment, pulling the steering wheel, test driving repeatedly and the ordeal is finally over.
I think when I get the front engine oil seal done, I'll probably replace the fan belts and check the idler pullies carefully. That should get me set for quite a while as far as maintenance-repairs are concerned.
8600 miles on this $300 car. I think after the front seal is done it should be ready for another 50k miles or more.
This will bump my cost per mile higher than the 20 cents I calculated before, but it also means there should be no more "catch up" maintenance and or repairs.
regards
mech
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