SixCylinders

Before people come rushing in to tell me about crankwalk (or to defend DSMs) let it be known that I do know my fair share about 4G63s, DSMs, and what not. I just have always heard "DSMs are unreliable" from everyone I have known. I could never find anyone who could back this up with so and so breaks every 5K miles, the transmission is fragile or any other explanation for how they are unreliable. In fact from what I've seen DSMs are blessed in the transmission department compared to the majority of Nissans and newer Hondas (correct me if I'm wrong).

cyloc

They are not really unreliable. My wife's car ran just fine. Don't get me wrong, the trans did go out. But the trans that was in the car came out of a 500+ hp dsm that got its ass handed to it. So it was a ticking time bomb from the beginning. Everything else that went out on the car was due to parts that were 10 years old taking a shit. We put a new starter, and alternator in the car. Parts don't last forever. Problem that I have found, is that people like to wait too long before they fix the problem. Stock parts are made to handle stock power. Pushing stock parts causes them to fail. Just my .02. This is just based on things I have seen both down here and up north in NY.

CODE4

The reputation stems from the majority of DSMers being DIYers, and since some are broke/cheap the jobs rigged or shit parts were used leading to inevitable failures.

There are many DSMs that are reliable and never left their operators stranded. But you always hear about the bad stories versus the good ones.

TrboANTsi

I drive my dsm everyday, granted I dont beat on it. It starts everytime. give somewhat ok gas mileage 23hwy. It all depends on the care put into the car.

kd42010

almost every dsm sees some sort of mod in there life time, problem is that 50% of people that mod it dont know what there doing so they blow it up...

those 50% tell everyone and there mother to never buy a dsm....

They story of dsms being unreliable is born

ryu

Bingo!

omgosh

I have put over 100k miles on my DSM in the last 6 years. It has been on a tow truck twice. Once right after I got it due to the p/o not tightening a control arm down, and a second time when it got hydrolocked in a tsunami (again, user error...) Did I mention most of those miles are pizza delivery? lol

Thats closing in on 200k miles on the stock trans...oh and you can definitely ghetto-rig shit and still be reliable. lol

ThE iNfAmOuS p MoNeY

i used to drive my built GSX back and forth from Orlando every single week...I put over 30,000 miles on it in one year just driving everywhere...I had lots of fun with it...of course things break, but i wouldn't say that DSM's are any less reliable than any other tuner car...people build the 4G63 because they require minimal mods to make them quick/fast...it is hands down, IMO, the most reliable and effective powerplant that has come out of Japan.

IllegalModz

i love some awd dsm power lol

SixCylinders

I'm glad everyone pretty much confirmed what I thought. Cyloc's story is pretty much one of those few ones I've seen casually going through the dedicated DSM forums, 500hp on an automatic is pretty ridiculous for a Nissan which is what I'm familiar with...maybe it's possible on a Nissan RWD automatic but FWD/AWD? Definitely not.

Either way guys thank you for disproving the stupid myths I hear floating around about these cars. I sat in a 1995 Eclipse today at the junkyard and I loved the way it fit me. I know this isn't really the place for it but the seats in it were VERY clean grey cloth and if anyone's looking for them I can pull them for you if there's some money in it for me. Maybe someday I can get my hands on a 1991 AWD and see for myself how fun they are.