Hi guys, just wanted to say i've been a member of this site for about a week, i've never posted because all my questions were answered with the search function (handy tool). Any way, i have some questions that i couldn't find any answers to. by the way my max only has 62,000 miles on it

1) I've heard my chatterbox lady who warns me of door ajar. I've heard on here that she is supposed to warn me of my lights being on, and my key being in the ignition, and when my fuel is low, well she doesn't warn me about any of that, only my door. is there a way i can change that?

2) my transmission shifts really rough and hard. It goes into gear really rough. Will changing the tranny fluid help this, or am i on the clear path to disaster?

3) the little light that lights up on my keyless entry is out on the drivers side, how hard is it to replace that bulb?

4) this worries me the most, while the car is idling and the hood popped, you can hear a hissing noise, it sounds like its coming from right around the A/C compressor, but i'm not sure, could i have a vacuum line cracked or is it my A/C compressor?

5) i just installed some xenon's to help my driving at night when coming home from school, are there xenon bulbs that i can use to swap out with the halogen parking lights?

just want to thank you guys again, this site is amazing and i can't believe how much i've learned in just a week, its nice to be in a message board that isn't full of flamers.. way to be guys.. thanks

howard

 

Check the transmission fluid level and the condition of it. I believe you're supposed to change the fluid every 30,000 miles.

 

Since your car has 63k miles be sure to replace the timing belt. Otherwise if it hasn't been done your engine will be destroyed.

 

Well, if you ran out of gas and she din't say anything, then you may have a problem inside of its box. If you have an 86, like mines, it is located underneath the radio in the console.

 

That's weird, the light on the keyless entry has been out on my driver's side door ever since I got the car, and that was around 60K too. I don't know how to replace it though. I'm guessing you've got to take the door handle off and try to find a bulb that will fit it, assuming that the bulb is replaceable.

I wonder if something more isn't going on that is causing that bulb to go out, possibly some bad wiring or something. With 115K on my Maxima now, the passenger door keypad light still works, as well as all of the other bulbs in the car.

Oh, you may want to check out the 2nd Gen Nissan Maxima club (link is in my sig). We've got a bunch of links to sites that can be helpful as well as a lot of information about the 2nd gens.

-C-

 

Yes, my passenger keypad light is still lit as well. yes tomorrow i have a scheduled appointed to get it inspected (inspection runs out at the end of novermber). yes we are getting the timing belt replaced too, that was the first thing that crossed my mind. I checked the transmission fluid, it doesn't look like it does when it comes out of the bottle thats for sure, plus its a little low. the previous owner told me that there is a small leak in the main seal. i'm going to call my local nissan dealership tomorrow after school to see if my injectors have been switched yet, if they haven't i'm going to go down and have that done soon too.

 

Hey I just wanna say thank you for actually using the search function before asking simple questions, you wouldn't belive the amount of ignorance on this site sometimes. I assure you that you are allready liked on this forum, congratulations on your new car, low miles, nice man. Goodluck

 

well we also have a 2000 acura TL, and i know what its like to answer the same question up to 5 times a day. anyway.. i just heard my horrible news for the day.. i did NOT pass inspection! i even got a LIST of the things that need replaced. listen to this :

1. power steering pump
2. right lower ball joing
3. right front brake rotor
4. both rear brake rotors
5. rear brake pads
6. both rear brake calipers

well the power power steering pump doesn't need replaced that soon, its a very slow leak and i dont need it to pass inspecction. the whole rear brakes have crapped out on me (i was wondering why my e-brake was unresponsive). my quest now is to find some good parts. i'm probably going to see if i can get the rotors turned, hopefully they aren't that bad. any suggestions for parts? i'm going to try my local guys too (napa, pepboys, autozone, advanced auto). i've also heard the dealership has rebuilt calipers. this sucks lol.

 

sorry to say that 87 maxima calipers rotors etc are not the cheapest around, sorry man.

 

Yeah, I'm starting to hate the braking system on this car almost as much as I hate the automatic transmission. I just replaced all my brake pads a little over 5K miles ago. I had to replace all 4 rotors because there's so little material on there that they really can't grind them down. I also had to replace the damn left front caliper because the piston was stuck. Just a few days ago I heard a grinding metal sound coming from the back. Looks like the f*cking left rear caliper is sticking and now I'm going to have to replace it and the brake pad and probably the damn rotor too. Well, just don't buy the parts from a dealer or a big auto chain like Pep Boys. Try to find a local parts store to get the stuff from. I got my rotors for $20 a piece and a caliper for $40 from a local auto parts store. Pep Boys wanted over $100 for one rotor.

As for your tranny problem, you may just need some ATF. To check it, run the car for about 5-10 minutes, stop the car and shift back and forth from park to first. Keep the engine running while you check it too. As Slider mentioned, it should be changed every 30K.

