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Comments
I got 7,500K miles on mine (purchased November last year) and so far not a single problem. Even the paint has no chips.
I have some stone chips, but I drive 60 highway miles each day on I-71 which is full of trucks and always under construction.
Only reason i'm interested in the interval is because im thinking about getting a k&n filter which has an interval of 50k miles...just wondering if the added cost would justify the switch. $10 vs $50
I changed because I had used K&N's in motorcycles with good results--replacing the stock air cleaner with a K&N stock replacement usually changed the airflow so drastically I had to re-jet the carburetors because it was running too lean.
However, when I opened and changed the K&N on my Maxima, I was dismayed to see that it was half the depth of the factory paper filter and included two foam shims for the air filter frame to make sure the air filter was held tight in the frame to prevent air from leaking around the air filter. I'm still thinking about whether I want to keep it long term.
I've not noticed any difference in performance; gas mileage on a trip over the July 4 holiday, with A/C and running mostly 72-78 MPH indicated peaked at 28.5 MPG and averaged 26.3 over the entire trip (with a low segment of 22.5 MPG on LA freeways). My normal mileage, with & without the K&N runs 21.5-25.5 MPG in mostly freeway (55-65 MPH) 16 mile commute to work. It may have increased slightly with the K&N -- I'm not sure because more freeway opened shortly after I replaced the paper with the K&N.
Any filter that takes up the same space (let alone less) and claims to flow more air must have bigger openings in its filtering media. That means more dirt and bigger pieces of dirt making its way to the guts of your engine---NOT good!!
If you own a 2000 or 2001 Maxima, what kind of gas mileage are you getting?
Thanks!
Not a positive trend, especially since the '96 was the quickest of the 3! I do get better mileage (approx 2 mpg) by running 92 octane in the 2K. We have oxygenated fuel here in the winter, so mileage drops down to 22-23 in the cold months
Kidding aside, you will NOT get over 30 mpg, unless you go downhill and have a wind behind you.
thanks everyone for their input about air filters... my reason for changing to K&N was nothing but getting the longer changing interval PLUS the cheaper cost over the entire life of the filter... not because of performance. i guess i'll probably stick with the stock paper air filter from purarator for $10 and change it once a year especially after wg45678's view of his experience with a maxima k&n air filter...thanks guys!
Thanks to everyone for the latest news on the MAX. Enjoying my '01 SE Grey Lustre. Up to 6100 miles and a few paint chips both in the paint and in the windshield. (Winter in the Northern Plains brings SO MUCH stone/salt). Love the MAX like no other.
Only problem may be with this rotor problem being brought up. When I start mine up, and pull forward slowly out of the garage...and first hit the brake...I hear a very load, coarse, grinding noise coming out of the rear wheels. Sure sounds like brake calipers freezing the pads to the rotor for a split second. I let off the brakes and all is well until I park...let it sit...and start it back up again. I visually looked at the rotors and the see no gouges/grooves...but I certainly am no mechanic. Could this be the warped rotor problem? Thanks to all in advance!
If you do not feel any sensation or or shaking in your steering wheel you probably have no brake problem.
I just replaced the front pads and cut the rotors after 35,000 miles and the brakes still have that grinding noise for the first block or so.
Stopping performance on my car has been excellent from day one.
The reason I heard regarding the first oil change at 1000 miles is that any metal "shavings" that appear in the engine during the initial "break in" period should be removed before it affects the tolerances in the engine surface.
I don't know if you have Target as a store in your area, but I recently picked up some Mobil 1 there for less than $3/quart.
I had a '95 Honda Civic and used this strategy and the engine ran perfectly fine for the 128,000 miles that I had that car. In case you're curious, I only traded in the Civic because (1) the A/C died for the second time, even after a $800 evaporator replacement at Honda 7 months I decided to trade-in the car and (2) I needed a larger car.
