Here's the Odyssey of the Nissan Sentra. Wall of text, sorry.
I graduated high school in 2009; right before graduation, my buddy Kyle wrecked his car, a 2002 Nissan Sentra GXE. 41,900 miles on it. He did a number on it, and it was brought to our body shop, where we rebuilt the entire right side... and then it just sat out back for 6 years until I bought it off my old man. So, it's 2015, a 14 year old car, but only 42k miles on it. Dope. No problems with it, other than my brother forgetting to tighten the lug nuts after doing some work on it. That made for a very shaky ride that night
Fast forward to a couple months ago, 4 years later. Car had a crank shaft sensor put in because it refused to start one day, okay, cool. Right around the start of July it started dying randomly. No rhyme or reason. It would usually fire right back up if I cranked it, sometimes I'd have to wait a minute. Scanned it, tells me the O2 sensor is the problem. Interesting... A few weeks later I get ready to leave for work and I notice something under the car. The whole exhaust system rusted out and FELL OFF! Had it towed and the exhaust system fixed. Cool.
Move up to 2 weeks ago, a few hours before I had to hit the road for ProgPower: filled my coolant reservoir, pulled it outside the shop and locked it up, ready to go... oh shit, car's overheating. Call my old man and we take a look at it, can't figure it out, suddenly the AC isn't blowing cold air anymore. Charge the AC, realize the thermostat is stuck, so we replace the thermostat after getting coolant all over the damn place. AC's blowing cold air, car isn't overheating, hooray! Get it back home aaaand the AC is blowing hot air, and that hot ass air from the engine is blowing right on me. Swell.
On the way to St. Louis (from which we'd travel with another friend in his big fancy truck), about an hour outside of the city, the RPM gauge drops to 0. Lights don't come on for another 5-10 seconds. Pull over and fire it back up, a fuse blew and I have no dash lights. Have to drive in the dark with my phone lighting the instrumental panel so I can see my speed and make sure I'm still not overheating.
A week later, get in the car and start driving back from St. Louis and the car dies every 5 minutes on the freeway. Does this about 8-9 times in a row, eventually dying only every 20 minutes, then 30, and then eventually it stopped (and still has not died since then). Pretty sure the crank shaft sensor is messing up after talking to the guys who put it in the first time. Only this time I blew more fuses and didn't have any tail lights or brake lights. So I drove home 2 hours in the middle of the night with no lights, didn't encounter a single cop until I got back into my hometown. Pulled over. Thought I threw in my car's insurance card - somehow I grabbed the card from 2017 (wtf!?) and not 2019. GREAT. Cop lets me off with a light warning and tells me to get it fixed ASAP but gave me a ticket for not being able to pull up exact proof of insurance, so I have to go to the courthouse with my insurance card to get it wiped clean. Got off really easy tbh.
And now I'm pretty sure the backing plates for the front wheels are all jacked up because there is a lot of noise coming from that end now and I'm sure it's not the wheel bearings.
Oh, and did I mention when the cop pulled me over, my registration was expired? Because I stupidly put off getting the sticker until the Monday I left for ProgPower, except I realized 1) the DMV is closed on Mondays, and 2) Monday was a federal holiday anyway.
Of course I'd have no problems with the damn car until right before a big road trip when money is tight. I'm considering selling this fucker but it's only got 75k miles on it which is nuts, and I don't want another car payment for some time. This thing was a steal and it's been awesome but the last couple months have been a nightmare.