I am getting ready to buy quite a few parts for the wifes 2001 Maxima. Parts like the ignition coils,throtle body,mass air flow,pcv valve,tps, and motor mounts. I know alot of people on this board buy their parts from Rock Auto and I was wondering since most buy non OEM parts from them, are there any parts to NOT buy from them because of performance/quality issues? The prices for OEM parts and other brands that are not OEM are ridiculous for this car.

Courtesy Nissan of Richardson Texas was trying to explain a problem with my car one time.
The minute i told them i had a MAF sensor from Auto Zone they qualified the solution of the
problem saying the electronic part i bought is causing questionable results. Cheaper parts can
lead to more problems later sometimes.

I generally stay with Nissan on the electronic stuff. Hopefully it has a higher quality control
but i can guarantee you somebody else feels differently

If I do use non Nissan parts I use Standard Motor Parts (Intermotor) Brand.. Those cost more than others but I've not have a problem with their stuff to date.

The general consensus is to use OEM (i.e., "Nissan") parts for ignition and electronics (for example, the ignition coils, MAF sensor, IACV, etc,). and non-OEM parts elsewhere (for example, brakes, engine mounts, etc.).

Maxiiboy, I ended up getting some beck arnley mounts, and the front one, I got the electronic one that is required. Man both my mounts i replaced, the front and the right side, were tore up badly. The right side one is what was causing my car to have a rattle being heard when idling, and the front one was what was causing there to be a clunk noise upon accelerating out of a stop, as well as hard shifting and even the car to feel a slight lunge forward just before coming to a stop. I also replaced throttle positioning sensor after reading some symptoms that can occur when one is starting to go out or is actually out.

It said that the tps sensor sends a message basicly to the computer letting it know when the engine needs to shift and the position of your throttle. well i figured it must not be working right cause the engine allways seemed to be shifting late cause the way the engine sounded like it was laboring and whinning out before s*** and even sounded funny when it did shift, like a real slow long shift instead of smooth and quick. Well man oh man, what a difference now the way the car runs, shifts, and feels overall. I kid you not, it feels like it did when it was new and it is a 2001. Man it shifts soooo smooth and with the new mounts there is no more clunking at any point what so ever. now goona replace coil packs, knock sensor, maybe even the maf sensor cause they have all never been replaced and we have 142,000 miles on it. Very very happy how good the car runs now.

Glad to hear the car drives well.

However, why rush replacing parts that are working fine and might be good for a while, perhaps even several years? In most cases, the ECU will tell you when something is wrong. Instead of buying parts that you may (or need not) need, invest $50 into an ODBC code reader (for example, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007L ... UTF8&psc=1 ).

Re. your new front mount: Since you purchased the electronic version, you should be aware of the fact that when these mounts fail, they can fry your ECU. Even a new mount can fail .... The repair is both expensive and messy. For this reason, most of us don't buy the electronic mounts, and if we still have the originals (as I do), we disconnect them. Visit maxima.org - there are many posts on this subject.

What about just disconnecting the wire to the electronic mount? Yeah I heard that they can fry your computer. Will the car react differently if u disconnect the mount as far as how it cushions the motor?

A failing electronic engine mount will create buzzing/whirring sound when engine is turned off. It would be better to disconnect it rather than 'fry' the ECU. The electronic engine mount is primarily designed to minimize engine vibration at idle or low RPM. It stiffen up beyond 1500RPM. Disabling it will just revert the engine mount to standard.

I run my 99 I30 Automatic with the electric mount unplugged. The car mysteriously lost an ECU a few years ago. I'm not taking any chances. The manual transmission models don't use the electric mount.