New to the world of Infiniti Qx4

[Infinitidood412]

Hey I just got a 99' Qx4 and I have a lot of questions. First off is it worth it to do performance modifications to this car? I know it’s a really slow car but I am just wondering if you guys think it’s worth it. (I don’t do any towing) Second, I am a total noob when it comes to little details but when you buy “halogen” bulbs for the headlights, all your buying is the bulb right? Or are there more wires or something else that comes with buying halogens that I am totally missing. Back to the performance note, what kind of air intakes do they offer for the Q? And do they sell smoked tail lights/clear corner head lights for it. I know I am a dumbass but if anyone has some answers hit me up. Thanks!

[fueler]

The headlights are halogen and all you need is the bulb BEWARE - the bulbs are different from 99 year to 99.5 year. The in-store bulb application guides do not reflect this correctly. 96-99 uses 9004 99.5+ uses 9003 (until they switched to HID)

[Infinitidood412]

Ha, i dont know what i have.....where would it say 1999.5?

[fueler]

Ha, i dont know what i have.....where would it say 1999.5?

It would say it on the window sticker that originally came with the QX4 when it was new The legit way is to go by production date The easy way:

do you have a knob + huge lever for 4x4? If so, its just 99 Do you have ONLY a knob for 4x4, and a gigantic cupholder with a open/close lid? 99.5

[Infinitidood412]

ok, i just have a knob and the big cupholder...so im looking for a 9003 then?

[fueler]

ok, i just have a knob and the big cupholder...so im looking for a 9003 then?

Yup. You have a 99.5 Qx4 which has several subtle differences from the 99. One difference is that you need 9003 bulbs.

Any bulb directory will tell you to buy 9004 for a 99 QX4. They didnt take the 99.5 into account.

[MagicM]

easiest way is, if you have some extra cash trade it in for a 01+ with the 3.5VQ, huge difference in power. If not, save your money, intake and exhaust will make little power gains, and for anything huge will cost $$$$

[Chris92SE]

easiest way is, if you have some extra cash trade it in for a 01+ with the 3.5VQ, huge difference in power. If not, save your money, intake and exhaust will make little power gains, and for anything huge will cost $$$$

haha

This is exactly what I did. I bought a 2000 and wasn't very happy with the performance, so I traded it in for a 2001. Wow, what a difference! Way more power, plus I got the sport model with the LSD rear end, all four heated seats and the memory driver seat. I lost about $1500, but it was worth it, IMO. The only thing I really liked on the 2000 were the yellow fogs. I thought about buying some yellow capsules for my 01, but the unit is all sealed and it would be a lot of extra work. The halogens look crappy under the HIDs, IMO.

As for the original thread starter -- just pretend your QX4 is a 2000. That way all of the parts will be correct, since you have a "99.5."

[99QX4]

And do they sell smoked tail lights/clear corner head lights for it. I know I am a dumbass but if anyone has some answers hit me up. Thanks!

I don't know about the tail lights but can tell you that they don't make clear corners for the QX. I have a 99.5 and had to fabricate mine



But it was worth it!

[fueler]

^^ clean as hell Does the rubber trim for your fenderwells normally come silver? Looks like overspray to me. Did you have your QX4 custom painted?

[Infinitidood412]

yeah, about making my own....care to te4ll me in a little more detail what it requires??

[fueler]

It involves putting the clear corners in the oven, baking them at 150F for 15 mins, this softens the glue that holds them together. Or heatgun, but it ends up looking sloppier. Carefully open them, remove the reflectors, you can either bake them back together at this point, or just silicon them closed. Try not to get fingerprints on the inside or it will drive you crazy for life. I did this mod to my Honda Civic headlights - and it came out great. But removing the reflectors is illegal in CA and the girl I sold the car to got a ticket!

[Infinitidood412]

Alright, I have established that my car is now a 1999.5. I know I sound like massive noob (and I am) but just to clear some things up, I am good with classifying my car as a “2000” as far as parts go compared to a 1999 or 1999.5? Are there any difference between a 1999.5 and a 2000?

And back to the clear corners, that’s the funniest thing I have heard in a wile, getting the ticket. Haha. But how easy is the orange thing to get off once you have the lights in and out of the oven.

