I figured we could get a nice discussion going about how well Nissan designs their cars. If you have any stories to share about mishaps that you've experienced with Maximas that led to new discoveries about how solid our cars were designed, i'd be interested in hearing them.


To get this started...turns out if you have absolutely no coolant in your car, the ecu won't let the car rev past 2k to keep it from overheating. I'm guessing it's water pump time for my mother's car.

The 4th gen EGR tube was a bad design....they fixed it just not sure starting when

i agree. i remember my first maxima having an egr issue before i inherited it.

The USMD Intake manifold. Horrible design. Engine loses lots of power past 4.5k rpms.

Nissan Fixed this with the 5th gen. 00VI or 2000 Variable Intake. Much better top end performance. I'll be doing an 00VI swap in the next 2 weeks. Can't wait.

The EGR is also bad. Not sure if or when they fixed it. But they always get clogged.

Yea Im about to take mine off and see how clogged it is and clean it out. To recirculate exhaust gasses through essentially a 90 degree angle is non-sense.

I have a code for EGR valve now that I'm thinking and reading about EGR valve problems in this thread, I don't actually really know what a EGR valve does and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me what an EGR valve does?

Thanks for any help provided.

The EGR valve just regulates how much exhaust gas is recirculated through the motor. The recirculation of exhaust gasses reduces the burn temperature and results in reduced NOx levels (for cleaner emissions). IIRC, of course.

The EGR is an Emissions device. It recirculates exhaust gasses back into the engine cylinders to reduce NOx or Nitrogen Oxide.

Fixed.

Yup, block off the egr.

Thank you. So it's not THAT important and wouldn't really affect overall performance or gas mileage of the car?

can you elaborate on the 3.0 IM flaw and how the 3.5 IM accounted for this? looking at the differences between the two, i feel like i know, but i don't want to assume.

the plenum on the 3.0 IM is pretty wimpy in comparison to the 3.5 plenum.

Why? not the point of the thread....

This is new to me. But it doesn't make sense that the VQ's get blown head gaskets if the ECTS cuts the car off when the temp is out of range.

As for my design complaint, I would say the undercarriage was not accounted for winter conditions.

The exhaust is not painted like Toyotas to prevent rusting. Why?

.

Ummmmm.......

History lesson. Class in session.

1992. The Max SE with unique VE motor made 190 HP. For a brief moment, that maxima was the world's fastest 4 door sedan. The 1st ever BMW M5 came along and took that title away.

1995. New Maxima. VQ motor. SAME 190 hp with USDM intake manifold.
Performacewise, that VQ maxima could keep up and beat many cars, and was even beating 5.0 mustangs V8s.

Nissan did all this with a fixed manifold. The MEVI also existed, but they knew americans like torque. The MEVI gave top end but couldnt touch the USDM for mid range torque. The MEVI was sort of like VTEC Hondas. We wanted the middle because that's what we use everyday.

Besides, compared to the competiton, Nissan was way ahead with that motor. It was so well designed that Wards auto made it best motor for like a kabillion years. No other motor has been awarded as often as the original VQ.

Now this is speculation but I think that the VQ was really meant for the Z, but Nissan killed the Z after the legendary 300 ZX twin turbo because Nissan as a whole was in a financial mess.

In the 90s Nissan was like 10 Billion in debt. They were a dead car company walking. Ever notice how the 3rd gen max had better build quality than the 4th gen? From 1995 onwards Nissan was really cutting back. Of course we now know that Carl Ghosn of Renault swooped in and saved Nissan.

Given that history, I think you would agree that the original VQ was mighty impressive for its time. Even to this day. Think about any 3.0 liter NA motor and how much power it makes. Nissan was doing it since 1995, with a relatively simple design to boot.

Class dismissed.

DW

I have a 98 Honda Civic I drive as a beater. It is also rusted to hell. I dont think the rust issue is a Nissan thing, more of a NorthEast US salting the roads in winter thing that no car will survive unless you take care of it.

DW

Evidently people ran the oil too long in VQ30's, so NISSAN designed the VQ35 to burn it faster than you can change it. Just replace filter and add oil.

Bravo! Thanks for enlighten us.

ill tell you what. newer maximas, altimas, sentras(like 2008+) have my FAVORITE body mounting designs. taking **** off of these cars is just so ****in simple and fun. i wish more people designed their body panels this way...

i can swap new altima bumpers, including everything inside it, in 20 mins flat. talk about makin money flat rate! they give you 1.9.

Get you some DW

But I think the awards for for like a kazillion years....I so miss my 3G 5spd lsd it was the hotness

that was free!!!!!!

i hardly comprehend the last two posts you made, but i like it.

Yeah. I like Nissan.

DW

I don't deny for a second that the 4th gen at it's time was very impressive on the performance scale.. But of course when compared to today's standards... It's lacking. That is to be expected 12+ years later. I was just saying that from 1999 - 2000 they were able to make a much more impressive Intake Manifold for the exact same VQ engine. Of course it was to be expected seeing how we entered a whole new millenia and a whole new generation of Maxima but it was still a redesign manifold on the original VQ platform.

