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Sedans Nissan Maxima Nissan Maxima Maintenance and Repair
4048 messages, Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 4:23 PM
You are in the Nissan Maxima Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
| You should never disconnect the battery with the engine running on a modern car with an engine computer and electronic controls - not even for a test run. You risk damaging the elecrical system. It is possible that your old battery voltage dropped around 12V or slightly below when engine was shut off. I am not sure if the engine computer would pick up this "low voltage" and turn the engine light on, but if so, this would not affect the car performance because once the engine is running, the alternator charging voltage is about 13.5 to 14.5 volts. My See Doo jet ski diagnostic module always displays "low battery voltage" message when the jet ski is parked for some time, but this does not affect anything and the jet ski starts and runs just fine. | |
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Take your 02 Max to Autozone (if you have them anywhere nearby), they'll read the code for you for free. Takes them like 3 minutes. If the ses light came on again that quick I'd take to Autozone so YOU know what the code is and don't have to just arbitrarily believe whatever the dealer tells you. Unless the dealer will show you the code on the handheld computer as they pull it. My guess is rear O2 sensor or bad gas cap. Those are the two most popular. Otherwise a bad coil or MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor. Just my .02 as I've been lurking on this board and other Max boards for 4 years now. Seeya |
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| Bridgestone Turanzas and Potenzas are a crappy "expensive tire" many people have had balance issues with them. They tend to have lots of jitter at highway speeds and its very difficult to balance them and they have flat spots alot as well, it has nothing to do with the rear suspension. Go look at Maxima.org/tirerack.com and AcuraTL.com the new TL is having lots of problems with Turanzas as well. Those that complain about the beam you should not have purchased the Max or did some research first. The beam isnt that bad and has its benfits or the independent as well as short comings. | |
| I appreciate everyone's advice. I am going into Autozone today so they can read the code, and from what I've been hearing is that the tires are really crappy. So far the car only has about 20k miles on it so it will be sometime before she changes out tires, I imagine, so she'll deal with the ride until the time for new tires arises. The sad thing is the Maxima seems like a stable car with good road manners but the tires just dont make the car live up to its potential. Also as I checked the car yesterday I realize they didn't give her a manual upon purchase (I guess dealers are still getting over on some people) and I do not know how to work the memory seats. Can anyone give me some insight on this? Again, thank you for everyone's help, about the ride, ses problems and the "do not disconnect battery while engine is running" warning. | |
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I have been driving an '03 Maxima SE, 6 speed, for close to a year now. Since day one, I have felt uncomfortable with the brakes. So far, the master cylinder has been replaced, the rotors resurfaced, and the lines bled--all on different srervice visits. I have scheduled another service appointment for next week due to continuing unease--brake pedal low and soft. I have checked but have found no TSBs on the issue. This is my second Maxima--I had a 95 SE, 5 speed that gave me 206,000 great miles. There are tims I wished I had kept it! Any suggestions? Thanks |
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| Keep doing what you're doing, get things ironed out under warranty for FREE. Only other advice for brakes (applies to all having these probs) is to ante up and buy some good aftermarket (ie Brembo, Bendix, etc) rotors, pads, lines, etc. Spendy option but sometimes peace of mind and no more hassle is worth it. I'm at 60K on 2000 SE auto and still on original brakes, but I baby mine. When they go I'm going with the good stuff, screw the OEM. | |
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This is not a complaint-- Purchased brand new 2002 Maxima SE fully loaded. ** 3,500 miles engine light came on. Nissan repaired it. ** 8,000 / 10,000 / 15,000 /20,000 same thing and nissan repaired it. Everytime it was a different sensor causing the issue. 23,000 miles the light came on the engine would not start. Nissan repaired it. I have filed lemon law expecting nissan to take respsonibilites. No such luck. They feel there is no issue and i do not fit the bill. My lawyer is fighting the case. At this point I just want to close the case and buy another car. I feel as though I bought a lemon and Nissan does not want to take any respsonibilites of this issue. I would be happy to buy from Nissan if they would take the car back. Infiniti Lexus BMW Mercedes they all take there cars back without questions.... oh yeah the light is on and now I smell gas.... Any ideas on how you would handle it? |
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| I have a 04 Nissan Maxima SE. In cold weather there seems to be a cold air leak from the engine compartment to the driver side near the pedals. I get warm air from the heating duct but also cold air coming down from beneath the molding to the space near the pedals. This problem goes away after about 30 to 40 min (I assume until the engine block gets hot). Does anyone else have this problem? | |
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I don't care HOW many times you've had your tires balanced, IF you have a shake or shimmy starting at 60 mph, YOUR TIRES AIN'T BALANCED , especially if it happens right AFTER you've had them balanced. I had a '86 Max. and I currently have a "00 and a '02 Max. ALL with ALLOY wheels and different tire brands ( Nitto, Goodyear. Toyo ). All vehicles had vibration problems UNTIL they were properly balanced. It is my theory based on my experience that stamped steel wheels are easier to balence because they have a lip on the inside and the outside to which you attach weights. Alot of the Nissan alloy wheels do not have the OUTSIDE lip and therefore the stick on weights need to be used. My contention is that most tire installers don't know how in the H--L to PROPERLY balance Alloy Wheels. It's pot-luck, hit or miss. I never had a problem until the tire industry developed the high tech. tire balancing machine that spins your tire at 30 mph and calculates for 60 mph. It's taken me years but I have found a guy to balance tires that is really good. My '02 , right from the factory had a verrrry slight vib. at 65 mph. I took the car to this guy and VOILA, no more vibration. End of story. Simply my opinion based on my experience. |
