Hello everyone and thank you for hosting such a large and knowledgeable forum for the general public.

I just received my first car from a good friend of mine. It's a 1987 Nissan Maxima, v6 3.0L full door sedan. Firstly, I know next to nothing regarding vehicles, this car was given to me at no cost was detrimental as I have had former family issues and am on a very limited budget as I do not have any support system at this time. Secondly, I have been around used cars my entire life and can easily comprehend general used phrases and acrynonyms. However, I am requesting help today from everyone who is willing to reply to this post.

I reluctantly posted today, in hopes of finding individuals that would help me as I pass through this extremely difficult stage of my life. Here's the low down on the vehicle:

1. The car had an electrical problem and wouldn't hold a charge for 2 hours. (Alternator was in it's final phase of degradation) I had to replace that, cost me $205 labor included.

2. The car has been parked at my friends house for 6 months or over, essentially he gave up on it because he took it to unreliable and uneducated mechanic that could not locate the problem, yet my mechanic did, and it runs great! Cars are meant to be driven, from my stand point, I know that the fluids need to be drained if you are planning on placing a car in a non-mobile position for 6 months! Thus the urgency to flush, renew/refresh the system, pleas guide me in doing so.

3. It has never been in a wreck and the body and engine are in perfect condition.

4. New brakes, shoes, and rotors.

5. I'm quite concerned about the radiator, spark plugs, transmission fluids, basically all the fluids in the system I'd like to drain out and put new fluids in.

5. It did not pass inspection this year, my friend does not know why, that's when he gave up and bought a new car and gave this one to me.

I agree, it needs work, but I have made it a zealous agenda to undertake on my own, and I'd like the help of users on this board.

Any tips, possible check lists or anything else I should examine, please post your thoughts!

I have just received my check today, and I'm planning on draining the radiator and the reservoir and putting in new antifreeze.

Also, the odometer has stopped working and has stopped at 167,230 miles. I wish to try and replace and replenish everything I can without taking it to someone to do it for me. I'm very quick to acquire knowledge and apply it, so learning and deciphering information about cars should be challenging yet enjoyable.

The vechile did not come with a manual. That I need to purchase from a dealer tomorrow.

Pleas guys, I'd love all your thoughts, criticisms, opinions, how-to's; anything that would help me immensely prolong this cars life and driveability until I'm able to afford a newer car.

Thank you so much!

- Best Regards,
- David Steele
- Take Care

 

I imagine the dealer will charge you a lot for the Factory Service Manual....just pick up a used on on ebay. There are always several on there. Or if you want to get started now just go to your local advanced auto (or what ever you have) and get a haynes or chilton manual. Once you have the manual this will gide you thru how to properly drain your fluids and refill them. The alt. on these cars is very easy to change, I could have given you advice on that but since you already got that taken care then don't worry about it. Bottom line is you got a running car for free....most of us paid for our cars and they don't always run

Try to find out when your timing belt was done. You really need to keep up with this since we have interferance motors...basically you will need a new motor if the belt brakes while you are driving.

Plugs and wires are easy to change in these cars, try to stick with NGK brand if you can. You can some times find the wires on ebay, and you can get the plugs anywhere. If the wires are not on ebay then check sparkplugs.com. When you are searching ebay for parts for the motor remember to check for 'vg30' , some parts are listed by the motor rather than what kind of car you have. Goodluck.

 

Yeah your gonna want to tune it up if not already done. Just some advise, I know the little things are a PITA (odometer). But make sure you take care of the operating parts first (like the trany, PS,radiator...etc) you lose focus and your stuck with a car that dosen't run. Just make sure you pay more than the usual attention and you should be fine.

Junk yards will be your best friends with a car like this. Find a local pick your parts and have a blast. If you want a Factory Service manual you can get one from a link on Z31.com. But a chilton or haynes from autozone will be fine also.

If your car didn't pass inspection the EGR system might need to be looked at. Or maybe a leak in the intake after the Mass Air Flow sensor. Or a bad O2. Or all the above.

NGK spark plugs and wires rock with this engine. If you change the plugs it will feel like a new ride.

They are nice rides. So have fun man.

 

Also change the fuel filter, not many people do. I have 3ed gens so some one else will have to tell you how.

Also Id just change the oil and tranny fluid, and flush the radiator then fix the rest of the problems to get it moving, then take care of the other fluids and little problems. First goal is to get the car running, so get those out of the way now. As far as flushing the radiator, Id take it completely out of the car and run a hose through it. That seems to get the most crud out.

You definitly need to check over the emmissions systems to look for old sensors and bad connections. Id replace the o2 sensor right away, they tend to be bad alot on older, poor running cars. Also there should be a way to get codes out of the computer, read the stickies for that one.

You werent really clear, did the car have more then the alt issue? other then small issues any way..

~Alex

 

Hello,

First and foremost thank you kindly for everyone's replies! I'm extremely excited and anxious to get underway with the tips you all have posted. Bear with me, I have several more questions I'd like to ask.

1. I've commonly heard the timing belt is critical to a car, can it be easily replaced or do you recommend to have a shop do it? I'll take a look at it if I can find it.

2. What got me excited when I woke up and my roommate heard me jump for joy in the hallway when I read that you can use high performance NGK spark plugs, (which I'm planning to purchase) in the car. Yes, I will get those replaced, but I think they should remain towards the bottom of my priority list? Someone mentioned I should look over all my moving parts and make sure they're ok. I also cannot seem to find the wires for the spark plugs.....How would you go about purchasing those?

3. I also seeked after the owner's manual, but my local dealers don't have it and if they did it would cost me close to $50-60...... I turned to ebay.com and this is what I found http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1987-...spagenameZWD1V please let me know if that is ok. I also found the factory service manual, but it's not a buy now item, only bidding is allowed.
IF anyone has one that I can buy, then that'd be great. If not, I'm going with the haynes or chilton. or how about both?



