Hello and after info - 2002 Maxima owner

[smouchus22]

Hey guys.

I have had my 2002 Maxima for about 6 years now, and apart from general wear and tear (so far brakes and fan belt) I haven't had an issue with it. But that may be about to change.....

I have started doing the maintenance on it myself (should have started years ago so I don't pay mechanics labour fees ). Nothing has gone wrong yet (yay me ).

My first question is what sort of aftermarket suspension/anti-roll bars really improve the handling and ride comfort? I find the stock suspesion a tad too soft (doesn't absorb the bumps and rocks/wobbles about) with chronic understeer (mainly around round-abouts).

Are there any kits or parts recommendations to fix the tyre wear "issue" that most Nissans have (wear really bad on the inside of the tyre)?

I stumbled across this site while googling where to find some locations on the car, and started perusing. I spotted quite a lot of modified rides, and have a couple of questions:
1. Have drive-train conversions (i.e. FWD to AWD/RWD) been performed? If not, how do you find the front end grip (catastrophic understeer or reasonable handling)?
2. (For the owners of the turbo ocnversions I have seen) is there an off-the-shelf kit or do I have to get all the bits myself (just thinking about it at this stage)?
3. What other performance mods would people recommend (besides going the full hog with a complete turbo)?

I'm sure I will come up with a few more questions at some point.

(You will not see a pic of my ride until I have fixed some of the paintwork issues I currently have - damn Townsville fruit bats and non-caring Newcastle (in Aus.) drivers)

[jltibbs]

Man, there are many options out there for all of your q's. As far as suspension goes, it depends on if you just want struts and springs, or if you want the complete control of it with coilovers. Coilovers would be my suggestion. I'd say there's no need for drive train conversion; if you want RWD/AWD, buy a car that already has it. A lot of the steering/handling issues can be drastically helped with suspension upgrades to include strut tower bars and anti sway bars. JWT offers a bolt on turbo kit, but I'm sure it's only for the RWD 3.5. There are ways of piecing it together. You can make drastic overall improvements without going that far. Cold air intakes, headers, exhaust, intake/plenum spacers, nitrous, etc. For the tire issue, that can be remedied through alignments/new alignment parts that help compensate for toe/camber.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Welcome to NICOclub.