sengle1013

I got my 93 about a year ago. Heres a list of things that have gone wrong and I'm sure I will miss a couple since there are so many. Seems like most of the cats on here have the same silly electrical problems with these beasts.

Injector goes out, cost $500

The passenger front door will not open, it is stuck locked. I would pull the door panel but you can't do that without opening the door, estimated cost for the shop to tear it apart, $350

I replaced all 4 window relays or whatever they are called, cost $6 or $700.

Radio had a horrendous squeal that Nissan 'fixed,' cost, $100. About a month later, it worked intermittently with that goofy relay thing clicking it off and on. Now, nothing, zip.... No radio.

LED for air conditioning works intermittently.

Antenna quit.

What is the deal with these cars electrical systems? Are they that poorly done? Everytime I fix something, another $500 thing goes out. I've never heard of this on other manufacturers. I had a 15 year old Honda and never experienced 1 problem. I don't mean to *****, just venting. On the positive side, the motor is good, it is fast, and it has a great ride and the ac works in spite of no lights. Too bad my poor wife has to climb over the shifter to get in! Can you say crotch shot?????

pezking4

Your car is about 11 years old. A few of those items are just getting tired and old.
Did you have the window regulators replaced? Those are $60/each from Courtesy Nissan, Nissan must have charged a lot for labor. My rear window regulators are broken, and my antenna is broken right now too. I'll just fix them when I can.

jakew8

i feel for you buddy. mine had some of the same problems. (not all at once tho )

good news is that if you remove the seat and all of the kickplate/pillar trim, you may be able to get that door panel off from inside. bad news is that once you get it open, it's still a nightmare in there. especially the locking mechanisms. they're hidden behind a flange and hard to access. plus i'm assuming that you didn't do the window regulators yourself since it cost you $700. so you may not be inclined to mess around with it.

it sounds to me like your previous owner just didn't ever have anything fixed. my car is a 92, it's been in my family since it was new. the injectors were replaced under warranty. i've had three broken regulators and replaced one and 2x4'd the others (people in the rear seat must suffer haha), adjusted my leaky sunroof, replaced my door lock control box, my antenna is still broken*, and i upgraded the stereo myself.

so to sum up, they're not bad cars but they do have problems. you're just getting them all at once.

* if you want your antenna to go down all the way, you have to coax it along by turning the radio on and off repeatedly, letting it go down a little each time. let it go up a tiny bit, then turn it off and it will go down a little more. one step up, two steps down sort of thing.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Only thing that sucks is the people you get to work on your car. They are reaming the living whoo-whoo out of ya.

MaximaGuy719

That's what I was thinking.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

A replacement injector costs about $60. The rest is labor.

The passenger door isn't THAT hard to fix. there's a way to get into it by removing some parts of the door panel, but I'm not too familiar with it. $350 is BS. should cost closer to $60.

Window regulators are $60 each from the dealer and I can replace one in 15 minutes with a #3 phillips screwdriver and a 10mm driver.

Buy a new head unit from anywhere but Bose. Cost will be about $150 for an entry level CD player (which is still better than what's in there) and a bose harness adaptor.


The only person that's got problems with it is your wallet and ability/willingness to work on you own car. All of those are minor problems for a car this old, and can easily be fixed with about $20 in tools and about three hours of labor.

subs1000w

if your the type of person that cant fix basic things like window ragulators or install a radio you shouldnt be driving an 11 year old maxima, you should buy a new hyundai. and your 15 year old honda for one was proboly carburated, had power nothing and had the most basic radio known to man thats why nothing went wrong

jakew8

but isn't the squeaking coming from the amps, thus buying a new headunit wouldn't fix it? wouldn't he be better off replacing the speakers along with the receiver and bypassing the amps?

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

possibly. sometimes the noise comes from the head unit, sometimes it comes from the amps. but yeah, probably would be best to scrap the whole thing- but then it wouldn't make my point as clear.

TrustFundBunny

Dude, I completely feel for you. I love my max. But when I bought it, the entire Bose system was completely gone, the antenna gone, and within 6 mos, all of my window regulators had gone out. Then it got broken into. Then I had a fender bender and got it fixed. Then I got into another fender bender.
Now that I'm no longer a poor and starving college student, I can actually put some money back in my car. Which I've been doing happily until my Mom's boyfriend sideswiped me with his panzy azz 'stang gettin out of the garage yesterday.
Just stick with it, man. My Max frustrates the crap out of me, but I'm all smiles behind the wheel.

MaximaGXE93

My car runs great ::knock on wood:: just did the regular stuff u do with a car that's like 10 years old. Timing belt replacement, one or 2 window regulators, seal up some leaks, cv boots. All good.

