I just purchased an 89 Maxima that is ~ 25k miles overdue for a new timing belt. Obviously I need to take care of this ASAP. What I need to know is basically how difficult is it to replace? I've worked on my RX-7 before so I do have what I would consider moderatly good mechanic skills. Also I would like to know exactly what components to purchase. Should I ONLY go OEM on the belt? Or will the typical Pep Boyz type belt work ok? Same with the tensioner and the water pump. Do these NEED to be OEM? Or will aftermarket work OK? I know that in many cases with the RX-7, it is so stressful on parts that ONLY OEM is good enough, but I don't with the Maxima. Keep in mind, I have no intentions of this being a race car or any type of performance car. I just need it to get me to work and back.

Thanks in advance,

 

It's an interference engine, so you'll want to make sure you do it right. I highly recommend going OEM on the belt, tensioner, waterpump. My friend put in a cheap waterpump on his 91 SE and it squealed.

 

i posted about this on another thread, but since the subject is up again...HAS ANYONE ACTUALLY DONE THIS THEMSELVES? i dont feel like paying some smelly fat guy $400 to do this if its not that hard of a job. i have the chiltons manual so its probably in there, but i dont wanna start ripping stuff apart if this is a complex proceedure that should be left to a real mechanic to do.

 

I might actually tackle this as well as soon as I get past
my present fuel injector crisis (one down, three to go) but
I am going to be xeroxing the heck out of the Mitchell Guide
at my local library concerning this job.

As far as parts are concerned, I think Courtesy has a page
which lists parts for a 60K service and you might even ask
them or your local dealer for an estimate of the parts
prices and such and use that to shop around. I debated on
using remanufactured fuel injectors to save a few bucks on
my latest problem, but along comes Coz at Ultimate Z
ulzmax@ultimatez.com who is giving 25% of OEM parts to
Maxima.org people. I got the $113 injectors for around $85
plus I picked up the o-rings and gaskets...no tax because
I'm not in Illinois (they are in Chicago) and $8 shipping.
Not as cheap as the $62 remanufactured injectors, but a good
deal for OEM.

You might drop Coz an e-mail and see if he can give you an
idea of what will go into the t-belt replacement. I plan to
do the seals, other belts, water pump, and tensioner while
I'm at it, but have to wait until my wife leaves for the
Philippines so I can work on "her" car and not be rushed
about it.

There is a page at: http://web2.airmail.net/scutchen/
That talks about replacing the t-belt on a Mercury Villager
which uses a VG30E motor; might be helpful...

 

since u r there its fairly easy to do if u have the right tools and make sure ur timing marks are aligned.... and u need to have a strong back and a lift does help....i used oem timing belt and used beck and arnely parts no problems here..... the power steering pump is alot of money just for the part that wasnt bad to replace

 

Thanks,

I've looked at it in the Haynes manual and it doens't look TOO bad... so I'm thinking I'll try replacing the belt this weekend. Based on price, I think I'm going to go with the cheapo aftermarket type parts, and just replace the belt a bit sooner than every 60k.

 

let me know how it goes. im kinda scared to do it. im over by 20k miles so i gotta do somethin. all i have is just normal sears craftsman tools. nothin special. when i read the instructions someone wrote for a villager, he said he needed special tools. let me know what tools you needed to do the job.thanks

 

Update:

Day one of the Timing belt replacement:

Removed all the parts, replaced water pump and installed the new belt. All that is left to do now is to put it all back together. (not a small task)

So far is it really hasn't been THAT bad. The worest part has been removing the main crank pulley. (It was rusted on there TIGHT) Fortunatly Autozone will let you borrow a puller (for free!!!) and the puller removed the pulley in ~15 minutes. I would strongly discourage everyone to avoid following the haynes manual on removing the pulley. It seems that you could damage something while prying. The task so far has only been time consuming, nothing difficult - although I have yet to fully adjust the new belt. Also, the parts that I have removed are from NAPA, and they have 85k miles on them and they are still in VERY GOOD condition, so I would probably recommend NAPA parts if you don't want to go OEM.

As far as special tools - none required, however I do recommend a nice selection of extentions for your sockets, it makes it go a lot easier.

One other piece of advice... DO NOT REMOVE the belts before you remove the water pump pulley. Even though the haynes manual says to... it's stupid. Once you remove the belt it is impossible to keep the pulley still while you are trying to un-bolt it. Keep the belt on, remove the water pump pulley, THEN remove the belts... it makes a lot more sense.

