2006 Nissan Sentra SER Spec-V

[messinese04]

I am the new owner of a 2006 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V with 98,500 miles.

I had the car look at by the dealer and they made a couple recommendations on the parts I should change and the parts that needed to be change. I have never owned a Nissan before and have only owned German, so I am at a loss on where to get the best parts.

I will start with the parts the dealer said that I needed to change. The dealer said that I should replace my upper and lower radiator hoses, as well as my radiator cap. I feel the hoses and they feel fine...not overly soft. The dealer also stated I should change my rear cross-member, but imo it is just the bushings that are bad. Is there a good poly set of bushings for this? The dealer wanted me to change one rear strut/shock. I need to be changing both, and I am looking for a direct fit part but not really looking to lower the car at all. The front struts my dust boots are trash. I may as well change the struts at this time but am again looking for some direct fit parts. I saw a tread saying there were Nismo struts/shocks for my car for about 600 but can not find any Nismo struts for my car. It also looked like my car has a slight leak coming from an inner tie rod where it meets the rack and pinon. Is this something I will need to change the rack and pinion or just an inner tie rod? Dealer wanted over 1200 for the rack and pinion.

Any info or help is much appreciated and any sites with good solid parts for the car as I know e-bay is not the best place when looking for all parts.

Also I am looking at replacing my spark plugs. I know that OEM for the Spec-v is NGK Iridium. Has anyone tried any other plugs, and if so how did they work?

[Noxy]

Okay, here we go haha. I'll post in order of what you said.

-Radiator hoses & cap: Even if they feel fine, I usually replace the major coolant hoses when I buy a used car just to know they have been maintained and are good. Good news is they are amazingly cheap aftermarket parts for our B15s and both upper, lower hoses, and the cap can be had for less than $20 from Rockauto (link below). I have always used Gates hoses, and have never had any issues with any, but Dayco is also good.
http://www.rockauto.com/

-Rear crossmember?- Are they talking about the rear suspension crossmember? If so, then I wonder what the hell happened to the car that would damage it. The rear beam suspension is one of those "life-of-the-car" parts that rarely ever needs to be changed. There aren't any bushings in the rear subframe system, expect the link between the two beams. The link between the two rear beams that is kind of junky that people swap out with this, since it's adjustable and can stiffen the rear beam: http://www.b15u.com/tdmi-kuos-garage/29 ... 2-3-a.html

Other than the rear beams, they might be talking about the rear of the engine crossmember (cradle). 2J racing and Rob from the B15U forums have made sets of bushings that are better(stiffer) than stock and decrease movement of the member to increase shift feel. Here are a couple links:
http://www.b15u.com/members-services/24 ... ipped.html
Can't find 2J's link right now...

-Struts: It's getting a lot harder to find sets of Nismo shocks/springs lately, but there are some and they're around 500-800 when they do pop up. They lower a bit, so you may not want that. I would just look for replacements on Rockauto, or Ebay and get a set of KYB GR2 struts since they are OEM quality and offer a great ride, though you would have to swap out the springs and mounts (if you're not buying new). New dust boots can be bought at any auto store for around $10.

-Rack/pinion: The leak from the inner tie rod area where it connects to the rack? That would probably be a bad seal on the rack. I don't know how proficient you are with auto repair/ mechanical stuff, but you could replace just the seals and can get the seals from an auto store or Rockauto (Get Gates seals, if so). If you'd rather replace the whole rack, A-1 Cardone (Rockauto, again) makes re-manufactured racks that include new tie rods for about $260.

Spark Plugs- I used/use NGK Iridium plugs, and also Double Platinum (PLFR5A-11) and they both worked well, and really couldn't feel much difference between the two.

Did you buy and inspect the car at a Nissan dealership, or private? The rear member thing sounds a bit suspicious... All these parts are pretty easy to source at any auto parts store, and I threw out Rockauto a lot because I used to work at one of their distribution centres and prefer these brands.

Anyway, welcome to the Japanese auto and the B15 Sentra world! Let me know if you need clarification or anything else!

[messinese04]

I inspected the car as well as took it in to have the dealer do a multi-point inspection on the car.

As far as the struts, if you see a set of those springs/struts I would take the Nismo ones, even with the lowering as I can not find one set. And I don't really see a point in putting struts with 100 k miles on them back in a car if I have to pull them anyways.

The rear cross-member is what the dealer said needed to be replaced and they want 298 for. I think the crossmember is fine. I see some cracking in the bushings in front of the rear tires (about equal on the line of the front of the gas tank)...I will try and get a picture for you.

I found a set of silicone hoses on e-bay. I know that those are more expensive but are the silicone hoses worth it? And there are also caps on E-bay, but I want a good one.

The rack and pinion appears to only be seeping from the driver side inner tie rod at the rack. Dealer wants 1220 to fix this.