[gendarmee]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Speaking about handling, I had 2 crashes in our NE
1. I decide to "drift". i.e. take a fast right turn on a very empty road. It was not 90 degrees right, but around 120 degree soft right.
So I take her upto 80 and smoothly take the turn. The tail starts to spin out, I am still on throttle and give opposite lock. The tail spins in the opposite direction, I again try to correct, but overcorrect, and forget that the accelerator is still pressed. After a few jiggles the car goes 90 degrees and starts to slide sideways parallel to the road with face towards the right and the car moving slightly in that direction too. The front fender(left) hits a pole "whack" and the car stops. This happens right in front of a house. A little kid comes out looks at me, looks left, looks right. The whole road is empty, and there is not a soul in site. And he gives me a very very funny look. I back up embarressed, and start thinking what to tell dad. At that time I was still in my teens
2. Second accident happened few months later. Its very foggy and I am doing 40, which is a little to fast. I have to take a left turn, and I have mentally marked a streetlight after which the turn comes. A parked truck makes me miss it, and soon the divider starts. I see it and slam the brakes. All 4 wheels(cross plys) lock up, and since the road is wet the car does not even slow down a teeny weeny bit. Whack into the divider, with tie rods broken.
The car was in workshop for months due to lack of parts.

When I applied the brakes it slid towards the divider, if it had remained straight, I would not have collided! That thing was a boat.

Yeah, the easy ability of the rear of this car to skid can be attributed to the thin tyres it has, its not designed to zoom around in like most FIAT cars just a family sedan.
If you get radials (factory recommended size) it has lot better grip but the steering get a little a little hard!
U can use the skiddy nature to drift, try this, on the stationary car swing the steering wheel completely to the right or left engage the 1st gear and floor the throttle the car will make an about turn skidding on it rear end, also for drifting on this car u don't need to be upto 80KMPH u can easily do it on turns in the second gear or speeds around 25-40 depending on wat u want it to do and the best thing is u don't have to pull the hand brake and u dont need to go very fast to do it!

Originally Posted by gbpscars

ah!!! i hadn't seen this thread until now.

i have had my share with the NE too. in fact it was the car i learnt to drive on.

i was nervous, not because of the learning, but because it was my would-be, could-be dad-in-laws only car. hehehe, he trusted me with the car more than with his daughter.

he waited for a year to get the car delivered in 1991, long long before i met eithr his daughter or his car.

his was the one among the 5 cars that were parked at DL Vaidya road, Dadar. (now, in 2007, i plan to get to his home only after 1130 in the night or before 0700 in the morning to get a parking place!!!)

ok,... the gearbox was the best ever i have seen (even later on in my driving life) as someone said,.... until i got the OHC VTEC.
"hot knife through butter" is the experience on both.

later on me and my wife have done enough highway runs.
those were the days when the golden quadrilateral was not even talked about.

we have done mumbai - manipal, manipal - chennai, chennai - bangalore, bangalore - mumbai forming our own triangle across this part of our country a couple of times. the engine was super smooth,... with windows closed, there was no sound, but lots of vibrations, thanks to the wonderfully rusty body. and of course we had to keep apart an amount for the rebuild of the body after every 2 mumbai monsoons atleast.

at signals, i could still give a good start with that Nissan engine even with the modern cars around in 2000, 10 yrs after this NE was bought.

and atlast the rust killed the car!!!!
one day i felt so strange driving it from dadar-vashi and the feeling was
similar to floating on air!!! a good checkup the next morning showed
a horrific view of the chassis near the engine mount having cracked up!!!!!

that was the last i drove that car.

my dad-in-law did not want it dismantled and sold.
he decided to sell it off and leave the decision of breaking it apart to that chap.
and surprisingly due to the maintenance of the body and the quality of the engine, he managed to get 10% of the original OTR cost!!! after 13 years too.


truly a great nissan engine, but a rotten material for the body.

Yeah, its rusts but this problem is gave only in coastal areas like bombay, madras places like that inland how ever it is not that much of a problem my dad got all the rust able parts coated in pitch right a week after delivery on the suggestion of the mechanic and it has helped a lot.
But my 1959 FIAT 1100 suffered the fate of ur 118!

[sanjeevphadke]

I have a118 ne white petrol purchased now 2 month back. It is asexy vehicle with good figure.

love to drive with 60 kms on highway. the A/C is smooth

Well lets see how much time it is with me

[susan3004]

I had a 1994 white 118, which I sold off in 2004.
Agreed that this car had rusting problems, but they were not as bad in Delhi/Punjab. I was posted in Jammu in those days, and it was fun driving alone in that A/C car, packed with drinks and snacks.
The boot space allowed me keep my steel boxes with ease along with other stuff. And the best part was(what others have missed) that on having a flat you could easily pull out the spare wheel, even in a jam packed boot without disturbing your packing(it was very painfull on my NHC when I had to take out ALL the stuff to retrieve the spare).
And so was the beautifully designed jack to lift the car from either side. My wife was amazed with this as she had a Maruti 800, and it was a pain lifting up that car.
It had one of the most beautifull instrument panel at that time, not withstanding the bad finish!
The car had its' share of woes also. I was never quite happy with the electricals. The head lights were weak, one of the tail lights always dimmed or conked off. And finally, one fine day there was a short circuit in the loom and the cabin filled up with smoke smelling of burnt plastic.
Managing those three keys was also a pain(a big bunch in the pocket!). Whenever I gave the keys to my helper, he would insert the right one in the wrong hole.
Finally, after my long and short trips, engine mounting gave away, when my friend had borrowed it for a few days, and that was the end of my affair with the vehicle.

