How Much Is That CV Joint In the Window -AKA- Repair Costs You've Incured

[Listof7]

Repair Cost Estimates

I thought a good topic would be a list of reader input repair cost, both Saturday Mechanic and Pro Shop. Please list something like...

What: Front Brake PadsWho: SelfCost: -$40 totalDown Time: 45 minutesWorthy?: Yes

Ok, that's a real one.

Of course we can't hold this thread as law, but it will help us all from time to time get an idea of costs.

No HiJacking, if you've had the job done or had an estimate, post it. If your wondering about something not yet mentioned, wait till someone post it or ask in new thread. And once you've had the work, share the details.

LASTLY, please make sure you have the facts before you call but if it's blatant BS, call it out -- for the good of others. I'm sure a moderator will confirm and clean up which ever post is in fact BS.
Modified by Listof7 at 2:53 AM 2/10/2008

[driverdriver]

Get ceramic brake pads, they cost a bit more but are worth every penny. As for brake rotors get at the minimum Nissan OEM rotors or go high end like Brembo's, Powerslot or Powerstop. Generic rotors(like the ones auto parts store carry) or the cross drilled ones sold on Ebay are known to easily warp. The J is a freakin heavy car.

[yodawill2000]

Spoken like a pro.It amazing how many peeps underestimate how heavy our Darlings are.

Once understood its fun to let a ricer go ahead until Mrs. J hits second. kinetic energy is a science few absorb. And a smaller few enjoy...

[Listof7]

Modified by Listof7 at 8:29 PM 2/15/2008

[yodawill2000]

Sorry I ruined your little thread. My bad ..Nuk Nuk

Ever been to the Infiniti Mechanic section where this kinda stuff belongs ?

[gr8scott72]

Do you read past the first word? This thread was intended to be a price reference for J30 repairs. What part of that did you miss. I am beginning to wonder about this forum. As a moderator part of your responsibility is to delete posts that get off topic.

Well since this thread has been ruined by you two "old pros"

My 2 cents, and I'm sure it carries more truth than the second hand BS I see so much of here...

Ceramic brakes don't have the stopping power they claim to have, theirTHEY'RE fine if you don't want brake dust getting all over your rims and they do run a bit cool if you're REALLY dogging them, but after running several pairs on my Mustang GTs I found it difficult to see added value equal to added cost.

Can you guys try to provide some FIRST HAND USEFUL FACTS at some point.

thnx to some people who due to having been around so long, should know better.

PS. Let's

Dude, the slight off-topic stuff is what keeps a forum like this going. Otherwise it would be too boring and would have even fewer members than it already does.

Another point is that most of us on here already know about all this as we have been on here awhile AND we use the search feature.

I can give you a short list of things I've spent on my Js personally if you would like.

Let's see,

Had a timing belt done on my 93 (now dead) for under $400 by an independent Lexus/Infiniti shop.

Same shop repaired a power steering leak on the 93 which ended up being a O ring on a connection just under the power steering res. Charged me like $50.

I had to put an alternator on my 93 and I swapped my previous boss a Saturday for him doing it. He is a forklift mechanic and had a lift. I worked a Saturday for him and he did it for free. I did put a NON OEM alternator on there. GASP. Has ran fine since then and actually, my alternator went out on my 94 and that same alternator not sits on my 94. Paid a shop like $80 to swap them out. Did that in April of last year and it's still running just fine.

They also pressed in new bushings for the from control arms that are known to go out. That cost me about $150 parts/labor. I swapped those control arms over to my 94 when I got it as they were bad on that car as well.

Had to replace an exhaust manifold on my 93. The same shop did it for about $350 including the manifold that they had from a different car.

Paid a shop about $100 to replace the crank pulley with a light-weight, underdrive pulley that I had. I also supplied them the shorter belts.

I have a full exhaust on my 94 including straight through resonators, magnaflow straight through oval mufflers replacing the mid resonators, and 2 more straight through resonators in the back where the suitcase muffler was out to two magnaflow chrom tips on the driver's side. I've probably got about $400 in all of that. Would've been cheaper if I had done it all at once.

