By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
1. Probably the most annoying is a faint high pitched whining noise that comes from the dash when I have my heater on and blowing at a low speed
2. The car pulls to the left. The dealer re aligned wheels but I still notice it pulling. the dealer said that it might be because of the torque steer.
3. The Bose sub woofer rattles the back panel when I play songs with any bass. Its not like a am some kid who thumps the bass, I have the base setting on 0 and feel that the sub woofer shouldn't cause rattle.
Overall, I like the power but it seems like the quality is a little lacking. this is the first Nissan that I have bought and so far I am not sure if I made the right choice. I am bringing the car back to the dealer tomorrow and I will definitely post updates on my three problems. I was must wondering if anyone else has had these problems? By the way, this site is [non-permissible content removed]. I like being able to talk to other Maxi owners and hear about their issues.
nissan not as good as Toy or Honda IMHO
But if you have a license plate border/bracket on the rear, that will also vibrate. I thought my rear deck was vibrating under nominal volume/bass settings, but I confirmed(for now anyways!) that it was just my license plate border.
My Maxi has 75,000 miles on it and that is one of the few complaints that I have- other than the horrible paint job which you will notice throughout this posting.
BTW- I love that sterling mist color
First choice would have been the Lustre Grey (like Nissangirl), but i was limited to Sterling Mist or the Dark Blue. Took the lighter color and have been very happy I did!
Obi
02 Maxima GLE, no problems whatsoever --- except, that in cold weather my left leg gets cold when I am driving. My wife noticed the same thing when she drives. Cannot feel a draft from the door but do feel a slight one from the window by the seat belt post.
A co-worker with a Maxima mentioned she had noticed the same thing, so I was wondering if anyone else had ...
Mike
I am having the EXACT SAME PROBLEM and everytime I complained, Nissan tells me the SAME THING. My Nissan dealer told me that I am the only one with this problem. Which made me so mad, they were saying that I was making the problem up. I know NissanGirl had her sunroof pushed up a little. My freakin dealer REFUSES to do that. Have any ideas what we should do?
My serv. mgr. took my car around to the washing area and let the water hose pour on my roof, it did NOT leak, then he put their high-pressure washer on it, and it leaked. He saw for himself what was happening. And he took it from there. He contacted a Nissan Engineer, and was told what the fix was.
Just keep on bugging them...plead with the serv. mgr to ride with you thru a car wash. What ever it takes.
Good luck.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
You are most likely to encounter torque steer if you have the manual transmission maxima and you like to run it hard in 1st and 2nd gear (i.e. peeling off the best 0-60 time that you can get). If you drive this way, you will encounter a steering wheel that will want to turn on you while you exert your best efforts to keeping it straight. So if you will be frequently drag racing in your maxima and peeling off 0-60's (i.e. Car and Driver and Motor Trend Magazine driving techniques), you may want to shop for another car. If; however, you will be subjecting your maxima to normal driving conditions, you shouldn't have any big issues with torque steer. You be the judge and take one for a test drive.
I taped up the door jams and windows. The noise seems to be coming from the wheel wells up through the car.
http://www.atalla.net/maxima/WindNoiseTSB.pdf
The 2002 and 2003 have already had shims installed, but in my car they needed to be re-done. Be prepared to have the dealer say they cannot hear the noise. I told the service manager that you have to be kidding because it sounds like the window is open. I told him I knew about the old TSB, and was told that they changed the moldings. He suggested I come in and take a tech for a ride but they could not do it on a Saturday, even though they have Sat. hours. I said look, I cannot take time off of work to take a drive with a tech and then bring the car back to have it fixed. He finally agreed to perform the TSB (I think they replaced the factory shims, I did not pull it open to check for fear of screwing the work up) and the car is much quieter now.
Hope this helps!
The car has been an absolute blast to drive. Yet, there are two minor problems, hopefully, that I hope you guys can help me with. Now that car has 1300 miles on the odo I decided to check the engine oil yesterday. I parked it on a level ground and reached for the dipstick, and to my surprise I couldn't see any oil on the dipstick marking. I could see a touch of oil smear on the sides of the stick, but nothing on the middle marking??? I repeated the process 2-3 times without any success. I then browsed throu the owner's manual and found a paragraph where it stated that the engine oil level could be reduced during the break-in period. Fearing that the oil level in the engine was too low, I added 1/2 quarts of Castrol synthec 5w30 (synthetic oil). Now, is the oil on a brand new car always that low? And would adding 1/2 quarts of synthetic oil on a brand new engine be harmful to the engine on the longrun? I read somewhere that one should not use synthetic oil on an engine with less than 5000 miles.
The second thing is: when I shift from P-R-N-D and start rolling forward, I always hear a cliking sound, which sounds almost like a shiftlock is being engaged. Is that normal???
I haven't talked to the service department about the problems yet for I'ld like to hear fro all of you experts first.
Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.
I always try to change the oil after the 1st 1000 miles, although it probably isn't necessary. Check out www.maxima.org forums for a discussion on synthetic vs conventional oil.
Can't help w/ the automatic q's, since I have the 6spd. Hope this helps!
Go ahead and change to synthetic oil if you want at anything above 1000 miles. Just remember that it's going to cost you more everytime you change it. (I'm on the 5000 mile change schedule.) I don't think I would be mixing them in the engine.
I went to Mobile One 10-30 at 1,000 miles on my 00 SE and it's up to 120,000 miles now. I had the cylinder compression checked at 100,000 miles and all six cylinders were within 1 lb of each other. Even the technician remarked that it was a pretty impressive motor to still be that consistent at 100k.
Yeah, I was thinking about changing factory oil at 1000-1500 miles, too. The thing is, I read in the owner's manual and found a paragraph which said that the engine was filled with special oil at the factory, and Nissan doesn't recommend changing oil until 3500 or three months.
dklanecky--I didn't mean to add synthetic oil to the regular one, but that was all I had. I heard someone said that synthetic oil is too "slick" for the engine seals, valves and other parts to "seat" properly during break-in period, and therefore should not be used at this time.
About that clicking sound: I was thinking of test driving other Maxima's to see if the sound also exists. I just hate to go the service dept. to make the claim only to be dismissed by them as "normal" on the spot.
Either way I'll probably have to bring the car in for them to look at. I'll post an update.