[gendarmee]

yea one engine get defunked quickly coz the weight is concentrated on it but takes just 400 bucks to get both repleced.
never had any electrical or light probems till now!

[R.K.Ramesh]

My Dad still has his '92 Model 118NE - and I remember how fond the whole family is of it. Living in Bangalore Rust wasn't a major problem. I guess regularily polishing the car with a wax based silcone polish helped. It works well with the LPG system permenently fixed in it. I still remember that the engine was smoother than my Esteem's and the passenger ride comfort and interior space was superior.

Loved it's smooth gentlemanly drive - good seating position, good driving visibility and boxy body made it actuially easier to drive in the horrendously busy city centre 'Majestic' / Avenue road areas where i would have otherwise driven my Esteem with a fair amount of trepidation. The lack of head restraints had an advantage in that it enhanced visibility and made the interiors look more airy and spacious - not that I wouldnt have preferred them for safety sake.

Also the noise of the exhaust and the door shut noise were nice for such an old car - somehow felt solid - preserred the older chrome plated handles and in the 92 model - the then introduced one piece bigger front window panes.

A real bother was the ground clearence especially when loaded with 5 people and a bit of weekend luggage. We had to pussyfoot over road humps. This was partly resolved with spacers for the 4 suspension coils. The headlights with halogen bulbs were better than my Esteem's though shoddy electricals wernt anything to right home about.

Suspension could certainly have done with a heavy duty package as they did wear out quite fast on our roads. Long distance travel was comfy except for body fles noise on less than smooth roads not to mention the wind noise due to breadbox aerodynamics.

Overall an enjoyable smooth and relaxing car if one didtnt need to drivein a hurry. Wish servicing was Maruti standard and funnily enough even the old fashioned linear folding paper school styling did all to the air of calm and smoothness as well as solidity that the car well reflected during it's hey day in the late 80s early 90s...

Car and Bike mag had called it then - ' India's best car' before the M 1000 came along - Good ol NE - Firmly has a place in the Indian Auto History Firmament!

[DarshanS]

Guys, don't know the technicals much but the car had a good transmission and suspension. I loved the car and more for the fact that I used it so much in early 2000s. Unfortunately, we could could not keep pace with its maintenance... too much rust... just gave up on it and in a year time (of Neglect!).. had to bid adieu in 2002.. to scrap. Having had the opportunity of owning/driving so many cars... I still feel.. it's a womderful machine.. May be I will use the engine/gearbox on some other cars.. Has anyone done it?

[ramzsys]

just happened to see the RC book of a premier padmini 137D, 1997 model.

the engine was mentioned as 137N. What does the N denote?
Where is this engine from?
Thanks in advance..

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear M-Power - your query on 118NE with TUD5 engine, yes, only one 118NE was ever made by us in R&D with the TUD5 diesel engine. It was registered in Kalyan as MH05C588. We made one car with the TU32F petrol engine also. It was registered as MH05C590. 588 was dark blue and 590 was maroon. The dashpanel had to be cut to accommodate the vacuum pump / distributor at the end of the camshaft so we had lots of problems packaging the AC but we did it on prototype basis. It was done in 1994.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[ilangop]

Hi all,
I had been owning a 1995 118 NE since last July. Ever since I bought it I had added accessories like central locking, tachometer, remote boot release, DVD player, fog lamps, Roots vibrosonic horns, and what not. Had been taking care of it like a baby with regular service and maintainence at a garage in my neighbourhood. He is popular for working or Padminis and 118 NEs.
After a trip to Mahabaleshwar this problem started. When ever I drive over a small humps or pits I hear a heavy "THUD" some where from below. I doubted if the gearbox mounting was worn out, but my mehcanic ruled it out and said that it was the rear axle hitting the limits and could be fixed by replacing the rear springs. I got them replaced all by myself last friday and was happy that the height rose a little bit and the silenser pipe which use to hit axle does not hit anymore. And the the THUD was also unheard until I was driving alone. Yesterday while driving with 3 of my friends in my car, I heard it again and was quite clueless about the source of the problem. Anyone who had experienced such a problem or has a solution for this, please helpme out in fixing this.

One more issue I face is that the clutch does not engage smoothly once the vehicle is warm. I feel heavy jolts if I release the pedal as I use to do previously. The mechanic had adjusted cable and engagement was smooth for about 100kms. But this also re-occured yesterday. Is it the clutch plate to be replaced or some thing else is serious. The car has done 85K kms so far. Experts please suggest.

