Amazingly, over nearly 100K that I have had the car, what with the track events and autocross, my Maxima has never NOT performed at 100%. I only had to replace 1 O2 sensor a couple weeks after I bought it at 43 K miles or so but that had no impact.

This is so amazing to me that I wanted to poll other users about how reliable their machine has been. Cheers-

 

I've had two tows - once for the starter and the other time for my tranny

Other than that no major issues

 

**knocking on every piece of wood around**

Havent had a major break down where I had to be towed. Need to hurry up and do this clutch before I had to change my answer. Fortunatly I've very intune with my car and can tell something thats going on before it becomes serious and get whatever changed out or looked after.

 

I actually cracked the clutch disk into 2 pieces on the Camaro i owned before i bought my max. Needless to say that required a tow. Hopefully i never have to deal with something like that ever again.

 

never needed a tow yet and hopefully wont need one till the car dies w/ 529k mi

 

i trust my max, its not some piece of shiet hoopty.

 

150K - Nothing major, a seized rear caliper, but got it to the shop. And of course, tranny bearings, but nothing that 'hurts' anything....

 

not yet! knockknock
not even close so far

 

The only problems I've had in 10 years and 7 months of ownership are: 02 sensor replaced on warranty about 7 years ago, new battery, air conditioning chargeup, front left light bulb, oil pressure sensor, and right rear caliper seized recently (replaced both rears). The caliper problem caught me by surprise as my 95SE has only 58K of mostly highway mileage. I made the mistake of seldom using the parking brake and 3 brake shops have told me recently to use it in order to turn the caliper piston in further.

I still have the original plugs and tires on the car.

 

Wow! What are you driving on? Straight flintstones wheels!

Actually, come to think of it (how did I forget!?) I had a faulty clutch installed that broke up / disintegrated the 2nd day after install. I dont count that against the max tho- clearly not Nissan's fault.

 

i haven't personally, *knock on wood*
but my friend had a 2000 maxima and it broke down on a cirlce and he had to pull the E-break to keep from crashing. kinda scary, he got rid of the car and got a 2000 TL after that

 

105,000 and my Max has "never" not turned on. Has "never" ever left me stranded on the side of the road. That's what I call "bulletproof" reliability!

 

Nice wheels. Anyways i've never had a breakdown in the Max. 1997, 108Km's so it's still just a baby, mind you it has seen it's share of city driving. One day it didn't start because the battery died last summer, however that was at home and expected after 7 years. This year i really do have to change the plugs and belts.

LEMAR

 

I've had breakdowns, but my car has never let me down.

 

my alt kept dying and i had to get towed 3 times for that the starter went got towed for that and then the clutch went and had to get towed for that then the cops always tow my car because of exhaust(they are gay!)

 

About once a week. But thats what you get when you start doing wierd stuff with emissions, cold start, fuel, and boost stuff.

 

120k miles and never had anything near needing a tow.. knock on wood.

 

2 starters went out on me.

 

Did I understand this correctly that you have 529K miles on your max!? It can't be the same motor. Could it?

I have 209K on mine and have never been stranded. Same with my Sentra before that. It would be hard to get me out of a Nissan at this stage. I'm in love!

 

1. Clutch slave cylinder - cracked, fluid leaked. Left me at a stoplight. I was in neutral and the clutch peddle stayed on the floor. $50.00 tow to dealership, ~$ 250 fix.

2. Went through three starters

After 170,000 mi, not bad!

 

only been towed once (by my dad, lol) becuz i left my light on one night and the battery died the next day. other than that, just replaced by CV Boots, but nothin major. Nissan certainly knows how to make a great car.

 

Had a breakdown once with my old POS 86 Cherokee. Alternator died but I managed to get it to a nearby garage by myself.

NEVER ever with my Maxima.

