How are turbo DSMs for reliability? I was thinking of an Eagle Talon TSI (turbo) for daily driving purposes. This way, I wont have a very slow daily driver and I will keep the mileage off my 63k FD without having a really slow car. Also, I'll be able to work on the 7 more since I wont need it every day. I know FDs are not good daily drivers.

I've seen TSIs for $2500-3500 in pretty much stock form. Are these cars reliable? How do I check for crankwalk?

 

i know a little about it, anything pre-1995 transmissions were known to explode.

 

Why did this get moved to the general rotary tech support? Should be in general automotive.

 

DSMs are legendary for thier transmissions the way rotaries are legendary for thier apex seals. They break and do a fantastic amount of damage when they do, bu they break because you're overdriving them or they weren't maintained.

http://ww.colsdsm.com should have good info on reliability and what to look for.

 

DSM transmissions get a bad rap because people abuse them. Just like anything else, if you beat on it, it breaks, and launching an AWD car aggressively is very hard on the drivetrain. If you're using it for a daily driver, I wouldn't worry about it breaking too much. They do have crappy synchros however, they tend to wear out (especially the 1-2 synchro) in 1st gen cars. The 2nd gen cars are better, because they switched over to a double cone synchro design, but they have a weak 3rd gear. But when I say weak, they are breaking when people are trying to put 400+ horsepower through them. I've been driving my Galant VR-4 (same drivetrain as a DSM) for 4 years now, which is a high 12 second car with no transmission problems. But then again, I don't do the 6000 RPM sidestep launches like some idiot DSM owners like to do.

I've broken an axle, but that is another topic altogether.