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the 100k mark is assuming you got a good engine and free from internal oil leaks. it's very easy to change plugs. disconnect battery, pull coil 1, unscrew plug, put antiseize in new plug thread, screw it in with a torque wrench (do avoid stripping the head) or tighten it until resistance is felt, put little grease in the boot, install coil, repeat steps to other plugs, connect battery, and start it up.
Not that easy buddy seems there is prep for this...I may just do it myself and save $200 but I also have to get gaskets and all items while "I am there: to change too
Not that easy buddy seems there is prep for this...I may just do it myself and save $200 but I also have to get gaskets and all items while "I am there: to change too
I edited my post while you were typing The plugs are easy to replace it's just time consuming to remove everything on top.
Well my gas mileage was not too bad on my 04, so I went past the Nissan-suggested mileage for replacing the plugs. I had mine done at 120 K miles, and the gas mileage did not change substantially with the new plugs. You can tell that the old plugs are worn, but I would not describe them as "toast."
One thing where my situation may differ from yours - almost half of my mileage is interstate driving. I have taken a good number of highway trips with my Max - a great car on the road. Highway driving is the easiest on an engine, and presumably also on the plugs.
Another way my driving may not be typical - I have a 6-speed manual. I also live about 1000 feet in elevation above the city, and must drive down hill about 5 miles every time I leave home. I use my transmission to get engine braking - I still have the original pads and rotors on my brakes because of this. This engine braking is harder on an engine than using the brakes, but not so bad that I would stop doing it. I would not do it with an auto trannie because it is also hard on them - but the manual trannies handles this like a champ.
Wow I just got done replacing the plugs. Started on Saturday at around 3pm and finished on Sunday 11am . If I had to this again, I now could say I could do in under 2hrs. Lots of little parts to take off the car to get access to bolts unhinge the intake manifold. Not impressed with the engine setup nor access to these plugs. Nissan was thinking $$$ when these needed to be replaced. My plugs were toast, I dont expect my mileage to be any better than before, but this is one step closer to actually posting a ad for this car to sell. 2 more items to take care and goodbye
had a question of subject and any help would be appreciated. im gona be replacing the spark plugs my 04 i35 some time soon and was wondering if it would be worth my time to have the intake ported and polished? my concern is if i increase the flow of the air coming in without improving the flow of the exhaust would it affect the way the motor runs?
More than likely you will reduce the intake air drag through the intake system without a comparable reduction in the exhaust system. But unless you know what is the limiting factor in this complete system, you can't be certain which end needs to be worked on. The worst case, if you do the intake work, is that the extra cost spent on these parts will not provide the boost in performance you expected. There is essentially no probability that this work will have a negative impact on your engine's operation - just not the boost you expected.
I suspect the limiting factor in getting more air and fuel through your engine is the cat converter-muffler combination. If you put an exhaust cut-out in front of the cat converter, that you would use when on a track, then doing this work on your intake system would very likely boost the flow through your engine when you were on the track using the exhaust cut-out. I think that is what you are looking for - improved performance on the track. This would also keep you street legal in some locations.
Wow I just got done replacing the plugs ... Not impressed with the engine setup nor access to these plugs. Nissan was thinking $$$ when these needed to be replaced. My plugs were toast, I dont expect my mileage to be any better than before...
I missed this post last January and just now notice it. The Nissan VQ engine (V6) has been rated as one of the 10 best engines in the world for over 10 years. It is actually probably in the top 5 of this top 10 rating. Nissan has tweaked this design over those years, but it remains a great engine. Nissan uses essentially this same V6 engine in a number of applications including the Maxima. In the front-wheel drive Maxima (and other front-wheel drive applications), Nissan wanted a transverse mounted engine so that no differential type gears were needed to change the direction of rotation by 90 degrees. With the V6 design and the transverse mounting, this places 3 of the spark plugs against the fire-wall at the back of the engine compartment. The only design change that would make access to those back three plugs easier would be to substantially increase the size of the engine compartment - not going to happen.
We are lucky that both gasoline and spark plugs have both been substantially improved since the 1950's when spark plugs and points were changed about every 10K miles or so. Now we can go over 10 times further before making the plug change - and points are long gone.
You said your plugs were toast - but you did not say how many miles they had on them. The books calls for changing at 105K miles, and I changed mine at 110K miles. I noticed no difference in gas mileage, and mine looked to be in reasonable shape - certainly not toast. But then my Max had a great deal of highway miles in that 110K - and that is some of the easiest miles on engines and plugs.
Note, my rear 3 were worse than the front. I know some will check the front since easy to see if it's needed. Well if I would have waited, my rears could have gotten bad.
Plugs, PCV, and spacers. Personally was worth the $ to have a professional do it. I'm so over wrenching for hours wasting a day triple checking myself . Was worried about the PCV valve at 88k, but looked good and still rattled.