[fueler]

Alright, I have established that my car is now a 1999.5. I know I sound like massive noob (and I am) but just to clear some things up, I am good with classifying my car as a “2000” as far as parts go compared to a 1999 or 1999.5? Are there any difference between a 1999.5 and a 2000?

no diff. between 99.5 and 00 that i know of. The differences are all from between the 99 and 99.5 (and then 01 is VERY different)

Quote »And back to the clear corners, that’s the funniest thing I have heard in a wile, getting the ticket. Haha. But how easy is the orange thing to get off once you have the lights in and out of the oven.[/quote] 99QX4, can you answer this, as I have only done it on a Honda Civic, but it was pretty easy on the Honda.

[Finny]

And back to the clear corners, that’s the funniest thing I have heard in a wile, getting the ticket. Haha. But how easy is the orange thing to get off once you have the lights in and out of the oven.

I have done this on a few cars also there are two methods:

Bake - heat up the headlight assembly in the oven until the glue softens allowing you to separate the lens from the headlight body and easily remove the orange lens. There is one con to this method; when you put the lens back together you will not always get a perfect seal and your headlights will start to get condensation inside, you can fix this by using a silicone based caulk. - This method works on nearly all cars

Break - creatively using a screwdriver (end wrapped with a cloth or lots of duct tape), snips perhaps needle nose pliers you can break apart the orange reflector inside the headlight assembly and just dump out the little bits. Use a detail vacuum to clean out any orange dust left inside. The obvious con to this method is the risk of scratching the lens or reflective material inside. I have not taken much time looking at the headlights on my QX so I don't know how well this method would work. That is what I used for my Xb:



I added chrome Silverstar lights that look silver/rainbowish when they are off but light up orange/amber.

I think this is illegal in most states but rarely enforced.

I did a similar project with the Xb to clear the rear lights, removing the reflector and replacing with red leds - that was a little more involved.

aww. her big brother QX in the background1

[megabyte]

love the look...that a must do in my page as soon as i work out the kinks in my new tail lights

[fueler]

i've heard of that method. Nice Scion. On my honda civic headlights, it would have knocked out the orange cap over the bulb but no was you could get the reflector. I'll check the QX4 lights. I want clear corners too. PS Nissan Terrano Regulus in Japan came with clear corners and projector's that would fit our 96-01 QX4's no problem. So u can't say it's NOT possible.... it would just be expensive ($500 for just the corners, $1500 for the headlights )

[Finny]

I wish my qx was silver... don't think it would look good on the burgundy.

[megabyte]

think i have to try the breaking method after a go pick up a fresh left side the only thing that melt was the housiing. now the bulb can't fit not sure if was retarded but i did but it on the lowest level and it sat there for 15 minutes and the damn thing would not budge...ah damint
Modified by megabyte at 10:48 AM 11/15/2007

[99QX4]

Does the rubber trim for your fenderwells normally come silver? Looks like overspray to me. Did you have your QX4 custom painted?

Yes they do come silver, but a lighter, one...mine is custom painted [two-tone].

no diff. between 99.5 and 00 that i know of. The differences are all from between the 99 and 99.5 (and then 01 is VERY different)

99QX4, can you answer this, as I have only done it on a Honda Civic, but it was pretty easy on the Honda.

Well i didn't bake the lights...tried that on a spare "test light" and forgot about it and well yeah it melted flat as a pancake. But what i did was open the back with a dremel and pop off the orange piece. [if you do that, make sure you seal it up real good so you don't get condensation] It wasn't hard to get the orange piece off, you just have to take a flat screwdriver and get between the edges. It may not come off perfectly though, i have some remnants of orange on the edges, but you cant' see it unless you really look at it. You can see it in the first pic i posted before though.

So u can't say it's NOT possible.... it would just be expensive ($500 for just the corners, $1500 for the headlights )

I got a price of $850 from Japan....that's why i bought $30 Pathfinder clear corners and made my own.

[fueler]

I got a price of $850 from Japan....that's why i bought $30 Pathfinder clear corners and made my own.

Those are Pathfinder corners????

[KoukiS14]

Those are Pathfinder corners????

I think perhaps the front fenders and corner lamps are the same on both.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

I mean it's the same, only chrome trim. Wouldn't be that bad to change out, or if you're lazy, you could carefully sand it down and krylon it. (unless the plug differs. . 99qx4 would be able to tell us I bet ) But you could still re-use the lense.

[99QX4]

Those are Pathfinder corners????