 

Never have had to go through that with my Max yet. One time I was working late and it almost wouldn't start, but it was minus 40 degrees out with a windchill so I wouldn't blame it for not starting. It did start though, but everything felt frozen and took a very long time to warm up!

 

Alternator went - but I charged the battery really good and drove the 1.5 miles to the dealer. <---fixed under recall.

Starter went - sometime after 5spd Conversion - did the old pop-start method until I got a new starter by parking on hills. - so I don't know if that counts - no tow - and I think I blew the starter myself anyway (long story).

Many other times it broke down on the road and I always fixed it myself
Rubbing SC Belt - spare stock belt and tools in trunk
Failed Fuel Pump - just plugged in Aux pump
SC Piping came undone - reattached <---several times
MAF Came disconnected - reconnected it <right in front of emmissions station - big black cloud of smoke >

 

It has happened twice for me

Once when the alternator died

And second when the starter died a few months later...

 

All the people that have never had a major break down are jinxing themselves. Including myself

 

Shut up! if my car breaks down I'm sending you the bill for jinxing me.

**knocking on every piece of wood I can find**

 

............

 

The only brake down (if you can call it this) I've ever had was when my starter went out. My family and I went to breakfast, we all got in the car and I turned the ignition. There was........................silence. No click or anything. I thought back of the days when helping my father work on the car and had an idea. I took out my torque wrench from my trunk and "persuaded" the starter to kick over, couple of whacks is all it took. Got the family home, drove the Civic over to Autozone, bought a new one and all is well .

 

I was left on the side of the road - alternator failure! What got me was I did not see it coming. I had started the car only 15km (10 miles) earlier and did not notice anything. Then as we were leaving the driveway, the ABS light came on (oh well, better check that later I remarked). I turned on the Bose and after a few minutes my wife said "your radio sounds crappy" and turned it off. I had to agree - it did sound crappy. A few minutes later I was calling for a tow.
I missed the recall by 1 month!
Stikine

 

Yep - same for me when alternator failed - car seemed perfectly fine then the radio started cutting out and car stalled within 15 seconds.

But like I said - the dealer was 1mi away so I just charged the battery and drove 1mi.

IanS

 

i had three blown motors in 1 yr, geesh what a moron i am

 

I've been looking at buying a maxima lately. I need a new DD, the jeep drinks wayyy too much gas (stock gearing+bigger tires = Boo). How long does the average maxima last? The reason I'm asking is because I found a good deal on a '97 SE - leather, sunroof, 5 speed. Only $5500 and in really good shape, BUT it has 119K miles, which is more than I'd like.

Stinks about the 15 post rule, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Nice forum though. I'm normaly lurking around www.jeepforum.com.

Thanks.

 

Well - maximase86 has a car that can buy it's own cigarettes and 220k on it and the engine compression is EXACT to specifications. (190 on every cylinder).

So yeah - Maximas generally last a while.

And that is an older engine model also - the VQ should fare even better.

 

i have had mine for two weeks but i already wrecked it so its my fault its been unreliable lol .... just a few more post and i get to post a topic

 

So far my max has been towed two times. Once for the starter and a second time for the slave cylinder. As of right now my engine is coming apart of me. The engine sounds horrible when it gets up in the RPMS and fallsflat on its *** at about 4000 rpms in the condition its in now. So it looks like to me i could add 3 tows and probaly a few more to go.

 

I had 1 tow to the dealer w/ my '98 altima due to the battery going dead, even after repeated jump starts

no breakdowns (yet) w/ 123K on my Max

 

I had a close call 2 years back. The starter was going, and it was about 10 degrees out, and it almost didn't start. Luckily I got it up and running and was able to fix it.

 

Never had any problems on my max yet... Has 73k now. These cars will last a long time even if you just do the minimum care on the car. (use 91-93octane gas, change oil every 3k, im sure u know the drill)

 

Sorry to say, but I never had a breakdown of any sort, not even a flat tire. Well, I guess maybe I'm not sorry after all lol