I took car in to dealer today. While waiting I asked the salesman if I could take an AE out and test it's 0-100kph acceleration to compare to my own car which I suspected was running slow. He said sure, and let me head out by myself. The odometer was only 7km! I felt guilty pushing a brand new engine but, hey, he let me take the car out and he knew what I wanted to do.

The car felt a little crisper than mine, but my stopwatch tests gave me similar numbers to my own car. I tested both on the same stretches of highway. The new AE was concistantly 0.2-0.3 seconds faster than mine, averaging out at 9.22 seconds (mine was 9.53). The new car was also maxing out at 6300 on the tachometer, whereas mine does not pass 6000rpm. This makes me feel a little better because it appears my maxima is functioning normally (or at least close to normal).

Here are the technician's comments:

3865 OPERATING NORMALLY. AUTOMATIC CAR, ALSO NOT REALLY DESIGNED FOR DRAG RACING.MOST POWER DEVELOPED MIDRANGE. BEST POWER WILL BE DEVELOPED BY USING PREMIUM GASOLINE CONSISTENTLY, FROM A GOOD SOURCE. VEHICLE IS NOT BROKEN IN YET, CAN TAKE UP TO 25,000KM TO BE COMPLETELY BROKEN IN. GAINS OF APPROXIMATELY 20HP ARE COMMON AT THAT POINT.

What's going on with this break-in period. First I was told 1600km, then it was upped to 10,000km. Now it's being upped to 25,000km. What's next "Oh, your engine will be broken in when you sell it"?

I can't wait until I hit 25,000km and suddenly notice 20 extra horses neighing under the hood!

Anyway, I'm somewhat happy. They also replaced the front spring insulators, which were falling off, and a dpg gasket, whatever that is.

Sorry for the long post. My OSCAI and K&N drop-in are back on and in about an hour I'm going to re-connect the battery and head out to test it again.

Vive la maxima!

 

Yeah you are right about the AE
Some people over here also took it for a ride and said it is better and feels better to drive than a regular SE.

 

"Gains of approximately 20HP are common" after breaking the engine in @ 25,000KM? So our engines have an extra 20HP waiting to get out when the engine gets broken in?
Is this for real?

I guess I have to stop using gas from Scooter's Gas Station as well

 

Glad to hear that you found some resolution to your problem. The lack of closure is often the worse part of having a possible problem. Now get out there and drive baby!

 

Did you take your OSCAI off for your service call? I wouldn't think something like that would make much of a big deal. Though, I do hear bad things about their service people. I have yet to take mine in.

 

I still find it odd that maximas in Calgary seem to run at 9+ seconds for 0-100kph. Oh well, I'm not going to obsess about this anymore...it's like....whatever. Even if I'm timing myself at 12 seconds it still feels good to drive this magnificent piece of machinery.

I took it out to the same stretch of highway and I could already feel a slight boost with my OSCAI setup. First time on that same old stretch of highway was 8.77. May have been a fluke because after 6 runs I averaged out at 9.15 seconds. That's 0.35 seconds better than my average times without the OSCAI. So, yes, it DOES make a differance.

To makes things more fun, an explorer tried to race me on the way home. I could hear the engine rattling and screaming so loudly I thought it was going to explode. Then I floored it and left it behind promptly.

Just for the record, I have not noticed any differance to my times when testing with overdrive and traction control turned off.

 

I saved the bottom piece of the air scoop that I sawed off. I also saved the 2 inch circle of plastic I cut out of the deflector to feed the OSCAI through. About a week ago I removed the OSCAI and reattached those plastic parts with black electrical tape. The tape blends in perfectly to the black plastic, and is barely noticeable without examining closely. I gave it a week to collect some dirt and dust on the tape for a better camouflage effect. Nobody said anything at Nissan.

 

I'm still amazed at those times. Thank GOD I decided to get a 5 spd.

sorry to rub it in.

 

What I would like is for one of you yankee max drivers to bring your vehicle to Calgary and see if your performance decreases. I don't know if it's just Calgary or whether the Cdn AE maximas are slow. Bramirez is having problems too but he's in Toronto so altitude is not really a factor. Oh well.

 

sorry if this has been mentioned before, but is ur car gettin below average times becuz of ur altitude/weather?

 

Calgary is 3440 feet above sea level. Temperature during testing has ranged from 10-24 degrees celsius. It is possible that elevation is the reason for the slow times. That is yet to be determined however. Both auto AE's I have driven (mine and a test-drive AE with only 7km) are consistantly getting >8.5 second 0-100kph times. Nissan tested vehicle and said it is normal. What more can I say. One day I'll take the car to the coast and test it. I doubt I'll dyno it, unless I can get it done cheaply and easily some time. Anybody that travels to this elevation, test your car and report your findings.

 

0-60 and 1/4 mile times do increase after a significant increase in mileage. i dont know whether its road and track or car and driver, but one of them have that road test review, where they get a new car and drive it around, and after a year, they report on common problems and stuff. they reported a 911 turbo, they said new, it did like 0-60 in 4.2(i'm not sure of the numbers, but the difference in numbers was close), and after 40k miles or so, the 0-60 was somewhere around 3.9-4.0. so i think that a 1k breakin period is not going to produce much.