So here is what I noticed about 2002 Infiniti i35

Original problem:
Really bad U-Turn RADIUS, its HORRIBLE
I deliver pizzas and its hard to move around on that car

I get 16 mpg in city, even when I don't go over 2500 RPM at all

Audio doesn't sound good, a lot worse than on 2003 Acura TL

Problems after some mileage:
I brought the car with 125,000
Right now I have 136,000

Already I had the following problems:
125,000 Had subwoofer cutoff problem, put paper in a box, was working for 10,000 miles, but now goes bad again
126,000 Replaced Sparkplugs with Bosch
128,000 Replaced faulty ignition coil
127,000 Power Steering High Pressure Hose $320 to fix
130,000 Starter $140 Parts, fixed by myself
130,000 Driver's seat moving motors works only on left side of the seat
132,000 Replaced two valve covers, one of them was leaking at sparkplug ring $80 parts, replaced by myself
135,000 Alternator, tried to fix, but could not loosen belt bolt $325 to fix

By trying to figure out my gas mileage problem,
Replaced two O2 sensors
Replaced six sparkplugs with NKG
Replaced two ignition coils

Now, before driving on this car, I had 1996 Geo Prizm and first time had to change starter was at about 200,000 miles, thats after delivering pizza on it for 3 years. Never needed to replace alternator, just change the belt.

So what do you guys think about i35?
Is there other problems I should expect?

 

One more
135,000 Radiator fluid leak from metal pipe on a right of front valve cover

 

I believe at over $100K things tend to wear out... these are normal issues dog..

The I35 is not the car to be delivering pizzas...

a nice Civic or Corolla something low maintenance for pizza deliveries!!

I love my I35. I bought mine last Feb w/ 55K i had a CEL for my Cam sensor and bumb stops went bad at 65k nothing major yet however i do have a warranty for major issues like trans, radiator..etc.

 

How do you still have a warranty? Is it from infiniti or 3rd party warranty?

 

You beat the crap out of a car delivering pizza. It is unavoidable. I have a maxima and bought a civic when i was delivering for a year. Get a new job or get a beater for 500

 

Maybe, but I had 1996 Geo Prizm
Delivered pizza on it for 3 and a half years
from 170,000 miles to 240,000 miles
Throughout the deliveries I had to replace
Starter
Alternator Belt
Radiator
Engine mount
Power steering hose
(engine mount was broken due to power steering leak)

and now the car still runs great.

I just thought that infiniti i35 would be better quality, but seems that its not

 

Yes, I have a third party warranty shortly after purchasing the I35.

I didnt want to worry about major repairs like tranny going that could drain a bank account. I am covered to 170K. if i never have to use the warranty the money is refunded back. (PM if anyone is interested in a warranty to cover major repairs)

 

Be careful about that,
my brother had 3rd party warranty for his 03 Acura TL and his transmission broke down
They say the only cover malfunction, but NOT USAGE or WEARABLE problems.
Pretty much all car problems are because of usage or wearing, so I think most 3rd party warranties are scams

 

yea i went all over the fine print. My warranty definately will not cover wearable item such as brake pad, hoses, sensors....etc! if i never use the warranty they refund what i paid for it...

 

Nice! How much does the warranty cost? Any deductible? Do they fix at infiniti dealerships?

 

Have you fixed anything with it before?

 

Sounds like you want to call it a lemon even though all of those items would be replaced either at regular intervals like the plugs or like most cars would need a starter or alternator etc after 100k. You can't compare this to a rebadged Corolla you call the Prizm. I bet there are those with Prizm's that probably dealt with issues sooner than you did...no two cars are like.

Quality, or lack of quality as you are suggesting in my opinion can't be based off replacing parts you mentioned. Maybe it's just me but I expect that my vehicles need some love after putting out 100 k.

 

I35.......not the car to deliver pizza's in. Get a 4cyl

also change those bosch plugs...get NGK's

 

Acura's have been known to have poor transmissions bud. The tranny in the i35 is going to last you a while. A normal thing for the vq35 is to also burn more oil than you think it should. It may or may not happen, if it does dont worry.


Everything youve listed seems normal man, nothing that was replaced seems out of the ordinary, and your fuel mileage seems normal as well.... My dads got an M35s and gets about the same maybe slightly higher.

 

16mpg actually sounds decent for delivery. Lots of stop and go, and cutting the car on and off.

One question for the OP..did you seriously expect to get Geo mpg out of a VQ35?

 

lol, not same as on geo, but I thought I'll have 20-22 mpg
My brother's Acura TL is 3.2, little less, but he gets about 22mpg

 

I believe it was $2k. I havent had to use it yet. if anything goes wrong I have to take it to the dealer. I had a cam sensor issue but that wasnt covered..no deductible..

 

Maybe it was just your luck that the last owner was a pizza guy
or really sucked at maintenance.

 

trying to look rich by delivering pizzas in a I35? i wish the hell i would!

 

Your car specifically was probably beat before you got it or it is just a lemon because the only thing that I see that is inherent to the car is that the turning radius does suck. The rest of the issues you shouldn't be having. The MAster Tech at Infiniti is a good friend of mine and he says that they hardly ever have problems with anything other than the high pressure power steering hose (since most people crank the wheel since thcar turns so poorly)

 

The bottom line is that you bought a car with 125k miles. Some cars trannys and/or engines might be done by 125k. If the previous owner regularly changed oil and tranny fluid, you shouldn't have major issues for a long time.