1. My mechanic told me in order to fix the odometer the entire dashboard needs to be changed out, because it's digital, not analog. At least I'm familiar with my computer terminology.

2. I'm not worried about the odometer at the moment, they are little things, I much rather focus on what you mentioned, but could you please elaborate on what a "PS" is, anything else that needs to be checked on?

3. Could you tell me more about the EGR system? The dash on the car has 2 lights that are on right now. One looks like a trolly from Mr.Roger's Neighborhood, I have came to the conclusion that it's my reservoir and radiator need to be filled. And one that clearly says, "Sensor" would that happen to be the dreaded o2 sensor? I'm worried about this part, I've been reading on these forums for weeks that they are very expensive to replace, is that true?

4. How often do spark plugs and wires need to be changed? The car has nothing done to it for 2 years I'd say, My friend took care of it, bur basically stopped when he knew he didn't want it. So, I'd like to start out on a leveled playing field and replace/refresh everything that I can, and record the dates on which I did that and record my miles as I go. What about filters how often do those need to be replaced?

1. I'm sorry that I failed to mention that the car runs and moves perfectly fine. To try and give you a more enhanced view of what it's like, I can say this, I turn the key, it instantly turns on, no need to give it gas and it does not stutter or "knock." My mechanic was shocked....hopefully that means well for me!

2. It only had the Alt. issue that kept it from running because the battery would die after 2 hours and not sustain a 12v current for which the car to run. Cars are becoming striking similar on how operate when compared to computers. (I'm a computer enthusiast if you all haven't figured it out .

Guys, I failed to mention something it keeps arising in my fiable mind so I'm going to ask it, the car recommends that I put unleaded fuel only, now I've heard the popular myths that I should put premium in so the car would run more efficiently is this true? Or should I just stick with unleaded?

The Front windshield needs to be replaced, It has huge rippling cracks, how would you all recommended I go about doing that? I checked one of the better known, better trusted windshield repair shops that are widely known, I just can't remember the name at the moment, but the quote ending up being $187.98 labor included, what do you all think?

Something else that totally escaped my mind, is that I have partial power steering. The hose leading to the power steering box is leaking and my mechanic believes the steering pump and pinion assembly needs to be replaced, which is....costly to say the least. However, it basically turns like a school bus, I sort of like it like this......my roommate looks at me weird when I explained to him why I like it, I just love the rugged feel of having to turn the damn thing! What I mean by partial power steering is that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, most of the time it doesn't, any thoughts on what to do about this?

I apologize about the very long post, I always try to get direction when I nose dive into something that I am very anxious to cover, since cars have been something I have neglected, now I find them fascinating.

If at all possible, please a explain some terms, as I'm still getting accustomed to car terminology.

Thank you so much guys! You saved me so much, time, anxiety, stress, all the factors that would make me inept to do anything, thanks kind people like yourselves, I feel more confident regarding this car and I'm one step closer to achieving my short term goals, at least I can conquer depression.

- David Steele
- Take Care.

 

I'll try to answer more later, but the link you posted is for the book that is in the glove box. You need the service manual....this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FACTO...QQcmdZViewItem

and plugs would be one of the first things I would do...you only need the copper plugs, they are only about 2 bux each.

 

PS is the Power steering.

Its a PITA. Use dexron ATF III fluid to fill it. It could be the pump, but It might have a leak in some of the hoses.

Timing belt is about the hardest thing to do to one of these cars. Anyone here who has done one will tell you that if you get a good price qoute on the work you may want to seriously consider having someone else do it.

There should be a sticky about the pulling codes off the ECU. Once you get a manual(haynes,chilton,or factory) you can decipher the code.

Use 87. There is no need for premium gas. If you want to you can run some seafoam through the engine and clean out the carbon deposits. But our cars run on 87 just fine.

Oh yeah don't feel bad about asking. You'll never know unless you ask. Plus a lot of the stuff we know we learned from someone along the way.

 

i would replace the timing belt as a top priority thing and do it as soon as possible if theres no reccord of it being changed. i'm speaking from experence that cost me $2000, and it made me mad because i had made an appointment before it broke and it was only a week away.

i would also check the brake shoes before replacing them, they dont always need matience when you do brake work but some times they doo, theyre a costly item if you replace them every time when you dont need new ones or for existing ones to be repaired....if they leak, replace the caliper, if not and they function normally, leave them be

 

The light you are calling the trolly car is the radiator light....make sure your resivor is full. As for the sensor light you will probably need to pull your codes from the ecu...but I also think that the sensor light comes on every so often on its own if you have under a certian number of miles. I know there is a way to reset it but someone else will have to speak up that has done that. I did not read your post very well when I posted yesterday. The manual that you posted is fine if you just want the owners manual (though I do not know why you would really need this). Like DR. J said make sure your Power Steering resivor is filled up with Dextron III (Its with the Automatic Transmission Fluids at parts stores). Other than that your post was so long I cannot remember anything else, and it would make this thread 5 pages if I quoted you
Anyway, you made a point of saying that the car does run fine, so if it is running well I would not do too much to the car. I come from the school of : If you have something that is running well, mod it till you break it.

 

Everything listed above as probable causes of inspection failure are great places to start. I would also check to see if you have any exhaust leaks. You could also have a plugged/gutted catalytic converter.

 

Too bad you don't live closer to me, I would help you with some of the work.

I agree with everyone else, you need to change the timing belt ASAP (now)! Find someone who does Nissan. It could save you money as they will know how to change the belt and this will save time (that you pay for). There are alot of Z-cars in Dallas, so finding someone who deals in VG30 Nissan cars should be easy to find.