Gjohnson

iTrader: (1)

Ok, Trustfundbunny
I can understand the Bose system and window regulators. But other than that you seem to have bad luck with criminals and car wrecks. Which can not be blamed on your Max. As a side note, I would personaly rather scrap the entire bose system and go aftermarket, which I will when I get the extra money.

THX

iTrader: (1)

Just some questions about the Honda:

-does it have power windows
-an LED on the A/C button
-a power antenna

The Max has the potential to have more things go wrong with it because it's more complex. :P I never had a problem with the injectors on my 90gxe, never had a problem with opening my doors, I replaced 1 window regulator (actually just fixed it myself and saved $60), stock radio/cass player is already a POS and I quickly put in an aftermarket one, LED on the A/C works, Power antenna DID fugg up (they all do after a decade in the elements) but I opened it up and cleaned it. It worked great for about a solid 6 months but it's acting up again. They're about $50-$80 on Ebay and super easy to install yourself.

Poor maintenance leads to more problems down the road.

Cliff Clavin

iTrader: (11)

I have had two 92 maxima SEs. The first I drove for over 100K myself. I had to replace the clutch slave cylinder and that was it. The second I bought from my brother, so it has been in the family for about 100k (it has 145k on it now). Here is all of the things replaced by either him or myself: one regulator ($60), the cruise unit (junkyard for $30), the clutch pedal bracket ($50 junkyard).
The VTCs are ticking, but right now it's just a minor annoyance when it's not warmed up. It also stalls every so often but I am getting a used MAF ($25) and hopefully a cam position sensor, which I am not going to pay too much for, either.

As for the radio, bose sucks. I have an Alpine head unit and I don't recommend the adapter, so go to Best Buy or Car Toys or wherever and spend a few hundred bucks on a new aftermarket deck and speakers, totally bypassing the bose.

Now, most of us have similar stories. A few regulators, an antenna, maybe some electronic malfunction. Cars that have 150K miles and have a few hundred dollars worth of repairs are EXTREMELY reliable in my book. My car can still do 140 mph, doesn't smoke or leak and I have barely a squeak or a rattle when I drive it. I get comments on how nice it is all of the time and I would not hesitate to drive it across the country.

There aren't many cars out there with over 100k miles and zero problems. Yours are easy if you do a little research and take the time to do easy things yourself.

BTW, I can blow by just about any Honda that doesn't have about $3000 in mods on it (plus $100 in stickers and a 4-foot aluminum wing) and my car is bone stock. Plus, I have leather, ac, cc, pw, pdl, and more leg room in both the front and back seats than any Honda except maybe the Pilot or Odyssey.

Dielaughing

those antennas... i broke mine after having one of the ampm "big air catcher" dudes on htere, wnet on the freeway w/o taking it off and he caught too much air.
so i just listen to my mp3 player w/o radio.(pioneer premier 730)
replace the bose head unit asap, the speakers have been good to me, but that head unit drove me crazy cutting in and out for 4+ months before i replaced it.
and yea, if you own a car half as old as you, expect to spend some time with her up on jacks... get familiar with HOW your car works in various ways and you'll come to appreciate her so much more when YOU get her working.
$0.02 deposited

rasta man

Just preventative maintenance and lack thereof as it pertains to the previous owner.

I had a '90 SE with 230K on da clock and would do Atlanta to New York in a heartbeat at nothing less than 12 and a half hours. Only problem I had on that car was a bone chilling, ear piercing shreak from the driver side window console.

Tranny was fine, everything. I did struts, lower control arm bushings, ball joints, and a full tune up from time to time...she ran like a thief, and is still the best ride I have had on the highway.

Currently own another max, GXE, and so far this one is going fine (knock on wood), just have a bad vibration up front (probably tires) and everything else is fine.

Had the car for about 2 months and already been to New York three times, going to Miami next week.

One poorly maintained max, doesn't exactly speak for for all the others I have passed, or blew by me on the highway.

Gjohnson

iTrader: (1)

"Tru Dat" and I love the speed and looks of my 9 year old Max. Get this, my mother-in-law came to visit a couple of weeks ago and went on and on about how it must be nice to have to brand new cars (talking about my 03 Trailblazer and 94 Max). Yea, she swore my Max was a new car. That feels good, even though she is a woman that doesn't know a whole lot about cars.

broncoguy

Mine has been in the family for a while too, so I know most of the maintenance history on it. When my parents owned it, it had very regular maintenance. They gave it to mys sister with about 125K on it, and it had OK maintenance. My sister got a new car and was going to get rid of it, so I took it off her hands with 175K on the clock. Has been givng me trouble lately, (needs new injector and manifold studs)but I just try and think of it in terms of a car payment- If I had a new car, I'd be paying at least $300 per month (probably more)so, since I don't have to do that with the Max, I guess some costs her and there aren't too bad...(yet) Still can pi$$ you off, though..

