Faults:

The head gasket leaked oil.

The gear box had to be reconditioned.

The water pump bearing failed.

A rear wheel bearing failed.

The radiator frame came apart.

The thermal switch for the fan failed.

Exhaust leaks in through the rear hatch.

The fuel pump began leaking twice.

The carburetor had to be replaced.

The central locking had to be repaired.

The CV joints have been a big headache.

The clutch and release bearing failed.

General Comments:

The car was sold to us with an oil leak on the engine that we were told was the rocker arm cover gasket. It was actually the head gasket and apparently this engine is prone to oil leaks because the oil passages are close to the edge of the gasket. I replaced it myself and it wasn't too bad a job.

The gearbox became very noisy and we had to have it reconditioned, and that was very expensive.

A very great annoyance has been the drive shafts and CV joints. The outside CV joints have both been replaced two or three times each. One inside CV joint has been replaced with a used joint, but the drive train still has a lot of jerkiness to it, and I think it will be necessary to replace both sides CV joints and drives hafts to correct this.

The carburetor seemed to have been worked on by a mechanic with a sledge hammer because parts were bent. I got a used carburetor from a Gallant of the same year and it works much better.

One of the rear wheel bearings was noisy a month or so after we got the car and I replaced it, but found the new bearing was loose in the wheel. The old bearing had been in there so long that it had begun to wobble in the wheel and wore a larger hole in the wheel. I had to buy a whole wheel from Japan because I couldn't find a junk yard that had one.

An odd failure was the frame that the radiator is mounted in. It is soldered to the radiator and then bolted to the car frame and the solder joints failed. I had to bring it to a radiator shop to be renewed.

One of the most annoying faults is exhaust gases being pulled into the cabin when windows are open. It appears to be pulled through the fresh air vents in the hatch door. There are two vents in the paneling over the door and inside each vent is a fabric curtain that is supposed to prevent air from flowing into the cabin, but the curtains have become stiff and wrinkled and don't do the job. I finally had to block any air passages in the hatch to keep from being gassed.

Faults:

Nothing major. The exhaust is dirty and it struggled to get through the emissions test on the MOT a few years ago.

It is beginning to rust quite badly now, and the body work does not look great.

General Comments:

Great family car. It has been reliable and quite economical (after we stopped going to the main dealers who are very expensive).