The first big regretful mistake:
I'd bought my first 4x4, an '85 Nissan 720 and absolutely loved it - lifted it, big tires, added all of the cool 'monster truck' accessories from the '80s-'90s, and wheeled the crap out of it.
About 3 1/2 years into it, the truck was coughing and puking when you first fire it up and let out the clutch in the morning, but would smooth out and run fine after awhile and not while it was warm during the day. After changing out plugs, wires, cap & rotor and timing the sucker, the problem persisted. Then I threw in some Split Fires, new coils, and bought a used carburetor, which my buddy Dave and I rebuilt and installed. No dice. So I get this idea to take the truck to the Nissan dealership. Lynn Alexander's Autoplex of San Angelo. Hey, I figured: Nissan Truck + Nissan Technicians = Problem Solved. Right? Wrong. As I was paying the bill, I saw my truck coming into the service pick-up area, but no engine noise...it was coasting. They handed me the keys and I tried to start it - read, tried. Since it wouldn't start, I called the technician back - had to yell, he was running away too quickly. He finally came back, and tried to start it. He then copped a 'tude with me, so I then demanded that he fix it properly - I had just given them $185 for it to work and they had called me telling me it was fixed after all. He adjusted and tweaked and got it to run finally - with the idle at 2000 rpm! Uh-uh, no way. I was not happy. So I told him that I would bring it back down the next morning and they would fix it this time, and unless there were some new developments - I wasn't paying another dime either. They reluctantly agreed. The next day, I dropped it off as promised. They called me in the afternoon and informed me that they needed to replace the computer - and for only $1500. "WHAT?! What are you people smoking?!" I think was my response. A new computer was something like $150, and all they had to do was pull out my driver's seat to change out the old unit - it's a plug-in affair, and no adjustments are available..it either works or not. There was no way I was going to allow myself to get screwed like that, so I told them to put it back together and I would come get it. A good friend of mine, who is also a Jeep Guy, used the term "Awfulplex" to describe Lynn Alexander's 'Autoplex' dealership, and I'm afraid that it's stuck with me. And it's a whole lot nicer term to use than what I really think of them. So Yes - these guys suck, too. After some more failed attempts, and a seeing an awesome-looking '78 K-5 Blazer for sale, I finally decided it was time to throw in the towel on the Nissan and traded it in for the Blazer - which I got majorly hosed on that deal - by a local used car dealership no less. The ugly, ugly twist to this story is that I bumped into the kid that wound up with my Nissan, and he told me that he fixed the whole problem with some new vacuum hoses (makes sense - when it's cold, they contract and open up the cracks, then close back up once everything warms up - Dammit!). I was instantly sick and pissed at the same time. Plus, he had beat the piss out of my poor truck - cracked the windshield, broken some headlights, and there was now a big-*** dent in the driver's door. Not a good day for me.
Then, several years later, I took my Mom's '87 Nissan Sentra to the Auto Hobby Shop on base to change oil and service the transmission, so I picked up the necessary stuff to do all that (fluids, filters, etc.) and proceeded to do so. When I went to back the car out, it wouldn't move. WTF - all I did was change the fluids and filters. Well, I wound up pulling the transmission, thinking I'd messed it up somehow and tore it apart and spent the next few weeks chasing down the parts needed for a transmission rebuild (bands, clutches, bearings, etc.)... and also picking my Mom up and carting her around to the various places she needed to go. Got it all back together and ready toss back into the car, and went to get another filter and more ATF. Before I did, I noticed on the bell housing, in yellow grease pencil no less, the words "1986 Sentra" scrawled. Oh - OK, so it's not the stock transmission for the car. So, I went back to the parts store and asked for the filter kit for an '86 Sentra - and it was completely different than the one I'd pulled out. Then I asked to see one from an '85, and it was the same as the one for the '87, except the pick-up neck was much shallower. Wow - so, the light bulb went on and I thought that the neck had bottomed against the pan and prevented the fluid from circulating. I installed the '85 filter, topped off the ATF, and Bingo! It worked like a champ. So, basically the junk yard guys got the year of the transmission wrong, the transmission mechanic didn't indicate that it had been replaced, and I'd jumped the gun in assuming that I'd done something wrong just by changing the fluid and filter, wasting a perfectly good transmission rebuild and driving my Mom around for several weeks.
