Hi! New to Group & 2012 Altima Maintenence??

[Brii]

Hey, Do you guys have any recommendations for a reputable place I can take my Altima for my 20K mi service? Dealer said it would be 250$, just wanna know if you all have had any good experiences outside of the dealer. In my area there's a Jiffy Lube, CarX, Discount Tire(dont know if they even do regular service), Firestone Complete Auto Care, etc. I'm leaning towards firestone unless I hear otherwise.

Thanks for reading!
Brii

[RicerX]

Hey Brii -

Unfortunately, I'm much more of a DIY guy, so I never took mine anywhere except the dealer in the case of warranty work.

Perhaps someone can chime in here with some experiences. What general area are you from? That might help pull some more local members in.

Welcome to NICO!

[Brii]

Thanks! I'm from San Antonio TX & after talking with my uncle I've decided to go with firestone. He has a ford flex with 100k Mi & a sport Trac with nearly 300k Mi that both run great & he's been taking those to firestone for years.

One thing I'm worried about, I never did the first service @15 or 17k? Cant remember when it was supposed to be. I've always gotten my oil changed on time but for some reason I assumed the first service would be @20k. Do you think I've voided my warranty because it does say that I need to comply with Nissan's service schedule?

[RicerX]

You should be ok. I wouldn't be too concerned. If I remember correctly, the Altima Coupe doesn't really have any major to be serviced at that interval besides oil change. The CVT fluid is the only thing that comes up later, and I think it's just a check at 36,000.

As long as you have a record of routine oil changes, you should be in the clear with warranty work. If you have a professional doing the work at Firestone, it will be logged in the Carfax/Autocheck and that will count as documentation.

[CoupeVQ35CVT]

Don't take this the wrong way, but in my 4 years of owning the '09 Altima, I took it to the dealer only (and I hate paying out lots of money). But I never skimped on maintenance items, unless it was an overpriced air filter etc.

I would NOT ever recommend taking your new-ish car to the local quicky oil change places, they're often notorious for offering 'factory' services which are bogus and just yank more money and often damage the car in the long run. Check your manual for the service intervals and recommended services, but here is what I can remember off the top:

@ 20k miles there is nothing special I can recall.

@15k miles they usually replace your A/C/in cabin filter which is like $90 rip off for a $15 piece of air filter. Reason being it's apparently 'inside the dash board' according to the dealer whenever I asked them about the outrageous price. At this time GET AN ALIGNMENT. Even if your car drives straight there may be a wheel that's off and causing uneven wear down the line. $70-80 well spent.

@ every 30k miles I was recommended that the CVT fluid be changed. It was over $100-$150 but I didn't screw around. Knowing how they can fail I did not want to mess with my warranty (on the CVT I believe it's up to 125,000 miles).

Also power steering and brake fluid flush, and also radiator/coolant flush. Depends on their condition, but get it done at 30k if not sooner. Another $300 but it's worth it for longer life and reliability down the line. After selling my '09 Altima, and moving to cheap used cars, I can really appreciate the fact that an owner took care of these details now that I'm driving 15 year old Nissans and Toyotas with over 200,000 miles on them (each).

[seldomseen]

Since you have a '12 Altima with low mileage, you should strongly consider getting your car serviced at Nissan for the first 100k miles to cover all your bases in the event your car experiences a major issue.