so who daily drives a 240?(opinions needed)

[boostedsm]

been thinking of selling the jetta around close to summer time and i've been debating on getting a 240. I've only owned a s13 shell before so i always wanted one( that actually moves).
my 2 main issues are:
1)reliability
2)winters- how are they in the snow? does anybody drive theirs in the snow?

i really miss my DSM's but more than anything I would like to try out a RWD setup as i've only had FWD and AWD.

I'm also not quite sure whether to buy a KA 240 or something that's already turbo swapped. Obviously i would love something turbo'd over NA, but I don't want to mess too much with my reliability factor.I like to have fun, but not at the cost of loosing a job because i was late to work. I am mechanical, but i simply just don't have time to swap a motor.

just need some opinions, thanks guys

[Renegade_]

1. No
2. No

In order of needing to wrench on cars:

1. DSMs
2. 240s
3. Other

I daily mine but it always has something that needs to be done. Right now Im chasing down a phantom rattle and unsticking the valve to the heater core.

[94integra]

im tired of hearing this. find a stock unmolested s13 and have fun, buy a swapped s13 and it sits more than u drive it. same goes for every car.

[DaBombDiggidy]

this thread reaks of explosion waiting to happen. Either way dsms and 240s are not DDs people have got to consider themselves lucky if they can pull off DDing one and getting to work every day without a ride.

[jpalamar]

I would take a DSM over a 240 for a DD. I'm not a huge import person but I've owned a few DSMs... they are usually beat when you buy them but you don't $500 in to a good tune up and they just work.

[boostedsm]

not sure why everyone is being hostile already lol
i mainly wanted to hear from 240 owners THEMSELVES who know first hand how they are in the winter and their opinions.

again, i dont mind putting work into a car, i just don't want something that sits more than i drive it.
so please, if you haven't owned a 240 yourself, please don't chime in with assumptions.
just want opinions people, not fights.

[boostedsm]

Originally Posted by jpalamar

I would take a DSM over a 240 for a DD. I'm not a huge import person but I've owned a few DSMs... they are usually beat when you buy them but you don't $500 in to a good tune up and they just work.

lol i can feel you on that, my next choice would be another DSM but like i said i really wanna try a RWD chassis for once

edit: how are 240's in the snow? i know they're rwd and obviously rwd is a fail in snow but some are better than others.

[jpalamar]

I drove my cammed GTO in the snow with just really good all-seaons. Don't know about the 240 specifically though.

I wouldn't be scared of RWD though. It is a different driving style but more them capable.

[GmFwd]

These cars are fantastic daily drivers and are extremely reliable. The only issues I see is the s13's have pretty cheap interiors.

240's get a bad name because most of them on the road are built with crap parts and a ton on nig rigging.

Buy a non molested one, weld the diff, and beat the **** out of it for the rest of your life. The KA's are bullet proof and so it the trans, diff, and axles.

[420sx]

This thread is the perfect question for someone like... me!

Im in the middle of building my 240 to be "the perfect daily." Whether or not I'll actually choose to daily it has yet to be decided now that I have a 2nd car, but heres my $0.02

Winters- The 240 is rwd and weighs nothing. So right out of the box, yeah, it sucks balls in the snow. The fact that its so light is what makes it worse than heavier rwd cars... by comparison, significantly worse. HOWEVER, people CONSTANTLY underestimate the power of snow tires. If you plan on dailying your 240 through the winter, I cannot urge you enough to invest in a 2nd set of wheels with snow tires. The difference is night and day. Ive daily driven my 240 now with a stock ka for about 60,000 miles, which includes 3 winters (one of which in Rhode Island). The first winter I was on all seasons, and it was a sloppy mess. Since getting a set of snow tires, I have ZERO problems. If the snow is lower than my front bumper, im good to go. Seriously. Last winter I was one of the ONLY 2wd cars on the road during the snow storms. I didnt even see any FWD. But with my snow tires, I was fine. Stay light on the gas and light on the brakes, and its really not that bad. Sure, its no suby... but with snow tires, you WILL reach your destination.

