How reliable has your DSM been?

[WizardTSi]

I can't say how reliable it COULD be, it broke down and I never got around to fixing it. It's sat for over 4 years but I never sold it and finally got it running again! Only has 117k miles on it and it's going to turn 21 this year!

 

[mitsukid248]

when i bought my car it was never reliable but i dont know if it will be its been sititing in my driveway for a while now

 

[95'RS-T]

I bought my 95 GST with 0 miles fully studed by arp blew the 3rd rod out and trashed the block at 3,300 miles.

 

[Below Ambient]

i bought my 95 tsi in december... drove it 200 mi home, then hte trans goes out, so i replaced that... i then drove it home to Boise from Albuquerque through Colorado with two bad wheel bearings and 2 bad tie rod ends. We went through snow, sleet, ice, etc... I then stopped in Boise to replace the bad wheel bearing in the front and the bad tie rod ( i thought it was just one bad tie rod and one bad wheel bearing), had it aligned, then drove it another 600 mi to Oregon where I found another bad tie rod end and the rear wheel bearing was so bad it cupped a tire.... replaced the tire and still haven't replaced either part (they are too rusted to used hand tools) but I drive the car around town everyday, and it always starts, runs, and drives fine...

if the previous owner didn't hate the car so much it would haven't had been such a lemon to begin with, but for being a car totally setup for crankwalk im impressed with its reliability so far... it could be a lot worse!

 

[tonypanda]

so far mines been pretty reliable hasnt left me stranded anywhere yet but has died on me a few times still gotta figure out why it has such a rough idle

my 95 talon nt also has 194k

 

[turbozxgt]

Turbo gone at 118k. ECU at 127k and now at 153k my ISC is going crazy!

 

[eclipsegirl04]

got my dsm 5 years ago.. and about 4 years ago i up graded a few things and got it tuned.. after started to have little problems hear and there.. been stranded alot.. also but more money into my mechanical of my car then the upgrades.. about to be on my third clutch so now i think it might be a master and/ or slave cylinder.. It might have alot of problems but i will always love my dsm..

 

[Blurred Talon]

I had an alternator go on me the day after I bought it.
The only other thing that happened was a broken motor mount and front driver side axle but that's because I didn't have the front motor mount in due to rust issues and I was beating on the car.

I've had almost no trouble with my Talon because I dump so much money into maintenance.
A car is only good if it's taken care of.

 

[RalliArt DSM]

Well let's see. I've had 3 DSMs, all 1Gs.

First - 1Ga AWD; it never gave me problems minus the usual maintanence. But you can expect that with any car.

Second - 1Ga FWD; It was going good until I had to do my emission and I failed. I told the tech to put on a new cat, but no arc welding. I went to the washroom and he didn't listen. Fried the ECU.

Current - 1Gb FWD N/T; going good, but I swear I have a vaccum leak somewhere. Running rich too.

You maintain them, they'll maintain operation. You want more power, they want more maintanence. All cars are like that.

 

[97gst_spyder]

Mine has been reliable for the last three years.

Until last Thursday, the oil filter came loose, then alt belt came loose, then the engine fuse blew, the kicker was after all that the j-pipe to ic piping coupler blew off...

 

[Calan]

Mine has never, EVER... fell off the jack stands.

But seriously, the TSI is pretty reliable considering how much I beat on it. It's usually only down for upgrades, other than right now due to a HG that was on it's way out, and the HX40 that went boom.

I drove the hell out of my '93 1.8L Eclipse for 15 years and it never let me down once.

 

[DSMnoobsause]

im not going to jinx it because then i know something will break. ha ha

 

[russ96gst]

I gotta say I have owned my 96 gs-t for 5-6 years bought it with 60K now has about 115K and I have had no real problems with it. I do all the maintenance and boost it daily to 15lbs on stock t-25 still no problems. I have maxed out the little t-25 I know but just goes to show I think that most problems only happen when really increasing horsepower or lack of maintenance. I love my DSM

UPDATE: scratch that, I just blew a spider gear through my bellhousing

 

[fmxInsane]

i choosed 4.

In less then a month i need to replace the MAF and the gas pump...

