Hi, 7 years later I'm finally unloading my accident magnet 01 Accord V6. Anyway, I put a deposit down on a gold 02 I-35, with 64,000. they want 8,500 for it... and I'm haggling with them about the cost of the repair for the power passenger seat broken motor. I love the power on this engine... but I'm concerned about anything else mechanically that might be wrong with this car. I saw some of you mention the ignition coils going bad... any way to test them? I'm taking it to a Jap Import mechanic this week to have it thoroughly looked over. Any issues with the timing chain??? I took it for a drive and there is obvious warpage on the front rotors slowing from 70 mph +. How much do brakes usually cost on this thing?? Is there any way to make this car ride a little softer, or is it inherently cursed with the low-profile tire /agressive shocks/struts combo?.(I was cross shopping a 1st generation Acura RL with this car, (Think lexus LS ride and feel)) but it doesn't have an aftermarket radio install kit, or a 60/40 folding rear seat. Besides spark plugs being an obvious pain in the *** to change, how easy is is to work on this car? I saw the shop whipping boy adding O'Reilys green coolant to the radiator and diluting with water from an unknown source... so I'm figuring that a coolant flush is in order as soon as I buy it. I'm an avid weekend do-it-yourselfer. I managed to replace the starter contacts in my 1999 Toyota Avalon by myself and totally surprised myself after just doing minor tune-up stuff on both my cars. Thank you all for you help in advance

 

Coils, MAF, power steering hose leak, oil pan leak, front suspension parts are good things to check on an I30/I35. I'm sure others will chime in on more stuff.

 

Check the coolant level on separate occasions to make sure it's not leaking. Also check the radiator support to see if it's rusted or corroded.

 

And of course, try all of the electronics to make sure they're all working as they should be.

If it has the Bose system, there's more entailed if you ever want to swap it out to something aftermarket (ample information here on how to do that)

 

overall it's a stout car...my mom has a I35, we havent done damn near no maintenance since it's been in teh family for the last 5+ years...i think my brother initially bought it w/ 90k miles and now it has 113k miles belonging to my mother. i've done the spark plugs as preventative maintenance. the SES light just came on but as most maximas/I30/I35s i'm 99% sure it's just the oxygen sensor, which i'm not even stressing because i've gotten my best MPG on my 00 maxima w/ that same code for teh longest. i'm pretty sure you'll be happy w/ it. only OBVIOUS thing that's possible to happen...is the radiator cracking, you'll know when you see your engine jizzed up lol. i dont know if its more mileage based or age, but they are known to fail around 100k-120k form what i've seen on the forum and experienced

 

60,000 miles will put some wear on the suspension, so replace it if you want a different ride.

I would have stopped the whipping boy and demanded a flush when I saw that. Flush & replace with fluid straight from dealer.

Car should be reasonable to work on. Fluids are easy & there is even a transmission drain plug. I did a cabin air filter change in my '00 I-30 (5th gen) and it was nice and quick. Lots of direction here on the org for other things makes working on it easy. I'm tackling MAF & throttle body cleaning this weekend.