my car currently has 112k miles on it and Im starting to notice that gas mileage is dropping and its running with slight hesitation. Ive never done a tuneup(nor has the first owner) to this car. Its going in tomorrow to have the plugs and possibly the plug wires changed.

my question is simple, will getting this done after all this time make a difference in my gas mileage and such? thanks in advance

 

No plug wires on these cars, there is a coil for cylinder. You should change your air filter, PVC valve, and fuel filter too.

 

If you still have the original plugs in the car at your mileage then changing them will probably help. Usually the first sign the plugs are going bad is your car will crap out a bit at low rpms as you accelerate.

 

they are the original plugs. And yes I did notice at low rps it goes slower and then when the rpm goes up a bit the car takes off like it use to. thanks for the info

 

Wow, thats a lot of miles for the original plugs. You should definitely notice a difference, I ran my OE plugs in my old 4th Gen for 50K miles. My mpg's jumped 5 miles with new plugs alone.

 

good. i will be looking forward to better gas mileage. I should be picking her up soon. I guess nissan really built these cars to last

 

Go for NGK iridium or platinum plugs.

 

okay. well i picked up my car today. it cost $290 for the new plugs with maintenance....(a bit much) He told me that it was very hard to get to the back plugs and it took him a long time. I believe him since he is an honest guy and I doubt he would rip me off. I was told that there is a problem with my car though. He said that there was a bad seal/gasket and that oil was leaking into the spark plug chamber preventing it from operating properly. He said that part would be inexpensive, but maintenance would be around $500 Does this sound right?

 

I think he's talking about the rear valve cover. It's a known issue on the 02-03s. Replace it with an 04 cover and it'll last longer. The part itself is roughly $50, but labour shouldn't be anywhere near $500. You might want to replace that coil since who knows how long it has been like this. Doing the plugs is hard on these cars since doing the rear 3 involves taking off the IM which is where the extra cost comes in.

 

yeah thats what he said. its pretty stupid that they set it up that way. Do you think I would be better off taking it to Nissan to fix it since they are more experienced in doing services like this?

 

it's the rear valve cover, you should've replaced it while doing the plugs since the intake manifold also needs to be removed.

 

I would say for future reference that you should do these things every 30k miles it will not hurt your car! Common think about it... if you plan on keeping this car and want it to perform when you get in it why wont you spend a little time and money to keeping it is perfect running order

 

Well at least you didn't have to replace any coil packs on your first tune up...I am the second owner on my 2000 MAX and the bastard that had her first didn't do a tune up on her I learned the hard way had to replace 4 coil packs....nice...

 

The owner of my car did **** to it and I knew that when I walked into the deal. He is my buddys dad and was very honest with me. He said that he regularly changed with mobil 1 fully synthetic, had changed breaks, tires, rotors, and a round of struts. He told me that mechanically the car never had a single problem. I finally came up with some money and I figured I'd put it into tuneing up my car. I was willing to shell out the $290 for the tuneup, and right now my car is running excellent, but $500 for labor to put in this seal is way too much for the job. I was even thinking I might as well learn to start fixing cars and do the damn job myself. I also thought that I should just bring her to they steely and ask what they would charge. I bet they would give me a lower labor price then $500

 

3 hours labour is probably the most I'd pay an experienced shop to do this. It's not particularly hard, just time consuming due to having to take the IM off. Take it to Nissan for a second quote if you'd like.

 

'03 SE TE, 102K miles. I bought it from the original owner w/84K mi. I get 22-24 mpg with mixed city and hwy driving.

May be the original spark plugs. I use sea foam in the gas pretty regularly, and don't notice much hesitation, so I'm thinking the plugs are fine.

Once I do decide to replace the plugs, and after hearing about the amount of labor involved, it sounds like I'll be doing it myself.

I have a Maxima Haynes manual that goes up to 01, but I'm thinking it wouldn't be very applicable for a job like this, because of the VQ35.

If an '04 rear valve cover is really only $50, then I'll def. be replacing that too, at the time.

 

is there a trick to removing that pcv valve???

 

Replace plugs asap if they are originals. Nissan recommends 100k mi(160k km), but that's a load of crap. At 60k miles my plugs were done and replacing them helped the car noticeably.

Prior to 02, you did not need to remove the IM to get at the rear plugs. For 02 and up it's considerably more labour to do the plugs.

 

For reference, I usually get around $250 parts & labor for doing plugs & rear vc on an 02/03, w/ plugs from nissan. The rear vc is such a common problem I always get it before doing plugs and tell the owner to expect it. I would expect most shops to be equal or higher on just the labor alone, alot of that comes from being able to remove the upper manifold with my eyes closed.

