Now it seems that only dumb little things are going on the car after an entire year of trying to figure out the loss of power problem.

After fixing and tuning the maxipad, Everything was great till about two weeks after, when i lost two bolts on the rear tranny mount?!!! Dont ask, I replaced them.

Clutch link from pedal arm to clutch master broke. Part is NA. I had to weld it up.

Last week i snapped the cross member supporting the two motor mounts, which bolts onto the rad support and the main frame.

I snapped it clean, and because of the angle the motor was resting in, i broke the rear tranny mount which i mentioned above.

I had to weld that up as well, and will be buying a new rear tranny mount.

Either i have a 1000hp torque master Maxima, or this maxima is showing signs of age.

I am getting sick of this car, time to upgrade to a Mitsubishi Diamante or Galant.

 

no get another 3rd gen.. or atleast stay in the maxima family

 

hell yeah, i am glad to see that you're moving up in this world. Coming from a former diamante owner, i think you have an awesome taste in cars. If you're really gonna get a D go for their new vr-x, still a crappy *** car but the car inside and out is damnnnn nice.

 

Your maxima knows that you prefer Mitsubishi's over Nissans, so it's puttting you into expenses because it doesn't like you. As soon as you fix this problem, others will arise, and the cycle continues until you're broke. Calling your maxima a "Maxipad" will most likely make it kill you in a very bad accident, or leave you without arms and one leg to hop on.

Mitsu is kool, but Nissan is better.

 

Oh, the "God is punishing you" theory! Kinda like the MOTM curse...

 

Man, I do not like those Mitsu's. Galant or otherwise. Personal taste, but in the import world, those just dont have enough HP for me. But, last weekend I went to buy a new Sentra SE-R Spec-V. Same class as your mitsu's, but more HP. 175HP with 180lb\tq, to be exact. Plus it comes with lots of cool stuff, like stock racing seats and 17 inch wheels with low profile tires. Better choice if you cant afford a Altima 3.5!!

 

VR4 Galant I hope......any other model woule be a downgrade from the Maxima!

 

Not enough HP? 200hp/230tq is enough for me for a sunday cruiser with a little bit of class.

And, Mitsubishi motors are very toned down. The galant and diamantes both come with low compression motors, 9:1 compression= turbo ready :P

But Ive given this Maxipad its share of beatings, and it hasnt really died yet.

Many ppl have driven my Maxi and are surprised that for how old it is it still pulls low 15second times.

I am gonna run her one last time this year, i Hope to see a 15.0-.1 with at least a 93mph trap speed.

The car is just not worth trying to make any faster, its too old and will require another $5g's or so to rebuild and repaint.

So it'll be up for sale by midsummer..

 

Story sounds similar to mine. I also snapped my cross-member and got a new one. Mine broke because I waited to long to fix the front engine and the front tranny mount. The engine/tranny torquing (is that a word?) was too much for the cross-member. Replaced all 4 mounts and now all i have to do is axles. Bad motors mounts aren't fun, especially with a VE 5sp.

 

I checked my motor mounts on the car after the cross member came off, everything is still solid, which is surprising for a car with 210K kms, and 60K kms of it are pure abusive kms.

I have replaced the drivers side cv joint a few weeks ago, and I am going to replace the torn boot on the passenger side soon, whenever i have time to re-re.
@198K kms i killed an input shaft bearing in the tranny, so i had the tranny rebuilt, all new bearings, seals and filled it up with AMS oil synthetic. So far that has been the only major fix on the maxipad since ive owned it.
The ecu took me the longest time to figure out because a bad ecu will never come up on a diagnostic scan.


I also found out why the cross member snapped, its due to poor design from Nissan, they have weak welds on the member, and the metal is thin for the duty its to perform. They should have designed something more solid.
I am buying a mig next week, and i will be welding a reinforcing plate onto the cross member.

Last year I also tore both rear sway bar end link mounts right off the frame! I am beginning to see the weaknesses in the older maxipads.
Then again, its 10 years old this year, so its getting up there in age.

 

I wasn't too impressed with the build quality of the cross-member either. When mine broke i thought that i was the only one who had experienced this problem before but the dealer i called said it has heard of a few cases like mine. The reason that i am getting new axels is because the inner cv joint on the drivers side has gone bad and at the cost i get them at work i might as well do them both. Cant wait to get my car running like i want to so i can quit . By the way, going to a Mitsu****y Diamante or Galant wouldn't be any kind of upgrade from what you have now.

 

The crossmember breaking is more a factor of your driving and parking habits than anything.

If you run up on parking caps and curbs all the time, you will break the crossmember sooner or later. you're putting nearly a thousand lb of force on that thing when you do that, then when it snaps you wonder why.

the crossmember is designed to withstand thousands of lb of torque, and does it well. (FYI, the engine puts out ~200ft-lb, then when you gear it down through the tranny, you're putting over 1000ft-lb torque on the ground.. and the crossmember has to hold the engine/tranny in place.)

also rust and wet/salty environment is an easy way to let the crossmember break. if you continually park it on parking caps, it will scratch up and then rust.. it's got small holes in the bottom.. they'll get full of salt water and rust it out from the inside.

Also if youv'e got bad engine mounts, it can cause the engine to bounce around and basically beat on the crossmember like a 400lb hammer.

Lots of reasons that thing could have broken.

 

parking where?

I park my Maxipad in the garage all winter long, and on the street whenever i go out somewhere.

My colts are the cars always up on stands, and i lift them up on the cross member, many times, and ive never had a problem with that.
Ive also hopped sidewalks, logs, parking stoppers with the colts, and the cross member ends up acting as a skid plate, never had a problem.

The maxima is always jacked up on the frame rails, there is no rust on my cross member, but after looking at the weld points on it, its just poor design.

Another reason i prefer Mitsu.

 

VR4 u say? unless he buys one from japan!

 

Ah, Mitsubishi imported the AWD turbo Galant here. Rare but they are here.

 

I think it 90-91 they were available! AWD 195 HP turbo....a guy down the street from has one, he doesn't know how lucky he is.