How reliable has your DSM been?

[IceMan526]

I have a 1993 AWD Talon TSI and I can say that it has been the most reliable car I have ever had or seen. It has been sitting in my driveway for 4 years and hasnt moved one bit nor has it even complained!

 

[DSMmonster123]

My talon would be the most reliable car i've had if i'd stop touching things. then it wouldn't sitting in the driveway on jack stands.

 

[r3d93talon]

I've had my TSI for two months now. Reliability is not so much apart of dsm's in my opinion. I've driven my car a handful of times, and something always needs to be fixed. I'm not so much angry because it is a 93 .. Its worth every dollar if you truly enjoy that dsm feel. This my second 1g and it will become.. Almost reliable.

 

[2g99]

i have had my 99 gsx for about 3 years now. all i have had go wrong with it so far is a thermostat, front passenger wheel bearing. and wires went bad
I <3 my DSM!!!

 

[4G63_Attack]

So far my 1G has been good to me because for the most part its a weekend warrior. Before it was a DD had 2 timing jump because of balance belt, rebuild engine then replace it. Got everything the way wanted and it has been good so far. Just need to replace the axles and fix boost leak.

 

[Yamaharyder600]

A Dsm is only as reliable as you make it. If your cheap and half ass and rig everything; that's when your gonna have issues. I've had my first 2g for a little over a year, and the car I'm building almost everything has been gone through and done correctly. People trying to make really cheap horsepower or don't do any upkeep on their ride are the ones that typically have issues and give our cars a bad name. Sorry to vent but it's the truth, I've seen it over and over again.

 

[DanGST]

A Dsm is only as reliable as you make it. If your cheap and half ass and rig everything; that's when your gonna have issues. I've had my first 2g for a little over a year, and the car I'm building almost everything has been gone through and done correctly. People trying to make really cheap horsepower or don't do any upkeep on their ride are the ones that typically have issues and give our cars a bad name. Sorry to vent but it's the truth, I've seen it over and over again.

You are right. I was one of them when I first started the dsm scene. And I try to half a## the maintenace and just make the car fast and 3/4 the time it was down and buying the parts a second time. Now I am on my second time and I am trying to bring it back to life from its previous owners and so.far everything is coming out as plan but killing my pocket, at least I never have to buy the parts again (lifetime warranty helps ) Spend the extra money and buy the parts.once. Learn from my mistake. Never cut corners when moddifing these cars. They will let you know.

 

[Iodes]

I've only owned my Eclipse since June of this year and spent $300 supposedly fixing a problem with my fourth cylinder not firing; my fuel rail and injectors were completely clogged with gunk, so I had one injector rebuilt by Napa and everything else got parts cleaner treatment. But all that was completely ineffective as the same cylinder is not firing AGAIN as of two weeks ago. So I decided to buy a brand new set of injectors (not stock refurbished ones) and a new fuel rail. I paid about $340 for everything and the parts should be here Monday.

The fact that I've invested $640~ into a car I've owned for five months is a little annoying, but it's my first car and I love it. And the initial problem occurred after I let my friends drive it, so now no one but me gets behind the wheel.

 

[Spyder-Gst]

I for one can say my 97 spyder has been reliable in the 5 years I have owned it not once has it left me stranded I'm not a Honda hater but my brothers civic just in the last five months has left it around ten times not to mention he's been throwing money at it non stop I've even towed his car with mine. Only one time I can recall my serpentine belt snapped but its because I was racing a 300zx.

 

[airmail96]

Honestly if you don't go to far in the modifications DSMs can be quite reliable. Once you start beating on them and racing them I think that's when reliability comes in to factor.

 

[tode5tool]

i just wanna say. my DSM has had its problems..and still does. but i wanna prove how reliable they are from first hand experience. I was on my way to work.. its about 10 miles from home. and about a 1/4 mile from work my car started to act crazy. I didn't know what it was, but it was showing half rpms and was going very slow. later I realized it was a spark cut on 2 cylinders. but anyways, I decided that ide rather try to get it home then leave it at work, so I did. with only 2 cylinders the old girl got me home. of course it was a slow drive, but she did it. I don't know how many cars can do that, since Ive never seen a car run on 2, and drive. but my DSM did. and I'm never getting out of the game. I love DSM's with a fierce passion and always will, no mater how much trouble they give me.

 

[Bohrn]

toad5tool, change your oil! That whole time your two cylinders that were not firing were still squirting fuel in! This washes your cylinder walls down and thins out/contaminates your engine oil.