The a/c didn't work on my 94 when I got it. The tensioner pulley was siezed (another common problem) and the PO had just cut the belt off. I swapped the pulley off my 93 to my 94 and voila, a/c works great. $0

Three of the tie rods were bad in the 94 when I got it. I paid a guy about $100 (IIRC) to swap them all over from my 93.

Headlights are about $100 on eBay and both of them were cracked on my 94 when I got it. I had already bought one good one and the other on my 93 was still good. Swapped both of them over.

One rim was bent and one shock was blown on my 94 when I got it. The rim wouldn't hold above 15 psi. Swapped over one rim from my 93. The same guy that swapped the tie rods helped me swap the shocks in the rear from the 93 to the 94.

The timing belt had already been done on my 94 but the thermostat had not. I had another shop put in a thermostat that I brought them ($10?) and they charged me $60.

Bought a set of Kuhmo Solus KR21 tires in October for a total of $304 installed. Love them. Very quiet, smooth ride. Rotated them yesterday after just over 5k miles and they still look brand new.

I've cleaned out the EGR valves on my 94. $0 but big time pain factor. Took a couple/three hours. Check engine light is gone tho.

I've had an alignment done on my 94 recently too. ~$60.

There's a few for you.

[driverdriver]

Listof7

Leave the moderating up to the moderator or an admin. If your not happy posting in this community, your more than welcome to go elsewhere.

[95J30tBGGUY]

Hello to every body in this awesome forum wich helped me a lot so with maintainning of my 95 J30t...So far I replaced by my self front and rear pads with the cheapest one from(Wasn't a good idea but at that time I was really badly out of cash) about two months ago and takes about a 1h 30min...This was my first time ever when did something like this in my entire existing Also change the engine oil 2 times and the last one was yesterday... and here's came my problem I find out few weeks ago that when i get my hands off the steering wheel to light my cigarette (bad habbit I know) my car is starting pulling on the right at no time I can change the lanes... so I asked the guys in the service to check this out for me and came with this list of parts must be raplaced so I'm just gonne rewrite their estimate:

They claim that these are DEALER ONLY PARTS UP ROD HOSE $24.00 LOW ROD HOSE $19.95 CLAMPS- $8.00 TA + GASKET $30.00 COOLANT $40.00 LABOR $315.00 TOTAL SO FAR $436.95

2 TENSION BAR $190.00EA LABOR $135.00 ALLIGMENT $70.00 TOTAL SO FAR $585.00

AND A TOTAL OF $1021.00 + TAX

I'm not sure about the right names of the parts cause I'm not spec at all and I don't know so much about cars so this what I just rewrote from the piece of paper they gave it me... And I also must replace my struts and shocks but as I see they way to much for my modest income....So my question is this a fair price at all is their any chance to find cheaper and can I do it myself when I got the service replacement manual in front of me ?Thanks in advance

P.S. Excuse me for my writing skills but I'm a fareigner I'm trying to do my best

[yodawill2000]

$135 labor for the tension rod labor is ridiculous.I takes all of 10 minutes !!!

[95J30tBGGUY]

So do you think that I can handle this by my self or probably with friend during the weekend ?And after the replacement ot go back to them to do alligment?I think that's fair enough cause they're killin mr that price and I thinkin to sell ot part the which I fell in love with for the first week that I have it.And where can I buy these parts for cheapest price as posted ?