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I too have found over the years that getting passenger car tires balanced properly in this country is very difficult. Here are some reasons why: With the introduction of the spin balance computerized machines almost everybody takes it for granted that once all zeros appear on the readout, the tires must be balanced properly. This is not always so. First of all, tire balancing weights come in standard sizes. American industry uses passenger car balance weights in 1/4 ounce(7 gram) increments. Metric weights come in 5 gram increments which will give you better resolution. Most balancing machines are capable of balancing tires accurately up to 0.1 oz or 2.8 grams. This is far better accuracy than standard weights provide. However, because few people want to bother with weight clipping, balance machines are placed in round-off mode - either 1/4 once or 5 gram for metric weights. With 1/4 ounce weights, you can balance tires only fairly accurately for a passenger car. With 5 gram increment weights the results are better. It would not be that bad if tire places would balance tires accurately using standard weights. The problem is that often the tires are balanced wrong - dead wrong, mostly due to mistakes made in mounting the wheel/tire on the machine, entering wrong parameters into the machine, or the machine being improperly calibrated. Improper dynamic balancing of a tire can be worse than no balancing at all. I have seen two people use the same machine within ten minutes balancing the same wheel/tire assembly and get completely different results - about 0.5 ounces difference on each side. And the machine zeroed out each time. Typically they use centering cones for centering the wheel/tire on the balancing machine. If they use the wrong size cone or tighten it improperly, the wheel will wobble on the balancer and the machine will be confused and the overall result will be terrible, even though the machine will show all zeros when the weights are placed on. There are special flange adapters available which hold the wheel on the balancer through the lug holes, just like the lugnuts would. This setup unfortunately requires expensive flange plate set and a right size centering cone on the inside. So there is still an opportunity for the balancing personnel to balance the wheels wrong, even if they use state of the art equipment. You can do the following to make sure that your wheels are balanced correctly: 1. If possible, request that 5 gram increment standard metric weights be used and the machine calibrated to the nearest 5 gram round-of mode. You get better results that way. 2. Make sure that they enter the right wheel parameters into the machine - rim diameter and width. Wheel calipers are normally used to measure the width of the rim, but the width is also stamped on each alloy rim. The tire size does not matter when doing tire balancing because the weights go on the outside of the rim, not the tire. Ask when was the machine calibrated last and who does the calibration. 3. Make sure they use the right alloy wheel weights for your car so that they will not damage your rim or fly off later. 4. When they remove the wheel/tire from the machine after all zeros show up on the display, ask them to remount the wheel/tire and see if the machine shows zero imbalance. If it does, you can be resonably sure that the tire is balanced properly. Merely respinning the wheel will acomplish nothing - the wheel mount be removed and remounted on the balancer shaft and the results reproduced. Rechecking the wheel for balance is the simplest and most effective test. 5. It does not matter whether the alloy wheel requires rim weight or stick-on weights. Modern balancing machines have built in programs that can even place stick-on weights behind alloy rim spokes so they stay concealed. Better machines also have arms that automatically place stick-on weights on the rim. It is perhaps more difficult to balance wheels/tires which require stick-on weights becuase there is more room for error. However, the results will be satisfactory if proper equipment is used competently. 6. According to racing professionals, you need to balance the wheels/tires to the nearest 0.1 ounce (2.8 gram) accuracy with proper equipment to eliminate most vibration at high speeds. This kind of balancing is simply not normally done. Most places will use marginal 1/4 ounce weights. For normal driving up to 100 MPH, proper balancing with 5 gram metric wieghts will give pleasent practically vibration free ride (assuming good quality tire are used). 7. Trucks and SUVs with large heavy tires are not as sensitive to improper balancing as cars with low profile tires. However, improperly balancing truck or SUV tires can lead to frustrating vibration problems as well. My coworker recently went to a Dodge dealer with his Durango and had his wheels (tire size 31X10.5 R15) balanced wrong twice. Finally they told him he needed new ball joints at $ 900 to get rid of the vibration. He went to a place that used a new Hunter road force balancer and it turned out that his rear tires were 0.75 ounces out on both sides. This kind of unbalance would be felt on any vehicle, except maybe on a 2.5 ton Army truck. Rebalanicng of the tires cured the problem and the original balls joints never needed replacing. 8. One can purchase a small computerized dynamic balancer for about $ 1900 (Coates model 700 balancer). This machine is capable of balancing wheels to 0.1 ounce accuracy and has several wheel balancing modes. I have been sorely tempted to get my own balancer several times. 9. Ideally you need you passenger cars rebalanced about every 5K miles for vibration free ride. This is expecially true when using high performance V or Z rated tires which rear out rather quickly. 10. If a tire is defective, the best balancing technique in the world will not cure the problem. I believe that Nissan had serious problems with Bridgestone Potenza RE 92 tires on 02 and 03 Maximas. Typically factories will use the right equipment and properly trained personnel to balance the wheels on new cars. I hope the above information will be helpfull. |
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