Originally Posted by Colossus

Thank goodness we have forums again!

I second the Forum being back sentiment. I'm not afraid to do my own work now... ;-)

1st concern:
Car isn't sluggish, but it seems like the throttle is slighty
hesitant compared to some other vehicles I drove this summer. I
cleaned the throttle body and the air filter is fairly new (5
months). Using the proper fuel as well as synthetic oil change about
2k miles ago. I'm not sure about the spark plugs.. would I be able to
determine if they need replacement by doing a visual inspection? What
else would cause my car to seem a little groggy?

- Plugs are definately next on your list. Put in what the OEM says to get a baseline of what it should have and see what happens. Try a couple of doses of injector juice and make sure you've got highest octane in it. (Mine prefers Citgo for some odd reason)

Plugs may not reveal much if they're shot. I think we have platinums and they don't give up much visually unless there's a big problem like lots of oil getting by rings and so forth.

If it doesn't change anything, stop whipping it and get a compression check. (still fairly inexpensive) This should narrow down the prob by eliminating the question of getting full explosion in each cylinder.

You should also be getting terrible mileage in any case. I wonder if the o2 sensors are on the way out?....but not enough to throw out a code.

2nd concern:
I'd like to inspect my tranny mount but I've never done something
like that. I'm mechanically inclined enough to change my fluids,
change tires, do brakes, etc... would you recommend I try to replace
a busted tranny mount by myself? Thanks.

- I'm curious abou this myself. Are you certian it's broke? Do I need to check mine and how would I know it's broke if I wasn't looking? What actually breaks on it if it does break?

I was just looking over an old Acura Legend I had cause the tranny was changed out just before I bought it. I saw that a motor mount had not been secured all the way so I put a floor jack under the oil pan and slightly raised the motor, allowing me to do about anything I needed to to that mount. Point is that it may be possible to get to what you need w/o a lot of problem, but that's my wishing for you.

3rd concern:
I have a paint ding the size of a dime on my left front quarter.
It's rusted a little and I'd like to fix it asap. Should I simply
sand out the rust and apply touch up paint from Infiniti?

Originally Posted by Colossus

Thank goodness we have forums again!

1997 I30 VQ30DE

1st concern:
Car isn't sluggish, but it seems like the throttle is slighty
hesitant compared to some other vehicles I drove this summer. I
cleaned the throttle body and the air filter is fairly new (5
months). Using the proper fuel as well as synthetic oil change about
2k miles ago. I'm not sure about the spark plugs.. would I be able to
determine if they need replacement by doing a visual inspection? What
else would cause my car to seem a little groggy?

2nd concern:
I'd like to inspect my tranny mount but I've never done something
like that. I'm mechanically inclined enough to change my fluids,
change tires, do brakes, etc... would you recommend I try to replace
a busted tranny mount by myself? Thanks.

3rd concern:
I have a paint ding the size of a dime on my left front quarter.
It's rusted a little and I'd like to fix it asap. Should I simply
sand out the rust and apply touch up paint from Infiniti?

Originally Posted by i30ds

To get your power back, I would first replace your spark plugs. Forget trying to salvage the old ones... if you have never changed them, or can't remember the last time you did, then it is time to do so. Also, I would check your ECU for ghost codes. About a year ago I too had a sudden "loss" of horse power and
got sh!tty gas milage. After a while I checked the ECU for ghost codes and I got the dreaded 0304, which is the code for a bad knock sensor. After replacing the knock sensor, the car felt like it had an extra 20 hp. My gas milage increased from about 18 mpg to 23 mpg!!!! I know it is hard to believe that one little tiny crap sensor can cause those kinds of problems, but leave it up to Nissan to figure out a way. Some Maxima owners have dynoed their cars with a bad knock sensor and got about 20 hp below what they had before. The sensor itself is about $125.00 from http://www.everythingnissan.com . This sensor, along with o2 sensors are notorious for failing in the Maxima/I30. The procedure for checking you ECU for ghost codes can be found in the Maxima 4th gen stickies.

As far as your tranny mount... How do you know that it is bad??