Gotta love wrenching.
had the car down for two weeks while getting money/parts to fix one problem (bad wheel bearing). got that fixed yesterday.
This morning, I am running late for work already. Start the car, get the most atrocious shreaking sound from under the hood. and smoke.
fml.
so I get out, open the hood, sound stops. smoke clears. mmmm.....
power steering belt is in shreds. great...
so I get to work on the car... more...
Now I get to figure out if it's the ps pump, or water pump, or what.
no, I didn't drive the car, knew instantly it would overheat in seconds.
Thank god, I was still in my driveway.

anyway, just wanted to vent. it seems like it's one thing after another with this car. if this keeps up, i will end up replacing everything on this car

So guys and girls, remember, these cars are getting older, and older. and have problems.
oh, the joys...

 

ahh yes, the whole "fix one thing another thing breaks"..amazing how it works out like literally almost every time. The maxes are plotting against us

 

I feel your pain. I just ran up to O'Reillys to get some vacuum tubing. Pulling into their parking lot I smell coolant and there's white smoke hissing and bellowing out of the engine bay.

After the smoke cleared a little bit:



Can't tell what's leaking. I felt all the hoses and couldn't feel any cracks/bursts. I think it may be one of the hard water lines but what are the odds of that? Ugh this is about the last thing I needed right now

I was able to get it home through the backroads by running the engine for half a minute or two at a time then coasting, and repeating over and over and over. I'll have to let it cool down and check it out this afternoon

 

glad to know I am not the only one who's car is being a pain.
Who else is having stupid-fun luck with these things, this week?

 

Yes it seems to be that way with this car until its getting frustrating a little bit. Its really annoying if the max is your only ride, and things keep breaking on it. Ive got to do a ball joint and a strut mount this afternoon, after that, rear struts, after that find out where the oil is coming from thats eating my control arm bushings on passenger side, just replaced the tranny 4 months ago, also both wheel bearings last month. If this keeps up I will end up with a fairly new car lol! Still beats making a car payment every month and then having to do repairs. On top of that still have to get the thing aligned, and now this weird noise is coming from my driver side rear tire or something everytime I press the brakes! The rear suspension is begining to bottom! Its like everytime I plan on doin one thing to the car, something else pops up wrong with it. Its a good thing I know how to work on cars or else I would have had to let the max go a while ago.

 

Alternator recently crapped out on me. On Saturday I went to the junkyard and grabbed one from the only VG in the yard, (yet there was 3 VEs there). Car had 200k miles on it, leak at the crank which left the alternator an oily mess. I got it home, installed it checked the voltage and all seemed well @ ~14 volts. I drove the car around when it got dark and after a few minutes all the vehicle lighting was pulsating and flickering. Aside from simply being annoying, the last thing my car needs is dirty power.

So Sunday I went back to the yard, checked the two 2nd gens and lucked out big time. Both had over 200k miles, one was missing the alternator but the other one had a remanufactured unit, still has the stickers attached, doesn't look to be more than a year or two old I exchanged units and installed it last night. Looks brand new eh?

 

the truck is running fine...

 

got my tie rods, control arms, and ball joint in the mail today. other Ebay guy cant get the Tokicos because he never had them in stock, so im just gonna suck it up and get Koni's. i dont want to do the other parts alone because i just want to get one alignment and be done with it. then, i need new tires because my $900 ones that are only 8 months old are garbage from the suspension

 

at least ur car is really old.. my 03 bmw is nowhere near that old and its literally been one thing after another for the past year, including a head gasket

 

Cool! I've scored some pretty newish stuff from junkyards over the years. Most recently I got what looked to be a literally brand new radiator for my Civic at the junkyard.

 

i scored a new set of aftermarket hood struts from a 3rd gen a few months ago. the car was highly modded and had a crazy set of aftermarket headlights, tried taking them but i accidentally broke one

 

well, you know what they say about reliability, usdm vs jdm



ibchromedometakesmeseriously

 

well, I guess the belt just pooped it's self. all three pulley's spin freely.

gonna try a new belt, see how it works

 

well i would say something like 99% of the time but older domestic trucks seem good my uncle had a old Ford truck that went over 999,999km and Ford gave him a jacket for it

however, Toyota Hilux Surf>*

EDIT- hell yes im sending drunkie this shirt

 

The truck is at 272k...........woot

 

my dad had a old school Cheyenne that went through alot, but when he went North to work someone jacked it and ditched it. hes got a 2002 Silverado now

 

Nice, did you need it at the time or just pick it up on a whim? Without going into detail quite yet, I have had some very good luck finding parts for my car over the past few years for good prices, it's almost surreal how everything has come together.

 

You guys need to baby your car a little more.

My Maxima was covered with dust from sitting in the garage. I actually washed it before I went on vacation last week, but I have only driven it a few miles since April.

Then, when I got back from my vacation, I had to make a quick trip to take my mom home and decided to drive it. Filled it up, drove a few hundred miles, filled it up again. 30 mpg.

We have a gas station in town that now sells ethanol free premium. The car loves it.

I did pick up a bunch of bugs, so now I have to wash it again

 

I didn't "need" it, but I was planning on getting a new one anyway. At that time, I had just finished basically restoring the car. The engine was rebuilt, rebuilt tranny, all new hoses, etc. so the new radiator was a nice pickup.


Great MPG!

Hmm... ethanol free premium. That would be cool! I'll have to investigate and see if there's any of that in DFW.

