well i wrecked my 92 honda accord and i am thinking about getting a 97-99 maxima. I know nissans are good but I need to know of any problems w/ rust, motors, or trannies.

i was thinking of getting the 5spd but i want to make sure the max is a good car. my accord was a very good car to me and easy to work on. what should i look for when shopping as far as problems, and how much should i pay.

i did some searching already but kinda need some more info on price and reliability

thanks
Cris (newcomer)

 

a lot of people have their 4th gens up into the high 100k mileages without many problems...the VQ is one of the most reliable engines out there, and i'm not too sure about anything else, but I have a 97 GLE with 52k miles on it...absolutely ZERO problems so far (*knock on wood*)...hopefully someone else with more knowledge than me will walk through this thread soon...good luck, and hope you do choose to go with the max, it's a great car

 

any other tips.....

 

Get a 5 speed, check the drive shaft for movement where it enters the tranny, factory problem with bearings or something, too technical for me to understand. 95-96s have trouble with starters, other than that if you change the oil it will last forever. 156k on my 90 and 92k on my 95 SE 5 speed. Lots of posts on this topic, if you search long enough you will find them...

 

thanks for the help guys

 

well it seems like the most commone problem is the 02 sensors which doenst seem to bad, or the knock sensor which also doesnt seem to bad.

however i have saw some cases of something wrong w/ the 5spd tranny.

could someone elaborate on this and tell me how much it costs to fix?

 

The differential bearing on the 5spds tend to break easily. Mine broke at 96,000 Km (not miles), just before my warranty was up. I think you can get a stronger bearing which wont break. Im not too sure on labour costs if you're out of warranty, probably in the high hundreds.

 

There is a big write up on this in the FAQ, I believe it was a manufacturing defect with the specs on the shims being off. Something too technical for me to understand...