1986 Nissan Laurel SGL LD28 diesel straight 6
Summary:
Reliable, comfortable, a future classic
Faults:
I got the car recently, so I had no problems with it yet.
It has a few problems, though:
- Front shock absorbers are totally out of service
- The front-right bearings are a little noisy.
General Comments:
I bought this car from a guy who had it for the last 14 years, he was the 2nd owner of the car.
This is my first car and I absolutely love it.
Because this is such a rare model here in Romania, I had to search for a year until I found one.
Except the problems I mentioned, everything else is working fine on the car.
The engine runs great, it starts very easily in the mornings.
My Laurel has the old LD28 engine; it is not very good uphills, but I'm sure this is because of the automatic transmission.
The paintwork is still the original one, without any rust. I was surprised when the previous owner told me that he didn't had a garage for the car.
Because the front shock absorbers are not working, the handling is pretty bad, especially on bumpy roads.
For spare parts, I have another Laurel, a C31 from '84, with the same LD28 engine.
I am thinking to take the shock absorbers from my old C31 and put it on the C32.
Does anybody know if this is possible? Please leave a comment here. :)
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 6th October, 2008
3rd Dec 2008, 14:24
Hi and sorry for the late reply:)
About parts: I didn't tried to search for body parts yes, since I don't really need any, only a new fron mask... until now I was searching in a few scrapyards, but couldn't find any Laurel... mainly because this model was never imported to Romania, I think...
But I was able to find easily things like fuel, oil and air filters, which I already replaced, and also I changed brake pads until now.
In 2 monnths since I have the car, I did about 4500 kilometers with it, and didn't touched anyhing on it.
But now the front of the car is a mess, very very noisy but I hope I can solve the shock absorber problem this week, and also replace the ball joing and a front bearing.
Having said this, I think reliability is very very good, morning starts at -5, -10 are piece of cake, just 2 key turn and that's is... just like my friend's Golf 5 TDI...
Can't wait to solve these little problems and enjoy the great handling of the car...
One thing is concerning me at the moment: it seems to me that the gearbox does a lot of changing back, when pushing harder... I am thinking that maybe a flush and an oil change should help this. I check the oil in it, is nice orange, but I don't know when it was changed the last time and I don't even know how often it should be changed.
Just one question: I have a little swich on the console behind the gear stick: is that for Overdrive? It is better to keep it on or off?
Having said these, I will return with further updates as soon as I can.
A nice day to everyone reading this :) And don't forget to comment if you have anything to say:)