1998 Q45

[jmindler]

Hello all, I just purchased my first Infiniti today. Man this car rides nice. The question I have is the car looks as if it has been maintained regular, but is there any thing that I need to look for, or replace. The only thing that I can see is the valve cover gaskets are leaking a little. The car has 122K miles.

Thanks in advance, John
Modified by jmindler at 5:50 PM 5/16/2007

[hannibal]

I believe an Infiniti (<-- i, not y) dealer can give you the service history based on the VIN. Belts, hoses, and filters are a good idea for any car with unknown history.

I'm sure there is a thread on this subject. You should give the search button a shot...

Congrats on the new Q!!

[maxnix]

Congratualtions and welcome to NICO!

You can learn a lot here. Start by studying the FSM and read all of Q45tech's posts.

[BadQ45t]

I would do a full 60k style service on the car. This means full flush of all fluids, I'd switch over to synthetic transmission fluid and have a mechanic do the plugs while you have everything taken apart for the valve cover replacements. Also, by now your tie rods if not replaced are worn, the car will drive alot better with those replaced (either buy the whole thing or the rubbers at least, but more labor to replace the rubber).

Good luck, take care of this and you'll put anther 120k on it easy.

[Qproject]

tie rod as in tension rods right ?

I would do a full 60k style service on the car. This means full flush of all fluids, I'd switch over to synthetic transmission fluid and have a mechanic do the plugs while you have everything taken apart for the valve cover replacements. Also, by now your tie rods if not replaced are worn, the car will drive alot better with those replaced (either buy the whole thing or the rubbers at least, but more labor to replace the rubber).

Good luck, take care of this and you'll put anther 120k on it easy.

[BadQ45t]

sorry, yes. I just replaced mine at 75k and made a huge diff. I could have replaced the rubber but I ran the labor versus parts math and it was about the same price either way so got new tension rods installed.

BTW, your shocks are probably toast too. Don't spend any time looking for aftermarket replacements, they don't exist in the US Market. Several of your fellow 2nd Gen (Y33 chassis) have bought them from Onetongarage, a nice guy that is up on this site. They are not cheap but totally worth it. YOu can get OEM replacements (better than what you got) for about $500 from everythinginfiniti.com, which is Scotsdale Infiniti who takes great care of NICO members. The KYB SR Specials that come from Japan are about $800, but they rock.