AliasJR

Hey guys - I just bought an infiniti i30 1998, very cheap I think.

I was driving it home on the highway and the temp gauge went up 3/4 and stood there for the duration of the trip, figured I would get home safely and with the car driving and I did.

In my effort to find out what was happening I uncovered the ecu and played with the screw to see if the engine light would come on, now the car struggles to come, it comes on after 4-5 tries and pressing the gas.


And of course, aside from this, the car overheats when going at high speeds 55+, it can stay idling for an hour and nothing would happen. A mechanic inspected it and said the radiator was clogged, I am not convince since he did not dismounted it or anything, just said it was the radiator after touching it here and there and feeling the temp.


Any ideas as to what can be causing these two issues?

the car has 102k miles and engine sounds very smooth

I appreciate any help

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

The screw needs to be set in the center position between its stop points.
No way for us to tell you why it's overheating, get another opinion if you can't troubleshoot it or trust your mechanic. What's the maintenance history on the cooling system? Have you checked the coolant level or it's condition? Is the reserve tank and radiator cap functioning as it should? Maybe all it needs is a service including a system cleaner and flush.

AliasJR

I do not know the history of the cooling system, the previous owner said everything was working and nothing had been replaced but the mechanic found that some hoses had been replaced along with the thermostat which hints that they knew the car was overheating. I guess the good news is that he does not think is a head gasket.

I will look at the screw and get a second opinion

Love the car, it has the original bose sound system and cant believe how good it sounds

CS_AR

A few years ago I bought a 95 Maxima when the radiator sprung a series of leaks a only few weeks after I bought it. When I removed the upper/lower radiator hose, I found ***** of white caulk looking material in the lower radiator hose. It looked like the previous owner had used quite a bit of stop leak to cover up a bad radiator that had caked up in the hose.

The last I30 radiator I bought came with a lifetime warranty and it cost $76.99 + Tax from Advance Auto using the TRT30 coupon code. I ordered it online and picked it up at my local store a few minutes later. I think it took less than an hour to change in my driveway.

I'm not suggesting you start throwing parts at it without due cause. But if you do need to buy a radiator, I've never had any issues with the ones I get from AA that come with a lifetime warranty. Check out the reviews at the following link.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/t...509/19920014-P

JvG

My first guess would be the radiator. I bought a Koyrad a couple of years ago. It cost about 100 bucks delivered to my office. It was fairly straight forwad to install. A new radiator costs about what a mechanic would charge for an opinion. Even if it is not your solution, you will have a new radiator. Another possible problem might be a corroded water pump. Someone had this problem last year, the vanes on the impellor were mostly gone. A radiator is far simpler to deal with, so start there. Do not cheap out, your engine is at stake.

AliasJR

Thanks guys, I just ordered the radiator, will pick up tomorrow at advance auto parts

The water pump appears to be working properly, when I accelerate the car with the radiator cap off, the water overflows. It looks like a very difficult piece to replace, runs with the timing chain doesn't it?

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

When you have an overheating problem, a valid, accepted way of diagnosing is to touch and feel things to if it is hot or not. It's low tech, but it still works.

Your problem may very well be the radiator, but maybe it's not. When you said that the thermostat was replaced, that raises a red flag. Many brands of after market thermostats don't work correctly in the Maxima. You have to get a Nissan thermostat.

PH98I30

I also own a 98 I30 I have had for about 3 years. I got mine at 103K. These cars are sturdy workhorses. The only problems I have had is a bad knock sensor and alternator. I need to do my front brakes. Feeling hoses is a good low tech way to tell if the rad or other hoses are clogged. These cars work best with certain products like NGK spark plugs. You need to use mostly Nissan parts.... DON"T cheap out! Change out the radiator & thermostat and go from there. DO NOT use Bosch spark plugs. Search the forums here for informative threads. Everyone here is very helpful. If it will work in a Maxima engine, it will work in yours. I love these cars.

svillegas2253

When my 96 would overheat at freeway speeds only, my radiator was clogged.

CS_AR

Excellent points posted above from our Members about Nissan OEM parts.

