Considering 2005 Nissan Quest -- any opinions?
Considering 2005 Nissan Quest -- any opinions?
I see that there is a 2005 Nissan Quest for sale here locally for just over 3 grand. It has 115,000 miles on it. I have not yet met up for a test drive. About two years ago I purchased a 2003 Mazda MPV that had engine problems immediately. I bought it from a car lot here in town that I now realize is shady and will not be doing that again. I would like to know the average reliability with these minivans, what I should look for when or if i check it out, and if you think it would be worth my time. The photos of the vehicle look strange to me. I have never seen a vehicle that has the display panel in the center of the dash rather than behind the steering column. It seems like it would take some getting used to. Any and all opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance
Re: Considering 2005 Nissan Quest -- any opinions?
With those low miles, it might have been parked for a while, or it was smashed and parked for a while. Pay close attention to the bearings in all wheels, they rust and make an awful noise when the car has been parked for months. Also the brakes might be rusted too. I have one of these vans and it has been super-reliable until it got to 150,000 miles, then, you will see bearings, ball joints, lower arms, engine coils begin to go out but the parts are not too expensive for the van (the coils are difficult to change and the labor will be more than normal). The rear springs were garbage since new, it will be better to install Moog springs for a better ride for those in the back seats. I have been using synthetic oil since I got it and I have not had any engine or transmission problems. I am selling my 2005 Quest right now and I can still take it on a long trip at 200,000 miles and I know it will get me there nicely. It all depends how the previous vendor took care of the maintenance.
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far raf
- Posts: 213
- Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2017 2:53 pm
- Car: 2005 Nissan Quest SE (standard? simple? edition - i.e. nothing special)
Re: Considering 2005 Nissan Quest -- any opinions?
At this day and age I strongly do not recommend 2005 quest, unless you are like me and my family of 6 - all very tall and with long legs. Then this is about the only van where you would feel comfortable. It's very spacious. The trips to the furniture and hardware stores are a breeze - I can fit just about anything in the cargo area after folding the 2nd row seats. Before buying my 2005 quest I tried all domestic and import competitors and they all equally sucked in terms of space. Toyota Sienna was not bad, but I did not trust its mushy brakes and bouncy suspension.
The passenger power sliding door was always acting up and went at about 60k. I ended up removing the power unit and operating the door manually. The root cause was badly rusted middle hinge. If only I have known, I would have saved the power unit and the door would be fully operational. Too late.
Replaced the rear hubs at about 80k miles. They went both simultaneously. I drove with noise for about a year, then bought Timken from Amazon and installed myself. I did not have to pull the ABS sensors (to be honest, I pulled one, then realized it was not necessary). After a year and 15k miles I replaced the front hubs with Timken as well. The front ABS sensors had to be pulled, but could not as they rusted solid in the knuckles and had to be crushed. The new ones from the eBay work fine now.
The lower control arms went at about 100k miles. Replacing them I broke the bolt, and the mechanic broke off the nut on the other side.
At about 110k miles the front bank crankshaft position sensor went. I replaced it myself with Delphi part from Rock Auto.
Oh, yes, almost forgot: at about 115k the rear O2 sensor bung popped out of the Y-pipe and had to be welded back in place. The mech said it just developed a crack, not rusted through as I thought.
One day my son calls me at work and says he got stranded in the van - the engine was running, but it would not rev up. I got there, pulled the throttle pedal position sensor, re-attached it and it's back to normal. One of the plug blades lost contact with the TPPS socket and there was no pedal position signal reaching the ECU. This is typical for Nissans with high mileage, they all have intermittent electric problems. For more than 4 months the issue did not re-occur.
Replacement of the cabin air filter is a royal PITA, I cursed everything putting the filters back in a month ago, the top filter just did not want to go back into the housing.
The power windows do not close all the way - they re-open as if they pinched something. I did not bother fixing that.
Otherwise knock on wood it's an Okay van.
The passenger power sliding door was always acting up and went at about 60k. I ended up removing the power unit and operating the door manually. The root cause was badly rusted middle hinge. If only I have known, I would have saved the power unit and the door would be fully operational. Too late.
Replaced the rear hubs at about 80k miles. They went both simultaneously. I drove with noise for about a year, then bought Timken from Amazon and installed myself. I did not have to pull the ABS sensors (to be honest, I pulled one, then realized it was not necessary). After a year and 15k miles I replaced the front hubs with Timken as well. The front ABS sensors had to be pulled, but could not as they rusted solid in the knuckles and had to be crushed. The new ones from the eBay work fine now.
The lower control arms went at about 100k miles. Replacing them I broke the bolt, and the mechanic broke off the nut on the other side.
At about 110k miles the front bank crankshaft position sensor went. I replaced it myself with Delphi part from Rock Auto.
Oh, yes, almost forgot: at about 115k the rear O2 sensor bung popped out of the Y-pipe and had to be welded back in place. The mech said it just developed a crack, not rusted through as I thought.
One day my son calls me at work and says he got stranded in the van - the engine was running, but it would not rev up. I got there, pulled the throttle pedal position sensor, re-attached it and it's back to normal. One of the plug blades lost contact with the TPPS socket and there was no pedal position signal reaching the ECU. This is typical for Nissans with high mileage, they all have intermittent electric problems. For more than 4 months the issue did not re-occur.
Replacement of the cabin air filter is a royal PITA, I cursed everything putting the filters back in a month ago, the top filter just did not want to go back into the housing.
The power windows do not close all the way - they re-open as if they pinched something. I did not bother fixing that.
Otherwise knock on wood it's an Okay van.