Well i finally had an opportunity to get my oil leak checked out. Turns out the rear main seal, timing cover and oil pan are the problems. I was quoted $1200 but only paid $600 for the car.

 

Sure, some of your friends and family are asking you that.

The answer depends on the general condition of the car. Also on your skill level and tool collection.

I see a lot of work, but not all that much money for parts.

How many miles on your car?

What seems to be the general condition of the body, engine, and transmission. How much needs attention?

if your car is in the 200k range, it could be driven an additional 100k miles. Weigh that against the work it needs.

If you have a mechanic do most of your work, your car might be a money pit.

If you can do most of the work, your car will be a time hole for a while.
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Your call.

 

Car has 210k on it. I've tackled task like brakes and valve covers but this seems a bit more complex. I'll search some video and see if i can gather the nerve to tackle this myself.

 

5 speed or auto?

if it's auto, you can let the rear main seal leak without additional issues. If 5 speed, you will want to fix it to keep from ruining the clutch. But then you might as well install a new clutch. You would have to eventually anyway.

look up our member CS-AR. He has a concept called a mid-life refresh. It involves going to considerable work to take care of deferred maintaince. The payoff is a reliable car you could drive for ten years.

Keep in mind that a proper refresh involves spending more money in parts and and services than the car will be worth.
Like 2-3 k. But again, that buys a reliable car for 10 years. Pretty darn cheap if thought of that way.

Or you could buy another car with unknown issue's for yet more money.

The key question: if your car had no issues, would you like to drive it 50k to 100k miles. Or 5 to 10 years.


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Its an Auto

 

 

If $1,000 is too much money, what is your alternative? Buy another car for $600? You will get what you pay for.

The way the car business is, cars lose their value. The reason is unknown to me, but I have some theories. The Maxima is a good car. If the engine runs strong and the body is decent, get the car repaired and you'll be set to got another 100,000 miles.

 

Sometimes a RMS is misdiagnosed. The upper oil pan is usually the problem and it looks like a RMS leak. Numerous members have fixed the UOP leak and the RMS problem goes away. There are threads here on the UOP leak and fix.

 

My vote is to get rid of the car. That many miles, you're not into it for much right now, put a pan under it when you park it outside your house, and start looking for a replacement, ideally something with a drivetrain warrantee remaining. DTW would cover engine seals...

 

Sounds like a prescription for a nearly new car.

Such a cure, while good, is out of the reach of some of us. It would mean car payments for several years.

While the cost of a thorough diy fix would mean only the equivalant of several car payments.

It is generally true that our cars will never be worth the money we put into them.

The purpose is only cheap reliable transportation for 5 to 10 years. Place a value on that.

 

I bought the car 10/14 with 160k on it, It now has 190k on it (01/19) -

This is in the last 30,000 miles - mostly the last 20,000 miles.

• New radiator
• New power steering pump
• New alternator
• New main crank pulley (replaced serpentine belt too)
• New fuel pump
• New water pump
• New knock sensor
• New front camshaft position sensor
• New crankshaft position sensor
• New blend door motor
• New rear brake calipers (and a full brake job)
• Replaced rear main oil seal
• New clutch / pressure plate / throwout bearing
• 5/6 ignition coils replaced (aftermarket :P)
• New front struts
• New rear struts
• New lower control arms, ball joints etc (all moog!)
• New inner / outer tie rods (moog inner / beck arnley outer)
• New steering bellows (beck & arnley)
• Remanned A1 Cardone axle half-shafts
• Replaced passenger / driver's side transmission seals
• New Hitachi rear fuel injectors (running smooth!)
• Repaired brake light sensor
• Repaired cruise control sensor
• Both fog light housings fell out and shattered (replaced both / put in new bolts)
• Have had a trunk leak I've been investigating since early August '18

But I do *love* driving this car; the 5 speed plus the new front end and suspension are fantastic. My purchase price was $2k in October of 14 and I've put about $4k of work / parts into it. So $6k for 4 1/2-ish years that I've mostly enjoyed (minus the annoyance of some of the car work...) I still think I'm ahead of the game. 50 months of ownership at $6k works out to about $120 a month.

People on this forum love to espouse how reliable this car is... My experience hasn't been quite as rosy as those people, but it's been a very practical vehicle and I've enjoyed owning it. It's been a lot of work (I'd guess I've put over 500 hours of work into maintaining this car) but for some reason I can't see myself getting rid of it anytime too soon, assuming the engine and transmission keep ticking. The wife is even finally starting to accept it into her life; begrudgingly perhaps

 

Shrout,

You have done a considerable amount of deferred maintaince.

As we know, parts do wear out.

CS-AR has a term called a mid life refresh. He knows that time and money needs to be spent to keep the car reliable.

Thus far you have paid your dues. The payoff will be several years of driving a perfectly functional old car. The longer you hang on to it, the more you will get your time and money's worth of use.

There is something to be said about not having car payments for several more years.

 

Shrout1 -

You put all of that stuff in your car because it failed, or for preventative maintenance ?

Very ambitious !

 

I also noticed that.

It looks like a case of "While I'm in there anyway I might as well replace stuff while it's all so easy to do now. "

I'm guilty of similar stuff. Yet it does make the parts list look like the car is falling apart.

Some might be elective surgery. Such as fuel injector service or replacement at ones convenience while it's not leaking (YET). Something to think about should you want to remove the uim for some reason.

I also replaced most of my brake system. The last brake system . The last comprehensive brake job was over 60 k miles ago. Perhaps 30k since a pad slap. I live in a salt free area.

Sometimes a prior owner had more and more problems which could be quite expensive to fix.
So they did minimum service after that. Some know that a certain part just isn't acting right.

The next owner will have quite the experience regarding upkeep.

Yet it's not the cars fault.
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That is the point. You have look at reliability and piece of mind as a huge part of that equation. Comfort and self respect go a long way too. You drive a beater into the ground several times over, getting stranded often, having repair bills that make a car payment look reasonable...at some point it becomes clear that high mileage cars with no protection from failing parts is at least as costly as a newer car with a warranty of some kind...and in some cases, the beater may cost more over extended time.

 

I added some notes to my maintenance list

And to be fair, any axle / suspension work I don't really hold Nissan at fault for. By the time I got around to doing those jobs the car had about 170k on it.

 

When you get to scraping the gasket remains of the upper oil pan in the RMS area while sitting on your back under the car with the transmission still in place it's death by fire. And the stupid halfmoon seals are leaking again 30k miles later. Piece of advice for anyone replacing the halfmoon seals: don't follow the manual and only apply RTV to the ends of the seals or you'll be sorry. Cover them in RTV all the way on both sides.