Havent been on this forum in about 7 years now. I had a 99 se mt, that i couldn't keep so sold it. Honestly my favorite car! Well on thanksgiving week, my 17 year old bought a 2003 se titanium edition AT. Anyway heres what im doing to it as maintenance air filter, cabin filter, oil change, transmission fluid change, pads and rotors, belts, spark plugs, pcv valve, coolant flush, brake fluid flush, p/s fluid replacement, seafoam. is there anything im missing? At some point ill probably have to put a sound system in her car...idk yet though...lol. So just wanted to say hey everyone, maybe ill recognize some of you. Also......im looking for an 07 g35 for me. If you hear anything, let me know! Thanks.!

 

fuel filter (need o ring as well to re install fuel filter), if you are doing spark plugs then its highly recommended you do the front valve covers at a min (both make more sense) but if they were never changed the VC's will eventually leak, new parts are fixed in 2021 and you should be good getting 5th gen VCs but back a few years ago it was a sure bet to get 6th gen VC's they fit perfectly. so if you just get 6th gen VCs you will be gold.

i would say get a grounding kit , welcome back

 

Thanks! Complely forgot about the valve covers! Might as well go with the 6th gen it sounds like. The fuel filter I just ran across a thread yesterday, I didn't think it was replaceable. But thats going on the list too. Grounding kit, might as well....lol. car has 130k miles on it.

 

Clean TB and IACV. Might as well clean the EGR port too since you'll have the UIM off. If you wish to go further, have the fuel injectors flow tested and cleaned/refurbished.

Welcome back.

 

2003 Maxima.... 6th gen valve covers..... EGR cleaning...... Oh boy....

 

The wizard! I remember you from back then! I might as well do those couple things too! Lol. Honestly I'm having fun working on her car. And the older daughter got an 04 camry so doing a lot of the same things on hers too....

 

Still here. I'm one year away from being on here 20 years.... yikes.

 

Awesome!, welcome back. I recently got back into working on my max. I had my 02 sitting in front of my house for about 8 years but got the fever again after I picked up a 2020 Max in September.

As for your daughter's car you seem to have it pretty well covered. I had to deal with a lot of sensor and solenoid codes when trying to bring mine back to life. You may want to check out the MAF, if it's still stock with high miles it may be worth giving it a cleaning or even replacing. That worked for me and feels like the old max I remember. Don't forget to do an idle relearn after all of your changes.

 

LOL.


OP, delete the cats before you have a paperweight. I'm sure it already burns enough to compete with a 2 stroke.

 

Looks like I misspoke about the EGR. I often assimilate too much between the 4th and 5th gen. Apparently, 5th gens don't have EGR's. Interesting. Bad assumption on my part.

https://maxima.org/forums/5th-genera...-cleaning.html

 

2000 does, but not the rest.

 

Go ahead and knock the IACV off that list too while you're at it.

 

oh yea ! this may be preventitive or not but look into replacing the 3 CPS sensors, they are known to go. OEM only, i had mine replaced in the recall in 2003, and in 2014 they went again.
if you want this car, you should just do the CPS senors for sure. they are one thing you do not want to go on you, they turn the car off literally in the middle of driving with no warning. pretty scary.

 

lol...i started searching for it, and that was the first thing i found. Well one less thing to do

i just noticed my join date! 2005! time has flown!

 

you know, luckily its not burning much oil from what i can tell so far. ill have to explain to her what deleting the cats will do.....maybe shell go for it..lol

 

ill probably do that even though its running fine. thats really the last thing i want, for the car to just suddenly shut off on her. she was really happy with this car and its in really good shape, so just makes sense to get ahead of something like the CPS if possible, who knows when if it was ever done.

 

hitachi on rockauto

 

If it hasn't already been replaced, you can go to the dealer and get the passenger side air bag replaced. It's a recall they'll do for FREE. You might check the motor mounts, 4 of them. At this age, they're probably shot. My 03 GLE/SE blend is still going strong at 103K mi. And yes it burns some oil. I've had great response with using Amsoil 5w30 Signature Series. You're doing ALOT of work. Good luck. Oh, one more thing, if you hear a top end rattling noise at around 1800 - 2000 rpms, its likely a worn out timing chain tensioner. If so, keeping the oil topped off will be very important. Lastly, make sure she uses 91 - 93 octane. 5th Gen VQE's won't perform on regular. This is a great first car, my 17 yr old daughter LOVES driving mine.

 

good to know, i thought only OEM. i got napa and they didnt last 12 months

 

I've been trying to find the oe suppliers for most things if I can figure it out. Definitely will be praying cling up the hitachi camshaft sensor, that's one I don't want going out. Its a bit of work, but really I've been enjoying it. Just taking my time on it...lol. cleaned out the garage just to be able to work on both my daughters cars. I'll keep an eye on the oil for sure, it's not doing a rattle at 1800-2000 but it was a little rough in that area. I tried out the costco synthetic oil, just because I wanted to get both cars on synthetic, I'll report back with any problems, so far it's ok though. already got her used to using 91 (highest we can get in our area) .

Definitely a good first car. I was concerned it would be a little overpowered, but she's real good with it. It was her first choice for a car, so she really wants to take care of it. She had actually told me like a year ago that she wanted a newer one of what I had before....(used to have a 99 se mt)

 

[QUOTE=quique;9234040]I've been trying to find the oe suppliers for most things if I can figure it out. Definitely will be praying cling up the hitachi camshaft sensor, that's one I don't want going out. Its a bit of work, but really I've been enjoying it. Just taking my time on it...lol. cleaned out the garage just to be able to work on both my daughters cars. I'll keep an eye on the oil for sure, it's not doing a rattle at 1800-2000 but it was a little rough in that area. I tried out the costco synthetic oil, just because I wanted to get both cars on synthetic, I'll report back with any problems, so far it's ok though. already got her used to using 91 (highest we can get in our area) .

You sound like a really good dad for your grad 🎓

 

pics or it didn't happen!

 

Go ahead and throw the 5.5th Gen Front brake rotors/Calipers in the thrash and upgrade to 6th Gen front brake rotors/calipers!

 

Lol, no pics. Been too busy cleaning up the garage and finding myself a g35 (found it, an 07 Mt w/78k miles &#128512. Did the brakes already though so no 6th gen brakes for now, but she's really happy with the new brakes. Ive been using the power stop oe replacement for a while now with different cars and have good luck with them, so I used those for the pads and rotors. Hopefully do the plugs and valve cover gaskets this week, gonna head to the dealership and get the gaskets imma bit. Figure I'll get the valve cover gaskets, intake manifold gasket, and the throttle body gasket.