I have a 200 Nissan Maxima SE with +185000 miles on it and everything is completely stock expect suspension springs, rims, radio, battery, entire exhaust system after pre-cat and 1 ignition coil
I'm replacing the struts and springs myself next week, and was wondering if I should go ahead and replace anything that is stock in the engine. If so what needs to be replaced.
Was thinking about putting a cold air intake instead of the factory one but don't have ideas on which intake. Thoughts?

 

Dude, 2000 with 185000, only money you should put into it is to keep it on the road. If the struts aren't broken, leave them. If you gotta replace them, and you can do it cost effectively great, win for you. But as far as mod's on a 17 year old car, don't. Save your money and plan to get into a newer ride in the coming year/years. Trust me from experience, I'm not looking down my nose, I too dropped tons of money into a ride, only to sell it for $300 after only driving it for 5 years. I always look back and wonder why no one ever told me to be practical with the cash, and don't over do it.

 

I personally think that's negative advice. If it's not rusty at all then there is no real risk of "wasting" money. You can do an engine, tranny, and front end swap for 3000 on these cars. Then drive it another 100k+. I know from personal experience. 4000 for a car you like that gets you 100k is a good deal.

 

You call it negative, I call it practical. It's 17 years old, zero investment potential, in that it's not a classic and will never be one that appreciates. So anything you put into it is done at a loss. The car's Bluebook may be under $2000, so if you put a $3000 motor into it, it is still only worth $2000 as a whole. Maybe $2030 with a full tank of gas.

 

you guys are way too hung up on the value of the car.

if you want to mod it nothing should stop you but for real it's just going to be a waste of money and time.
Makes the car louder that's it.

 

Of course there's no value in resale. No one with common sense buys cars this old with a real profit in mind. The value is in transportation. That's why I mentioned milage vs dollars invested. There can still be great value in well taken care of Maxima's. Lots of people get 300k out of these cars with no problems other normal wear tear replacement. I'm one of them.

 

i probably spent like at least 10k on my 1990 bmw i don't give a fk.
bought it for 1,000

i would do an engine swap to newer vq. What years are they?
270hp from an 09 altima. you see them in the junkyards all the freaking time. oceans of them. Can't beat it. cone filter, headers, catback. all noise. just things to do when you have no money. stickers on the dash. idk. shiit like that. performance upgrade on a 2000 maxima : tranny cooler. fix what's broke.

 

It's your own money, doesn't matter what you do with your car. Just a word of caution, that what you are trying to do for performance it going to be very limited since there's not a lot of aftermarket support on a very old car now days, since suppliers and manufacturers are focusing on cars who are only 3-5 year old models. They are not gonna have anything for a car that is over 10 years old. Your best bet is eBay if you're lucky. I recently acquired a 87 Maxima SE in my garage and believe it or not, parts are far and few to find to replace.

 

I don't think making your car nicer is a waste of money. But I do think a CAI is a waste of money, especially for these oil burning Maximas. The obstruction or restriction is in the exhaust. Catalytic converters nearly clogged from thousands of miles burning oil. That causes back pressure, and reduced exhaust scavenging. The cylinders never get a clean intake of oxygen on a piston stroke, because you can't push out the burnt gasses fast enough. So the cyls are likely only half full of O2. So there would be no point to a CAI. You can't get any more oxygen in the cylinders unless you remove the exhaust restriction. Maybe after removing exhaust restriction but still, you really cant pack any more air into a cylinder unless you use compression (turbo, super C)

If you want a performance boost replace the cats.

 

yea , modding a car is always a waste and not an investment.

you can hook up a brand new car... and its still the same price

no one cares about mods besides the owner, generally speaking.