Reliability- this one is open for debate. I will admit that my 240 takes a significant amount more upkeep to stay on the road than any Honda ive ever owned. But I have selected my parts accordingly, and have modified my motor with that in mind. My intent was to build a car that is not only fun and track capable, but also something I'd look forward to driving under ALL circumstances, not just when I felt like going fast. I recognized the fact that with my motorcycle, I always leave work wishing I had it- but I never want to ride it at 7am on my way in. I wanted to build a car that was not only fun, but comfortable enough at times like that where I wouldn't be dissuaded from driving it. For this reason, my SR swap has retained A/C, cruise control, VLSD and ABS. I want something fun and peppy, but not at the expense of reliability. my ultimate goal for power is 300whp, which is easily attainable on a stock SR20 block. I will, however, be buying a 2nd SR to build once my current setup is on the road. SR's dont exactly have a great reliability reputation, but thats not to say theyre unreliable. They become less reliable (like any car) as the horsepower increases.

As far as the rest of the car, I havent had many issues. I had a brake caliper seize 2 or 3 times until i replaced it. Ive replaced various bushings and suspension components that have worn out. And I replaced the trans due to my own stupidity. Aside from that, its just been little ****. Owning a 240 is a love/hate relationship that VW guys and DSM guys can relate to. It takes a fair amount of dedication to daily drive one all year round, and not want to hate yourself. But if the car is set up right, it can definitely be done. It seemed stupid to me to spend a couple thousand dollars on a 2nd car for the 4-6 weeks out of the year that I need one. I said (at the time), Id rather just spend $300 on tires. Well, Ive since bought a $300 subaru, but I still stand by the sentiment that a 240 daily isnt that bad if and only if you have snow tires. How reliable it is depends on how good of a car owner you are.

[420sx]

If you do buy a 240 though, whatever you do- do NOT buy anything by Megan Racing. Ive had just about everything they make for a 240, and I'm very adamant about the fact that its ALL GARBAGE.

[mr_eh]

I purchased a 96 with 170k miles on it and drove it for 2~ years to and from work... never failed to get me to work... drove it in the snow... the only maintenance that was ever done was replacing an alternator which has a very good reason for why it died completely oem nothing done to the car.

and I intend on daily driving the car with a built sr20 to and from work every day too...

[180sxDrifter]

I daily drive mine a little less then a 1000 miles a week with no problems. Keep it a stock ka and you'll have no problems, other then the most common problems more and likely which are easy fix's if you know how to work on a car...

[JankyS13]

When my black bitch was just lowered and still n/a she was great. use to beat her like any wife should be. But the day I decided to go boost and beat on her like family of mexican children, well, the tables turned. **** breaks a lot faster, as for the snow thing. well lets just say this, hope you pretty damn good at counter steering. lol

[evomike]

If you buy a cheap piece of junk and use cheap junk parts the car will be junk, if you buy a clean stock car and use quality parts you'll have a good car this logic applies to every car.

[tr4c3]

All my 240s were fine dailys and had no issues with winter. Then again I learned to drive rwd and always had rwd so I was used to it. I don't know why you would want some crappy old car to daily, get something nice and save the 240 for a project car.

[JankyS13]

^cough doesnt drive his car in the snow. lol

[boostedsm]

Originally Posted by 420sx

This thread is the perfect question for someone like... me!

Im in the middle of building my 240 to be "the perfect daily." Whether or not I'll actually choose to daily it has yet to be decided now that I have a 2nd car, but heres my $0.02

Winters- The 240 is rwd and weighs nothing. So right out of the box, yeah, it sucks balls in the snow. The fact that its so light is what makes it worse than heavier rwd cars... by comparison, significantly worse. HOWEVER, people CONSTANTLY underestimate the power of snow tires. If you plan on dailying your 240 through the winter, I cannot urge you enough to invest in a 2nd set of wheels with snow tires. The difference is night and day. Ive daily driven my 240 now with a stock ka for about 60,000 miles, which includes 3 winters (one of which in Rhode Island). The first winter I was on all seasons, and it was a sloppy mess. Since getting a set of snow tires, I have ZERO problems. If the snow is lower than my front bumper, im good to go. Seriously. Last winter I was one of the ONLY 2wd cars on the road during the snow storms. I didnt even see any FWD. But with my snow tires, I was fine. Stay light on the gas and light on the brakes, and its really not that bad. Sure, its no suby... but with snow tires, you WILL reach your destination.

