Bought this car to get back and forth to work. Absolutely love this car. Always wanted a maxima. Ive had it than 2 months and im already dumping cash in to it. Just got from the shop to get an estimate to fix the suspension. $1600. Needs front/rear struts(4 total), lower control arms(2), inner and outer tie rods(4 total).

Parts: $912
Labor: $624

Done my research. I can get all parts for $463

Ive done a lot of work on my cars in the past, but ive never messed with suspensions. Ive watched a couple A1 auto vidios. Looks easy when you have a lift. I dont. Id be using ramps and floor jacks. Any way to make this easier and possibly cost me less? Can this kind of work be done without a lift without cbewing out all your teeth in frustration or blowing your back out? Id like to hear some peoples experience and or suggestions. Thanx.

 

Unless the struts are causing handling problems, then you don't need them. Check tie rod boots. Unless inners are torn, then they are likely fine. Check control arm bushings. If they are not cracked up, causing play and car drives fine (and wheel alignment holds), then they are probably OK. If ball joint boot is fine and it doesn't pop, then it's probably OK.

That stuff is likely to go bad at this age, but shops lie. That stuff is EASY for them to replace. No wonder they want to do it.

It's fairly easy to do with a jack and the correct tools. You'll need jack stands. An impact makes it a much smoother operation, especially if you were to do control arms (I don't touch ball joints without an impact lol).

 

The car has 1420,000 miles. Handling is good. Just rattles when going over bumps. Also makes a low thud when going in reverse and driving over speed bumps. At first, i thought it was the front drivers axel. Can i just get away with swapping out the struts? I didnt get a chance to go in the garage and look at what they seen was wrong with the underside. Id love to just change bushings and thats it lol

 

Did you not inspect the car before buying it?

 

I did. Not a total complete inspection. Like the suspension.

 

Noise over bumps, could be stabilizer end links, and yes, if you purchased a complete strut/spring/top hat assembly, they are easy to replace, but like said above, better make certain they're bad. Daughter's car with 257,000 miles, still on OEM suspension, except the stabilizer end links, replaced twice.

 

Just watched a video on replacing the stabilizer link. Looks simple. You think that woukd cause the low thud sound when backing up and turning the wheel?

 

all of those parts can be swapped in your driveway with jack stands and an impact. I did them all sans inner tie rod ends.
as for the thud...check to make sure all your engine mounts are in good shape. put the car in drive and reverse while holding down the brake and give it some gas while watching the engine movement. you'll need a helper to perform this.
good luck!

 

And check and and see if your front and rear motor mouths have the wires and plugged in-unplug them,bypass your throttle body coolant hoses,and replace you #58 fuse (under hood fuse box-next to battery)with 7,5 amp fuse-original fuse is 15amp,it'll prevent from frying your ecm(just an cheap insurance) and far as your suspension you can do it your self at your driveway/garage/parking space!

 

You need to realize that most of that is normal maintenance on a 15 year old car with 150K on it.

 

Fix it and get to drive A great car for much longer IMO....look around and check you tube for struts and mount change vids.... they have Maxima ones too to make it even easier.

 

All of that can be done in the drive way and it doesn't take long to do it
Done all of that on 3 5th gen maximas in driveway.
If your close to eastern NC I can give you a hand with it. It will take an afternoon

 

Agree with the others that this can be done on your own with the tools previously mentioned (jack, jack stands, impact, sockets, breaker bar, maybe some PB blaster or a heat source for those tough nuts/bolts, etc.)

 

Does unpluging the engine mounts apply to the 5.5 gen? I thought that was just a 5th gen 00-01 issue. Also with the swapping of the ecm fuse.

 

Yes, unplug the mounts. 5.5s are drive by wire so no IACV.

 

Ok but if you unplug the mounts then wont that cause more vibration? I have the 3.5 engine, the rear engine mount is shot i believe. So you are saying that if i leave the mounts plugged in, that there is a chance that they will short out the computer on the 5.5 gen??

 

Yes unplug them and get you some front and rear mounts for a manual maxima,and swap your #58 fuse with 7,5a one and bypass your Throtle body coolant lines

 

I think that info is for the 3.0 engine because the 3.5 does not have the iacv issue or throttle body like the 3.5 has the drive by wire.

 

[QUOTE=maxinout93;9097100]I think that info is for the 3.0 engine because the 3.5 does not have the iacv issue or throttle body like the 3.5 has the drive by wire.[/QUOTE


But I still did mine coolant bypass and fuse swapped and all,it's a cheap piece of mind IMO

 

Guys,
since I started a lot of this discussion, let me clarify:

• Re. ENG CONT1 Fuse Replacement (15A -> 7.5A). This replacement will reduce the chance of frying the STA509A transistor in your ECU, but it does not guarantee it. In fact, I recently saw a post from an org. member who used the 7.5A fuse and his ECU was fried anyway. The reason is simple: there are three subsystems on this fuse: the IACV, EGR/V (EGR valve stepper motor) and IGN/SG (coils). Collectively, these three subsystems may draw up to X Amps under normal operation; from experiments, we know that X is greater than 5A, and less the 7.5 A, so the fuse needs to be 7.5A. However, the 7.5A limit current is too large for the STA509A transistor controlling the IACV. The bottom line is that for protection against IACV failures, the fuse needs to be about 3A for each STA509A transistor .... and that's impossible without modifying the harness. Final note: the 7.5A fuse will NOT do any damage - so by all means, use it!
• Proper Fusing. I have done a fair amount of work on how to do fusing properly. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to modify the harness at two places (ECU relay, and IACV). I am reluctant to mess with the harness, so I have not done anything - not yet.
• Re. Motor Mounts. This document discusses the remedies and associated side-effects: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6O...psNVBqUVk/view

The above applies to the 3.0 (5-gen). The 3.5L does not have IACV but the motor mount issues are the same as with 3.0L Maximas.

 

Gotcha, thats for clearing that up, Plus it seems as if the manual mounts like someone else suggested earlier are a little more reasonable in price than the electric automatic ones.

 

Normal....