I've had my 1990 Magna TP Sedan for 6 months now, and it's been serviced 3 times within that period. It still runs like ****...When I started it up this morning, it didn't feel right, when I looked at my fuel thing (Empty and Full)...considering I had put a full tank in, and I had only been 40km, it's only half full (or half empty, heheh)...so what the hell? Do these cars suck? Or have I just got myself a pathetic one?

if you think a faulty fuel gauge makes the car suck, then they suck nuts.

common problem, usually everyone just uses the trip meter to determine how much of a tank they have. No biggie.

YES indeed

YES indeed
You suck.
lol
I say this so often and it's true.
A car is a car, its gonna have problems, you could buy any car and have the exact same luck you are having with this as the other car.
i bought my car as a wreck. and believe me, it was ready for the scrappers. in the first 6 months everything that could go wrong did.
but I liked the car, kinda felt sorry for it, so i kept it, replaced things as they broke down, and i love my car now.
it runs how i want it to, it hardly ever stutters part from oddities like low fuel light blows so i run out, or bad fuel from servo, so carb would cough and splutter.
yeah there not the greatest car. but no car is indestructable. Even my tank of a Valiant has its problems, hell even my Hilux occasionally skips a beat.

Yeah. The only reason I wrote mine of was from a structural fault. (I broke a chassis rail)

Though, the biggest problem I had was the second motor was not a good one.

I've had mine for geez, must be 2 years now and its great, my folkes' lexus has more troubles than the magna does, and as said, a car is a car and if you buy a car someones trashed and never serviced and kept in good condition of course your gonna get a ****ter. although i havent had a faulty fuel guage problem yet, and i hope i dont, i still always run by the trip meter though, you get pretty good at telling what you've got in your tank with how you've driven.

I have this theory that generally if you want as trouble free motoring as you can get, get something 3-7 years old.

In all honesty, Magnas are a pretty good car - how many of the TM-P are still on the road compared to the big sellers of the day Commodore VL/N and Falcon XF/EA?

Any older car is going to have things go wrong - nothing lasts forever.

in the first 6 months everything that could go wrong did.
but I liked the car, kinda felt sorry for it, so i kept it, replaced things as they broke down, and i love my car now.

Same as my first Magna, I even took it off the road to rebuild it and bought another Magna, needless to say the 2nd one was the better one of the two and cost me $180 in repairs in 3 years (rocker cover, battery, water pump). My grandma now has that car :)

My Elante has had little **** go wrong here and there, but it would be the most fun I have had for the money :)

mines not bad CV's & Timing chain where ****ed when i got it so fixed them, changed a clutch, battery & fan resister not bad for something with 240k on the clock. rest of the $ i spent was mods, fule wise 10l/100kms is average for me

We are talking about a car that is approaching 20 years old here. I loved my TN EFI manual when I had it, but cars wear out, and yes there are many out there that haven't been maintained properly. So you can expect problems, but you would with any car that age. The good thing is, there are plenty of cheap parts at the wreckers, so if you are mechanically minded they are a pretty cheap thing to keep on the road in general if you can repair and maintain things yourself and can get parts cheaply.

i reckon they are a good cheap car, when i got mine, apart from the body work and interior it was very mechanically neglected. ive fixed it all up/modded stuff and its a really nice car to drive now. i get resonable fuel economy and it goes and sounds good.

The fuel guage does wear out though, i usually just judge how much fuel ive used from the odometer, and when the fuel reserve light comes on. Apparently its not that hard to fix, but requires some dismantling of the dash. Another thing that commonly wears out is the resistor pack that controls the fan speed for your AC fan. again, its not that hard to fix, i havent done mine yet though.

overall they are pretty good ride for the money.

Yeah, apparently it's a diode behind the dash because the fuel gauge and the temperature of the vehicle no longer works.

Yeah, apparently it's a diode behind the dash because the fuel gauge and the temperature of the vehicle no longer works.
thats definately ure 7volt regulator then.
found out yesterday if both your fueel and temp don't work, then ure reg is gone. i saw mine die. scared me :confused:

My TP is great... best car ive had so far... and ive owned everything from XA falcons to a SS commodore.