 

On the VQ35, you have to unscrew it. Not sure about the 3.0s.

I got quoted $250 labor to change the plugs, r/r the rear valve cover, install intake spacers and do the idle relearn and whatever else it needs. Seems more than fair to me. Of course, that doesn't include the parts. Much better than another shop that said $600 parts and labor (plugs and valve covers) but not the price of the spacers.

 

Just ordered the 00-03 Factory service manual cd, so I'll be rounding up the parts soon (plugs, rear VC, and PCV). I guess I'll just wait and see on the coil packs.

 

Hi guys, I have about 16-17 miles per gallon, I just changed all spark plugs but it didnt help me, 2 weeks ago I've got SES light on, I went to Nissan delaer and they said I have p0420 error code, other guys told me I have p0430 error code, so now I don't know what to do, which catalityc converter to change, where to find it and what type and do I need to change oxygen sensors? thank you...

 

You need to 1st find out which code you have...

 

I wish I would have known about this before I did my plugs last week. I had a little oil around one of the rear plugs. I cleaned it out with a rags before putting it all back together, but wasn't sure of the cause.

Is this the correct A34 part?

Do I want the A33 or A34 gasket (or can I reuse the one in there now)? I see the A33 gasket costs 2x as much as the A34 gasket.

 

A34 gasket works fine. And that is the correct part.

 

Nissan Dealer says its P0420, guy from repair shop says its P0430... I dont know who I can trust

 

Go to AutoZone and have them pull the code and look at it yourself. Or invest in a code reader. You can usually find one for around $75 or so. The more expensive ones not only read codes but can also show your idle, timing, etc but for just code reading, the cheaper ones are fine.

 

Yea try autozone. Most likely I would trust Nissan though

 

Any idea whether the back cover is the left or the right valve cover on ABC Nissan's Parts site? Their prices are less, and their shipping is a whole lot more reasonable.

 

It says P0430 error code... so, what do i need to do next? because at Nissan dealership they told me it gonna cost me 1.500$ to fix my car

 

Does the car run ok? Does your state require inspections?


per the service manual

 

where did you find that cd manual? I found a site, but its a pdf, but didnt tell me much about the pcv valve and the process for how to remove it.

 

I just replaced mine on my 2k maxima last Friday with a Purolator one from Advance Auto Parts. I think the PCV valve is the same for 00 and 01 (I believe 02 and 03 are threaded, please correct me somebody if I'm wrong). I removed the air box along with MAF so I can have enough room to work around it. Once I got that out of the way, leaving the hose connected to it, I grabbed the PCV valve and pulled it out as I was wiggling it slightly. Disconnected the hose and discarded old valve. Reassembled with new valve in the reverse order. I don't know if it is a coincidence or not, but my SES light went off 2 days later. I been having code P0430 for a while and was getting ready to purchase the front precat.
Update: I spoke to soon about SES light; it's back on with the same code. Although I swear the car is running slightly better after PCV valve replacement.

 

Any idea why the 02-03 rear valve cover is 3x the price of the 04?

To the OP, keep in mind the 02-03 part has a MSRP of the rear valve cover is almost $160 and the gasket is $16.

 

car runs good but it takes 16-17 mpg, I just passed inspection before SES light came up...

 

I get about the same gas mileage as you with the same SES light code. I also had shot Cats that I need to replace. You should be happy Nissan quoted $1.5k for you, they quoted me for about $2.3k.

 

How does a bad cat cause bad gas mileage?

 

I was wondering that one too. I figured signals sent by a bad cat to oxygen sensors, somehow, would make the engine run inefficiently, and therfore use more fuel than really needed.

 

it could be throwing off an Oxygen sensor or chocking the exhaust.

 

I had the same code appear early December. I waited a week or so hoping the light would go off with fresh fill up (has worked before on occassion). Fearing the O2 sensor failure again, I went to Autozone and they pulled the code. I had the dealer run it to get the specifics and they said left pre-cat. I was also due for plugs (104,225 miles). Their quote was steep, $790 just for the pre-cat and with labor and plugs I was up around $1300. Went to a local shop that I knew from others was reliable and they verified the left pre-cat that I told them was bad and they did that for no charge. Went with them and last week they put in the cat ($635 w/labor) and the plugs ($218, dealer wanted $225). Saved about $350 total. No joke on the plug labor, everyone said 1-1.5hr to replace those. Car has been purring for a week and half now. I typically have had all work done at the dealer, but holidays and the economy combined I had to try something different. I am not stingy about taking care of my car and every shop says that it'll easily get to 200k miles. Good luck with your repair.