The thing with synthetic oils is that it is BEST to start with and stay with synthetics (ok, you have little control over factory fill). You get maximum protection and oil stability this way (i.e. much less chance of engine deposits from oil breakdown. . .YES, synthetic oils (at least in Mobil 1's case. . .I can't comment on Castrol Syntex and others) are MORE stable than conventional oils because of how it is made. . .literally "custom built" on a molecular level at a chemical plant instead of conventional oil where it is refined from crude oil.
You get SOME improvements if you started with conventional oil and switch to synthetics but the protection would not be as great as if you have it all along. FYI. . .Corvettes require synthetic and get it in the factory fill.
Good luck with the Maxima. Enjoy the ride. . .
In the past it was and the owners manuals did recommend oil changes at 500 or 1,000 miles, but they don't anymore.
I have heard that the engines are either better engineered not to have this problem or else the engines are run prior to the installation into the car to get rid of these supposed "shavings." I have even heard of cars that have "break in oil" that is actually specifically NOT to be changed prior to the the listing in the manual.
I suppose on most cars, changing the oil at 1,000 is not hurting anything other than wasting oil.
It would easy enough for a scan to be done on oil changed at 1,000 miles and 7500 to test for metal shavings to see if this is an issue.
Perhaps this has already been done by the manufacturers and they determined that shavings are not an issue on their cars anymore.
Many people get stuck in their ways and decide they know better than the cars manufacturer. For instance I know people who have new cars and yet they still pump their gas pedal prior to starting or sit in the driveway for 5 minutes warming up the car before they drive off because this is how they have always done it.
I have a 1995 GLE ,103018 miles. recently I have had water leaking from the black box under glove compartment.It seems to occur when I sit at idle for extended period of time. I use this car for work I am in it 8 to 10 hrs a day and overall it has performed very well. no oil leaks or tranny problems. still has original timming belt. replaced the larger drive axle at 99k miles only because the boot was torn. Any one have a fix or a dianogistics for the A/C leak?
thank you
seaspy
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By the way, I think your car has a timing chain (not belt) which, hopefully, will never need to be replaced. My Maxima has 110,000+ similarly trouble free miles.
Good luck.
The manual says to use 5W30 for the entire temperature range, and only suggests 5W30 is your driving never gets below (roughly) freezing temperatures.
I live in Houston, where the weather is very much like So. Fla., and only plan to use 5W30 Mobil 1 anyway. We do get some freezing days here (although I don't expect any until after my subsequent oil change), but why go against the manual, and why hassle with changing grades down the line. Besides, you may get a better case price for the Mobil 1 which you couldn;t get with a "mixed" case.
I have more than enough water coming from the discharge house on the outside . In fact i think there is to much coming out . when I stop the car seems like a gallon or more drips out in a short period of time . I snaked the house and had it blown out and still have the intermittent problem. any more suggestions?
as far as the timing chain goes ,are you sure it is steel and not rubber like two mechanics have told me !!!!
they want 700 bucks to do this and have said if it breaks the valves will bend and hence big dollars foe a new motor/ valve job.
this scares me to death.
thanks again
Ron
You might want to look up an old post of joenissan's and see if his email address is public in order to send that message to him?
I haven't seen him around in a while either.
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
http://www.autonews.com/html/main/stories0716/nissanqa716.htm
AWD Maxima...hmmm
I then put 142,000 miles on a '90 Maxima, using the same oil change strategy. Again, the oil level never dropped between oil changes.
We've had four Hondas (they averaged between 75,000 and 100,000 miles) during the same time period, used the same oil change strategy, and have never experienced any engine problems.
I never changed the oil in any of these cars until they had at least 3,000 miles on them. Either I'm very very lucky, or I'm maintaining my cars OK.
My current car is an '01 Max GLE with about 3,000 miles. Of course, I've had no problems with it yet - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the paint holds up OK and I don't get any brake warpage, etc. By the way, I've averaged 23.5 mpg overall, with a high of 27.5 mpg on the highway, and a low of 19 mpg.
He was extremely helpful and a straight shooter. TH needs folks like him.
