So my car's speedometer and odometer stopped working like 2 months ago, and I've fiddled a bit with it, but haven't done anything serious about fixing it.

The other week, I tried to check my 6 month old speed sensor, but it was stuck and I couldn't get it out of it's connector in to the top of the tranny.

So I dropped the car off at my mechanic last night for him to look at:

1. Speed sensor is shot. Needs replacement. $125 including diagnostics.

2. Brake master cylinder. Needs to be replaced. $300ish

3. Water pump is leaking. Might as well do the timing belt and everything else too.... $625ish.

4. Needs new front and rear engine mounts. I don't remember how much he said it was gonna be, but it was more than I expected.

5. Steering rack...needs 2 bushings. $30.

6. Heater core (the heater basically isn't working...figured that out over the weekend when it got REAL cold!...could either be the heater core, or the thermostat I figured); some control unit needs to be replaced. $300

Total- $1400ish. Ouch. BIG ouch.

We weren't expecting that.

Not sure what we're gonna do with it....

That was some bad news for the day though.

Ugh, hope everybody else's day went better than mine!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING YA'LL!!

 

1. He wants to dig into your pocket.
2. Water Pumps won't just leak. They freaking BLOW.
and i would recommend doing it yourself. 80 for the new pump if i remember and like 10 bucks for some used tools. And the timing belt you can do at the same time. Just make sure you know what your doing.

Engine mounts. you can fix with that one crap that is a big long word. haha.. Matt knows.

I would definetly go get a second opinion though before you do any of that work.
Usually when mechanics DIG into stuff that they can't just spot right off the bat when there doing the job they were supposed to, there trying to dig into your wallet.

 

damn, that sucks
I dont know if you want to put that much into tranny woes max; I had that same dilemma when my 89 had tranny probs
do the right thing, get a VE like your wiser brother =) j/k
I wouldn't think that JMS would try to rip you off being that they know you and you take all your cars there, but I would still get a second opinion on it; when I took my 89GXE there when the tranny was dying, they told me that and like 10 other small things that they would do, but I don't really agree with all the stuff they quoted me for. Now one of my mom's friends has the car and he fixed the tranny and its running fine and he loves it.
Good luck with whatever you end up doing. Let me know what happens and happy thanksgiving to the Fobarts.

 

just kidding, i have problems to it really sucks, exspecially when you don't have a job.

 

You should be able to replace the water pump. Just remember to drain the coolant from the engine block and radiator. After you take off the drive belts and pulley just remove the timing cover and there is the water pump. But you might just have a bad gasket so replace the pump anyway. Its kinda wierd to me because we have never had a water pump go bad in my car's previous 222k mile life. IMHO get a part's list and shop around for the best price. As for the engine mounts you can buy some Urethane and fill them for $20 vs paying $200 for the OEM mounts, don't forget teh tranny mounts will break too.

 

Ouch bud.. that all sucks..

most of that is just normal maintenance though. yeah it sucks that it all happened at once, but it's all pretty normal stuff.. water pumps and engine mounts are routine to die around 100k miles the way we beat on our cars.
master cylinder is a first for me, but it shouldn't be that much.. they're like $120 from courtesy I think, the rest is labor. (which shouldn't be worth $200 more)

I can't give you much more info about the rest of it.. all I can think about is turkey.

good luck man.

 

Dont listen to anyone, waterpumps do leak, thats what i had, The engine starts to work much louder, as far as timing dont change it unless you had it for more then lets say 40k. If more then might as well change. As far as other replacement,go to a diff mechanic, because maximas dont brake down like that.

 

have u notced what the car does that the motor mounts are bad. and what does a bad brake master cylinder cause? my maximas brakes are so much mre sesitive then any other new or old car ive driven and i love it... so much control with the 4 wheel disc brakes. but every once in a while the pedal gets squishy... about equal to other cars brake pedal feel. any body know what this is? bad power brake booster? master cylinder? thanx

 

Your water pump doesn't spring a leak like a hose. The gasket goes which causes the car to loose all it's coolant. Then the bearings in the waterpump go south and the pulley on the pump starts rubbing against your timing belt covers. That's awhile after the gasket goes though. You'd definetly know if your waterpump was shot. Your car would blow cold air, the car would overheat while driving. and you would open the radiator and it would be bone dry. ANd big puddles of water under your car. I went through this. and it sucked during the middle of winter climing under my car looking at all the stains on the passenger side of my engine and engine bay from where it blew water all over. You will definetly know if your waterpump is shot.

 

VG water pumps have a weep hole to indicate seal failure. They WILL leak with increasing quantity, because the bearings will not be far behind.

 

There are 2 holes on the pump - one on the upper side and one hole is on the lower side of the pump. If the leakage is not big, the upper hole might be looking OK, while touching the lower one you'll find it wet.
The leaky pump is quite often on the Max. I've replaced my one for $75 + $50 labour including changing all the belts.
DDD

 

You say your brakes on your max rule? Man mine suck and I've got Stillen SS Brake Lines on there with the metal matrix pads. (4 Wheel Disc too) That's on a 90SE. My next step is new rotors because mine are warped beyond belief. If I had the money, I'd go with the $2500 4 piston BREMBO racing brakes. That $2500 is for the front pair only. But then again, that's IF I had the money, which I don't. Hell for $2500 + the price I could sell my maxima for, I could get a 4th or (pushing it) a 5th gen max. Anyways, I'm done rambling for now.