Hey fellow Maxima owners,

I have been lurking the forums for a bit trying to learn all I could about my vehicle. Also, about any symptoms that may arise and what the solutions are. Seems like alot of you are very knowledgeable on this site about your Maxis. I paid a little over blue book value for mine but think it was worth the deal. Let me know what you guys think. It has 160k miles and I picked it up for $3500 and in my eyes it is in BEAUTIFUL condition for the age and mileage. It is an SE with the 17' , leather, all the options, sun roof Bose system, heated seats, etc... Had the CARFAX report and a lot of maintenance records and receipts for recent work done. All stock BTW.

Feel free to flame away

 

 

Very nice. I've always liked the Merlot color with the blacked out SE badges and tails.

 

Thanks mate, I know you guys might tell me to SEARCH but I have been looking through the forums so I have an idea already but just getting your personal opinions. I was going to add a SRI or a Real CAI with the battery adjustment. I am worried that the performance(I know 3-5 HP that you probably won't feel and slower at lower RPM if I am not mistaken) might not be enough to be worth it with just an intake itself without an exhaust or some Y-Pipes. Also, do you guys think an intake will suck in more dust and gunk than the stock intake?

Anyways, what do you think I should do first to it? Thanks for your time guys

 

I've had the real CAI for around 10 years now. I think it was the first thing I did. The filter is a little more work to get to and it has to be cleaned regularly. There are a lot of options for intake though.

I would recommend you come up with an idea of where you want to take the mods on this car and work towards that. If you randomly start adding things you'll spend a lot more money and time modding things only to redo them later.

For that car I'd say:
* Y-pipe -- gives good gains on the 3 liter cars. Removes the pre-cats so do some research.
* Intake -- cheap, easy and will help any future mods.
* Wheels-- The stock wheels are very heavy. Some lighter weight wheels will give you a very noticeable increase in performance.
* Start looking at the rubber motor and suspension mounts. As needed, replace them with urethane.
* Suspension-- Not going into it because there are already volumes written on the subject.

Those changes will give you a nice car that's not obnoxious to drive.

 

Thanks for the great response! I will definitely look into those things. I am thinking Intake and Y pipes first. Do you think I should do them at the same time? Or is just putting in an intake, is it worth by it self for the mean time? I wouldn't add the Y-pipe for 3-5 months.

Also for Intake, I am thinking of just getting the INJEN CAI and setting it up as a TRUE CAI or should I just stick with AEM SRI?

For Y pipe, you think WARPSPEED Y-pipe is the best one to get?

Thanks so much for the help! Newbiee starting his build and like to talk to people personally instead of just looking at past posts so don't hate me for asking these questions. ;D

 

I did most of my mods a long time ago so I can't tell you much about specific intakes that are available now. I have a CattMan intake but they're long out of business.

I had the Warpspeed Y=pipe and was impressed with the quality. I took it off when I went with the headers though. Again, I'm behind the times on what's out there right now. I did the headers around 2005 and haven't looked back since.

Brands and products come and go for these cars due to the small pool of enthusiasts. The one thing going for companies producing products for them is there's not much competition. Once you get two or three companies making something, one of them ends up going under. Many of the parts on my car are from companies that aren't even around any more.

 

Ah, I hear ya. What kind of Headers do you have? Cattman?

 

I've got a set of the old HotShot headers. They were really good when they were around. They were in competition with CattMan and IMO they were of equal quality and cheaper price. Mine still look new after almost 10 years and well over 100,000 miles. They did one final run that was poor quality and a lot of people never even got them after they prepaid for them. Ancient history now.

 

Modding community is D-E-A-D

 

One thing you can do yourself is the short throw shifter mod. Do a forum search for "free sts mod" you won't be disappointed.

 

Maxgig, I searched and read through one thread and they were saying its only for the 6 speeds.

I have a 5 speed.

 

Yes, it is only for 6 speeds.
I like your car. Looks nice.
I would stay away from injen. I would do SRI with AEM filter. Next would be exhaust and then wheels.

 

Nice 5th gen! Looks really clean, that engine has been shined up greatly (which I don't like too much IMO, rather it be more natural)...

I would second the above post, and stay away from Injen, especially for how much it costs. It's not a good intake and you won't be making a huge deal of power there anyway...

It has been proven that a good SRI is perfect for our cars, look around the info is out there. You can start with a velocity stack + AEM dryflow 6" filter and then down the road you can always upgrade to a bigger MAF pipe that incorporates the MAF (those are for sale in classifieds and few people make them)...but that's only if you get far with your mods and you want more power, as that will require tuning. To begin with, an intake alone will be mostly sound and not much else (few hp at the top end)...

I would recommend a Ypipe first, get the Warpspeed unless you can find an equal length used Cattman somewhere (they will provide better sound)...But the Ypipe will produce the biggest/most noticeable gain...

Besides that, you can then move on to things like full exhaust/eliminating your main cat for a test pipe or hi-flow cat, NWP thermal intake spacers, 17* timing advance, upgrade clutch/flywheel, suspension/wheels upgrade, etc...And if you ever feel like really taking it up a notch, there is a bolt-on supercharger kit for our cars

 

Start with just a y pipe (warpspeed) and an Sri. I'd eBay the sri, chuck the ebay filter and buy a filter with velocity stack. This will give you some nice fat torque in the mid range and a lovely intake sound at wide open throttle.

 

that is what I am thinking, where is the best place to get the Y-pipe, ebay? Just search Warpspeed Y-pipe?

Hopefully if I get this what is hopefully a minor leak fixed than I will purchase the y-pipe and intake at the same time.

 

By Bigger MAF, is there a certain brand or what ?

 

You're nowhere near needing a bigger MAF at this point. I believe you'd need to be FI before even thinking about it.

 

ah ok

 

clean/restore your headlights!

 

ya I saw a couple threads on it and was planning on doing that. If you want to send me a specific thread that you think is best, feel free. Otherwise I will search when I am ready, or get some HIDS ;D

 

^ not sure what specific thread on here has that info but it's probably in the detailing section. i always feel that clearing those up makes a huge difference in appearance. other than that the car looks great

 

Oh man that's really clean, that exhaust isn't stock though