my maxima is going to be 5yrs old in august, yet i'll only have approximately 50k miles on the car at that time. service book says the next big servicing should be a 60k miles, but by then the car will be 6 years old. is there a point where i should ignore the miles and go by years old, or is the mileage still the best indicator of service regardless of how old the car is?

thanks.

 

I would say mileage is the best indicator. An engine that has done 50K has obviously had less wear and tear than an engine that has done 100K, regardless of how old it is.

 

I think as far as the entire car is concerend, the older the car the more one has to worry about bushings and such rather than engine issues.

 

The only thing I would be inclined to worry about is the condition of the radiator coolant. Has it been flushed before? If not, you should take it to a radiator shop and get them to do a pH test on it. All they do is stick a piece of paper in the radiator and check the color of the strip. I didn't get my first radiator flush until going on 6 years. At that time the car had 35K on it.

 

Radiator, hoses and belts. Hoses and belts because they tend to dry-out. Drying out typically occurs before wearing out (even if you drive 50k a year like me). Coolant because it breaks down over time. probably not a bad idea to flush and fill the tranny and break lines as well since both fluids tend to pick up water over time. Flushing and filling both systems will add life to the systems.

 

Look at the top left of the service schedules in the owners manual. It states "Perform at number of miles, kilometers or months, whichever comes first."

So, since you don't seem to be driving much, you'll probably want to perform the required service items based on number of months rather than number of miles.

 

Not all miles are created equal. I commute 90 miles round trip every day. This puts a lot less wear on the engine than one that never sees the highway. Once the engine/oil are at operating temperature, the wear that occurs on the engine is, for all intents and purposes, zero. The wear that occurs on an engine is during a cold startup and the accumulated acids and water that form in the oil from blowby because the engine doesn't get hot enough vaporize them.

I don't think you can ignore mileage or years. Everything else being equal, the engine with more miles will have more wear. An older car even if it has less miles can have more required maintainance than a newer car with more miles. This is because of things like hoses, belts, the battery, bushings, electical items,

Having said all that, mileage probably is the best indicator of the wear a car has in general.

 

for foobeca

I used to live in Evanston, IL and work in Skokie, IL. It was about a 10 min drive to where I worked... and in the harsh Chicago winters, it wasn't even enough to get the car up to warm operating temperature. I used to have to run it for 5 min before driving it (but even this is bad, too).... but such a short distance was much more wear and tear than an even commute like he does (90 miles round trip!?? good God, man!)

 

Thats not bad for 2k, I agree with them, check your hoses.. I think i got a cracked one somewhre, giving me this wierd air sound in the engine... got 82k for 2k.. so your in better shape than me

 

Does any body know what the pH level is supposed to be in your radiator?

 

Don't even bother taking it to a place to have it tested, it's cheaper and faster to just do a radiator flush yourself. It only takes about an hour and requires maybe two gallons of antifreeze. Why have it tested when you can just get it done for less time and money?

Hoses do tend to dry out and leak. However, you don't really have to worry about that on a five year old Nissan. My car is going to be ten years old next month and going to have 208,000 miles on it, and it has never leaked a drop of anything. I'd be surprised to hear anything otherwise. Of course, it's always good to keep an eye on things and be conscious of your fluid levels and any signs of leakage.

Foobeca is right about not all miles being equal. If you drive your car easy and do a lot of highway cruising, then you have little to worry about. It's much harder on a car to make frequent short trips and a lot of accelerating.

If you're concerned about something, it can never hurt to change your fluids. They're all relatively simple to do and it's cheap insurance...fresh, clean fluids never hurt anything. Better to do it than not.

 

Indeed. Another thing the mileage won't tell is the amount of heavy traffic it's been in. Rush hour/stop-n-go traffic can also takes its toll on the engine/transmission.