From Road & Track, February 1972
Caution: This is an old article. A lot of the information in this article may be considered out of date or just plain wrong.
The car, red with black vinyl interior, was released to us at the beginning of 1969; a 1969 model, serial no. PL510- 2D-041962, license no. YQF 025. The Datsun people had put 575 miles on it to make sure it was a good example, but it had had no special preparation and had a few minor defects that we noted in our first few days with it: there was a constant vibration in the instrument panel whenever the car was being driven, the headlights were aimed too high, and the engine idle speed seemed too high even for a nearly new car. Otherwise it was its pleasant 510 self-a peppy, light-steering sedan with lots of space inside, attractive styling , good vision all around, a comfortable ride (except for a distinct tendency to bottom its front suspension on dips) and passable handling. The latter was made better than passable. actually, because the distributors fitted the car with a set of Goodyear 175-13 radial tires-being anxious that a tire replacement not be included in the costs for the 24,000 miles we proposed to do on the car as it had been on the Jaguar 420 we reported on in 1968. These and an AM radio were the only extras on the 2-door and are included in the delivered price we have listed.
Datsun's service schedule for the 510 (see the Routine Maintenance Summary) calls for an initial checkup at 2000 miles, another at 4000, and from 6000 miles on a regular interval of 3000 miles between routine service operations. We returned the car to the distributor for its 2000-mi service as they had requested, got it back the next day and found all our complaints corrected.
The only thing we noticed before the 4000-mile service was an increased octane requirement (it now pinged mildly on regular fuel, despite the official regular-fuel recommendation in the owner's manual, and would run on after the ignition was switched off). From this point on we had the car serviced at Barwick Imports in Laguna Beach, who cured the running-on by resetting the timing: but the need for premium fuel remained and we elected to use premium from that point on. Bill for the 4000-mile service was $ 12.39.
We found ourselves driving the 510 hard and fast, within the highly restrictive conditions of driving in Southern California . The 510 seemed to thrive on it, and the radial tires gave it roadbuilding that encouraged us to corner vigorously. But we were getting 24.5 mpg by an odometer that was slightly on the pessimistic side because of the oversize tires (the normal size is 5.60-13) and this seemed highly satisfactory except for the fact that the fuel, as with the Austin America reported on two months ago, was premium. The windshield wiper/washer knob came off because its set screw backed out, the right backup light bulb burned out, and we were occasionally getting a backfire on deceleration. The backfiring seems to be an inevitability with engines whose emissions are controlled by air injection; a "gulp valve" diverts the air pump's fresh air supply away from the exhaust manifold and to the intake manifold for a short time when the foot is lifted from the throttle to avoid the backfiring that would be encouraged by a supply of oxygen in the exhaust manifold, but it's not 100% effective on any car we've driven with it. This never became a serious problem.
Brake squeal-common with disc brakes on inexpensive cars-was getting worse on the 510 but was not bad enough to report it at the 9000-mile service. The ignition switch had worked loose in i;s hole; a $4.50 labor charge for this-in retrospect, this should have been covered by warranty- and a 65c backup light bulb combined with the charge for the routine operations brought this bill to $27.49.
We learn a lot about the road test cars in the week we keep most of them, but it's amazing how so many more things come out with an extended acquaintance. We got so finely tuned to the car that we could pick up a slight engine surge when cruising at 35-40 mph, due no doubt to the lean carburetion required for emission control. We learned that the 510 was a "cold natured" car requiring much use of the choke in the morning. We came to appreciate the fact that one key opened all locks-some cars have as many as three -and we got very irritated at the ventless front windows which create such a draft at anything over 30 mph that we would wear ourselves out cranking the windows up and down in stop-and-go traffic. Offsetting the latter is excellent ventilation-so good that when motoring at 70 mph in sunny, 100-degree weather we still kept the windows closed -but at the low speeds mentioned this can t do the job.
By 11,000 miles the brakes had become very much noisier and were pulling to the left sporadically. One day we took the 510 into Barwick to get a diagnosis, and wouldn't you know it, they quietened down and would neither squeal nor pull. Machines are as perverse as people sometimes! Sometime around the 11,000-mile mark, a staff member had all four tires and wheels balanced, for $6.00.
When we took the car in for its 12,000-mile ritual- which is a major service-the brakes were consistently noisy and the clutch pedal was squawking when used. So, in addition to the extensive routine items, we had Barwick sand the brake pads and they found the clutch pedal return spring to be all bent out of shape. There was no charge for the brake work-the car was out of warranty but we had reported trouble earlier. The 45c spring and a 40c choke knob to replace the one that had broken brought this bill to $43.60. The new choke knob was of a revised design that is less likely to break.