Regards,
Ilango

[pedrolourenco]

When the Govt. of Goa decided to pull the plug on the Amby, all the ministers got white 118NE's. That was really revolutionary. Some states still use the Amby. The doctor from my mother's village had become the health minister and he had one. Later on the govt went in for Esteems, then Baleno's, Accents and now Honda City's.

[ilangop]

Hi all,
Hope all Fiat / Premier experts have gone for vacation. I had not been using my car for the past couple of days due to the problems in them. Please help me guys.
-Ilango

[funkykar]

I am from Bangalore. I own a white 1991 Petrol 118NE since a year. It had done 75000kms. I have driven it 9000kms in last 12 months. I have loved driving every single kilometer. I am too attached with it now.

My love towards this beauty is when I first saw it when I was a kid. Dont even remember when it was. It was love at first sight, just like in Bollywood movies. Even dreaming about that car was distant. I come from a non-car family. Most of my friends and relative families too did not own one. I graduated in year 2000. I started working immediately. It was in 2002 that I got to know that this car is available for cheap. Average price of this car was 30-50k. I did not know anything about cars. I did not know to drive. I started hunting for a 118 NE. My mind set was, if it is a single owner, the car would be good or the car should appear neat. For some reason, I couldnt find one that meets of these criteria. I could only find ones that had changed atleast 3 hands. This search went on for 9-10 months. Parents pressurised me into buying a Maruti 800 since it was the first car for our family. I went for it and the little dream of NE was gone for ever.

Then in 2008 July, a friend of mine gave me his 118 NE. Its their family car and they have moved on to a Zen and Endeovor. This friend had refused to sell the car to me in 2002. Their family remembered how keen I was and offered me this car free of cost if I wanted. Only condition being, I will take care well. If not, I always have the option of going and giving it back. I still believe how happy I was. The car wasnt used at all for 18 months. This had led to some problems. With great difficulty my friend got things fixed.

It was September 2008 by time it was ready. He asked me to come and pick it up during weekend on 27th or 28th September. I just couldnt wait any longer and went to his house on 24th (he was out of town). Forced their parents to hand the keys over to me. I sat on the driver seat and was so very excited. This was the first time I would drive a 118 NE. Believe me, I had not even sit on a 118 NE before. With some difficulty I found the ignition (appears to the left). With more difficulty I managed to start it (did not know about the choke, since I was used to my Maruti 800 MPFI that doesnt have a choke). I DROVE AWAY WITH A MILLION DOLLAR SMILE. Next Week is my car's 1st year anniversary with me.

I hope I did not bore the audience with the long story.... If people are interested, I will make another post some other time on what has transpired since 24th September 2008 to 24th September 2009. I hope I did not bore the audience with the long story.

[funkykar]

Originally Posted by ilangop

Hi all,
Hope all Fiat / Premier experts have gone for vacation. I had not been using my car for the past couple of days due to the problems in them. Please help me guys.
-Ilango

Its been 4 months since the last reply on this thread. How is your car now? Did you get the issues resolved?

do elaborate on what was the issue and its resolution

[ilangop]

Originally Posted by funkykar

Its been 4 months since the last reply on this thread. How is your car now? Did you get the issues resolved?

do elaborate on what was the issue and its resolution

Hi,
Nice to see 1 more 118 NE enthusiast here. Well the problem was with the worn out gearbox mounting bush. I had purchased the bush but still havent found time to replace it.
Was quite occupied with a Vijai Super rebiuld project and thats complete now. Now I can find some time care for my 118NE. Clutch disc, cable, gearbox & propeller shaft mounts are all in the list of "To be done" jobs.

I ll be getting an additional fuel tank lid+lock today and start experimenting on having a remote fuel tank opening. A remote boot release is already in place.

-Ilango

[funkykar]

Originally Posted by ilangop

Hi,
Nice to see 1 more 118 NE enthusiast here. Well the problem was with the worn out gearbox mounting bush. I had purchased the bush but still havent found time to replace it.
Was quite occupied with a Vijai Super rebiuld project and thats complete now. Now I can find some time care for my 118NE. Clutch disc, cable, gearbox & propeller shaft mounts are all in the list of "To be done" jobs.

I ll be getting an additional fuel tank lid+lock today and start experimenting on having a remote fuel tank opening. A remote boot release is already in place.

-Ilango

Well, I am not just an enthusiast. I am a die-hard fan of it. I am very attached and probably addicted to it. After 10 years of heavy smoking, I somehow managed to quit it. I will never be able to do the same with the 118 NE. I am considering stocking some of the essential spare parts and also buy and keep a complete engine with gearbox. Doing this should ensure that I will be able to use the car for another 15-20 years. an educated guess would be, in a year or 2, the 118 NE's will be a thing of the past. That implies scarcity of parts will start. Better act now than its too late.

What is your opinion on this Ilango?