My max story:
Bought the 1991 Maxima SE. Jet Black, beautiful, perfect condition...cough cough. Probably the nicest car I'll ever have. Car was great for about... 2 months then all hell broke loose:
1) Water Pump
2) Mass Airflow Sensor
3) Timing belt
4) Left CV Joint
5) Right CV Joint
6) Ball Joint
7) Fuel Line
8) Radiator

Each of the above, happened equally spaced apart, so every single month, I had a new problem

Fixed every problem, ran great

Now like that wasn't enough, after 4 months I needed transmission work done (its an automatic): $516

Less than a year later, more transmission work: $1175

A couple months later, complete transmission failure.

Now the car sits in my yard, looking very, very nice, but not moving anywhere.

Its a sad story, I just thought i'd share it with you fellow Max owners... *sigh*





ps. looking for a dirt cheap automatic tranny for it.

 

dirt cheap, like 75$, hit up a hunkyard for a maxima with the same tranny that's all smashed up with low miles. You'll know the tranny worked up untill the moment it was totaled by body damage.

 

do a 5 speed swapp, its mroe fun and WAY more reliable, and costs about the same, or less then a rebuilt auto

 

Just wondering, but at what point do you know that CV joints are bad and that new axles are needed?

 

Too bad man... I'm still waiting for my tranny to come back from the service guy... been waiting 3 months for the damn thing so if it's not working perfectly by now I'm gonna rip somebody apart I swear... starting to get really frustrated here...

I'm thinking about fixing the max up then sell it off cheap. Milage is at it's most crucial stage so if I keep it I'll probably end up like you (no offense) and on the other hand WTF I'm I talking about?? Can't sell my precious!! =(

Man, love is a tough thing.

 

Now arent u speaking restlessly... u cannot let it go for a volvo...

 

Well if the boot is ripped... there's your sign. Of course it's not the full sign. Full sign is when you're driving along, turn the wheel and hear a clicking noise.

If the boot is ripped, and hasn't gotten any dirt in there. You can have the boot replaced. But it's easier, and almost cheaper to just have the whole axle replaced. You can thank remanufacturing of axles for that.

 

OHHH OHHHH I WANT A NEW VOLVO

>>>>OVER HERE<<<<<<< GIVE ME GIVE ME

 

Put it like this. This max is my first car. Before I actually had sole possession of it (my parents paid me to let my brother drive it until he gets a car) my brother has gotten into two wrecks with it. The body was flawless other than a dent on the front quarter panel from my father putting the jack in the wrong spot. I now have a dent in each rear quarter panel. After that the original trann died. I drove it directly after the tranny had died and now I had to replace that tranny because it was slipping like a **** a year later. THis is the third tranny I had and I spent 1400 all together for just that purpose. I love this car and once this tranny dies I'm going 5-speed with it. I can't let it go and plus within the next two years it'll be real easy to find a parts car for it.

 

whys that? everyone elses 3rd gen going to die but yours? i dont get it.

 

Well, hate to say it but most of not all of these problems are common to all cars this old. My 2 sents on the repairs:

Water pump: well they go out. All cars do this
MAF: shat happens. used ones are cheap here though.
timing belt: yeah, they have normally scheduled repair times. But the t-belt should have been changed when the water pump went.
CV joints: to save $ in the end, they should have been replaced all at once.
Ball joints: I hope you replace the other side too.
Fuel line: sucks if it was one on top of the injectors
Radiator: not cheap but easy to replace. I hope you changed the hoses and thermostat also. And flushed the system.

The tranny is the big one. If you can get lucky and get a decent used one, that would be the cheapest

 

No I have just noticed an increasing number of 3rd gen's at the boneyards lately. Last year it took me forever to find a replacement tranny for under 800. The same junkyard has like 10 of them now and their selling for like 350 or more.

 

isn't there a warrenty on the tranny?

 

I'll sell u a working tranny and motor for $400 tranny comes with tyranny cooler and engine has Throttle body kit.

 

Yep 90 day or 2k miles. I am my family's run errand runner so I go through about 300 miles per week just on them. That's city driving. I got the first replacement at about 220k mile maybe a little more. I just got the replacement and I'm at 237k miles. I was also away from my max for 3 months because my mother didn't want me to have the max when I attended USC (S. Carolina) So the max was parked for three months until december. If I had driven it down south I would have easily touched over 240k miles.

 

 

I was teasing pasta... referring to ol' rotten ones... Yes, the new 7 serie stw with 280hp, that is a great car. Nice ride. That is the netherlands daf 'child' with volvoquality, uh?.

Other modellos are wikingtractors, had once for lease the T80; los terribleses to steer...

Btw. U dont have thhis snow as I do now in colorado, huh. Nothin such bck at home... miss my mosquitoes.

 

You know, I can't count how many times i've heard this same story over and over again. All hell breaking loose on these cars that are supposed to be awesome and fun, but you guys that buy these cars, forget that our beloved 3rd gen. are over a decade old. Thats a long time! It's perfectly normal for most of those things to go out. These cars can't last forever, but.......there are companies out there that help us keep our cars in good running condition.
My Max has 136K on the clock and I have replaced, the tranny, water pump, O2 sensor, both axles, KS, MAF, one coil pack and an exaust stud.
It's normal wear and tear on our cars. So stop the crying and get that Maxima back on the road where it belongs!!!! ASAP!!!!!

 

Well said 5 Ltr.

I learned to enjoy (well maybe just accept it openly) it when stuff goes out. Sure it costs money, but it makes the car so much more valuable to me. Plus, I love the feeling of doing my own work, and watching my metro friends' eyes light up when I tell them the work I did. My cars are my babies, and i think of doing work to them in a similar sense as taking care of children (I'm only 18, so kids are out of the question). So slap in a 5-speed to avoid more tranny problems, and rest easier knowing that a lot of things that could have gone out are already fixed.

 

Freudian Slip? Or just Irony?

L

 

to jeff 92, yes it was the fuel line ontop of the injectors, i had to take off the entire manifolf... BOOO. And the cv joints weren't completely ruined, however they were ripped open and had about a 1/4 cup of sand in them, they werent' gonna last too long