I missed this post last January and just now notice it. The Nissan VQ engine (V6) has been rated as one of the 10 best engines in the world for over 10 years. It is actually probably in the top 5 of this top 10 rating. Nissan has tweaked this design over those years, but it remains a great engine. Nissan uses essentially this same V6 engine in a number of applications including the Maxima. In the front-wheel drive Maxima (and other front-wheel drive applications), Nissan wanted a transverse mounted engine so that no differential type gears were needed to change the direction of rotation by 90 degrees. With the V6 design and the transverse mounting, this places 3 of the spark plugs against the fire-wall at the back of the engine compartment. The only design change that would make access to those back three plugs easier would be to substantially increase the size of the engine compartment - not going to happen.
We are lucky that both gasoline and spark plugs have both been substantially improved since the 1950's when spark plugs and points were changed about every 10K miles or so. Now we can go over 10 times further before making the plug change - and points are long gone.
You said your plugs were toast - but you did not say how many miles they had on them. The books calls for changing at 105K miles, and I changed mine at 110K miles. I noticed no difference in gas mileage, and mine looked to be in reasonable shape - certainly not toast. But then my Max had a great deal of highway miles in that 110K - and that is some of the easiest miles on engines and plugs.
I wouldnt follow anything Nissan says anymore after owning this car...Top 10 engine or how said top 5 in what? Not trying to argue with you but I am not all impressed with the engine after owning this money pit for over 2 years. The engine feels heavy, the motor mounts connected to the engine are a very sloppy design that it makes the engine feel heavy and jerky with a 6 speed. I changed my plugs at 89k my mechanic looked at them and told I should just changed them out. Which I did. They look toast to me but to me that means dirty and in need of being replaced.
Well, there is a thread on this site with this title:
'Wards Praises 3.5L VQ Engine in Detail'
That is Wards Automotive - discussing the 3.5 L VQ engine.
But the link I have to this thread no longer works. If anyone can find this thread, please provide a link. In it is a detailed article from Wards about the great VQ engine.
Nissan is not saying this, and neither am I - it is Wards making this statement.
Hey, car has been traded in...I was just talking about engine and transmission. I have of course went though many sets of tires, changed break pads and rotors and the rear calipers not long ago.
It was making a loud squeel at startup at times and I think it was going to need the belt replaced or a tensioner or something....that along with the plugs and tires were reaching the end of life as well. Never the transmission fluid though, and never any problems. I knew if I kept it ID be in for a couple grand.
Draining the coolant, while changing spark plugs?? Your plugs and coolant are two separate issues, so ???. Stick w/ the OEM plugs, it will save you a lot of headaches. I have found NEVER, NEVER use American brand plugs in Jap cars.
I had a shop changed out the plugs ~115K miles ... No improvements felt or seen at all. The old plugs were still in good working shape.
They charged about 3hrs labor + parts (plugs, gaskets ...). Afterward I had a small engine oil leak (can't see but could smell sometime).
Also there was some sorta air leak (I swear I could hear it).
So no more replacing the plugs for me, unless something goes wrong (misfires ...). My Murano is going strong with 149Kmiles on the
original plugs. I don't own the 04MaximaSE any longer.
It takes about 35 minutes -- after you have removed all of the parts that cover the plugs. Figure a total of at least 2 to 2.5 hours -- and some work as well.
Why would you replace plugs that work fine for at least 100 K miles at only 55 K miles? No good reason to do that. They are expensive and time consuming. Remember, I ran my plugs to about 120 K miles with no problem at all.
Replacement of plugs should be based on Nissan recommendation plus how hard you drive you car. I did not drive my car very hard very often and pushed replacement to 120 K miles.
Last edited by SilverMax_04; 01-15-2015 at 03:34 PM.
I had a shop changed out the plugs ~115K miles ... No improvements felt or seen at all. The old plugs were still in good working shape.
They charged about 3hrs labor + parts (plugs, gaskets ...). Afterward I had a small engine oil leak (can't see but could smell sometime).
Also there was some sorta air leak (I swear I could hear it).
So no more replacing the plugs for me, unless something goes wrong (misfires ...). My Murano is going strong with 149Kmiles on the
original plugs. I don't own the 04MaximaSE any longer.
Updates: OK... I think I jinxed myself on the Murano. The very next day, it got a P0302 (cyl#2 misfire) --> the coil went bad, the plug actually was still OK.
Anyway, it's time to replace all the plugs. I also replaced 3 coils in the back (same age, odds are high they may fail later as #2, difficult to replace -for me-).
One of the old (working) coils went to #2 and I keep the other two as backups). The shop charged 3hr labor again, mucho$$$ for this mishap.
If the plugs didn't have that high-mileage .... I would just replace the #2coil by myself for little$$$.
