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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
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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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| wow, thanks p100! that was a great load of info! i too have had a lot of balancing problems on my 96 nissan 240sx. practically from new purchase, have had a shimmy at around 60 mph especially when the car is cold in the morning. had one sears shop in kansas city, when i was traveling, balance the tires perfectly evidentally, because the car drove perfectly! then got new tires and the problems all over again. even went to a shop in town that is reputed to be the best with alignment and balancing issues, they first balance the wheel on the computer, then spin them on the car until balanced. but still had problems and they said it was the tires (new dunlop sp sport a2) so had 2 of them replaced partly under dunlop warranty, and still same shimmy problems. the alignment shop claimed they had many problems with dunlop tires and that was the problem. anyway, still have the shimmy but have learned to accept it and it doesn't really bother anymore. also, had several alignments done at the same shop inc a rear camber kit, etc, to no avail... | |
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Excellent dissertation on tire balancing ! You hit the nail on the head in item # 5 when you said that a good balance job can be obtained IF the equiptment is used competently. BTW, enjoy your Max's and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all ! |
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I have a 1995 SE Automatic with 145K miles. It had 68K miles when I bought it in '99 and has provided near flawless service since. Last week I noticed that the tachometer showed 2500 rpm at highway speeds (75+ mph) and the shift was in D and the OD was on. It ran at the higher-than-normal revs for over 100 miles and later dropped to the normal 1800 rpm. Problem has not recurred. Question: Is it time to flush and change Transmission fluid? What is the recommended frequency? I have not done an ATF changeover in the last 5 years. Would appreciate any feedback / similar experience. |
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I just purchased a new 04 Maxima 3.5 SL, Love the car but I also seem to have a cold air draft down low on the drivers side. I had an 01 Maxima GLE that never had the problem. The car seems to take forever to warm up inside. My heated seats just went out today. I haven't the fuses yet, but it worked for a few days and then nothing. In the three years I owned the 01 GLE I never once had a maint. problem, now all of a sudden my 04 has two. I wonder if it has something to do with the car being made in the USA. I sure hope not. Any input, let me know your input.
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| I own a 2000 maxima, My check engine light came on a few weeks ago, so I went to a trusted friend who works for advance auto parts. He hooked up a computer to it it read #2 cylinder misfiring. He proceeded to clear the check engine light for me and advised on a new coil pack for that cylinder. I went to the dealer and picked one up and replaced it, and it still had the problem. I am at my wits end with it and is driving me nuts, will someone please help. | |
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