I have a 2010 Maxima that I've had since new and over the past couple days there's a groaning/whining sound that's coming from the front of the car. You can really hear it when going about 60mph on the highway and letting off the gas. My wife also mentioned that she was in traffic the other day and went to start moving from a dead stop and it felt like the car jerked into gear (which is ironic since its a CVT). The car has 67K miles on it. I tried searching on the forum to see if anyone else has had these symptoms but no luck. The only thing I could find is were previous generation Maxima's were having issues with their timing belt and needed replacing. Any suggestions on what it could be? It's at the dealer right now getting checked out.

 

By chance have you changed out the original CVT fluid?

 

I've had the car maintained by Nissan since the day I bought it. Is that something they would do during the time I've owned it under routine maintenance? I just had them to a 60K service a few months ago, other than that just normal oil changes.

 

Please let us know the results.. sorry to hear this, I am interested to c what it was

 

They would have def done it at 60k service if not 30k I'm changing mine at the 30k mark since this is the premium maintenance schedule I'd look at the 60k service write up to make sure they did it then to be sure.

 

Just got a call from Nissan and it was the front left wheel bearing that went bad. Replacement with labor included is $440. He said the jerking forward motion when starting from a dead stop was from the fuel system being clogged and said it needs to be flushed. Cost for that was $170......I think I'll hold out on getting that done. I may not keep the maxima much longer after the issues we've had with it since new.

 

That's usually not the cases with max... They usually never die

 

That's what I was thinking.....I asked the rep if it's fairly normal that these fail and he said yeah he's seen them fail anywhere from 60K to 120k miles. This seems fishy to me. I've had way too many problems with this car in the first two years. I may sell it here soon and I probably won't buy a nissan again.

 

brtn540 - I feel your pain. Although a completely different car, my girlfriend's '06 Hyundai Accent at 120k miles was experiencing a similar issue with the jerking motion (especially noticable at high speeds). We also thought it was the timing belt, or the tranny (which Hyundai had already replaced around the 58k marker).

I brought it to a local garage. They recommended a $400 job where they would replace coils, reconnect any wires & spark plugs, and vacuum out Carbon Dioxide buildup. I thought it was a hokey idea but the gf insisted on doing it. Turns out that their $400 job did fix the issue.

I know you are unhappy with the Maxima, and Nissan's build quality in general. However, it may be worth it to get a 2nd opinion and/or take the mechanic's sugestion in fixing the front wheel bearing and flushing the fuel system. Doing so would be cheaper than paying for another new ride.

 

I got all types of issues with the front end on this car. I have to say this is the worse Maxima (out of 3), that i ever owned. Build quality wise.