My original Platinum/Iridium plugs that came originally on the car went 305,000km! I only changed them because I was taking the car on a road trip to Vancouver. Replaced them with the same plugs, let's hope the new plugs get me another 300,000km!
My original Platinum/Iridium plugs that came originally on the car went 305,000km! I only changed them because I was taking the car on a road trip to Vancouver. Replaced them with the same plugs, let's hope the new plugs get me another 300,000km!
That is quite good. For those in the US who don't think in terms of kilometers, you got about 190 thousand miles on those plugs - almost twice the Nissan recommended mileage.
That is quite good. For those in the US who don't think in terms of kilometers, you got about 190 thousand miles on those plugs - almost twice the Nissan recommended mileage.
Yup I think they would have easily gone longer as well, just decided to change them since it was a mini road trip and they had never been done on my 06 Maxima, a small tune up so to speak. The vehicle has been pretty great overall, currently at 310,000km. Only major repair was the infamous timing chain issue. Luckily for me I know a Nissan tech who also works from home and did the job fairly cheap, though he kept the car for a week.
I couldn't change mine until I removed the windshield wipers and all of that stuff holding them in. What a pain! Nissan should be a shame but then again the plan was for you to take it to the dealer to get that done. At 130.00 per hour, they can kiss me grits.
Last edited by nupe84; 08-25-2015 at 08:39 AM.
Reason: add verbage
I couldn't change mine until I removed the windshield wipers and all of that stuff holding them in. What a pain! Nissan should be a shame but then again the plan was for you to take it to the dealer to get that done. At 130.00 per hour, they can kiss me grits.
You are right. Not a cheap job by the dealer. I did so (plugs) with my 03 at about 100k miles only because of the back rocker cover was leaking oil. Cost around $800.
My 2008 Maxima SL is fully stock.
It has 125k miles and I noticed a rough idle, so I decided to change the spark plugs.
Once changing the spark plugs, I decided to change the coil not boot (and spring) as well.
I changed the list plenum gasket. This took me 10 hours - every !#*$& screw/hose/clamp gave me trouble. I also didn't have the proper tools for this job with this car (since there's no space anywhere) and this caused everything to take longer.
I bought the parts in rockauto, they recommended the NGK LFR5AIX-11 as the OEM replacement, so I got that.
The spark plugs that I took out were actually the DILFR5A11, which is what I later saw that the SM calls for. (Incidentally, Amazon incorrectly claims that the DILFR5A11 does not fit my car.)
when I started my car again, I immediately got a few codes, which I cleared. Two of the codes were p0223 and p1217, I'm not sure what the 3rd was. Not sure if this matters, but at one point, I pushed the butterfly valve of the intake with my finger just out of curiosity.
I drove the car for a mile (prob made it up to 30 - 40 mph) and all was fine. The next day, I drove it to work - around 10 miles. After 9 miles or so, I gave gas and it took a second to register, but once it did, I was driving ~40-50 mph A mile later, at a red light, the car started idling very roughly. After I turned, it started jumping very roughly (I'm gonna take an uneducated guess that everything was misfiring) and was just getting worse. The tachometer was bouncing up and down, I barely rolled into a parking spot at work. After work, I cleared the codes and tried driving again, but the car was really jumping. Then I started hearing popping noises from the engine area, so I pulled over and towed the car to the shop. At this point, the car had a p1217.
when the mechanic got around to looking at the car few days later, it wouldn't start.
He told me he took the spark plugs out and put them back in and the car started working again. He didn't see anything wrong.
After paying $265 for nothing other than labor, I decided to check for pending codes before starting a 70 mile drive. I found p0113 and p0300 pending and I brought the car right back into the shop.
My 2008 Maxima SL is fully stock.
It has 125k miles and I noticed a rough idle, so I decided to change the spark plugs.
Once changing the spark plugs, I decided to change the coil not boot (and spring) as well.
I changed the list plenum gasket. This took me 10 hours - every !#*$& screw/hose/clamp gave me trouble. I also didn't have the proper tools for this job with this car (since there's no space anywhere) and this caused everything to take longer.
I bought the parts in rockauto, they recommended the NGK LFR5AIX-11 as the OEM replacement, so I got that.
The spark plugs that I took out were actually the DILFR5A11, which is what I later saw that the SM calls for. (Incidentally, Amazon incorrectly claims that the DILFR5A11 does not fit my car.)
when I started my car again, I immediately got a few codes, which I cleared. Two of the codes were p0223 and p1217, I'm not sure what the 3rd was. Not sure if this matters, but at one point, I pushed the butterfly valve of the intake with my finger just out of curiosity.