Ive had mine 5 years... only repairs were CV joints and a machperson strut (and 2 windscreens :P)

My car unfortunately has been neglected by me... it gets no love... but has been ever so reliable to me and never caused me any huge drama... I love it :) Im paying for the neglect now tho :(

ill have your XA falcon...

i need to change my voltage reg just having problems finding them to purchase both fuel and temp guage out by 1 quarter, i got a replacement restor pack genuine off good ol ebay $30 just gotta work out where the old one is, most my car has cost my is redoing the chains as they previous owner let them go same with the cv's most of my cost is mods, the look on peoples faces when a "lol its a magna" blows them off is worth every cent

ive driven a crap load of cars. basically every 2nd day im in something new, i still love the handling and smoothness of the magna, yet it still being an old car, not many at the time pulled off the 2 well.
there a nice solid car over alot of others and despite having there problems, when they run well, they really do have some go to them.
a car can always be improved, it's a matter of how much you like the initial car either by ride or style. after all it's you who has to drive it.

and for the record, a carby auto can smoke up real well... :badgrin:

not that i know or anything:redface:

I haven't been able to smoke up **** in my Carby Auto, how the hell are you doing it?

I haven't been able to smoke up **** in my Carby Auto, how the hell are you doing it?

ditto

i cant even hold a spin in the wet (i know i could in an manual tho)

theres no great point to spinning the wheels, the diffs arent strong for it, but it can be done.

Yeah. When my EFI auto box's rear clutch failed, the thing always took off with a chirp or burnout. The thing dumped at anything up to 2800RPM. Became nearly undrivable when I broke the bottom end, and couldn't rev it past 2500.

theres no great point to spinning the wheels, the diffs arent strong for it, but it can be done.
Except to look like a w4nker.

Yeah, but I'd love to know how one would do it in a 4cyl magna automatic front wheel drive vehicle..

A hahaha i can do a burnout piss easy wet or dry in my efi 5spd.

For some reason my car has developed a flat spot and kicks in after 2 k for some reason :think:

Yeah but that's a manual, anyone can do it in a manual.

Except to look like a w4nker. hahahah, yeah too true... my mates were curious if it could smoke up... and so i delivered the goods... (gotta love peer pressure:doubt: ) but i'd never do it in public nor make a habit of it... there aint any point to it really... waste of money, wear on the car/tyres, etc not to mention it'll attract the attention of the cops

As for smoking it up in a auto 4cylinder... well that's for me to know, and for you to find out... i dont wanna cop **** from anyone about doing stuff like this, etc... but it can be done - if you want proof, i can get it...

Now that i've said that... i'm not gonna say this: dont do it if you can help it... but maybe do it once or something, get it out of your system if you really have to... and then NEVER DO IT AGAIN... cos you WILL get caught, or the car WILL break... not just a gen1, any car will break if it's misused...

Yeah so how do you do it? I just wanna see if it's actually possible in a first gen 4cyl auto, I'd do it once and that's it...

only time i have is when i was trying to pull out a tree from the front lawn. we all wana do it once in our cars, but you are better off getting an old commy or ford if you want to do it. fwd and auto and weak handbrake all tells you it wasnt made for it.

we all wana do it once in our cars, but you are better off getting an old commy or ford if you want to do it. fwd and auto and weak handbrake all tells you it wasnt made for it. hmmm... i never said this and i dont wanna get flammed or anything... nor do i take resposibility if you get caught or break something but:



you should really not do this stuff!!! :D

google is your friend

Thanks champ, much appreciated, I probably won't even give it a shot until my car is serviced again. It's running poorly at the moment, don't want to put it under any more stress.

hmmm, yeah... if you give your car grief, it will certianly give you grief... dont make a habbit of it!! i cant emphasise it enough... also, dont do it in public... you will/could get busted...

lol, if you really must, just cheat and use a splash of oil lol