No no no LOL I took the clear piece from Pathy corner lenses because when you take the amber out you need to replace it with a clear one. However, i did "attempt" to fabricate the Pathy corners to fit but they just stuck out too much it didn't look right. And the chrome piece really got in the way... I ended up getting ones from a newer Pathy i don't remember what year, and i don't remember why (maybe i broke the other ones too much, it was years ago by now i really don't recall what happened LOL) but those didn't work either....so yeah i just took the clear lenses.

This is what it looked like with the "modified" Pathfinder ones...they looked great from far away...but they really stuck out bad.

[fueler]

Looks great! SO was it a large hole that you dremeled out? I want to do the same thing soon. Would it look bad if I didn't replace teh reflector?

[fueler]

Also, 99QX4, what width/size rims and tires do u have? The tires look nice and wide! I need some floatation in soft Baja sand, as well as great street characteristics (noise, comfort).

[Infinitidood412]

DAMN, this is so confusing to read!!!!Ok so in conclusion I think I understand this correctly, the lens from pathfinders will NOT work to replace Qx4 ones.

QUESTIONS99Qx4 said this: I got a price of $850 from Japan....that's why I bought $30 Pathfinder clear corners and made my own

Then went on to say: Because when you take the amber out you need to replace it with a clear one. I’m such a noob but what is the amber?

[pathfinder_se_black]

the amber is that reflective piece. it will be poped out and replaced with a clear one off the pathfinder clear corners.



if you paint your housing, be prepared for a slight decrease in light on the road lol

[KoukiS14]

DAMN, this is so confusing to read!!!!Ok so in conclusion I think I understand this correctly, the lens from pathfinders will NOT work to replace Qx4 ones.

QUESTIONS99Qx4 said this: I got a price of $850 from Japan....that's why I bought $30 Pathfinder clear corners and made my own

Then went on to say: Because when you take the amber out you need to replace it with a clear one. I’m such a noob but what is the amber?

I added some confusion by suggesting it's the same part. It looks the same, and maybe the lense is the same, but she's tried it and it obviously doesn't just fit in there.

Within the corner lamp, there's an amber reflector. She removed that from her stock corner lamps, and then replaced it with the clear reflector from the aftermarket clear lamps.

In Japan, the corner lamps are 100% clear like all other 90s Nissan vehicles. It's a U.S. law that there must be A) reflective amber viewable from front sides, that is also illuminated at night and B) Same thing, only for the rear and in red. For this vehicle, they just assumed it was easier to modify the corner lamps to handle this.

Notice the corner lamps -- no amber reflector. These corners are over 800 bucks from Japan!! Stupid expensive. The other amber piece is just a turn signal.

[99QX4]

Looks great! SO was it a large hole that you dremeled out? I want to do the same thing soon. Would it look bad if I didn't replace teh reflector?

Yes it was a "big hole" so to speak...i cut a piece out of the back but i did put the piece i cut out back on. The problem is the dremel makes a gap so the pieces don't fit together exactly perfect so i can't stress enough to seal it up good so you don't get condensation. (It won't look perfect in the back, but when do you really see it? lol)

And personally i don't like how it looks if you don't replace the reflector...you can see right through where the reflector was. I might have a second pair of clear lenses if you are interested. It's just the clear lense through, not an actual light. I'll try looking for it, i remember seeing it somewhere a few months ago. Oh and i just remembered. Don't use crazy glue to put the clear lenses back on!!!! I used it (trial and error) and it "fogged up" the lense...not the whole light but the lense. It's some effect the crazy glue has when it dries, it turns sort of white. So what you have to do is "melt" the edges of the clear lenses back on where the amber ones came from. I used the tip of a soddering (sp?) tool you use for wires. You don't need to melt it a whole lot, just make sure they stick on the corners. Again you don't have to go crazy melting it all around, just the corners worked fine for me and it's been probably 4 years now i've had them.

I'm sorry if this is lengthy and confusing but i'm trying to help you guys as much as i can! If you are still confused on anything I'll try to explain it differently.

Also, 99QX4, what width/size rims and tires do u have? The tires look nice and wide! I need some floatation in soft Baja sand, as well as great street characteristics (noise, comfort).

They are 255/55

[Infinitidood412]

Alright, well thanks to everyone who helped me figure out my head light situation. I think even after all of that I don’t plan on doing anything to them. I don’t want to risk ruining them. MOVING ONI purchased this today. http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3...age=0

Is that even worth saying I have? Or is it very close to stock and there for a waste of money