 

[noV8undrDIShood]

My 1g is pretty reliable, i told it to "stay" 8 months ago... and low an behold it is still on jackstands

 

[Doubleot]

Lulz like^


Pretty reliable. I daily drove it as it sits now, with the exception of the new Megan o2 housing and 22 psi I just changed for 7 months. Finally found a nice DD that I couldn't pass up so it's a garage queen

 

[Bohrn]

i choosed 4.

In less then a month i need to replace the MAF and the gas pump...

thats really wierd.

For one, the stock pump on most Japanese cars of this vintage almost never fail. I have only changed 1 or 2(I only remember 1) fuel pump on a Japanese car in my career as a mechanic. Thats about 8 years, I know, not for ever, but its still a significant time. I change domestic pumps every week.

And the MAFs on these fail even less. There are no moving parts. The only ones I see "fail" are ones that have been hacked too far or otherwize damaged/modified beyond stock.

 

[macks96boltdsm]

i can honestly say that my 96 6bolt swap has been the most reliable car ive had yet with 190,00 on the body and about 95,000 on the motor i have had not one problem with it beside general maintaince and a custom ordered alternator and some tweaks with the timing and tps sensor. I have constantly traveled in my car since its the only one i have and it has never led me to ending up on the side of the highway with caution lights on (knock on wood ) but at the same time i dont go around gankin on the throttle every where unless some v8 is trying to mess with me or my girl just wants to go fast but other than that my car never sees above 3,000 rpm. All you gotta do is just care for your vehicle and change you oil constantly and make sure you always have oil in her at the same time and i think you should be fine or maybe i just got lucky with mine GOOd Luck to you brother

 

[slims00ls1z28]

My 91 Talon wasn't the most reliable thing in the world. bought it with 90K. Alternator went out, then bearings in turbo (what I was told actually didn't fix that one myself), then a balance shaft belt disentigrated (was told it had new timing and balance shaft when I bought it) sending shards through the timing belt toasting the valves etc. Had less than 100K on the clock. It got sold after that. It was fun while it lasted.

My 90 Mighty max on the other hand was bought new and put about 400K on the clock (speedo wnet out at like 340k and still drove it for a couple years) and was still running good before I pulled a bonehead and swapped a low mile 93 motor in and didn't realize the timing assembly was different so it never ran with my 90 timing assembly. One alternator, 2 starters and a clutch or two was about it asside from the obvious routine stuff. Loved that little truck.

 

[AWD_Launch]

Been into DSM's for 8 years and never had one break when I was just driving them. Only when I was racing them or doing WOT throttle pulls. Maintenance is the same as other cars, you just have to check it more often.

 

[Mosquiton]

I love my DSM. But if you start to upgrade it, prepare to get your hands dirty.

 

[Abe'sGST]

I have had 2 dsm's. A 1996 eclipse rs and now i have a 1995 gst. I loved the rs and was my dd for 3 years no major problems what so ever, very reliable. Now my gst ive owned for 2 months now and i like it, but i just don't think i can depend on it as much as my rs. I've had quiet a few problems with it already. Hopefully as time goes on, I can depend on it as much as i once did with my 1st baby

 

[Jaxness]

In the 2 years Ive had her, she's only been on a flatbed once to get towed to a mechanic because I didn't know what the problem was and didn't want to drive her and risk making the issue worse. It ended up being the AC compressor going out, it would make a loud knocking noise when the motor was running. The mechanic cut the AC belt off, no more noise, .

Her biggest issue that I've had was an overheating problem that kept popping up, fixed it with a Mishimoto radiator. She runs cooler than a polar bears toenails now.

She has NEVER left me stranded, and has been more reliable than every other car I've ever had (including my 99 n/a Spyder, ). Any little issue I've run into were able to be fixed on the spot (because I keep tools in my hatch) and she always gets me home

 

[TSITurbo95]

Been reliable since day 1 I bought her, she had 50k miles, and now has 110k miles. Only on a flatbed once, I installed a cracked cas, and it broke

 

[D's GS-T]

DD Mine with a rebuilt motor at 5k miles. Got to button up an oil leak, otherwise work and back 100 miles every day.