What's the best solution for fixing flywheel Teeth on a 2000 maxima? I ask because when I look up flywheels for the car, they have no teeth. And I found just the teeth for sale, as well.

Any suggestions?

 

They assume you'd just swap the teeth over since they're removable. Either swap teeth, get one from a yard for cheap or go aftermarket. This is the cheapest I could fine. I use this ebay stuff in my RWDs. https://www.autohance.com/competition-clutch-2-760-stu-forged-ultra-lightweight-steel-flywheel.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2o-O1KOG6AIVhv_jBx0tzQZpEAkYBiABEgIOTvD_BwE

I assume you'd just want to do it cheaply, so just swap em and sand the flywheel.

 

LOL Expensive tastes!

That's actually not a bad price for a lightweight flywheel. Unfortunately, I don't like going to lightweight flywheels for my daily drivers. It kills gas mileage. Had one on my last track car that was great, but man did that thing get crappy gas mileage. lol

Thanks for the info. I'll get the teeth off a flywheel from a parts car.

 

Less unsprung weight = more efficiency. The reason stock is heavy is b/c people can't drive manual worth a ****. You gain a **** ton of power in 1st gear, then it drops off with each successive gear. Of course, it's still a net win.

 

I understand the gains, but the gains are in acceleration, not in mpg.

​​​​​When you have a heavy flywheel, your car gets off the line better and easier. That's partly why manufacturers use them. The other reason is gas mileage. There's a sweet spot with flywheel weight that's not too much and not too little.

A heavy flywheel takes more fuel to spin up when you take off and accelerate. But once you're at cruising speed, it takes less effort to keep it spinning because of the stored rotational inertia. So it's actually easier for the engine to keep the car moving if it has a heavy flywheel. Too heavy and it's a drain on the engine, too light and its too much effort to keep it spinning while cruising.

 

You do realize you just contradicted yourself. The heavier it is, then the more energy is used, period. The inertia is only for take off (which is why tractors have absolutely massive flywheels). Otherwise, it's completely useless and will reduce efficiency (thereby reducing mpg, although it's unnoticeable). Once the car is rolling, why would you need its inertia? To go up a hill? That would be drained instantly. What about every time you slow down or stop? All of the energy is wasted, so there goes more efficiency. So, you're using more to spin it up, then losing it all anytime you slow.
Saying you want a heavy flywheel is like saying you want heavy wheels. It's the SAME EXACT THING when the car is in motion. We all know heavy wheels ruin MPGs (it's like 4 more heavy *** flywheels).
Heavy flywheel performs the same function as a torque converter in an auto for take off. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Thermodynamics doesn't lie lol

 

The one car I put a light fw on I didn't lose any mpg. I did lose almost 3mpg 6 months later when they made the switch to e10 fuel.

 

Different cars respond differently to lightweight flywheels. My car's have all lost mpg dramatically with lightweight flywheels and that's even when I'm doing my best to hypermile them to test for efficiency. It's not that a heavier flywheel gives you better mpg. What I should've said is that the correct weight flywheel gives you better mpg.

By correct weight I mean the sweet spot. The heavier the car, the heavier the flywheel. Trucks that carry heavy loads get better mpg with heavier flywheels while Towing the heavier loads. It's not just for take-off. But too heavy a flywheel will decrease mpg.

Too light a flywheel requires you to rev higher when launching, and when you shift gears, you lose more rpms, so you have to use more gas to get the rpms back up after each shift (unless you're absurdly fast at shifting during daily driving). In the city, if you shift fast and skip gears, you might get better mpg. On the highway, you'll see either the same or less mpg, generally speaking, because the manufacturers usually put a flywheel in that's at the sweet spot for mpg.

Also, you have to take into consideration that putting a lightweight flywheel on your car off-balances the engine. So you're going to put more stress on the internals that that harmonic balancer is designed to offset per the weight of the OEM flywheel. The bearings and crankshaft and other components will wear more quickly. If it's a track car, lightweight flywheels are great because you're always accelerating. If it's a daily driver in the city and you aren't keeping it for more than 100k, then a lightweight flywheel is probably a good idea. If you're a highway cruiser, check with other people who have your same car with a lightweight flywheel who check their mpg every tank and did so before and after installing it. See if they saw the same mpg or worse. I have yet to read a post where someone got better mpg on the highway with a lightweight flywheel. Some people get slightly better intnhe city with them. But I've found that each car has different results with them. The two I've had on the past with lightweight flywheels and no other mods got horrible gas mileage compared to the stock flywheel, but those weren't Maximas. So I can't really say what the effects of a lightweight flywheel are on a Maxima. I've seen a 350Z owner say he saw no difference in mpg with a lightweight flywheel. But I don't know how consistent he was with checking his mpg before and after.

I'd encourage you to look up threads on the matter for Maximas and see what people say about it if they're very consistent with checking their mpg. I check mine every time I fill up. It helps me learn more efficient driving habits and it tells me if something has gone wrong with the car that's degrading mileage.

And I didn't contradict myself. The flywheel is different than the dynamics of a wheel. Get a bike with really big tires and get one with lightweight tires. Spin them both up to the same speed and see which one stops first. The lightweight one will stop first because it has less stored energy. Sure, it takes more energy to get the heavy one spun up at first (just like launching the vehicle), but once it's up to speed, it takes less energy to keep it moving due to its stored every. So you input more energy with your arm initially, but it's less effort to keep it spinning once it's up. Your arm is providing the same function as the pistons. They're working less to keep the heavier flywheel spinning, so efficiency is better while cruising.

If you have to keep the lightweight flywheel moving, you're having to put more energy into it more consistently. So your pistons are also having to out more energy into a lighterweight flywheel consistently while cruising. It's a hard concept to grasp at first, but if you do that experiment, you'll see what I mean.

Now, if you take a tire, for instance, it has a very different function. It's pushing again the road. It needs to turn to exert a force against the ground. So yes, lighter is better. Remove that tire, and the car stops moving. But I can remove the flywheel altogether and the car will still cruise down the road just fine. See how the dynamics of the two are very different? A flywheel starts a car and gives the clutch something to grip. If not for that, you wouldn't need one. But there are physical dynamics that relate to mpg that aren't what you'd typically expect from the weight issue, as I just displayed above. It's not as simple as it seems.

Also, for a track car, the driving is constantly dynamic (changing engine speeds) and steady state (accelerating). So lightweight flywheels are great for the track since they're more responsive than heavier OEM flywheels. Personally, I only use them on my track cars. But to each his own.
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