Replacing a flat battery on the Nissan 100NX

It seems like only yesterday that I was getting the alternator repaired on the Nissan, but last week when I turned the ignition key, nothing happened.
I assumed the alternator might have packed up again, but due to the winter evenings and an early start for work I charged and replaced the battery the night before I intended to use the car.
And when I sat in the NX the next morning, only the clock was faintly working.

So I had to assume the battery had died. Great timing! Luckily the Halfords website actually lists the Nissan 100NX in the list of batteries it carries, so I've picked up and fitted a Halfords Calcium Battery HCB005. I did turn down their kind offer to fit it for £4.99, thinking that even I can wield a 10mm spanner - and it'd cost me more to get the car there!

For the record, the steps are pretty easy to replace a battery - it's a five minute job.

Using a 10mm spanner, loosen the negative terminal first, remove the retaining metal bar, and remove the positive terminal last.

Take the battery out, put new one in.

Attach the positive terminal first, and the negative terminal last.

Job done.

(Disposing of a car battery means a trip to your local tip - although a sign in Halfords did say they also dispose of them. Best to be careful, bearing in mind they contain acid.)

What do you want to know about the Nissan NX?

Well, I'm back in full-on enthusiastic mode after the local auto-electrician (Grimwoods in Peterborough), managed to fix my alternator for £30 - and despite the fact it was likely to take a few days, it was ready to pick up in one!

So there's going to be a fair bit of work to be done on the NX, despite the absolutely horrible weather in the UK at the moment - but I don't just want to write about how I washed the car and discovered a slight leak in the door rubber if it's not helping anyone.

So what would you most like to read, see, hear etc about the NX? More details on the car and how it was developed? More specific guides to general tasks? Specific tasks? Bodykits? Tuning?

If I can't help, I'm sure members of the NX forum will be able to help (link on the right)

My unloved NX...

I've been quite rubbish, and not really done anything with the NX - in fact I'm finding it hard to find time to even wash it at the moment!

But I've had some encouragement - in the last few days I've seen not one, but two Nissan NXs driving around the local area. Both look standard, but both also looked far cleaner and more loved than mine at the moment - a definite incentive to get the sponges and car shampoo out!

It seemed weird to see such as unusual car twice in one week - but the benefit of owning a car like mine is that you tend to spot any other owners instantly - which you wouldn't in a more normal car!

Hopefully I'll get out and give the NX some cleaning this week - I'm using Autoglym car products at the moment, so I'll let you know how they perform...

Put the spark back with a Distribution Cap for £6

I'm slowly starting to make some changes to the car, and narrow down the causes of it stuttering at about 3-4,000rpm.

Although one of the likely causes is the carb, it makes sense to check and overhaul some of the other possibly reasons. And with new HT leads, and the spark plugs checked, next on the list was the distributor.

It looks as if the original Nissan distributor was still in place 15 years later, and it was definitely starting to show it's age! And being a weekend, the nearby Nissan dealership parts department was obviously shut by the time we'd got to the stage of needing a replacement.

So it was off to the local 'motor factors', and stockists of an almost infinite supply of anything and everything. I was expecting quite a large bill, but after comparing catalogues and specifications on a range of distributor caps, and putting them next to the original (Top Tip: Remember to take original parts with you if possible - makes it a lot easier to find a similar alternative!), we settled on what we thought was the right part.

It cost a whopping £6!

And since fitting it, the problem hasn't vanished completely, but it's a lot, lot better. The car starts more easily, picks up from low revs in a much better manner, and has only stuttered in really cold and damp weather.

And that's for a total cost of £6. In fact, the car really doesn't owe me that much in spares so far. I should really have kept a closer record, but it roughly stands at a jubilee clip (And an RAC call out), a distributor cap,four exhaust mounts and fitting (£24), a Haynes manual, and lots of cleaning products!

So £30 for spares and labour, about £14 for the manual, and some shampoo. Not too shabby!

If you've got a 1.6 carb Nissan 100 NX, the most 'cost effective' distributor cap, and the one that I have, comes from Commercial Ignition, Catalogue Number XD243.

Nissan 100 NX 1.6 litre specifications, top speed and 0-60 time

I'm slowly collecting all the stats I can find for the Nissan 100 NX, NX Coupe, 1600 and 2000 NXs, starting with the manual geared 1.6:

Length 4140 mm
Width 1676 mm
Engine Size 1597 cc
0-60 mph 10.8 s
Power Output 102 bhp
Top Speed 121 mph
MPG 40
Insurance Group 11

12 months UK road tax is currently £185.
6 months UK road tax is £101.75.

Some Nissan NX goodies, including t-shirts

I've been playing around with a website called Squidoo, which allows you to create simple pages around your favourite topics.

So of course, I chose the mighty NX. And in the process discovered some cool Nissan t-shirts etc. See them all for yourself, here.

A leaking fuel hose - and a lost Nissan 100NX mudflap

Well, the joys of owning a 15-year-old, 1993 Nissan 100 NX have finally turned from the thrill of a new car, to the fun of keeping an automotive antique on the road.

Having completed a 300 mile round trip for work, I got home pretty late on Saturday, and had a bit of a sleepy start to Sunday. Which wasn't helped by the smell of petrol throughout the house, traced to the innocent-looking Nissan parked 2 yards from my front door.

Walking outside I couldn't miss the puddle of petrol, and flipping the bonnet showed a lovely hole in the fuel hose. So of course I took it off to fix it without taking the time to work out whether the fuel pump was gravity fed or not.

It is.

So I then added to the petrol lake, until I'd cut away the offending section and reattached the hose.

I've got some replacement fuel hose now to be fitted within the next day or so.


And then, as I was sweeping some dust around to soak up the excess fuel, I looked under the rear of the car to find that one of the branded 100 NX mudflaps had disappeared at some point. Ruddy typical.

The start of Nissan NX World

Hello and welcome to the Nissan NX World website, blog and forum - dedicated to the Nissan range of NX cars.

The Nissan NX range was essentially a Nissan B13 Sentra or Sunny with a different bodyshella nd styling, resulting in the Nissan NX1600/2000 (America), the Nissan 100NX (Europe), and the NX Coupe (Japan).

And the reason for starting this resource? Just to compile all the information relating to my new car in one place, and find some like-minded Nissan NX owners. Ultimately building up the best reference for any Nissan NX owner.

And yes, you might have spotted that I'm the proud new owner of a 1993 Nissan 100NX, with the 1.6 carburetted engine, and T-bar roof. It's got a pretty interesting history I'll be sharing soon, along with plenty of pictures.