my girlfriend had her integra stolen, and were looking to replace it with a 95-96 max. are there any problem areas to look at that wont be obvious with those gens?

how are the auto trannys? they hold up good with mileage?

actually those are pretty nice cars. I would say theres no real major issues. The condiion of the trans will not so much be related to miles but maintanence. properly maintained it will last quite awhile. Hit up the technical forum and you find most of the TSB's linked Cullen has set up a sticky on lists of them for the different gen maxs. I have often considered picking one of them up to replace my caprice but Havent cause I think it would have a hard time pulling my 20ft travel trailer. Its a bit shy of the 10,000 lb towing capacity of my caprice....lol

The A32 max is a nice vehicle and pretty well built.

LMAO Oh god I really should pay attention to what forum I'm in,I thought I was in online mechanic.

you know, after i posted this and i went to sleep, i started thinking that i should have put it in online mechanic.

thats good to know, the car is in excellant shape. it just has high miles on it [150k]. its been hell trying to find her a replacement for the integra. everybody trys to pass off junk. we were at this one used car dealer, and every car looked like a theft recovery or an auction car.

this 95 mazda 626 had infiniti [I30] wheels and the radio was ripped out of the dash. as soon as the guy realized that i knew what i was doing, he got real nervous. he kept trying to close the hood, but i wouldnt let him untill the car got up to temperature. then, the lifters started ticking like crazy, and the car wouldnt hold an idle.

on the way back, a few blocks up the street from home, her dream car pulls out of a driveway with a for sale sign [green 95+ with tan leather]

hes comming by with the car in a few hours, so hopefully he took care of it. this car shopping is annoying.

since the body is in good shape, i wouldnt mind putting a tranny in it at 180-200k

she checked out. only thing i have to do is front pads and the driver side outer cv boot is torn.

other than that, the car is mint. green with tan leather interior, spoiler, sunroof, bose, factory fogs. interior is mint. no wear or cracks. beautiful paint. runs perfect, and the tranny is so tight and smooth.

looks like we have a new addition.

should be registered next week.

Sweet, congradulations. hope mamas happy with it. Is the molding along the glass crome or black? Black is SE crome is GLE

im pretty sure its an SE. its has black molding, spoiler, factory fogs, and white faced OEM gauges.

im pretty sure the white face factory gauges only came on the SE.

yep thats an SE for sure. leather was an option on that car you got lucky on that find.

also, it had less buildup under the valve cover than her old integra with 100k.

it brake-torqued to 1500 rpm, no slipping, shifted smoothly up and down, manual up and downshifts were very smooth, and the tranny fluid hasnt been changed this year but was clean and unburnt.

man, that motor loves to rev. 7k rpm and its not struggling at all.

she got real lucky. after a day of seeing junk, we ran into him by chance.

i never rehab CV joints, but im thinking about it on this car because the joint isnt clicking.

ive never used the split repair boots before. i might as well just replace the axle because i dont know how long its been open. he didnt even know the boot was torn until i told him.

ill probably just wait until it starts clicking, and replace it.

do those cars come prewired for the cd changer, or do i have to get the harness?

NISTECH wrote:Sweet, congradulations. hope mamas happy with it.

THANKS!!!

she's very happy about it, and the fact it was taken care of makes it even sweeter.

from day one she's told me how here dream car is a green 95 maxima with tan leather and bose.

I want to point out here too 150K is nothing for that car if it was always properly maintained. I have 3 or 4 customers near or over 300K on thiers and they still run strong cause they take care of them.

I wouldn't do the split boot method. get the whole boot and replace just that You dont even need to remove the axle from the car to replace it. I recommend factory boots because the rubber is more pliable and durable. If the grease in it is still wet looking you can get away with just the boot. It is fairly easy to knock the CV joint off the end of the axle with a 3 lb sledge. I do it all the time with mine and it only has a 12inch handle on it so its not like you have to whale on it. Let me know if your willing to attempt it and I will give you the "BLOW by BLOW" proceedure ...pun intented...lol

No the Trunk mounted CD changer harness is not preinstalled you would have to run the harness.

the cd changer isnt to high on her list. maybe ill throw it in if i have a day to kill.

as far as the mileage, i told her that as long as the car was maintained, she wont have a problem with it. she gets scared when she sees over 100k.

the grease is nice and fresh. doesnt look contaminated, and the grease it threw onto the a arm and strut looks nice and fresh too.

the cars alignment is perfect, so if you know how to do the boot without removing the ball joint i would very much appriciate it!!

dont need to remove the ball joint at all this will not effect the alignment in any way shape or form.