DARHAW-MAX

DARHAW-MAX

sengle1013--

I tell you what. Find a '93 Honda Accord with the same options as your '93 Max and then do a comparison. The last time I looked, I don't see many '93 anythings on the roads; however, the 3rd gen is always an easy spot. Stock--either GXE or SE--will blow the doors off of any unmodified '93 Honda.

Yes, an 11 year old car will have some problems. Quess what, it is called "wear and tear." It comes naturally with ANY car. Shoot, the things you are complaining about are nothing! Even you yourself admit that the engine and ride are top notch. Try that with another manufacture.

Typing about that, my friend has a 2000 Lincoln LS V8. Nice looking car I have to admit. Oh, but at only 28,000 miles and 2.5 years old, HIS DRIVER REAR WINDOW REGULATOR WENT OUT!!! Now that is a piece of shyt! Even though his car was voted by Motor Trend as "Car of the Year," I still don't feel that his car rides a nice as my Maximas. Especially my SE. Goodness forbid that I put on new struts. That LS would not have a chance.

If your Maxima is such as piece of shyt, then sell it and get a new, '03 Honda Accord and get off of this forum. The lucky person that buys your "shyt"--with a little love and understanding--will again blow your doors off while you are paying mad $$$$$$$/month.

nubiannupe

iTrader: (9)

Dielaughing

Originally posted by DARHAW-MAX
sengle1013--

I tell you what. Find a '93 Honda Accord with the same options as your '93 Max and then do a comparison. The last time I looked, I don't see many '93 anythings on the roads; however, the 3rd gen is always an easy spot. Stock--either GXE or SE--will blow the doors off of any unmodified '93 Honda.

Yes, an 11 year old car will have some problems. Quess what, it is called "wear and tear." It comes naturally with ANY car. Shoot, the things you are complaining about are nothing! Even you yourself admit that the engine and ride are top notch. Try that with another manufacture.

Typing about that, my friend has a 2000 Lincoln LS V8. Nice looking car I have to admit. Oh, but at only 28,000 miles and 2.5 years old, HIS DRIVER REAR WINDOW REGULATOR WENT OUT!!! Now that is a piece of shyt! Even though his car was voted by Motor Trend as "Car of the Year," I still don't feel that his car rides a nice as my Maximas. Especially my SE. Goodness forbid that I put on new struts. That LS would not have a chance.

If your Maxima is such as piece of shyt, then sell it and get a new, '03 Honda Accord and get off of this forum. The lucky person that buys your "shyt"--with a little love and understanding--will again blow your doors off while you are paying mad $$$$$$$/month.

sengle1013

First off, I've enjoyed the posts. Thanks all. I agree with alot of the points made here. I wish I knew jack squat about cars but I don't with the exceptoin of brake pads and changing the oil. Back to the radio, what is the absolute cheapest way to get an after market done? I'd like to keep using the speakers, at least the fronts, that came with it. I found a website detailing how to remove the bose head but not sure about which models I can use as far as with the existing speakers. I guess best buy can help me there. Thanks for the responses. My Max does run nice, it flies, I'm sure it will do 120. 75k miles on it.... I got a good deal. Thanks!

oh, by the way, the 90 honda i had was a civic dx power nothing. we bought it new and it had 135k miles on it with the same clutch! you have to admit, that is kinda freaky! (it was ready to go kerplunk at any time)

bonzelite

iTrader: (2)

the antenna is the all-around 3rd gen joke. i just stopped trying to fix it.

the bose sucks, like others have said. just ditch the whole thing. you cannot use the speakers anyway if you change to another brand. dump it.

funny. my window regulators have never messed up. and i have 180k mi. but it is a common problem for most.

all doors function properly. you got shafted there.

the clock never worked. don't care.

yeah. the electrical stuff can be buggy. nissan doesn't score points for that.

Agamemnon

Yup, just replace them with fixed (non-motorized) one, and say goodbye to any problem!

maxified

Just adding my 2 cents:
1989 SE, (14 Years old, bought it in 1997 when it was already 8 years old.)Currenty running 285 Km, (177014 miles. To date, the most work that has been done. replaced starter, clock, brake calipers (all four), fan amplifier. antenna is busted, front passenger window regulator just went. was original part, and rear passenger shock absorber. original as well. As well as I can tell, all the problems I have had, were minor.all the trouble parts were all original, and were all replaced in the last 2 years. Says alot for a car with 14 year old components, doesn't it?

