Hello, new to the maxima forumn, I can usually be found over on VWvortex as I'm a MK4 Jetta guy.

Picked up a VERY neglected 03 Maxima 6MT for cheap. I always liked them, but could never find a manual in my area that I liked. This will likely be a flip, but maybe I'll keep it around for giggles. It's only got 120K, so fairly low mileage.

When I picked it up, the left front strut was destroyed. There was really no strut left, just a piston, an empty cartridge, and a spring and vehicle weight holding the whole thing together. Scary.

The rear brake caliper is "seized". I'll try rebuilding it, if that fails I'll just replace it. Seems to be a common problem with these.

The body is very OK. It needs a new front bumper, which my local upullit has one thankfully. Rust on the rear isnt as bad as most around here, mostly bubbles vs full rot out (for now). Some scuffs, scrapes and general neglect.

It's a very base car, cloth interior and NO sunroof. I've actually never seen a 5.5 gen without a sunroof before. Interesting.

The wheels are a different color than I've seen before. This car is 100% stock, and given the neglect I doubt someone would have painted them. Can anyone shed light on the wheel color?

The radio works, but cant tune in a station. Havent looked into the antenna situation. Maybe disconnected? Weird.

Comments, suggestions, general thoughts appreciated!

 

Welcome to the forum. Never seen a max without a sun/moon roof either, interesting! Those wheels just look really dirty. After a wash, fixes & maintenance, hopefully you'll be good to roll for a while considering how few miles are on it now.

 

I didnt even realize it didnt have a sunroof until I got it home and started washing it. Kinda hit me like, wait a minute...something is missing here! Probably a good thing. With as much neglect its seen, the sunroof would likely be broken or leaking.

The wheels are dirty, but they are definitely that color. After lots of searching, I havent seen any others that color, so I'm guessing they got painted at some point. Prefer the brighter silver color, but oh well.

Already picked up a new bumper, ordered a couple new pistons and will be rebuilding both rear calipers. They were both shot. The drivers rear door has some serious rust and dents from a previous accident I'm guessing. Will have to grab a door from upullit too. Got pretty lucky they have a really decent 03 in the same color there.

Struts and brakes should be done by the weekend. Ready to get the car out and put some miles on it so I can get a better eval of its condition. Everything seems solid though.

Side note, this forum seems pretty dead...at least compared to the VW forumn...to bad

 

Manually rebuilding the calipers isn't worth it. The bleeders are probably rusted and will snap off the moment you put a wrench on them. Just pick up new ones from your local parts store and call it a day.

The fluids are likely dirty so change everything if you decide to keep the car. Check the oil because these engines are burners. She'll look nice with a new bumper and wash.

 

Bleeders came right out actually. The drivers piston was completely gone, the passenger was ok, but I'll replace it anyways. Picked up 2 pistons and rebuild kits for $20 total, vs $160+ for two new calipers. Completely worth it IMO. My Tahoe was $16 a piece for new calipers, this car was $85 a piece. No thanks.

Did I mention it was a salvage title car? The left side has def been rebuilt. The CL ad listed the title as clean, but go to sign the title and there it is..."Previous salvage". Oh well. Got it cheap enough it doesn't matter.

Thanks for the thoughts guys!

 

Sunroof was an option on that car (SE). You could get an SE either fully loaded or mostly stripped with cloth seats/ no roof. That looks like a stripped SE car.

The wheels have probably been painted.

 

It seems to me the radio antenna is built into the windshield on these cars. Maybe the previous owner cheaped out on a windshield replacement and went antennaless to cut costs?

 

Interesting, didn't know that. It's certainly possible they went antennaless. How in the world do you diagnose an antenna? Testing voltage, resistance etc is easy on normal electrical troubleshooting, not this!

My understanding is BOSE radios are the only ones capable of adding the aux input? That's all I really want.

 

how much did you get this for?????????

rebuilding rears isnt as worth it as you would think, but nice work.

 

yes the cars antennas are built into the rear window, if it was replaced its possible it wasn't reconnected or lost in a cheap window replacement.

and maybe just do a tape/cd converter? way easier than doing true aux mod

 

Paid $400. Should be able to stay under $800 total invested in it. Not bad I don't think!

If the car was a little more solid I'd prly invest in some new calipers, but between the rust and salvage title, I'm going to try to get away with rebuilding them. Besides, I've never rebuilt one so I want to learn. If it doesn't work on the first one then it's only $10 wasted. No biggie.

I'll do some looking into the rear window. Should be obvious is there are wires(other than the defrost) running to it. I'm an engineer so I'm not to worried about the difficulty of the aux mod. Do plenty of soldering at work. I've got an old alpine HU laying in the shop so maybe I'll pick up a cheap install kit and just run that. I always prefer stock though, I'm a fan of OEM looks.

Thanks!