Hopefully I'll have time to put it back together tomorrow night and we'll see if I did it right... :-) (should be fine, all marks are lining up perfectly)

Take care guys,

Brian

 

The main thing I'd be concerned with is the timing belt itself. I would only use OEM or Gates belts in that case.
I know a guy who just got done porting the heads, 5 angle valve job, and putting some gude cams in his VG...

got it finsihed and took it out to break in the engine- broke the belt 20 minutes later, destrying the entire engine..
why? he bought a $20 autozone timing belt and it broke on him.
ruined $1000 in brand new engine parts because of a cheapo belt.

Just like many race cars are destroyed from a wreck resulting from the failure of a $3.00 wheel stud. pay a little extra and save yourself magnitudes more in prevented failure.

 

Brian_TII: Did you replace the camshaft and crankshaft
seals along with everything else?

I'm looking at replacing the timing belt, water pump, seals,
and tensioner as this will be my "120K maintenance interval"
and I need to know if the seal replacement is difficult or
not. I plan to tackle this when my wife heads off to the
Philippines in May, so I have plenty of time to do it right.
The Autozone "loaner program" is great; I borrowed a pickle
fork a while back to remove a center link on my truck, it
was nice not having to buy the thing for a one-time job.

I'm heading to the local library to xerox the t-belt
replacement procedure out of the Mitchell Guide, it looked
pretty detailed and helped out a lot when I replaced the
three fuel injectors on Saturday...piece of cake. I wish
I had a digital camera and took pictures of the whole
thing to post on the web, might've come in handy for the
folks who are considering doing this themselves.

 

I have been a wimp and went to the dealer at 100,000 mi. You are wise to replace the seals and water pump while you are in there. I did all of this as well.

I hope your re-assembly goes well. Now I have a question for you (or all in this thread)

my '90 GXE had a bad noise coming from the timing cover when I bought it w/ 100,000. THE TIMING BELT HAD 35,000 MILES ON IT FROM THE DEALER REPAIR. BUT... the previous owner had nothing but the belt and tensioner done. Took it to that dealer and they told me it was definitelty the belt noise (I knew this too). BUT 35,000 mi OLD?? They suggested I may have leaking cam seals.

So I gave them my business to instal a new belt..tensioner.. cam seals.. and water pump, you know, DO IT RIGHT while you're in there. Now at 125,000 mi, THE DAMN NOISE IS BACK! Not quite as bad, but it's there. This is the same shop that did the first 35,000 timing belt job. Can anybody make a suggestion as to what's happening? Is it possible a mechanic just not tension a timing belt properly? Do I go back to a dealer two years after the fact(who is now under a different name)? Help please.

Oh, and tell me the name of the best gen.#3 Nissan manual and where to find it?

Greglille@aol.com

 

after reading all these replies, im glad that my 93' se has a timing chain, and not a belt to have to replace... now i can find other things to spend my money on... lol

 

I went to the local library and checked to see if they had the Mitchell Guide but they did not. Does anyone know where else I could find it? If not, does anyone have xeroxed copies of the procedure for replacing the timing belt and fuel injectors? If so, I would like to get a copy e-mailed to me or mailed to me. I will be happy to pay for the S&H.

Thanks

 

C-Dawg:

I just copied two pages out of the Mitchell book that
covered the fuel injector replacement on the '93 GXE. It's
really not that bad a job. I'll see what I can do about
scanning those pages and e-mailing them to you. I mostly
needed it for the torquing sequence on the intake bolts,
everything else was a pretty straight-forward job.

Not sure when I will get a chance to go back and make a copy
of the t-belt replacement procedure, but that is something I
want for future reference as well. I'll get back to you on
this...

 

I appreciate it.

 

Ok, guys I'm DONE!!!!

I had problems with a strange ticking sound, and it has driven me nuts all week, but I found the noise - the timing belt cover was slightly bent and was rubbing on the main crank pulley.

Other than the ticking sound the timing belt was quite easy and I would say that now that I've done it, I could probably do it again in 3 - 4 hours. There's really nothing hard about it except removing the main crank pulley which required borrowing a puller tool from Autozone.

I honestly think that just about anyone with basic mechanical skills could pull off this job in an afternoon.

I did NOT replace the cam seals, I don't think they are leaking so I didn't bother... also if they do start leaking it's really not all that bad to take it all apart again anyway.

Take care guys,