2000 Nissan Maxima SE 3.0 V6 from North America
Summary:
Great until 90k, but what a disappointment after that!
Faults:
Vehicle was great, as were many others that posted here, until about 90k. MAF was replaced, rear brakes replaced, #4 Coil replaced along with all plugs and wires, etc. Now, at 107,000 miles., SES light is on. I am being told that all three cats are bad (CA emissions on vehicle) plus all the O2 sensors and a code for #4 cylinder misfire. Um, about $3,500 to fix it all. The car had been great, but the repairs are becoming too costly to keep. Buy it and drive it up to about 90k then dump it. Really too bad. It was a great car.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 17th December, 2007
10th Nov 2014, 18:43
Sounds like the OP is eating deferred maintenance on behalf of the previous owner.
I just sent my Max to the glue factory after 190k mostly trouble free miles, and I have no issues with what did eventually fail.
MAF and coils are a soft spot on these cars and I did both, but thankfully they were early on and covered by the warranty at the time.
I had one front pre-cat go at about 110k and I repaired it myself; picked up an Eastern Catalytic for about $300 and unbolted the old, put in the new. Wasn't much fun getting a face full of rust bits as they dropped down, but it wasn't the hardest repair either. Six big nuts (and some PBlaster) and it comes off.
I do sympathize that a 14 year old car is in need of $3000 worth of repairs, since I sold mine for about half of that amount, albeit with far more miles. Winter is what did mine in, it was a bit of a rusty mess.
If in California, I would say find an independent mechanic to fix for probably less than half the cost and keep rolling. I could have hit 200k, and if not for the rust, probably much more since the 3.0 VQ ran like a top.
8th Nov 2014, 16:25
This is the reason there are so many reliability complaints on this car. The 1st or 2nd owner does no real maintenance at all, and sells car while it still runs good to an unsuspecting buyer, and now the buyer is stuck with even more repairs than they should have ever had.
For instance, if you drive around with misfires for a week, you ruin your O2 sensors and clog your cats, or if you drive on a few bad suspension bushings, then your ball joints, axles and struts take way more abuse than they should.
I have read nearly every post here, and aside from coils that only last 90,000 miles and sensitive MAF sensors, nearly every other problem is the result of deferred maintenance or simply none at all.
Finally, those of you that have over 150,000 miles should take a stroll through a junk yard sometime and pay attention to all the non wrecked cars there, but you will not find many Nissans at all, let alone many Maximas.