 

Nice buy, and yea i rebuilt 6th gen Front calipers they looked like they were from bottom of ocean, and came out well , been on car for 6 years now.

and yeah i use the tape convertor, and it makes sense for ur case not wasting too much time , ripping apart head unit and soldering seems counterproductive to keeping this simple. ( i did the soldering too on the cd player repair/cut out, and the subwoofer amp cut out )

 

Well I'm a dummy. The two pistons I ordered were for the front calipers, not the rear. Cant find any rears locally so I went ahead and rebuilt the passenger side with the decent piston (extremely minimal pitting), and purchased a new caliper for the drivers side. I was missing the parking brake return spring anyways, so now it'll be 100%.

Gonna crack the bleeders and let them gravity bleed while I do the front suspension. Gravity is the only way I've ever bled brakes and it's always worked perfectly. No work, no mess and you can do it alone!

The wiring for the front marker lights and fog lights is gone. No pigtails on the light side either. I've traced them back into the bumper harness. Gonna rig them up with some deutsch connectors and red/black wiring. Wont be factory but it'll work.

This car had sat for almost a year. Even after a carwash, there are soooo many spiders hanging out with me while I'm working in the fender-wells. Hopefully soon they'll be kicked out and I can get some fresh pictures taken!

 

That's crazy that so much of the wiring is missing. I wonder if someone cut the lengths out to repair another vehicle.

Another vote for the tape converter here. I wish there were RCA inputs on the back for an amp like so many other radios have, but this will have to do I suppose.

From what I understand, swapping over to the aftermarket head unit won't be a simple A-B swap... everything installed is Bose-specific and doesn't play nicely with any other brands. Do a search first before experiencing grief and pain.

just out of curiosity, what does your front radiator support look like?

 

Assuming you're asking about the radiator support as far as straightness? Looks to be untouched. There were only two of the four push pins (by the grill) and one bolt holding what was left of the front bumper on.

I'm guessing when they hit the snow bank, it broke the bumper and ripped it totally off. Then they just cut back what ever wires were dangling and they it back on. Get this....one of the wires was taped up with.....BLUE PAINTERS TAPE! Just a total hack job.

The car was also previous salvage from what I'm assuming to be a left side wipe or left front hit. The drivers fender looks to be repainted, the drivers door is a little jank and there is filler in the rear door that has bubbled and rusted. I'll grab a rear door from you pullit ($50!) and throw that on. When I'm done it'll be a very nice 20 footer.

The front struts showed up today so it might be down on the ground tonight! I'm amazed at how well this thing runs. No CEL, starts right up and just purrs. Not bad for sitting for almost a year.

 

i think he's asking about rust. radiator support where the crossmember attaches is a common part to go on these cars, especially at the age they are now. usually if rust is showing around the rear wheels it's done a bit of damage at the rad support.

here's an extreme example of what happens:

 

Oh wow, thats a lot of rust! Took a look at mine, one dime sized bubble under the paint but otherwise perfectly solid. Phew!

 

Question, are the 00/01 fog lights and marker lights the same as the 02/03? Someone had already robbed them off the 03 that I pulled the bumper off of. A junkyard an hour from me has several 00/01's but I dont want to drive all the way there if they're different.

Also, does nobody make replacement lenses for these headlights and foglights? I upgraded from plastic to glass lenses in my jetta and it made a world of difference. Cant find just lenses for these cars though.

 

no they do not fit, different mounting, and lenses nothing as cut and dry, there are few threads here about guys who made plastic, search really hard , and u may find it. but essentially just custom, no plug and play lenses

 

^^This

FWIW, I scored an OEM foglight (glass in 02-03) for $7 at the local pick-a-part.

As for lenses for the headlight, I don't there are any save for the early 4th gens.

 

Yeah my local one has two 03s, but both have been robbed already, which is why I was hoping the 00/01 would fit. Oh well, no hurry.

Took it out today finally. Brakes seem a bit spongey yet, so I'll try re bleeding them see if that helps.

When I looked at it and drove it home, there was no CEL, but now all of a sudden it started biking at me. Uh oh. Curious to see what the code it. Doesn't seem to be misifirng.

There is a leak at the gasket right before the muffler. The bolts don't look terribly rusty, but I'm sure it's going to be just a giant pain to fix. Getting close!

 

wow the car looks great after cleaning it up! sucks that you found out that it didn't have a Moonroof, I was surprised especially you snagged a 6speed manual, which is rare but strange enough that it did not have a moonroof.. Congrats on your new ride, hope you enjoy it many years to come if it does keep you from straying. I love mine since I bought her new since 2001 still have it a lot of people ask if I ever interested in selling, I said NOPE, there's no new cars today that compares to the 5gen. Sadly the new cars doesn't make my heart quicken or excites me, even though they are some looker out there, but the drive itself is MEH unlike the Maxima, always a thrill to drive each time.

 

wow, amazing what tlc does.

 

So I went to change spark plugs, I was getting a "multiple cylinder misfire", and pretty they're original at 120k. I noticed the front valve cover had oil sitting on top, and generally looked oily. Pulled the "middle" plug, and the tube was full of oil.

I thought the back VC was the one that gave problems? But the back is perfectly dry. Is there a pcv up front that might be blocked? Should I just replace the front VC? Go ahead and replace both? These have non serviceable tube gaskets from what I understand, correct?