I took everyones advice about not bothering with an n/a and I'm pretty close to making an offer on a a black '90 TT auto (Hallmarks, Thatcham, Berks.) Subject to RAC check.

The car in question is as near perfect to my inexperienced eye as any ten year old car I've ever seen - it's showing 77000km. However, I've just been told the 1990 auto box is well dodgy.

 

Should I leave well alone?

 

The 89/90/91 auto-boxes can indeed be pretty dodgy (due to bad cooling), but there's no easy way of telling if the tranny is about to go..

Leave it if it shifts jerky or makes (weird) sounds (clicking, whistles)...a auto-tranny in good condition should shift like silk.

If you decide to buy it, I'd suggest you install a tranny-cooler.

 

Another thing of the automatics is that they have smaller turbo's and less power (not much though), but it's very noticable when compared to a manual TT

 

Zya,

Eric

 

Nissan did make some alterations to the post 1990 gearbox but my opinion, for what it's worth, is that a standard car is unlikely to have mashed the 'box. My 1990 box did give up but that was after filter, exhaust, cats and boost upgrade. The gearbox oil cooler is a very wise upgrade.

 

The plus side of a blow up of the 'box is that you can get an upgraded box with higher line pressure which makes a huge difference. Changes are SO quick and, apart from the first second off the line, the car will be quicker than a same power manual when accelerating.

 

Dave