I drove the car for a mile (prob made it up to 30 - 40 mph) and all was fine. The next day, I drove it to work - around 10 miles. After 9 miles or so, I gave gas and it took a second to register, but once it did, I was driving ~40-50 mph A mile later, at a red light, the car started idling very roughly. After I turned, it started jumping very roughly (I'm gonna take an uneducated guess that everything was misfiring) and was just getting worse. The tachometer was bouncing up and down, I barely rolled into a parking spot at work. After work, I cleared the codes and tried driving again, but the car was really jumping. Then I started hearing popping noises from the engine area, so I pulled over and towed the car to the shop. At this point, the car had a p1217.
when the mechanic got around to looking at the car few days later, it wouldn't start.
He told me he took the spark plugs out and put them back in and the car started working again. He didn't see anything wrong.
After paying $265 for nothing other than labor, I decided to check for pending codes before starting a 70 mile drive. I found p0113 and p0300 pending and I brought the car right back into the shop.
Any clue as to what went wrong?
Was this the first time you have every changed the plugs on a Maxima?
Was this the first time you have every changed the plugs on a Maxima?
Yup.
The issue was that I plugged a coolant line into the evap line (and vice versa).
My car is so pissed at me right now.
My mechanic cleaned it the carbon filter and the car runs, but not very well.
It randomly starts shaking hard when I'm driving. I have pending misfire codes (p0300, which has been here for a while, p0301, p0302 that I've only seen for a bit).
Yesterday, my CEL started flashing. I pulled over, shut off and restarted the car and the flashing stopped.
Sometimes the gas pedal is unresponsive.
My remote starter doesn't always work now because the car doesn't always start up right away.
You gotta figure that out quick. PO301 and P0302 are misfires when you have a flashing cell light. Those two things together means you are shooting raw fuel out your exhaust which is a big no-no for your catalytic converters. You cook those converters and you'll be shelving the car, for they are not cheap.
You gotta figure that out quick. PO301 and P0302 are misfires when you have a flashing cell light. Those two things together means you are shooting raw fuel out your exhaust which is a big no-no for your catalytic converters. You cook those converters and you'll be shelving the car, for they are not cheap.
Well, if I were you, I would disassemble and reassemble bank 2, which is the rear bank since you have P0301, so you can sort out cylinder 1. While doing that, I would (1) make sure the spark plugs are torqued correctly, (2) gaped appropriately, (3) check the coil pack tubes for arching, and (4) make sure your spark plug connectors are correct. The connector for cylinder 1 can be a pickle...you might have mucked that one up.
Do the same for cylinder 2 since you have a P0302. That one is easy since it is in the front and wide open for access, but I would just do all of them and be done with it.
Well, if I were you, I would disassemble and reassemble bank 2, which is the rear bank since you have P0301, so you can sort out cylinder 1. While doing that, I would (1) make sure the spark plugs are torqued correctly, (2) gaped appropriately, (3) check the coil pack tubes for arching, and (4) make sure your spark plug connectors are correct. The connector for cylinder 1 can be a pickle...you might have mucked that one up.
Do the same for cylinder 2 since you have a P0302. That one is easy since it is in the front and wide open for access, but I would just do all of them and be done with it.
I didn't take out the back spark plugs yet. I lifted the back seat and pumped out all the gas. Found what appears to be antifreeze, that would explain everything. I really don't think the spark plugs themselves were the issue, although perhaps they got mucked up by the coolant.
I didn't get every single droplet of gas, there was still a few ounces of gas left, some of that was probably coolant.
I added a 4 gallons of gas and a bottle of Iso-Heet.
When I started up again, it was still misfiring.
This is one of my brand new plugs (#6) after 20 miles of driving. (I didn't take out the others yet.) I looked into the bottom of the cylinder and it looked pretty dirty.
I'm thinking that I should change the fuel filter before trying again.
Anybody have any thoughts they want to share?
share.
That was certainly a big part of the issue.
I ended up buying a 2013 Mazda 6 (standard tranny, 4 cyl). It's a stripped down model and compared to my 08 Max SL, it's..... it's just so different. The Max is bigger, more comfortable and fully loaded.
I had left the Maxima alone for the past month. I started it up again today and let it run for like 4 hours to clean out the system.
It drove much better, although there were still a relatively small number of misfires. On one 5 mile drive I actually had 0 misfires which surprised me.
However, on a later drive, #6 started misfiring again. I switched the coil to number 4 and it went from 0 misfires on # 4 and a few thousand on #6 to 0 on # 6 and a few hundred in a few minutes on #4.
I ordered a Denso coil pack and I'll swap that out when that arrives. Hopefully, the car will drive nicely after that.
If this baby gets better, I'll prob sell the Mazda. For some reason, insurance is 2x the price on that thing.
01-18-2012, 08:45 AM
The plugs are easy to replace it's just time consuming to remove everything on top.
Nissan should be a shame but then again the plan was for you to take it to the dealer to get that done. At 130.00 per hour, they can kiss me grits.
