'99 Max Se 5sp with 120K miles,what to replace?

Front suspension will be getting soft: bushings, struts, mounts. Unless something fails outright, this is insidious - you don't notice it unless you drive another car with fresher suspension parts.

In the engine:

- valve cover gaskets are hard by now & probably leaking.

- you should be ordering the second set of spark plugs right about now.

- Check around the timing chain cover for oil leaks & water pump seepage.

- If you haven't been regularly changing trans fluid, its pretty rank by now. Same with the engine coolant.

- Radiator cap has probably failed. If/when you replace it, look for some component in the cooling system (radiator, heater core, hose) to fail in about 6 months due to the restoration of pressure.

- Accessory belts are shot unless they've been regularly changed.

There are more. Look through the maintenance schedules that came with the car. Lots of things to check.

First, do the 60k maintenance again:

- drain/replace coolant

- new belts

- new OEM platinum plugs

- new fuel filter

- replace gear oil (use Amsoil MTG or Redline MT-90 - both are synthetic GL-4 75w-90 oils)

Definitely get your transmission inspected. The 4th gen 5 speeds are notorious for having problems with differential carrier bearing wear. A tranny shop can find it pretty quickly (they just grab the driver side axle end and see if the diff moves within the tranny housing). Nissan's original transmission assembly did not shim most of these trannys properly, and depending on how badly the bearings were set is how long the transmission will last. If your bearings are wearing too fast you want to catch it early, take it to a manual transmission specialist, and have them re-shim the diff during the rebuild. If you procrastinate the gears/shafts will run misaligned and develop uneven wear and you'll stand much greater risk of sudden failure. I say all this about the 5 speed trannys because I've rebuild over a dozen of them and there are more every day.

There are other things like oil seals and valve cover gaskets that can develop minor oil leaks. Just keep an eye out for that - many maximas go a much longer time than 120k without these leaks and since the leaks are generally harmless there is no need IMHO to get preventive about it.

Dave

I've experienced this 1st hand in my 98 5-speed. The tranny didn't fail, just got incredibly noisy. When I replaced the clutch at 140K miles, I also replaced the differential bearings and all was good.

Was the issue fixed in the 2000 thru 2001 5-speed manual trannies? I remember the Nissan brochure boasting stronger gears in the manual tranny compared to the 99s and below.

CD

I only know of one difference between the 95-99 gears and the 00-01 5 speed gears: slightly modified oil grooving. Perhaps they improved the material a little bit, I dunno. The shafts are definitely the same. I haven't rebuilt enough of the 00-01's to determine if they were built properly, but the couple I've done were correct.

One well-regarded internet source found that when he redid his diff bearings that he needed a different set of bearing shims. Assuming his housings hadn't warped, his postulation that the factory set endplay wrong is a valid one.

But I think it goes beyond that. My experience rebuilding 95-99 5 speeds has resulted in a large pile of diff bearing shims in just 3 sizes. I've never found any other shim size in a stock tranny, although when I rebuild them the shim sizes I use end up all over the tolerance range. (There are over a dozen shim sizes). My hypothesis, which will never be known for sure, is that the original tranny builders did not have the full range of shim sizes onhand to accurately set the diff bearing endplay. So if you were lucky your tranny required the shim sizes that were on hand. If you were unlucky your tranny needed a much different shim size and it left the factory with incorrect endplay setting, doomed to die a premature death. Some trannys died within the factory warranty, but most lasted just long enough to die out of warranty and within the car's typical life.

Most rebuilders will just re-use the shims and not remeasure. They aren't aware of this endplay setting problem, because most trannys are built right in the first place. Most customers don't want to wait the extra days to get the correct shim size from Nissan, and it will easily outlast the 6 month or 12 month rebuilders warranty. I always measure until I'm confident I have the endplay within .001", and use the exact recommended shim size. To avoid delays I keep almost every shim size on hand. (this is only viable because I rebuild 95-01 trannys almost exclusively)

Dave

Wouldn't these issues have appeared before 120K miles ?

My manual tranny died at 125k.

Dave

My alt died at 101k, and just 2 weeks after the alternator recall was announced for 97s. They had nothing to do with each other, but it was very fortunate for me.

IME, starters and alternators are 100-200k items. I would only consider OEM reman replacements. Water pumps tend to go 100-200k also, but they do tend to seep a bit before they die enough to strand you.

If your battery is original it should be replaced.

Dave

Tom Yakulis wrote:

I had to rebuild the tranny in mine max SE. Forget the exact part, but the part alone was quite expensive. Symptoms were very similar to a shot clutch.....would go in gear, but not move.

Thanks for the detailed response. If I ever get back into cars again like I used to be, I may build me what I would term the best Maxima. I would start with the 97-99 body, it's the best size, not too big, not too small, and still the most attractive. Then I'd put the VQ30DE- K from the 2000-2001 Maxima in it. The 3.0 Is still the smoothest V6, and the 2000-2001 Maximas got the most highly developed VQ30. Last, I'd get the 2000-2001 5 speed. I want a rod shifting mechanism, not the cable shifting vagueness in the newer 6 speeds. I think that part of the reason that Nissan went to a cable shifter is to hide some of the harshness of the 3.5s. I know that some Maxima.org people have put

3.5s in their 4th gens. Those must be freaking monsters. But in the long term I would think that the car is not as smooth as before and gets worse gas mileage. Anyhow, I don't really desire a 13 second 4 door sports car. It would be nice, but not essential, just reasonable fast, and smooth.

Or maybe I'll just buy a G35 S 6-speed:)

Just my 2 cents.

CD