The brakes still squealed as loudly as ever, so we contacted the distributor about them. As soon as we could get the car in-which was at 14,500 miles-we left it off for a day and a new set of pads was installed on the front disc brakes (the rear are drums). These reduced the amount of squeal on braking considerably, but now there was a strong tendency for them to squeal during cornering when not applied! We decided to wait a while before complaining any further.
The 510 isn't specifically a long-distance car, and we think most owners use it mainly for local driving, but it has enough performance and such good ventilation that staff members were usually happy to take it on long runs. One, about to go to San Francisco, delayed the 15,000-mile service until it was too late to get an appointment at the dealer and had to settle for an oil change at a service station. As the maintenance summary shows, this is of little consequence and we got off cheap at $2.94. The trip to San Francisco was not merciful unto the machinery: going up the car was driven con brio on the swooping and twisting Cabrillo Highway. But the willing sohc engine seemed to thrive on the punishment of being repeatedly subjected to its rev limit and wide-open throttle up through the gears. The shift linkage-which we found to be delightful generally-began to get sticky and at times we'd have difficulty getting into 3rd and 4th gears. For the record we tried regular fuel again on this trip; the engine clattered and ran on again so back to premium.
At the 18,000-mile service we had the dealer inspect and lubricate the shift linkage; he didn't find anything wrong. The clearance light on the left front fender was burned out and another 40c bulb brought this service to $20.45.
By the 20,000-mile mark the brakes had returned to their previous state of being noisy at times, quiet at other times, and usually pulling to the left when they were noisy. They were at their worst when they were cold and once warm were decent enough that we let them go and kept driving. We had begun to note increasing slack in the steering at the straight-ahead position, as well as worsening creaks and groans from the front suspension. Not really worried about either of these-Barwick had squirted some rubber lube on the bushings at 18,000-we headed for Reno to test a Ferrari, the Datsun's trunk loaded with test gear. After getting into Nevada we did the natural thing-opened the Datsun up to its maximum of 98 mph. It went some 10 miles at this speed without overheating, but didn't really feel as if it were designed for this sort of thing, so we backed off to about 85 and held this for the remainder. During this trip we got up to elevations of 7000-8000 ft and what we called "peppy" performance fell off to "gutless." After all if you follow the rule of thumb that an engine loses about 3 % of its power for every 1000-ft increase in elevation, we were down 24% or making do with 73 bhp in a car that was loaded to about 2500 lb. Looking at it another way we still found ourselves passing nearly everybody, which confirms our feeling that you really don't need much performance in America to outrun 95 percent of the people on the road. Most Americans just don't like to press down on their throttles, even when they're driving 300-bhp cars.
The 21,000-mile service was done by the dealer in Reno, and again a bulb-this time the right stoplight-had to be replaced. Total bill was $6.66 with the bulb. Again we mentioned the front suspension trouble but the dealer offered no more help than "they all do that." So we waited until we were safely home and had Barwick do what was necessary, which turned out to be new bushings for the front suspension. A steering adjustment was done also, and the bill for all this was $13.38. We think we can rightly lay the blame for this premature front-end wear to the big tires and our taking advantage of them so often.
We were nearing the end of our allotted time with the 510. Anything that went wrong with it from 21,000 on was of a mysterious and sporadic nature. The shift linkage would occasionally get sticky but could be freed by getting it over into the reverse gate; a ticking noise would emanate from the transmission on some mornings, and we found we could usually stop the brake noise by tapping the pedal a couple of times-indicating that the problem lay in the caliper mechanism. The 24,000-mile service cost $38.98 and it was time to return the car to Gardena.
What did we think of the 510 after 24,000 miles with it? To be sure, it was well liked by most of the staff and was generally considered an enjoyable and entertaining car to drive. At the end of the test it still seemed mechanically sound-certainly the much-used engine was as healthy as new. The radial tires had at least 10,000 miles left in them despite the hard driving. On the negative side, the brakes had been a real bother, and there may have been impending trouble in the transmission what with the sticking linkage and that elusive tick-tick. There were a few rattles-the main heater flap would rattle loudly when in the "room" or interior posi- tion-and the knob seat-adjuster knob on the driver's side had fallen off. And we couldn't help but remember how many bulbs had burned out.
We have to conclude that the Datsun 510, excellent basic package though it is, could do with better quality control and that its front disc brakes probably need some redesign work. What we can't fault is the overall cost-per-mile: at 5.72c it is the lowest figure we've recorded so far.