While I can't really call it an inheritance, my mom gave me her much-loved 1996 Nissan Maxima when I went to visit her on vacation last month. I've wanted a work beater for a long time (I own vehicles with low gas mileage) and used to bug her about when she was going to sell it to me, since I knew it was approaching 200k, and has probably outlived its life as a commuter car for a woman in her 50's. She always laughed and said "no way! I'm driving it until it falls apart."
That time finally came when it left her stranded-- she says the shop said the ECU needed replacing, and she spent about $400 to fix it; shortly after she bought a new Honda. I don't know that she had any other major issues with it (she's owned it since new), but I did see a new radiator in the service records.
To get to the point, the car has 210k miles. It's the loaded GLE with leather, climate control, sunroof, BOSE audio, pretty much every option available in 1996. The condition was that I had to drive it from St. Louis to Colorado Springs, and it drove flawlessly. Check engine light is on and points to ECU trouble (thought the shop fixed that...! shady mechanics, *SMH*). The trouble codes are P0500, P0605, P0325, P0600. The ones I can remember off hand were "serial communication failure," "VSS Sensor failure," O2 sensor something-or-other, and the fourth I can't remember. It drives fine, shifts fine, you wouldn't know there was any difference had I not read the codes.
That said, the Torque app on my phone shows the car runs in closed loop like it should, fuel trims and timing are nice and pretty; basically nothing is amiss.
I'm curious to see if you guys think this is a ticking time bomb, or if it has some life left in it? I've driven it to work this last week (32 miles each way) and it could easily pass as a 100K mile car. It is a little bit loud at idle, which I haven't discerned whether it's a bad bearing in the accessory drive, or a loud timing chain-- it seems to be one of the two (that side of the engine, that type of noise).
Has anyone owned one of these vehicles, or have some input to give as to longevity? The oil was changed at Valvoline service centers with Maxlife 5w-30 basically its whole life since 100k according to service records. Oddly, there are no leaks other than the typical oozing and grime near oil seals, but nothing that would leave spots on the driveway. Any suggestions on how to prolong this vehicle's life? I am very mechanically inclined and can rebuild an engine if need be, but not too familiar with this car or engine family. All I'm really wanting out of it is a comfortable daily driver that gets decent gas mileage, and so far it seems to be footing the bill just fine. Would like to get the CEL light off, however. I should mention that the car lived most of its life in Nevada and in the last 5 years, Missouri. No rust or corrosion, perfect body. It's a pearl white, so it shows its age extremely well-- could pass as a 5-10 year old car easily. They don't salt roads here in CO, so there should be no corrosion issues going forward.
Any thoughts / suggestions / input / etc. would be appreciated.
That time finally came when it left her stranded-- she says the shop said the ECU needed replacing, and she spent about $400 to fix it; shortly after she bought a new Honda. I don't know that she had any other major issues with it (she's owned it since new), but I did see a new radiator in the service records.
To get to the point, the car has 210k miles. It's the loaded GLE with leather, climate control, sunroof, BOSE audio, pretty much every option available in 1996. The condition was that I had to drive it from St. Louis to Colorado Springs, and it drove flawlessly. Check engine light is on and points to ECU trouble (thought the shop fixed that...! shady mechanics, *SMH*). The trouble codes are P0500, P0605, P0325, P0600. The ones I can remember off hand were "serial communication failure," "VSS Sensor failure," O2 sensor something-or-other, and the fourth I can't remember. It drives fine, shifts fine, you wouldn't know there was any difference had I not read the codes.
That said, the Torque app on my phone shows the car runs in closed loop like it should, fuel trims and timing are nice and pretty; basically nothing is amiss.
I'm curious to see if you guys think this is a ticking time bomb, or if it has some life left in it? I've driven it to work this last week (32 miles each way) and it could easily pass as a 100K mile car. It is a little bit loud at idle, which I haven't discerned whether it's a bad bearing in the accessory drive, or a loud timing chain-- it seems to be one of the two (that side of the engine, that type of noise).
Has anyone owned one of these vehicles, or have some input to give as to longevity? The oil was changed at Valvoline service centers with Maxlife 5w-30 basically its whole life since 100k according to service records. Oddly, there are no leaks other than the typical oozing and grime near oil seals, but nothing that would leave spots on the driveway. Any suggestions on how to prolong this vehicle's life? I am very mechanically inclined and can rebuild an engine if need be, but not too familiar with this car or engine family. All I'm really wanting out of it is a comfortable daily driver that gets decent gas mileage, and so far it seems to be footing the bill just fine. Would like to get the CEL light off, however. I should mention that the car lived most of its life in Nevada and in the last 5 years, Missouri. No rust or corrosion, perfect body. It's a pearl white, so it shows its age extremely well-- could pass as a 5-10 year old car easily. They don't salt roads here in CO, so there should be no corrosion issues going forward.
Any thoughts / suggestions / input / etc. would be appreciated.