If on the off chance that it was two injectors crapping out at the exact same time, please disregard, but its quite common for a coil pack to loose two cylinders, so no spark to those, but you still get full fuel.

 

[shift2drift38]

Mine left me without a car ONE time, about 3months ago. The idler pulley to the timing belt blew apart. Guessing it'd never been done. Was told it was when I bought it 3years ago, put maybe 50k on it since. Either way it jumped time about 5-6 teeth. Was certain it was toast, till I bought a package deal on a used head that came with a timing kit (minus the water pump). Decided what the hell, applied the new timing kit, didnt replace the head (hey if it was toast wasn't gonna do much more right?) but low and behold she fired right up, and drives like the little bamf she is . I absolutely love my DSM.

 

[ilco187]

mine would be a big fat ass 0 not reliable not even 1 grain of sand bit.

 

[lilnightmare96]

I bought my 2g with 180,xxx on mine. Drove it all summer and winter, gave me no problems what's so ever. And gave a lot of Honda's,mustangs etc a hard time. I modded mine a bit didn't take care of it as I should have and spun a bearing. My mistake I give them a 10 on reliability . Its all on how you treat the car and take care of it.

 

[NuJerzianDSM]

Car was perfectly fine before I started building it. It's been sitting for awhile b/c I couldn't get it right, just recently started driving it regularly again.

 

[scottyhops]

it was good when i got it...decided to push 10psi..blew pistons up. then re built it and wanted to push 15psi and blew a head gasket 3 months later, although it is on a 420a engine. still can hang with everyone with the 60trim

 

[Talon IV]

One hell of a 10 year old thread! My 1st two DSM's sucked (a 91 TSi and a 92 2.0 N/T) but they were also not very well taken care of by previous owners. I was also fairly young at the time and did not have the experience or knowledge on what it took to own and take care of a DSM. I ended up selling the 91 and had to take the 92 to the bone yard. Now fast forward 8 years later and I have yet another 91 TSi and my lady has a 95 TSi. Yes my 91 is out of commision right now but thats because the OEM alternator took a crap. But both of these had good previous owners and their maintence has been kept up on very well. I trust both these cars to be reliable daily drivers. (even though the 95 is our back up car) Just think of what made these cars get the bad rap for reliability in the 1st place, when the DSM thing was huge (pre evo/sti) a huge plethora of us wanted one and bad! A lot of people decide a quick install of a cheap fuel controller and boost controller is what all was needed to make them fast. Well guess what happened, improper modding and crap tuning solutions... make car go boom... to put it simply. But now if you think about it, proper research, taking care if it, keeping up on scheduled maintence, technology such as DSMlink Evo VIII ECU installs and other good tuning solutions will make this car reliable. Basically as with anything, treat it with great respect and it will respect you. Yes if you highly mod it things will break and that goes with any car... Also cars like Nissan, Honda,and Toyota... their little 4 bagers did not produce much power. It was meant for economy... also makes a car reliable right off the bat.

 

[OSXer]

Instead of "Are DSM's a reliable car?", it should be "Are DSMers often too cheap to maintain their car?".

 

[Talon IV]

Instead of "Are DSM's a reliable car?", it should be "Are DSMers often too cheap to maintain their car?".

Ha well that is another way to put it!

 

[ofgofg]

This, my third driver that I have owned has been TITS. No problems, no leaks, no CEL... I have replaced an FPR and refurbished an electric door lock mechanism and thats it.

First one, a 97 tsi had issues from PO that needed fixing,, then it still threw cel and high egt all the time. It was reliable,, but made me feel like it was going to blow up or melt down.

Second,, a 90 tsi kept wanting to die and would not restart for a couple hours. Left me stranded a couple times,, and it had only 100k miles and was "stocker than stock". Later found out it was an ecu trying to kill its self once and for ALL.

Hoping my minor mods plans will not kill reliability as this car is strictly a daily driver commuter.

 

[2GbTalonGuy]

I haven't had any problems with mine since I have gotten it running.

 

[clizz3]

I haven't had any problems with mine since I have gotten it running.

Your lucky. Every time I fix mine something else goes wrong. :/

 

[2GbTalonGuy]

I've had my fair share of bugs to work out of it since the build. But that is not the car's fault, that is my own error. But I have had nothing break on me, and it has never left me stranded anywhere.

 

[clizz3]

I completely understand. Same for me. My problem is when the cars cold and I leave it hesitate and jerks and bogs out while it idles, but only does this when it's not warmed up