New to the Max. Do you have codes without the check engine light?. I have a 95 Max GXE, 116,000 and been doing some maintance. Runs fine. I see autozone will pull the codes for free. I was under the impression all was fine till you got a check engine light, I want to be sure. Also looking at Irridium plugs for $39. Good buy?

 

You've got a lot to learn. 1st Autozone will not check your light if it is not on. Read the stickys on how to check your light yourself. It's easy to do. Irridium plugs do not provide a real difference in terms of performance. Some say that they are worse than stock, some say they are better. I think it's all in the head. The best plugs to get are the NGK platinums($10 a pop & 60K mi) or the NGK coppers ($2 and go for 30K mi). I would recommend the coppers b/c they are a better metal for electrical conduction. However you have to change them more often. So if you can DIY then go with the coppers.

Sometimes your car will have a ghost code where the code will be there but the light will not go off.

What type of problems are you having?

 

really no problems, my son drives the car and I am trying to teach him maintance. We have no maintance history on the vehicle so I am going from ground zero. oil change, tranny change, fuel filter change, air filter change, planning on replacing the plugs and coolant. We have been running regular, 27 MPG, runs fine. Is 93 really that important. I know you purists we kill me for that, but real world? I'll bet most max's are running on regular.

 

You will see a real performance difference between the grades of gas on the Maxima. 91+ is recommended by the factory. No besides the performance differences, the knock sensor, spark plugs, O2 sensors, and cat converter can fail. So there is a whole laundry list of things that can fail. Is it worth it for the savings of $2-3 a fill up?

Some people may run on regular, but it's your car that's most important when you own it.

Dont do it. You should do some of your own research. For cars that dont need premium it makes no difference but for cars that do, just spend the extra 20 cents per gallon.

I've tried to save a few dollars by switching to regular. It's really not worth it. The car felt like a slug, and it started mis-firing. Lesson learned.