The simple gist of it.put the front end of the car up on jack stands. Remove the left front wheel. Remove the retainer pin for the center hub nut. Remove the center hub nut[ BIG breaker bar and 32 or 36 mm socket, car in park, wife standing on the brake pedal.] the 2 bolts that hold the strut to the spindle need to be removed, the abs cable running around behind the strut needs to be unattached from the strut[so you dont break your abs wires] The clip holding the brake line to the strut removed and the brake line unattached from the strut.[niether of those 2 items need to be disconnected from their ends,only detached from the strut before removing the 2 bolts in the strut] pry the spindle out of the strut mount. Now the whole brake rotor and spindle should move pretty freely. slip the brake hose under the strut end to get it out of the way. screw the large hub nut on till its outer edge is flush with the end of the threads. Hit it with a hammer preferable deadblow with rubber head or plastic mallet till it slides in. then rotate your steering wheel to the left. Pull your axle the rest of the way out of the spindle you should be able to move the spindle around pretty easy. you would have had to of done all that to do the axle as well. Now heres how to get the joint off the shaft. rotate your axle so the clamp that holds the boot on the shaft has its retainer pointing up. both the inner clamp and out clamps should have their retainers up. That is the trick to making this job a whole hell of alot easier. if it is still a factory axel those clamps siginify how the retainer clip on the axle is setting. It should be setting with its split up too. Now make sure the boot is split all the way around so it will seperate in half. If its not help it split the rest of the way. Now take you hub nut and thread it back on to the shaft and grab the end with you hand [place your hand between the nut and the face of the CV joint for better grip] and smack the lip of the cv joint, boot side, with the boot half still on it till it pops off. remove the boot pieces from the axel and the joint wipe off the axel and slide your small clamp on the axel then your boot it will need to stretch a bit to get it on,make sure the axel retainer clip has its gap toward the top at all times and dont let it catch the boot and get half kocked on the shaft. If it becomes distorted it could make getting the cv joint back on real miserable. That clip is the worst part of this job and can make or break ya so be sure it always will participate with what you are doing always have the gap in the clip up. once you have the boot on the axel clamp it down in its original location. Repack your CV joint with the grease supplied with it.Now quick retainer clip check. Set up your CV joint on the axel slide it on till it buts up against the clip ,make sure its on the axel straight . Your nut should still be on the joint at this point. grab the joint in the same place while holding it with some pressure against the retainer clip and smack it with the dead blow if not use a light hit with the sledge and it should pop on. You should not have to beat it on. If after a couple good hits it hasent just poped on you need to pull it back off and see if the retainer clip rolled up onto the shaft and fix it. I will leave this alone for now but if you get to this point and it does happen to roll ,post back and I will give you some advise on how to fix it. This whole process with out problem should take about an hour with hand tools. power tools about 45 mins.

oh, i completely get what you were saying.

i didnt know the midshaft was c clipped to the outer joint.

ive been out of the shop for a while, and its been a while since ive worked on a max. im used to having to practically remove the spindle to get the room to pull the outer shaft from the hub.

i guess with the suspension setup on the max, unbolting the strut mount doesnt affect camber signifigantly.

no not unless someone has installed those gay a$$ eccentric bolts.

After I posted that I got to glancing at where your from. This job might be more of a pain then I made it out to be. Here where I live there is 0 rust on those components and they come apart very easily. Just thought I would point that out since I noticed you live in NY.

not a problem. air tools make it easy.

besides, that car had no rust on the chassis as far as i could tell. the a arm and strut mount were just covered in CV grease.

yea its a messy job but the grease wont make it difficult,if anything the grease protects the metal from rusting!

Thank you for that write-up Nistech, just noticed yesterday mine has torn and decided to throw grease everywhere.

its not hard if your used to working on your own car.

just beware, your most likely gonna need an impact gun, or a 3 ft pipe on a 1/2 in breaker bar to get the crown nut off the axle.

after that, its cake.

just flip the nut, thread it a couple turns on the axle shaft, give it a smack with a mallet or something to free it up from the hub, move the brake lines, and unbolt the hub from the shock.

rest of it is above.

Beware of the retainer clip!! I cant stress that enough.

they usually only give me trouble when doing the whole axle, but ive never removed the outer joint from the midshaft though. i usually just pull them for rebuilt units.

at least im not gonna make a mess with the ATF, since im not pulling the axle out of the diff.

Scott, any issues with me making a page for that write-up you just did above? I could then add it to the how-to section.

Thanks!

not at all helpin yourself.[Now that I have corrected alot of my poor spelling.except the word axle.....lol, reason behind it.]

That procedure applies to just about any nissan except the quest.

Awesome.

I'll work on it and have you validate it before I post the link up.

see. you learn something new every day.

i would have never thought the midshaft was circliped to the joint.

I strongly recommend the factory boot too It comes with a tube of grease to repack the CV joint. and the boot is better quality then the aftermarket ones. This should not be done if the grease has mostly escaped and the remaining grease is all dried out. That would mean the bearing has suffered wear. It may not be clicking at the time but it may start after doing the boot.

Matt this last bit should be added to the write up.

Got it Scott....

Seems my ISP is doing maintenance, so I can't upload the page. Once I can I will eMail you the link for your validation before posting it for the public....

ok let me know if my profile will let you email me it seems to have a problem allowing people to email me. I dont have it off.

No problem. My FTP is still not working anyway.

theres nothing in the joint that would be affected by brake cleaner, is there?

i would like to fully clean it and repack it with fresh grease.