There are some critical components that can lead to engine damage or other discreet problems that will drive you crazy if you are not using OEM parts.

It has taken years of research, on car testing across multiple Nissan/Infiniti product lines, and plain old trial and error to find a line of "Top Shelf" aftermarket parts that are made by Nissan's parts "just-in-time" manufacturing component supplier for both Japan and U.S. factories. So it depends on the component and the Nissan component supplier before I venture away from an OEM part. Only after I have personally tested the part for a good duration of time will I recommend an aftermarket part.

Thermostats and radiator caps are two relatively low cost components that I still prefer to get from Nissan.

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

For those parts, go OEM or go home. Remember, your car has a DOHC, timing chained V6 motor. A head gasket job would not be worth it because of ridiculous labor. Cheaper to replace with a used motor.

Since the OP does not know the maintenance history of the car, all the cooling system should be checked. Peace of mind.

If it's all good, that car will last a loooong time. Mine is at 200K now. I am quite confident that I'll take it to 400+ thousand miles, as many have done with their maximas on this forum.

AliasJR

I bought a radiator, will install it and report back

PH98I30

GET A NEW NISSAN THERMOSTAT TOO! You also need to burp the air out of the engine. Put the front on car ramps or on a steep hill to get the air out of the system. Or am I thinking of Toyota's????

CS_AR

It never hurts to make sure any air pockets have been removed from the system. I've seen people jack up the front end or park on a steep hill to speed up the air removal process. Personally, I have big funnel with a pipe the same size as the radiator fill hole to let the coolant expand up into while air is evacuating from the system.

I know on the 2nd generation Q45 that if you are unlucky and get a cooling system air pocket and you do not remove it before you start driving, a new head gasket will be in your future.

Maxima 97 SE

A new oem water pump at the dealer is about 110.00 and extra 5 dollars each for the o rings where on amazon you get the oem nissan water pump which is by paraut who own unisia jecs and makes the oem parts for nissan is only $71.23 and I only paid 100.00 dollars to the mechanic to install it. The oem pump lasted 17 years and 302,000 miles. The pumps propellers were still in good condition but what was bad was the oring which made the water pump leak antifreeze. If you want to go the route of replacing a water pump this might be the cheapest way to go or like your symptoms describe I would probably replace the the thermostat first with an oem nissan part. The thermostat should be replaced if it never has been. Then if your radiator has a leak then replace that first before anything other wise if it doesnt that would probably be the last thing i would do.

JvG

Radiators can go bad two ways, either they leak or they clog from the original poster said that the mechanic diagnosed a clogged radiator. The O-P also found stop-leak crap. This indicates an attempt to fix a leaking radiator. THe previous owner put in stop-leak to hide a bad radiator. Then he sold the car to the O-P. What a llying bastard. Par for the course. Oh well, the cars problem can be solved for less that 100 bucks.

JvG

Something smells here, perhaps the previous owner is a dishonest skunk. He sold a car that has an overheating problem, after trying some fixes himself. The radiator does not cost much, he would have replaced that if ther was an issue. The new owner found gloppy bits of crud in the coolant system, a stop leak. I am afraid that the leak he was trying to fix, or perhaps hide, is much more expensive. This stinks of Ble-Devil, a nasty product whos' primary purpose is to fix a head-gasket leak. Oh, the head gasket is not leaking now, for a while. The Blue-Devil clogged the radiator and also the heater core. The mechanic might have done a block-test with a chemical that detects exaust gas. There was none detected-- for now.

AliasJR

Took the car out to the highway today and drove at 70 for a while, temperature was normal and never passed over half. Car felt strong.

Now, I found something very disturbing when I searched the VIN #, the car in 2008 had 127k miles, it has 102k now.....

I did not take any of the precautions when buying a used car, I guess that's what I get...


Luckily the car appears to be very good now, only paid $1,850

CS_AR

It's good to see it is working out. A properly cared for VQ30DE will run over 300,000 miles with some running up to 400,000 miles. As you become familiar with the car there are some preventative maintenance items you can do to keep it running optimally at a reasonable price.