Reliability- this one is open for debate. I will admit that my 240 takes a significant amount more upkeep to stay on the road than any Honda ive ever owned. But I have selected my parts accordingly, and have modified my motor with that in mind. My intent was to build a car that is not only fun and track capable, but also something I'd look forward to driving under ALL circumstances, not just when I felt like going fast. I recognized the fact that with my motorcycle, I always leave work wishing I had it- but I never want to ride it at 7am on my way in. I wanted to build a car that was not only fun, but comfortable enough at times like that where I wouldn't be dissuaded from driving it. For this reason, my SR swap has retained A/C, cruise control, VLSD and ABS. I want something fun and peppy, but not at the expense of reliability. my ultimate goal for power is 300whp, which is easily attainable on a stock SR20 block. I will, however, be buying a 2nd SR to build once my current setup is on the road. SR's dont exactly have a great reliability reputation, but thats not to say theyre unreliable. They become less reliable (like any car) as the horsepower increases.

As far as the rest of the car, I havent had many issues. I had a brake caliper seize 2 or 3 times until i replaced it. Ive replaced various bushings and suspension components that have worn out. And I replaced the trans due to my own stupidity. Aside from that, its just been little ****. Owning a 240 is a love/hate relationship that VW guys and DSM guys can relate to. It takes a fair amount of dedication to daily drive one all year round, and not want to hate yourself. But if the car is set up right, it can definitely be done. It seemed stupid to me to spend a couple thousand dollars on a 2nd car for the 4-6 weeks out of the year that I need one. I said (at the time), Id rather just spend $300 on tires. Well, Ive since bought a $300 subaru, but I still stand by the sentiment that a 240 daily isnt that bad if and only if you have snow tires. How reliable it is depends on how good of a car owner you are.

THIS was the response i was looking for. thanks

[tr4c3]

Originally Posted by JankyS13

^cough doesnt drive his car in the snow. lol

Maybe now cause I don't live near snow lol but I brought lowered 240s as well as my old turbo fc through snow. Brought my fc to wv to visit cousin and had a blast in the winters there lol.

My vert got stuck on rt 70 in brick (nj) last nasty snow storm and the po-po's had to block the lane hahaha

[didderson]

I daily drove my s13 for a year and a half after I built it. As long as you do a good job and do clean wiring jobs, vacuum lines and all of that, you shouldn't have problems. The biggest issue I have had is the starter solenoid signal wire needed a tighter "new" crimp end or it wouldn't start sometimes. Starter and solenoid were fine.
The other problem I ran into was my electric fan wiring. This was due to me removing the clutch fan and even though I used the oem thermo switch, the plug to it (wires) vibrated so much over the years they disconnected. I discovered this and fixed it though so no big deal. Just had to use the heater core as a radiator for a few days heh.

If you do a build, have nice wiring all taped up. Put thought into every system of the car. Cooling, wiring +electronics and grounds, oil, alignment etc.

Winter.. I used to roll with oversized (height wise) all season tires out back on 15" wheels. This used to help a lot, but valentines day 2010 I was run off the road by an SUV who would not yield to me currently using his lane because my lane was currently a snow drift. I steered into the 8" snow drift to avoid his ass and got stuck. If you're lucky like I was in this situation, a chevy suburban may show up and help lol.
A few people have snow tires, but if you want to be low, get a daily! Don't drive it during the winter unless you like risking your car or can't afford a daily!
Dry rotted or older tires suck for rain, you will sometimes spin out spontaneously so have some counter steer skills, or run nice tires!

I don't like to run more than 2 - 2.5* of negative camber in the rear and 1.5* in the front for braking stability. If you go with more of that your braking power will be compromised especially in the rain and you could rear end someone.

Take notice that people don't see you coming sometimes if you're low also.

I have an 88 hardbody to daily when it snows now but it's 2wd haha... At least it has ground clearance. Both of my old Nissans are very reliable. I am known to work on the 240 a lot, but it usually isn't for maintenance issues. I daily the 240 when it's nice out. (now)

If you simplify your vacuum lines by removing some things..cough..most... it will make it much more reliable as well. I only did that to the 240.

My build thread of the car's life is here: It is also a partial blog. Post or pm if you have more ?'s.

http://forums.nicoclub.com/post60714...b6e68#p6071448


Best thing about an sr20det with a stock ecu (but front mount and all these bolt ons) is 34 mpg hwy max. I avg 31 mpg. Power when you want it. New car mpg when you don't. I run 14 psi on 93 octane.