I've been able to average just under 27 MPG in my blue VE. That's fully modded with a JWT ECU and everything and includes a good bit of city driving. I haven't done much all highway driving but I'd be curious if I could eek over 30 MPG in it. I'll have to take it on a road trip once I'm confident I'm not gonna have a bunch of goofy problems with it (like today). I've just now put 3k miles on it since getting the car all together, so hopefully I'll have it all worked out in a few thousand more miles

 

Do you mean "baby it" as in not drive it for months at a time?

 

lol yeah, i have to give credit where credit is due for trucks. if you are buying a fullsize pickup and it's NOT an american v8, then you're doing it wrong. plain and simple. Honda Ridgeline? v6 only? unibody? lol no thanks.

Depending what the reason for the CEL is and how it drives, i might have an American V8 4x4 by this time next week albeit an SUV not a pickup.

 

psh, few months after my 5spd swap i got 31.5mpg in the heat of the summer (ie a/c blasting) from NC to Chicago and back, going through the nc/va/wv mountains. Can only imagine if that had been winter and went a less mountainous route..

 

my car is at 272,721 right now

 

I go out and start it every week at least. I usually drive it a few times a month, but not very far.

Saturday I drove it from here to Walla Walla and back. I set the cruise at 75, but I had a big straight stretch. I had to reset the top speed on my GPS.

 

VE powah..

 

my vg is only about 12k behind

 

Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have said "eek out" 30 MPG all highway, since I know it should do it. Years ago, I dated a chick who went to college in Arkansas, and I'd drive up there on weekends and stuff to visit her, and I always got 30 MPG in my original VE 5 (I could also nearly eek out 500 miles/tank).

So, I know this one SHOULD do 30 MPG all highway. I guess I really wonder whether or not I could eek out 32ish MPG

But yeah, gotta give it up to VG 5's, they really get great hwy MPG. I remember when Kaleb swapped his VG to a manual tranny, he was getting crazy hwy MPG. I think he was able to eek out 33 MPG

 

Wow!

My VE's are only at 162k and 172k

 

Thats considered "low mileage" for these cars at this point

 

go out and drive 6 more kms

 

422,000km aka 262,000 miles

 

Just took the Max out on a short road trip to charlotte, NC last week, and then to Augusta,GA yesterday after installing the new ball joints. Come to find out I didnt even need the strut mount, So I took it bak to autozone. The mount was so cheaply made that all the studs kept falling out! Autozone currently has a recall on Strut mounts that were made for the Altima and stanza years 92-93 or 94 it didnt say whether or not it included maximas of that year, but from the looks of that strut mount I had yesterday it wasnt safe! But New ball joints do wonders for these cars, it seemed as if I was shooting gas yesterday riding down I-20. The car rode extremely well speeds of 85 plus were a breeze! Now all ive got to do is pinpoint the oil leak and see if I can find a fairly good control arm from the junk yard.

 

Man what a week i tell ya... After finally getting my car back up and running on saturday i got to drive it untill today... Tranny and shifting felt weird for the past few days and finally it happoned the tranny broke.... gear oil is dripping out of the clutch bell housing. So i go from changing the motor last month to changing the trans AGAIN tomorrow. It is always something man is wear...But if i didnt love the car i wouldnt do it so i just think of it as a chance to learn and get good at mechanics..

 

yep. i actually got a real mileage of 496 miles on my last tank from southern ohio back to raleigh.

 

i actually dont really have issues with my max.
im usually bored so i make up things i can fix.. lol

 

Yeah I know you wouldn't just let it sit there without starting/driving it regularly. I actually haven't been driving my car much the past month. Been doing some interior work, then had the alternator die out of nowhere. Things are moving along though, carpet and lap belts are installed now among other things.. Here's a sneak at the carpet. I have absolutely no idea how the original carpet ended up that bad, I assume lots of spilled drinks and who knows what else..?? The black carpet is from an 89 of all years and is in near mint condition, no evidence of any spills, stains and has minimal normal wear. I got it at the junkyard, and was lucky to see it the day the car arrived. There was no trash or anything in the car, no animal hairs and hardly any dirt or dust on the carpet.





BTW: I went and checked out that VE, not too bad, but it's been in an accident and wasn't repaired very well. There's at least a pound of bondo caked around the bottom LH door hinge and rocker panel. I pulled the kick panel and it was bent in pretty badly with broken welds. Basically whoever repaired it the damage just compensated for the crushed area with a load of bondo and the GXE replacement door doesn't line up very well. It's got a loud and constant clack and sounds like there's something broken and rattling around as well. The engine bay is also pretty ugly and looks weathered.

 

Word, y0!
haha, you can expect much more out of them then
QFT
lawlz

 

only had mine 2 months and i got water leaking into the boot, water pump die, gearbox die, passenger and rear drivers side windows fail, water dripping onto driver and passenger sometimes in the rain, window squirters fail, heater tap rust out, power steering leak, vacuum hoses fail,

i'm being a tad picky, but it's not a car i'd buy for my learner sister, or someone who knows nothing about cars

 

That carpet looks sweet!

After having the black parts car, my wife isn't too excited about me getting any more "projects." Luckily, I made money on that and the motorcycle, so cash always makes things go smoother. I spent most of it in SoCal last week, though

 

Nice! So you're doing a tan to black interior conversion? Black 3rd gen interiors are teh sexy