These automatic trannys really suck, be happy if you get 150K out of it. At 115K, my tranny is starting to crap out on me. When I first start the car, it takes forever for it to shift out of first gear. I added some ATF but the problem hasn't gone away (maybe I added too much?). Hopefully a changing the ATF will solve the problem, but I really doubt it. Well, as long as I can get another 15K of it I'll be happy. By that time I'll be ready to buy a new car.

-C-

 

yeah, i'm going to change the fluid, i'm hoping it will smooth it out even a little bit, it'll be a lot better than what it is now lol. yeah i called advanced auto today to just get a ball park figure of what their prices are, pretty salter. Rear rotors are like $50 a piece, fronts are $30.. ball joint is $30. not too bad, the calipers kill me they are like $80 and $60 core, nuts. yeah i'll have to continue to look around i guess. oh well, other than the brakes i absolutely love the car, we had an Infiniti J30 a couple of years ago and that was a fantastic car, i've always been impressed with nissans and their engines.

 

If you know how to "recondition" or "rebuild" your calipers, your can buy a minor rebuild kit for the rears, which services both calipers, for about $30, give or take, depending on the store you go with. The kit is made by Beck & Arnley - they're the only ones who make the complete, dual caliper rebuild kit for the rear calipers...they do the same for the front calipers, running about $20. The rear kit comtains all of the boots and seals, as well as new clips and hardware for the e-brake connections.

I bought my ball-joints for $24 a peice locally, from a Parts America dealer (Schucks, Checker, Advance Auto, etc...) The cal kits can be ordered through them, also...

If you're not too savvy on being able to rebuild your own calipers, you're better off buying rebuilt from a store...the labor will cost more than the calipers would.

 

acutually i didn't know they had caliper rebuild kits out. hm learn something new every day. actually i think i might go that route, i'm a fan of doing a lot of work yourself b/c the more work you do on your own car the more you know your car, it's always good to know your car. then you can take that knowledge and help others on the board. anyway, i need to buy myself either a haynes or chilton manual to help me out. thanks for the info i'm going to look into the rebuild kits tomorrow

 

Originally posted by IXLR8MAXIMA [/i]

i need to buy myself either a haynes or chilton manual to help me out................................



If your interested a 87 factory service manual is up for auction on Ebay, that's how I got mine. Best one to get, when new were around $24

Good Luck

Al

 

you know, i've heard that the factory service manuals are the best to get, i may look into that. because i will probably be doing most of the repair work at home on my own

 

 

i would say the running/directional lights, b/c i don't have fog lights. these lights are the lights that are on the insides of your headlights. they are on when the parking lights are on. I pulled them out and looked at them, they look like they are actualy light bulbs with the brass bottom, so i don't think i can replace those.. or can i?

 

You should be able to find halogens to replace them with, but I have never seen Xenons in the small bulbs.

 

yeah, i'm looking for xenon bulbs so that they match the xenon headlights.

 

Yeah, they do have those bulbs, although they are pretty rare.

One place that has them is http://www.nextcollection.com

You want to search for bulb number M25, they are Polarg Super Whites. They're $9 a bulb, they ship out in 3 days, and I'm pretty sure you can replace some of the other lights in the car with them, like the reverse lights, license plate lights, etc. You'll want to consult your owner's manual as to which bulbs are replaceable with these 10 watt M25's.

-C-

 

I see a "85-88 Maxima maintenance, tune-up and repair manual by Nissan" on books4cars.com for $30. Does anyone know of this manual and how is it? Because all of the other specific year maxima factory service manuals are $60 on books4cars.com

 

hey bro...ya might wanna get your tranny serviced first. have new ATF as well. Recently, I got my tranny serviced. What they do is quite some time like 30 minutes. They use machines too...when they service it, not only they fill in entirely new ATF, they also flush out the old ATF. The old ATF will be drain entirely, also the whole entire mechanism and gears in the tranny will be cleaned. Also the torque converter (one of the main pieces in the tranny) will be cleaned. When the torque converter is all covered with thick azz grind and bad fluid, it loses performance, and eventually could lead to another problem. So ya gotta keep it up, especially since ya got a Max that probably has not been servicced yet. If so, do it. As well with your other problems. Start off with a clean slate.

Peace.

 

yes thats exactly what i was thinking, i'm trying to get everything in the car up to par and like you said, start with a clean slate. our sunroof doesn't close all the way either, it sits a tad bit lower than the roof line, allows water to leak in when it rains, i've had ton's of people tell me about adjusting the height with the button, well me and my dad worked on it for like 30 min trying to figure it out, it just doesn't close the whole way. and today we did the full meguires 3-step system (paint cleaner, polish and then the carnuba wax). the car looks great now. its going in for service on wednesday to get everything done, brakes, ball joints and the tranny is going to get flushed

 

check out my post on 85 lights or something, i posted it on the 19th if that will help you find it. has some info on brighter parking lamps