How much is a good running car worth that is capable of giving you a good 100,000 to 150,000 miles of service?

I've got a 99 I30 and a 99 Max SE 5MT so I love 4th gens. I rescued the I30 from being sold to the salvage yard (w/bad ECU) at 220,000 miles for $275. The only reason I got it was I paid the lady $75 more than she could get from the local salvage yard.

It was by pure chance that a local 99 Maxima GLE had been totaled and had a compatible ECU that I picked up for $30 before I bought it. Naturally I had to pay the dealer $225 to reprogram NATS (unique to 99 models) to use the salvage ECU. The I30 was a severely abused car that needed a lot of maintenance to turn it into nice looking and running vehicle. I remember laughing when I found it had spark plugs from 4 different companies when I ran the 1st compression test before I sent to to the dealer for the NATS reset.

After I knew it would run, I was ready to spend another $1,000 in the first 3 months to buy all the parts for replacing the suspension with Tokico Blues, new suspension bushings, end links, ball joints, radiator, CV axles, bearings, seals, and various other engine components like alternator, starter, O2 sensors, filters, some hoses, and a like new leather interior and carpet from a wrecked I30 that I picked up for $150. Surprisingly it did have new brakes when I got it. After I had it for a year, it needed a timing chain tensioner at 225,000 miles that cost roughly $300 to replace. So I have about $2,000 of cash in it with my work and satisfaction of knowing the car is in great mechanical shape.

The I30 now has over 260,000 miles and I can't keep it from running. We call it old reliable. It still has the original transmission and the compression numbers are on the high side of spec. I have noticed the I30 has a little more insulation and padding with softer springs than the two Maxima SE's. I plan to repaint it before summer is over. As good as it runs and drives today, I think it will make 350,000 miles and maybe more.

My first Maxima (and before the I30) was a 95 SE 5MT at 150,000 miles that looks like the 99 SE 5MT. I bought Max #1 from a guy in the Air Force for around $1500. He wanted to sell the Max for some Subaru he spotted for around $2,000. It was originally an Ohio car that needed the rusted sunroof drain y-pipe replaced to keep water from backing up in the rear floor board. You'll learn how to service the sunroof drain vent pipes to keep sunroof drain water away. The Max wasn't horribly neglected like the I30 but it had been mostly serviced by Pep Boys on an as needed basis only. It was definitely due for a mid-life technical refresh.

The first thing I did after I got Max #1 was to replace the spark plugs with NGK Double Platinums, fuel and air filters. The previous owner had been using some type of oiled K & N air filter. I noticed the MAF sensor wire had a glob of goop hanging from it. So I cleaned the MAF and went for a top shelf dry element air filter. I didn't notice a huge performance difference with the new spark plugs.

Cleaning the MAF helped with a slight idle issue it was having when I got it. Soon after I started getting things back in order, an O2 sensor CEL code appeared. I figured the O2 sensors had been neglected, so I replaced all 3 (for fed spec) O2 sensors with new NGK/NTK.

Now the new O2 sensors made a sharp performance improvement with around town responsiveness and some improvement in MPG. I figured since I would be running premium fuel (as recommended by Nissan) I might as well try to get the engine running optimally to get the best possible mileage. The approximate $180 I paid for new O2 sensors was the best performance bang for the buck I saw on that car.

Next I replaced the suspension, a couple of bearings, radiator, trans seals, and CV axles along the way. Unfortunately, after I got Max #1 all in shape and running like a new car, a texting driver rear ended it and caused $2700 in damage. The insurance company was really good as they paid me $2,600 and I got to keep the car without any blemishes on the title. I had just upgraded the interior to all like new black leather from a wrecked Maxima. Ouch! I sold Max #1 to a guy who planned to get the rear end fixed for something like $600. Three years later he is still driving the car and with all the rear end damage. Ha! Everybody got their money's worth out that 95 Max and then some.