[Listof7]

What: Fuel Pressure Regulator HosesWho: Ernesto's Nissian Repair (LV)Cost: $139 total ($22 parts, $115 labor + taxes, ect)Down Time: 3 hours from walk-in/drop-off to completionWorthy?: Yes

Had sever fuel leak, found through this forum that it was likely to be the fuel pressure regulator hoses. Time prevented me from doing the work myself and a desire to not be blown up driving to work this week inspired me to seek help. If you're in Vegas, currently I would recommend Ernesto's. So far they seem to be a good choice & one who followed through as promised as well as uses genuine Nissan parts.
Modified by Listof7 at 1:25 PM 3/5/2008

[gr8scott72]

What: Fuel Pressure Regulator HosesWho: Ernesto's Nissian Repair (LV)Cost: $139 total ($22 parts, $115 labor + taxes, ect)Down Time: 3 hours from drop-off to completionWorthy?: Yes

Had sever fuel leak, found through this forum that it was likely to be the fuel pressure regulator hoses. Time prevented me from doing the work myself and a desire to not be blown up driving to work this week inspired me to seek help. If you're in Vegas, Ernesto's seems to be a good choice & one who followed through as promised as well as uses genuine Nissan parts.

Listof7,I thought we had run you off. I'm glad you stuck around

Glad you're not going to explode into a big fireball now too.

[yodawill2000]

95J30tBGGUY

The tension rod is only a 3 bolt job.If you have the tools its a snap.

http://www.fuzzycats.com/docs/...t.pdf

It says Tie rod but he meant tension rod.

And Joe at everythinginfiniti.com is the best price for oem parts.

[Listof7]

THNX, I'm still a ticking time bomb though..

[95J30tBGGUY]

Thanks Master YodaI'll get in touch with Joe as soon as I get my pay check But I couldn't locate these parts: UP ROD HOSE $24.00LOW ROD HOSE $19.95CLAMPS- $8.00TA + GASKET $30.00COOLANT $40.00 Can somebody help me out if they called them in some different way can you share it with me I'm so sorry to be so stupid but I'm a complete roockie Thanks in advance

[yodawill2000]

Ive never heard of up or Low rod hose ??

Do you mean the Radiator hoses ??

[gr8scott72]

Ive never heard of up or Low rod hose ??

Do you mean the Radiator hoses ??

rod - rad

tomato - tomato

[95J30tBGGUY]

Ive never heard of up or Low rod hose ??

Do you mean the Radiator hoses ??

Me neither...I don't know what are these parts because it's a verry ugly handwriting I try to make the best asociations for what I read. May be I should go to another service and ask them I don't know...And where's that coolant in the suspention and that gasket and they want $315for the labor no way
Modified by 95J30tBGGUY at 7:41 AM 3/6/2008

[yodawill2000]

Coolant is what made me think they meant Radiator hoses.The TA gasket I'm guessing would be the transmission pan gasket ??Is your transmission leaking around the pan ??

[95J30tBGGUY]

I didn't notice but down there I think I saw some oil probably is cames from the transmission I do'nt know, but any way I didnt see anything to be wrong with radiator no leakege nothing...I don't know I'm gonna wait the rain to stop I'm gonna check all of these...But the funny thing is that I went for oil change and ask them about this pulling to the right and they say that its a mess and everything is twisted to inside the cabin they didn't mention anything about the radiator or that my transmission is leaking... This thing s.cks I thing they're f...ing around with me... I'm gonna check and then consult with another service...What do you think about Midas ?! Thanks again for the help...

[yodawill2000]

Ive never dealt with Midas but if you can find a shop that works on Infiniti's and Nissan's it wouldn't be a bad idea.An oil change place would be CLUELESS about a J30 .

[Victor]

I have a 94 J30T which I bought almost three years ago with at the time 177,300 miles on it. The car now has 191,400 miles on it and the only repairs so far were a radiator hose that I installed myself $8, plus $10 for new coolant, and a burnt out headlight bulb $19, and new windshield wiper blades $25. Did a couple of oil changes too.

The car does have a few annoying problems that I didn't fix yet. The drivers side power door lock has a mind of its own and sometimes tries to lock me in the car, or sometimes won't lock the door when I press the lock switch. The remote open hardly ever works.Another annoyance is the dashboard illumination sometimes goes out, but tapping on the dimmer control fixes that immediately.

I will have to replace the timing belt at 210,000 miles, but will probably sell the car just before thats due and get a 2003 to 2005 Q45 to replace it. By then I figure I should be able to get one in good shape for under ten grand.