Dielaughing

"the bose sucks, like others have said. just ditch the whole thing. you cannot use the speakers anyway if you change to another brand. dump it."

ummmm i changed out my head unit for a pioneer premier 730 mp3 single-din and although the wiring adapter was kinda tricky (thanks justin) i've had ZERO problems for 14+ months (problems w/stereo that is)
i've kept all the bose speakers and have no complaints as of today

bonzelite

iTrader: (2)

good for you. where there's a will there's a way. ...etc...

i just got rid of the whole damn thing. got polk audio and kenwood.

bonzelite

iTrader: (2)

oh. also, my speedo has never worked correctly since i have owned the car for about 6 years. it goes haywire sometimes, jumping all around the place, then settling down to keep correct speed for a good while. then it goes haywire again. i am so used to it by now that i don't care anymore. i looked into fixing it, too, but expense was way over the top, so i just said f$ck it.

jakew8

i replaced my bose receiver with a bottom-of-the-line pioneer using an adjustable interface box from crutchfield about four years ago and it's been great. amps are good, very deep bass, good highs. i'm not sure why people are always dumping on the bose. also, i just stuck a switch inline with the antenna lead... up when i want it, down (after some trying) when i don't.

DARHAW-MAX

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

Seriously, all of the 92ish model accords I've seen have had blue smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe. I should say that my dad used to have a 92 accound, which he bought from the factory, he ran it for about 6 years, put 180,000miles on it with the only problem being a distributor which was a factory recall with 50,000 more miles than the recall aloted.

He sold it when he did because he knew it was going to start falling apart soon. Good car for a daily driver, but he never layed into it or anything.


Now use my old Black 3rd gen for example. We paid $5000 for it and it ran perfect and continued to run perfect. Hell the damn thing even ran when the rest of the body was totaled beyond repair. That engine was swapped into another Maxima and is still running today.

Gjohnson

iTrader: (1)

I don't see what the big deal is about the anntena anyway. I haven't listened to the radio in about 4 months.

Agamemnon

Hey, I listened to the radio all the time! Mainly because that's all the car has! No CD player, and the cassette player is broken. Who listens to cassette anymore anyway? I sure don't have any cassette left in my possession. So it's NPR all the time!

PRICEL$$

I totally understand where you are coming from. My 92 SE is a POS. Good thing my husband and I know how to work on cars. When I got it broken window regulator(no biggie fixed it), Broken antennae(fixed as well), Broken manifold studs(next on the list as well as knock sensor, valve cover gasket and whatever else seems to bad which I'm sure I will find plenty of. Oh just replaced slave cylinder last week too. I had a 91 SE a few years ago. MUCH better car. Seemed just as fast as this one. Probably cause this one runs slower than my husbands 91 Civic wagon. As far as Hondas go I have a del sol that will definetly beat my SE even if it was running right. And no it is not modded all to hell. Just an intake and header. True it does way 600 pounds less and I can't take my two kids with me either, but it also has half the displacement and two less cylinders, which is why I bought the SE. Hopefully one day I will get al the s**t fixed with it and love it like I loved my VG SE.

bonzelite

iTrader: (2)

do you feel that the VE years are of less quality than the VG cars in general?

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

nope, if the VE was of less quality, people wouldnt swap for VE parts.

anaximander

iTrader: (1)

I'm sorry to dig this up, but del sol is a bigger joke than a civic. I've test driven one, and was glad that I made it back to the dealership in one piece. It's slow, cheap, uncomfortable, and absolutely horrendous in visual street control.

Cliff Clavin

iTrader: (11)

that's funny because I wanted a Del Sol and test drove a 95 VTEC. I thought it sucked, so I bought my 95 200SX instead... It was about $3K cheaper, just as fast and more comfortable (mine had every option available except auto)

Plus, with an intake and exhaust, I got 40 mpg going to and from Reno (about 900 miles RT) with the AC on, a passenger and two cases of Jack Daniels in the trunk on the way home, along with our luggage in the back seat. Try that in a Del Sol!

I think you can't really compare a two seat 4-cyl coupe to a 6-cyl, 4-door sedan. Totally different functions.

Paul89SE

I bought my 89' SE six months ago and have had problems that any 14 year old car would have. I had the timing belt and tranny fluid changed when i got it because they were due. Then the clutch blew up on me, it was only a year old. (the teeth from the pressure plate caught a spring on the clutch). So i needed the flywheel machined, pressure plate, clutch disc, slave cylinder, throwout fork and release bearings. Then a month later the power steering pump blew up on the highway, it scared the sh*t out of me. I have access to a parts car and have done little things that needed to be done. I switched over an oxygen sensor, y-pipe and cat. Window and center console (after break in). And I've put new brakes and rotors on.
All in all I've put more money into the car than I paid for it. It has 145,000 on it and will probably go another 145,000. There are certain points in a cars life that you have to dish out a crap load of money. But atleast it's better than making payments on a frickin Khia.