Hello everyone,

I'm brand new here. I'm a die-hard Mazda fanboy and have never owned a Nissan product. I drive a 2016 Mazda MX-5, but I've been recently looking for a second car to save some miles on my new car while commuting to work.

I recently stumbled on a 2006 Maxima SL with 142k miles. The paint could use a little work, but the interior is super nice. Everything seems to work. The owner says it was his kid's college car for four years and they've never had any major issues. Some dealer gave him some super lowball offer on it before I drove it (like $1200). He told me I could have the car for $2,000, they don't need the money, they just need to get rid of it. I thought I was getting the deal of a lifetime, and I immediately accepted that price and we shook on the deal. The guy seems really genuine and honest, and I truly believe he's telling the truth about the car. It's a holiday weekend, so the actual deal won't go down until Tuesday night when I get off work.

Here's the problem: the car made a slight whining sound while driving it. (almost like a supercharger sound) I didn't think much of it until I got home and searched online and discovered it's probably the dreaded timing chain guides/tensioners.

So should I be a jerk and call the guy and back out of the deal, or is the car still worth buying?

How much does that job usually cost?

Is it safe to drive like that for a little while?


Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Kevin

 

The whining sound was more obvious at 1500-2000 RPM and above and barely heard below that? Like a coffee grinder sound?

That would be the worn chain tensioners and the chain grinding on the metal then.
Costs about $1500 to fix and if tensioners are realy bad, the chain can skip and bye-bye pistons.

 

It sounded (to me) exactly like a supercharger whine. Did not hear any grinding sounds.

 

You are lucky if that whine is not from the chain. Most likely it is. Watch youtube "chain tensioner whine" videos to find if that's the same whine I am thinking about.

 

Yeah it sounded exactly like that. I decided to be that jerk you never want to deal with while buying a car, and I called and backed out. I feel really bad about it, as I've had that done to me in the past, but I drive 80 miles a day and I just can't buy a car with that kind of issue right now. Thanks for your help.

 

Smart move. Do not feel bad, they should have known about the issue.
When I buy cars, I am trying to get 35-40k mileage and no more than 5 year old, that gives me another 100k miles trouble free. See if you can find something in that bracket. That's the sweet spot. Anything over that age/mileage means greater cost of maintenance.