Hey guys-

At 160,000 miles EXACTLY, a loss of power and a sputtering developed under the hood of Maximus. I narrowed it down to a leak in the exhaust manifold (front side, whew!).

The stud broke in half inside the head, leaving enough room for a tap. In other words, I would like to tap the aluminum hole in the head, and run a bolt into that hole, thus clamping the manifold tight.

My questions (because I cant see in the hole due to the angle):

1. Is this ENTIRE "hole" already threaded?

2. If no, can I tap it and run a shorter bolt into that hole?

Thanks everyone. Part of the reason I was able to diagnose this is because of the .ORG and the search function. It really works!

I'm sorry I can't help you but I have a car about the same age and mileage and was wondering if your car made a whistling noise before the bolt broke. I have a loose exhaust manifold bolt somewhere and it whistles whenever I get on it. I was just wondering if this is a pre-cursor to the bolt snapping?

The hole is threaded all the way but you still have to get the old stud out before tapping the hole again. Actually if you can get the broken stud out without damaging the hole, you should need to retap it. The stud should not be in very hard. Maybe try a EZ-out. If you get the stud out, just retap the hole just to clean out the threads.

Use reverse twist drill bits..they might get it out with no other tools needed. Just be careful not to drill the head/threads.

Come to think of it, I did hear a whistling sound (loud) right before this happened. But it was instantaneous. I heard weird sounds, and then wham, loss of power, and a new lawn mower under the hood.

You will notice a loose stud. You can feel and hear it.


Thanks to the other guys for the advice. I am going to try EZ OUT.

Just wanted to let you know, my 93 se had the same thing happen. This is a common thing to happen on older maximas. I believe my car had about 147k on it. You will want to replace the studs with the 300zx twin turbo studs. They are much stronger and most dealerships, I believe have use these as replacement for the maxima. The place to buy them from is Courtesy Nissan in Richardson, TX. You will save a ton of money over local dealerships. I buy all of my parts from them now. They have a website, www.courtesynissan.com . If this doesn't pull the site up, just type in courtesy nissan and it should get you there. Hope this helps. Also, you probably already know this, but if you are going to replace 1 or 2 of the studs, go ahead and get the whole set and replace them all. This will save you $$ in the long run on the labor. Again, the turbo z studs are supposed to be a lot stronger than the factory ones.

Scott

I think all dealerships send out the turbo studs for any VG order. That's what I got from Brown and Brown Nissan, tempe az. I had a good experience with them on my tranny parts, engine mounts, and manifold studs. Just a heads up.