I spent 18 months looking for another SE 5 MT when Max #2 came along. By then I had seen a few Max SE 5MTs with 100,000 miles sell around here from $2,500 to $3,500 depending on maintenance condition. So after a few months, I figured out a SE 5MT would cost appropriately $700 more than a comparable automatic.

Almost by accident, I searched Craig's list for Nissan and found Max #2 that had been listed 2 hours earlier in a little town about 60 miles away. I went that night to look and found a clean local no rust car SE 5MT with a list of maintenance history although a lot had been performed by a Pontiac dealer in that little town. It had roughly 148,000 miles so I figured it was at mid-life and be good for another 150,000 miles easily. The reason the guy stated he was selling was his daughter didn't like driving a manual transmission which I believed. The guy was a real estate broker who lived a beautiful suburban estate with a fairly new Benz and golf cart all neatly parked in a 4-car garage. The guy was asking $2950 and I paid $2650 for that 99 model. I justified paying that amount because it appeared to be a nice SE 5MT (which are impossible to find around here) a fairly new clutch and one CV axle had already been replaced. Initially, I thought it would be a car without a lot of issues. Oh boy was I WRONG!

A couple of days later I got CEL codes for an O2 sensor. Well no problem since I had gotten into the swing of replacement and I knew the performance benefit I would get in the end. Next up the alternator went out. Then a suspicious looking radiator leak happened. I replaced it with one from AA when I found the white ***** of calk looking material in the radiator hose. The radiator worked fine and I hoped for the best. Though engine performance started to deteriorate and coolant was starting to disappear without being traceable to a leak. Any performance gains brought by the new O2 sensors seemed to be lost. When changing the spark plugs to some NGks, I found one plug that had been cross-threaded. Thank you Pontiac dealer.

A few months later when I'm replacing heater hose to address the suspicious coolant loss issue, and do the usual mid-life valve cover gaskets and EGR system clean up, I had the coiling system drained and exposed to open air for a few days. After I put it all back together it started up and ran for a couple of minutes and stalled. Now this is the 3rd VQ30DE mid-life refresh that I've done and with one BIG refresh on a VH45DE that I've done in the past 4 years so I kinda know what I'm doing with a V6-V8 Nissan engine. I couldn't restart it. The starter was spinning the engine faster than normal like the spark plugs were still out. It turns out cylinders 2 and 4 compression were minimal. The only thing I can figure out is the car must have had a radiator leak that caused it to run hot more than should occur for an aluminum bloc/head engine. I'm sure the heads suffered. My gut told me to pitch that troubled engine. Eventually I tore down the engine for a forensic evaluation, and found scored cylinders scored like I haven't seen since the days of air-cooled VW beetles. I guess the guy or his daughter thought the Maxima must have been air-cooled because that engine was a disaster.

To move forward with a solution to the engine problem, I found a replacement engine from a grandma Maxima with ~72,000 miles that had been rear ended at the local salvage yard. The interior condition matched the mileage. It was sad to see such a nice car in a salvage yard. I paid $500 for the engine and another $1,500 for the swap by my trusted independent Infiniti master tech who is now heavily engaged with following of Land Rover, Jag, and BWM clients. It took him two months to get the Maxima in the shop for the swap. After all time spent and money spent on the engine swap, I picked it up with a misfire and and it would barely run when you could start it. However, it was starting to run better each day and I wasn't buying any part of VQ30DE with that low of mileage being toast. I couldn't understand the hard starting problem at all. After all said and done, in addition to the overheating created problems, had broken injector pintile caps on cylinders 2 and 5 that resulted in extreme engine flooding that helped to cook/clog up the cats. Neither the purported master techs at the local Nissan dealer and the Infiniti now Rover, Jag, BMW shop owner could find the bad injector/cat issues. So had to pay a wrecker to tow the car home where I decided to either get to the bottom of this troubled car's problems or start parting it out. Some type of transformation was in this car's future one way or another. As it turns out, I found the cat issue in a 20 minutes by removing the O2 sensors in my driveway and having the patience to start the car so the carbon could begin burning off the cylinders and valves. Amazingly with the O2 sensors removed so the car could breath it started starting like a Maxima should. Next off comes the plenum and I find the root case in two broken pintile caps. After finding the replacement engine had inhered the injector and cat problems from the previous engine, I decided both car and engine need some extreme TLC and restoration care.

