Through visual and manual inspection, how does one know for sure?
I pushed on the inner CV joint on the driver's side halfshaft, and it seems to be able to go a little up and down - sortof felt like it was lose. I did the same for the passenger's side, but it didn't feel lose at all.
what do y'all think? is this the d.c.bearing issue, or just normal wear and tire for a college-girl owned(for 5 years) 95 nissan maxima SE with 5-speed and 160,000 miles on odometer?

I also hear a slight 'whining' noise in first gear when i start to accelerate and am at very low speed. kindof like the noise you hear in an automatic car from the tranny, especially when you hear a car start from a stop and drive off, and its also like what some auto trannies do aroudn 35-40 mph.. that slight whistlely-whiny sound is similar.

Thanks so much for you help!

 

look under your tranny if u see a slight film of tranny oil then most likely your bearings are going bad. If you get to them fast enough more expensive damamge will not occur..

 

what other damage would occur?
secondly, I saw NO oil leak or film .

 

Have you checked the fluid level first? if its fine but dark i would changed it and see if the diff is making any metal to start. Put some nice stuff in like redline, royal purple or mobil1. These transaxles go fast, i already changed mine after throwing a spider gear.

write a follow up

 

It is NOT good that you have some free play to the driver's side axle BUT as long as there is no oil leak, you are good. Once the play gets too large, that's when the axle seals will no longer function correctely. It may take 15k miles... or it may take 30k... it's anyones guess. I guess you got 160k miles so far which isn't bad. Don't worry about it for now. Even when you first see some oil leak, it may take another 20k miles to get really bad (like it did for me).

 

Yep, I would not worry about it until you see a leak...and like posted above, even then it's not a huge deal. I drove with bad bearings and a leaking axel seal for a year before I finally had the tranny rebuilt.

 

yes I was thinking that - that i need to check fluid level in manual tranny.
it's not my car - it's a car I want to buy from someone. they are selling it for a really low price of like 2800! I think I found a deal in this car... it's just that I only had 30 min to inspect car, and didn't have time to undo bolt that lets you 'check' the level. that would entail jacking the back end, too, and besides,,,, i was in a parking lot fora supermarket! ha. but yeah, ill keep what you say in mind, and perhaps if i can check it i will post back.