20 mins huh? video it for us

Are you comparing the 1995 Maxima to any 2012 car with a 3.0 liter engine, like the Mercedes C300, BMW 530, Audi A6 3.2 (the 0.2 to help overcome increased awd drivetrain loss)? If you were, you would probably see that performance hasn't changed much. Creature comforts like bluetooth, DVD nav and ipod connectivity have been added, but that's about it. Nowadays, most cars in this segment have gone to 3.5 or 3.6 liters. I believe those cars should be compared to the newer maximas.


Nissan knew what they were doing. The 1992 Max SE with VE motor had a variable intake. The 1992 Maxima (NOT SE) had the VG motors with a fixed manifold.
The 1995 Maxima VQ30DE went from 190 hp to 227 hp in the 2000 Maxima VQ30DE-K. That's a 20% increase in hp. An excellent result. The variable intake did add complication, and cost, to the motor.

Both the 1992 Max SE with VE and 2000 Maxima with VQ30DE-K only lasted 2 years in production before Nissan moved onto another motor.

My point here is that the increased expense of adding that variable intake made the -K engine less cost effective, especially when compared to the original VQ.



Don't get me wrong. I love the VQ30DE-K. That's still my favorite motor. Great power and NVH that has not been matched to this day. I'm going 00VI myself.

DW

Man everyone is in love with all of this variable nonsense in here

This is why I stopped posting in the 4g section

Lol! Rust not a Nissan thing.....How about the poor frame design on the WD21 Pathfinder's (1994 and 1995)? The rear section of the frame simply melts away from rust. Every east coast Pathy rust in the exact same spots...I know salt is an issue, but this is a major design flaw! Or the exhaust manifold studs breaking on the V6 motors used in the WD 21 Pathfinders and the D21 Hardbody trucks....Nissan was in a bad place in the mid 90's.....

Oh and how about the gas tank sending unit on all 2005 and up Xterra's that Nissan refuses to recall....Or the radiators and auto transmissions mixing trans oil and anti freeze....again no recall.

Zack

that is the TRUTH right there.

Must agree with you here as my mother has an 06 Pathfinder and they did finally replace the sending unit after making the news. As for the radiator, they extended the warranty but I don't feel comfortable with it so I plan to puncture the radiator myself to force them to replace it before our warranty is up in a few months.

that was last year when i worked at an auto auction in the body shop. it had a nissan account so we always had newer lease return and repo nissans and infinitis.

You may respect Ghosn for saving the company but in my eyes it's been all downhill.
I love the Nissans of old with their better build quality and better materials, you can beat the snot out of 'em and they keep coming back for more. Sure we all have occasional issues but overall they are great cars.

The newer Nissans have horribly cheap interior quality, are mostly bloated and overweight and have issues that Nissan doesn't owe up to.

I had an '03 Spec V that, like most early V's, had the disintegrating close coupled cat that pulled particles back into the cylinders, scoring them, and causing massive oil consumption and eventual failure of the engine. It took Nissan years to do anything about it, and even then alot of the owners took the blame from Nissan and were not given a new motor.

Nissan claimed that my '03 didn't suffer from this problem but that the '02 and '04 did...how the hell do you skip a year with the same exact engine???

I promptly sold it and now I have two old school Nissans instead, I won't buy another newer one from them, there's just to many cool newer cars out and coming out, that I want to try instead.

overall, i am very pleased with the desing of the 4th gen.

The only thing i wish nissan had painted or put some rust inhibitor on the lower rad support and made the back seat a complete fold down.

Cash manggg I haven't seen you post in awhile mangg!

lol

PM sent

I agree that 1999 Maxima EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) System has a bad design. Despite of keeping my car for 13th year, it is drivable and serving me good. However, I have been to taking off and clean-up the clogged EGR Guide Tube for approximately every 20k-30k miles. This guide tube part is tough to take off even you are mechanic typed person. That is why dealer charges $300 just to do this tube clean job. Really bad design, I hope the new Nissan has fixed this design for its new cars.

I'm pretty sure the new Maxima (A35) are like the 02-03, and have internal EGR. Though I thought it was strange in 04-08 when they brought it back to external.

The 04-08 design is much better though, and allows you to block it off without any detrimental effects and is a much simpler design compared to the A32.

No, all I was simply saying is that if you take a 1999 maxima and a 2000 maxima, there is only one year gap but the 2000 produces 20-30 more hp beacuse of the intake manifold. Same motor, different manifold. I'm not talking about a 3.0 built in 2012. Nissan was able to bring the VQ30 back in a different model and unlock more power by changing simple things. So I retract my first statement. I wouldn't consider it a flaw but it goes to show that it wasn't perfect to begin with or they wouldn't have had a need to improve on it.

anyone know??