You may have just bought the car at the wrong time. Maybe the previous owners never had to do anything other than standard maintenance and you happened to buy as things are just starting to wear out.

Nothing that you listed I would consider out of the ordinary for this car (except the seat). Spark plugs normal at 100k. You can't expect a whole lot more than 130k out of a starter or alternator. The rear valve cover, bose cutoff and high pressure PS hose are known typical issues with the vq35.

I'm not sure you can expect a whole lot more than 16 mpg out of a 255 hp delivery car. If you are that worried about mileage, you need to take a highway road trip and do a controlled test. If you take a 300 mile road trip at 65-70 miles per hour, you should get 24-25 mpg minimum. If you get much less than this, you might have engine issues. If you get more, your engine is fine and your going to get what you get when you deliver.

 

you should use a different car to deliver pizza's in general... just saying you pull up in an infiniti looks like your doing to well for yourself they might not tip u as well lol ... did u notice better tips in the geo (p.s. my brother and i both had geos and beat the **** out of them mine blew up his is still going pretty strong love those cars)

 

Actually I didnt notice any differences at tips. Geo Prizms are awesome and pretty much unbreakable. I thought about buying one for deliveries, but they start from $2000, thats crazy! I brought the infiniti for $5500

 

OP, 1st off you're a tool! Why would you buy a luxury car to deliver pizzas?

2nd, speaking from experience GEO's are bad-*** but they are what they are you trade MPG for HP/TQ and amenities.

In-fact you trade a lot of things with with move from economy car to luxury car, the I35 its a strong car, your describing small repairs that are not unusual for any car as the mileage goes up. Toyota's have the lowest overall cost of ownership (Camry and Corolla [GEO] being the lowest) of any car on the road. So you can't really complain.

Just remember what made you purchase it in the 1st place you really get a lot of amenities and power for the price. also, repairs depend on how well the previous owner took care of it. So that means you have to be vigilant when picking out a used car.

I'm not even going to go into the 3rd party warranty lol!

 

i have not had any problems at all with my i30 got 127k bought the car when it had 98k, all i do is change oil thats all. and i do drive it hard. i think its just urs, previous owners did not maintain it regularly

 

Look who's talking, pal. "1st off you're a tool" just proves that you're the only tool in this thread so far.

"secondly".... This "luxury car" is just a prettied-up Maxima. Almost all the mechanicals and electrical aspects of the cars are identical or at least very similar. With that said, I am sure that not half as many people would object to this guy using a Maxima to deliver pizzas.

This isn't a BMW, guys...It's not supposed to be expectantly unreliable and finicky like a 'luxury car' often is. This should be as reliable as any other Nissan Maxima on the road -- and hearing about all the parts he replaced, I would have to agree that his particular car was either built on a Friday or not taken care of too well, or whatever. Sucks to hear.

I agree with two things: NKG plugs are best, and you may want to consider buying a 'junker' delivery car that gets better city fuel economy. Consider how much insurance costs would dig into your fuel savings and see what looks best. At the very least you'd have two modes of transportation.

 

anyone on "maxima.org" who does not know an I35 is a maxima please raise your hand.

 

what does that mean? what "proves" im a tool? lol what are you talking about?

 

so you agree with me on both of your points?

1. his is not the norm and may not have been taken care of very well

2. he should buy a beater to deliver pizzas.

 

 

ya'll two need to take it to PM's, and let this thread die. Stop resurrecting just so you can argue at each other

 

Stop resurrecting? lol this thread was still on the first page of the forum! I'd hardly call that a thread resurrection. I will admit though that I assumed it wasn't 3 weeks since its last post since it was still listed on the first page because I'm used to frequenting forums that are much more activity than this where all threads on the first page have been active that day.

 

the i30 sub-forum isnt that active, as most of info can be had from 4th or 5th gen maxima forums

 

In my opinion, car is made to drive so I would enjoy luxury even while delivering pizzas. It doesn't matter if you enjoy the car driving to work or working on it. The only thing that bothered me is gas mileage.

This 3.5L gets better gas mileage for some reason
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/26012.shtml

 

My '02 I35 is getting nowhere near 16mpg in the city, more like 22 city and 32 highway according to my car's Trip computer. If the other members have an opinion, because I haven't done much of a test myself, how accurate is the Trip computer in the I35's in estimating mpg?

Also, the first poster noted how he changed certain parts to deal with his low mpg issue. Since you bought the car, have you looked at the air filter? Might help to get a new one, if you haven't already...

 

^^ amen.

 

Hey, unfortunately trip computer is BS in our cars. Mine shows right now about 21mpg, but last time I calculated, I had 15.5 mpg (counting miles divided by gallons)

Air filter is good, thanks

 

Wow, there's a significant difference between actual vs trip estimated mpg. I might be living a lie, lol. I'll have to do my own tests on my car...

 

Yeah. Do it. The reason I changed a lot of stuff on my car thinking i had gas mileage problem was because people here told me they had great gas milage according tO their trip computer

 

because the motor is nearly 10 years newer..aka newer technology, etc, etc