Hey guys, looking at an '06 max right now and looking to get a sweet deal on it, but I heard that the later gen's have some electrical problems. Any truth to this that you guys know of? I glanced over the sticky for 6th gen problems, anything else specific for an '06 I should keep an eye out for?

 

ABS and tranny... what yr is the one you're lookin at and how many miles?

 

'06 with a little over 28k miles...can you elaborate for me on the tranny?

 

The only tranny problem I ever heard of is the 04 Maxima. I have the 06 Max and bought it brand new and the only problem I ever had was the shimmy problem, so I bought RotorPro Rotors & EBC red brake pads and it went away.

 

+1 on the tranny.... test drive the car and push it... listen and feel for noises or gear slips. Also check for over reacting tourqe steer and a rattling noise coming from the bottom front of the car when hitting 3k-4k rpm....

That 06 has some low miles so i wouldnt worry about those problems, but i do recommend a 75k-100k mile warranty. The trannys have been failing between 50k-75k.

 

Is that for 6.5 gens too?

 

its still too early to tell... i have 17K miles on my 08 and no problems... I havent heard of any 07 problems.

Remember the 07-08 have different transmissions than the 04-06.

 

I'll keep those in mind when I go test drive it today...the shimmy you guys were talking about is an easy fix if it exists, but I'll definitely listen for that rattle btwn 3-4k. thanks guys!

 

Concerning the issues with the '04 tranny, is it the auto or manaul or both that have problems?

 

Car has 28k on it, insist that the dealer perform a 30k service, and make sure included in that they change the trans fluid, with routine trans servicing your transmission will not fail

 

32k on mine no problems!

 

got back from the test drive...very strong car, no slippage. a slight vibration in the steering wheel, both fog lights out, one headlight out, the trunk carpet looks like someone took an exacto knife to it and the passenger seat back cover slips off. All of which he said he would fix. some slight scuffage on the back bumper and some scratches, hoping a clay bar will help and a really bad series of scratches on the drivers side pillar. Also there are ants in the car, particularly the center console, when I told him about it, he said he'd have the detailer take care of it, but I highly doubt he'll rip out the center console and clean it up underneath. He said it was because of the rain we just had and guaranteed me the other cars had that too, but when I asked him to open another car, a cady right next to it, clean as a whisle. It also makes a slight whine at start-up but quickly goes away, belt related?

 

dunno man, that car sounds suspect. did you get a carfax on it? also don't go solely on the carfax because there are ways people can get around carfax by not reporting certain repair, crashes, etc... but just use the carfax a guidance. if you have a buddy that's a mechanic you can have him give the car a look over. but ants in the car (first i heard of that ), seat cover slipping off, carpet cut up, scratches on the car, not sure how much of that the dealer is going to fix.

 

STAY AWAY!!!!, those are all bad signs, run a car fax, if it comes up clean, still stay away, thats way too many little problems. We all know how little problems becomes big problems. This car seems like it was abused and i am sure its service history is very sketchy. I would look at another if I were you.

 

Those issues, which may seem like minor issues, are pretty serious lol. One headlight out, fogs out sounds electrical related, though might not be. How does a trunk carpet get sliced off lol?

Small scratches, ants, all sounds like signs of neglect.

I'm pretty sure any 06 maxima you drive with under 30k miles will drive strong. I'd stay away from this one, you mentioned sweet deal. No dealership gives sweet deals without a catch.

Good luck.

 

good points guys...carfax didn't post anything wrong. Originally came from Wisconsin, had its 25k check up at a nissan dealership in chicago. originally a lease vehicle. all my gear head friends are extremely busy during the week, so i set up a local shop (guy I've gone to before) to have a look at it and see what he thinks.

 

Don't count it out, most cars have the crap beat out of them from the 1st day of ownership, it's sad but most people are pigs and trash their car just as much as their home.

The slight vibration, if it's not unbalanced tires it probably the brake pads eating into the compressed aluminum foil, Nissan calls brake rotors, easy fix.

Both fog lights are out, my 06 generally burnt through a fog light in about 9 months to a year, then the other one would last a little longer, most people probably would not even notice, since the fogs are in the headlight housing, the headlight being out, are they halogen, probably the result of leaving the lights on auto and them shutting on and off so much, just shortens the life.

The trunk carpet, the actual carpet, people throw all sorts of stuff in trunks, stuff that a bed of a pickup should handle, pull it out make sure the car was not in a catastrophic rear end collision and was half azz fixed, and look to make sure their is no water/rust/flood damage.

Seat cover slipped off, I take it, the car has autozone seat covers over the original fabric seats, pull them off, make sure the fabric seats don't have bullet holes in them, you don't want to buy a car and find out the seat covers were to hide a stain or tear.

The back bumper, the bad scratches, and the messed up door pillar, I see new cars everyday with some fvcked up damaged, not to mention cars with temporary tags and curbed trashed rims, the door pillar should be an easy fix, body shop should be able to pull it off and replace it with a new one, it's just black plastic.

Ants in the car, so apparently it was owned/leased by a pig, I guess they dropped some fries between the seats and could not fish them out with their fat fingers

Describe the whine more, if it's like birds chirping then you need new belts, a could be many things, but with 28k you still have a factory warranty.

Check the oil, make sure it's between the 2 marks and like like tar, also when and if you get the car make sure the oil is changed immediately and then check it every 100 miles, if it goes to black within 200-500 miles the previous owner neglected to change the oil and the fresh oil is absorbing/cleaning the sludge build up out, that is not good.

It takes a good eye to weed through used cars and find a nice one even if it has been abused, since it's an 06 with 28k, offer the guy 14500, in good condition it should be 20k, but u should use the money to fix the car up.

 

^^^thanks Starr, that helped....we'll see the weeds tomorrow as it goes on the lift.

got the dealer down to 15,2k, he wasn't willing to come down much more than that.

no seat covers on the seat, all black leather, its the actual panel that slips off, seems easy to fix regardless.