So what I've come to realize is Max #2, while appearing to have lived a good life with reasonable maintenance records, turned out to be the most abused troubled car that I've ever owned. Since I figure I have spent $6,000 on the car to resolve a perfect storm of misdiagnosis by purported Nissan/Infiniti master (read bumbling fools) techs, I might as well take my time and give Max #2 a good through mid-life technical refresh that will result in a reliable and nice looking car that will easily deliver a good 150,000 miles of driving pleasure. That is until some texting Escalade driver mows it down..

So the bottom line is you never really know what you are buying unless you personally knew the previous owner (like family) and saw the car being driven on a regular basis.

Buying a mid-life car is like buying a 40 year old house. Count on replacing plumbing, wiring, and making a few structural repairs if you plan to stay with it a while.

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

Damn that's a post! It should be titled:

4th Generation Maxima Renaissance Restoration tales and tribulations. 3rd edition

AliasJR

Thanks for the post^

No doubt the car was maintained badly but it has come to a good home now and I will take care of it.


The starting is still a problem, I verified that the screw in the ecu (i played with it and now I have this problem) is in the original place and the car struggles to start unless I hit the gas and help it but
I am not too worried about it though/


On another note, the car bounces a lot from the rear when I drive on a bumpy road, I assume it is the rear struts? I did some research and on installation and it does not look hard at all if I am buying the kit with the springs.

Any recommended kits?

Thanks

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

Name change?

If you want to do a quick fix and just replace the 2 struts, then you should look into Monroe quick struts.

If you want to go semi hard core, get H&Rs for all 4 corners coupled with KYB-GR2 struts That's what I have. It's a mild 1.5" drop with a significant increase in handling. Ride comfort is a bit stiffer than a stock SE suspension.

CS_AR

Excellent points DW.

So far I've used Monroe Quick Struts (former sensatrack) on Max #1 and found handling to be slightly more responsive than OEM. For the price and not having to get/deal with a spring compressor, it is handy for someone learning how to rebuild a suspension.

If you use the HUGE50 discount code at Advance Auto it brings the price down to $167.98 for a pair and specify in store pickup. I think Rock Auto has the struts listed for around $142 + Shipping and other charges. If anything goes wrong with an AA purchase, you can take the a strut back to a store for return or replacement.

I'm running Tokico Blues on the I30 and Q45. The blues firm up the softer Infiniti ride. Though I'm not sure about the availability of Blues these days. Also, I run Energy Suspension (ES) poly anti-sway bar and end link bushings as much as possible.

On Max #2, I'm using KYB AGX adjustables. I have a set of H & R springs in the box for Max #2 to be installed in a couple of weeks. Max #2 will be used for some SCCA AutoX fun -- though nothing too serious. The AGX settings will be turned up on SCCA weekends to run with different tires on 15x8 Fittipaldi rims more suitable for scooting around a track. Street tires will be on 18" rims from a 2007 Maxima.

Make sure you replace any strut related bushings not included with struts or strut kits. I understand OEM front strut bearings have fewer problems with popping noises than other aftermarket bearings. I used Moog bearings on Max #2 and sure enough, it has the pops. I'll go OEM when I install the new H&R springs.

Advance Auto Strut Link below. The reviews indicate people are happy with the quick kits. Remember to use the HUGE50 code for $50 off if you decide to go that route.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/m...1-P#fragment-3

98maxaholic

I think(not positive) but if i remember correctly, in ct. at least On a connecticut title title ,there is a spot to sign that has to do with the odometer reading correct miles or not....you may be able to do something about that if he didnt fill out the odom. section of the title...if it has one?

AliasJR

On the florida certificate of title there is also a section to fill out the number of miles of the vehicle but after 10 years, the car is exempted from declaring the number of miles

I found all of this after getting screwed though

oh well, car runs good, no oil burning, engine is solid and powerfull