Thanks
Here's the rub....the rotors are warping. I got this 90 day certified warranty from the dealer, but i doubt they'll replace them. I paid 16k for the car, so, i think they should. oh, they'll turn 'em all right, but, that won't last long.
In days of yore, manufacturers used to provide a light weight break-in oil because parts weren't as hard as they are today or as precisely machined -- thus oil consumption was expected during breakin (that doesn't happen anymore if the engine was assembled from good parts) and parts were expected to 'wear in and seat' and develop mating, polished surfaces on interfering parts. Hence the metal shavings and early oil changes requirement.
Since the advent of turbo charged engines, precision computer aided machining, and emissions requirements, parts are harder and better mated than ever before. Manufacturers have quit using 'break-in' oil and recommending early changes. (If anything, the materials used now would tend to make break-in much longer than 1000 miles). Some car lines ship with synthetic oil from the factory (previously a no-no as the superior lubrication properties delayed the wear-in of the parts).
In the old days, getting 100k out of an engine before rebuild was required was doing well; now people are reporting 150k-200k miles from well maintained engines.
There is still some, but not much 'break-in', probably recommended from manufacturer's fear of lawsuit more than anything else. Any break-in is probably minor and occurs during cold start.
If there's any significant metal shavings in the original oil, I'd suspect the engine has serious problems, not that it was designed to do so.
Actually, there is a balance between oil weights. Many trucks use 15W40 because of the heavy duty use. For a long time, most cars used 10W30. Actually, 5W30 will give you a slightly better gas mileage than if you use 10W30 since the viscosity is lower there is less friction.
With conventional oils, the thick oils (e.g. 15W40 and 10W30) were suppose to give drivers more protection, but will synthetics it is much less of an issue. Synthetics (I mean true synthetics, NOT synthetic blends) are designed to give protection across a broader temperature range.
As you can see from my handle, I too live in Texas & use Mobil 1 5W30 (I used it in my Honda too.). Mobil also makes a 0W30 oil, but I (that's just me) would not use it unless I lived in upper US, Alaska, or Canada. The Mobil 1 5W30 should be perfectly fine for Florida or most of the US for that matter.
Again, 5W30 is what the Nissan Maxima manual recommends too.
Enjoy the ride. . .
The Mobil 1 bottle for 5W30 is gray with a BLUE cap.
I venture to guess that he is on vacation.
Some of us have his e-mail address from the time he offered it freely. But - since his privacy should be respected, I'd not bother him until he comes back when he is ready/back from vacation.
i get there and the saleman is showing me the inventory. he says he has these 3 nissan maximas, all 2001, all dealer demos and the cars the managers drove. they had like 20 - 22,000 miles. i ran the vin numbers tonight when i came home, and it returned that they were leased for a month, then a rental car company took them over. therefore, the salesman is a) a complete idiot that does not know where these cars come from. or b) he thinks he is slick liar. either way im uncomfortable about the whole situation. anyhow i have a 10am appointment with my salesman and i dont know how i should handle the guy. he's like these are the gxe's and we are selling them for 20998. any help, legal issues, please respond.
$21k for a used GXE is a crappy deal, anyway you look at it.
In reference to the Z TCS: Is this option worthwhile? By description, it seems to be a good addition to an already awesome car.
The salesman also said that he can get the SE with all the options to match the GLE for around the same price (I had wanted black leather which didn't come with a white GLE). On a performance level, how much better/worse is the GLE compared to the SE. --Thanks for any input.
slothead: "Brake rotors are covered until the "3 years/36K mile" bumper to bumper warranty expires..."
these are links to the tsb regarding the brakes
http://www.punkdork.net/max/rotor
http://apollo799.50megs.com/Maxima/Maxima.htm
Just make sure your car is flat and level when you install it and watch over torqueing the nuts that hold the FSTB in place.
Go for it, you won't be dissapointed.
ive heard that the FSTB makes the car more solid feeling in addition to the much improved handling is this true? what tools do u need? and did u get a Stillen or Courtesy Nissan FSTB? thanks