Infiniti Q45a (1994) mechanic needed in Minneapolis

[jerrodl]

My 1994 Q45a made a noise -- The TCS, Slip and ABS lights came on but nothing happened (besides the one, nasty 'pop' noise).

Does anyone know of someone in the Minneapolis area who knows about this car.....besides the dealers -- I don't have much faith in them....they'll charge a good percentage of the car's worth just to tell me what's wrong.

I also probably need to sell the car, too, but that's for another time (if anyone's interested, drop me a line).

Thanks,

Jerrod
Modified by jerrodl at 7:19 AM 5/22/2006

[EQwhipD]

Jerrod,I think there was a thread similar to this before. See if this thread helps:zerothread?id=33283. Also more info may be located in the "Infiniti Online Mechanic Section".

-EQwhipD

[elwesso]

I personally dont know of anyone in MN that knows the Q.....

Probably only a HANDFUL of people (95% of which are on tihs forum) that can properly deal with the active suspension.

[Q45tech]

The difference in labor charges per hour between a dealership and a QUALIFIED TECHNICAN probably are not $25 hour. Even a unqualified shade tree will want $50 an hour on weekend [free time off].

Don't assume that every dealership is fully qualified to work on Active, it has been too many years since training and too few ever agreed to pay for service after warranty................12 year old parts.

The parts usually run 55% of the dealer/independent total bill.

An active owner should have been saving an EXTRA $500 per year to deal with the $8,000 extra the system cost..............$3,000-$5,000 can usually rehabilitate the system.

[jerrodl]

yes, that did help and the ideas about the relay may be the ticket. It was a loud pop (I heard it inside the car even though it was an outside noise). Gives me a few things to look at, anyway.

I've had my car in a few times to both our Infiniti dealers and I don't think they understood the A -- hence the little faith. I ended up explaining what I knew about the car to them. $90/hr to have them go to school on my nickel isn't my idea of a good deal. And I'm not saying they're not great mechanics; they just don't know about this car.....it's getting old and I don't blame them. So just thought there might be an expert that I don't know about in my area. If there isn't, I'll just use the expertise here and my usual gurus and wrenches.

Thanks all,

Jerrod

[ScottJackson]

I have a '92 active. I work on it when it needs fixing. I've recharged my accumulators and done some basic work on the active stuff. If you need any pics for comparison or if you'll happen to have it in southern Iowa, lemme know. Otherwise, I don't know what to tell ya about the loud noise and resulting lights coming on. Is the car still at normal ride height?

[jerrodl]

Hello Scott,

Yes, still at normal ride height. In fact, everything is normal (under normal driving conditions) except the lights being on.

Also very interested in recharging my accumulators, too. I am very familiar with fluid power and being resourceful when I need to be (race cars will do that to you). How did you set this up? How many did you do? Did it take a while? I'm assuming a nitrogen charge or did you use simply compressed air? Enough questions for now, any other info and pictures would be cool, too, if you have them.

Thanks,

Jerrod

[nchopp]

My limited experience with the service department at the Bloomington Infiniti dealership wasn't so hot.

[ScottJackson]

I used 3/8" thread stainless tank valves. I did 6 or 7 of the accumulators. Just drilled and tapped the top (so the valve wouldn't hit the piston), cleaned them out thoroughly with cans of carb cleaner and compressed air, threaded in the valve with red loc-tite, and charged with 600psi of nitrogen at the local John Deere dealer (they use nitrogen accumulators in combines and such). 600psi is low, but it was a good starting point. They worked fine but the valve cores did leak. I bought some stronger cores from the JD dealer also that were made to go in nitrogen accumulator stems. They're holding OK. One wheel accumulator has a slow leak around the piston. If I were to do it again, I'd use the aircraft quality valves to be extra safe.

[jerrodl]

Sounds simple enough...I guess I never looked at it closely. Are you still using 600 psi or have you gone higher? I don't know what the factory charge level was. I may have to plan a trip to your area to view this! Is southern IA south of Des Moines? I'm an old IA State grad so anything south of Ames is Southern IA...

[jerrodl]

Yeah, I never had a warm, fuzzy feeling there either. Nice people, though. And by the way -- those pictures are distracting from your message.....but in a good way.

[ScottJackson]

pictures? message? huh? I'm lost... not sure if I want to be found. Yeah, I'm right next to missouri. 2.5hrs south of Ames. I went with 800psi last charge, but only got the 4 wheel accums done, one of which is the leaker. The other ones in the back under the trunk have yet to be redone with the John Deere valve cores and fresh nitrogen. It needs A/C revamped completely so I'm really debating trying my 351C Ford swap. If I do it, I'll post pics of that on here so some of these people will throw their computers out the window as they said they would in that case.

[jerrodl]

I was talking about nchopp's post (the pictures in his sig).

I'll talk with my local John Deere guys and work my way through this one.

Did doing just the 4 on the actuators improve the ride enough?

[ScottJackson]

it definately made a difference. If you get the good aircraft valves and correct tap after drilling to the proper size, you should be good to 800psi no problem. That's still low, but I really don't know what the factory original pressure is. I like the somewhat firm ride of the low pressure so I haven't looked into it much. I shoulda saw it was a reply not to me. It made me curious cuz I use the term "warm and fuzzy" from time to time. I'm going to Iowa State now (well, not for summer classes, have one year left).

[jerrodl]

Go to the JD dealer for the valves?

[ScottJackson]

if you have to or if they have something stout that'll work. Otherwise, it's been posted by someone else the specific aircraft valves to use. I used tank valves from a hardware store then upgraded with the JD cores.

[DuDro]

...An active owner should have been saving an EXTRA $500 per year to deal with the $8,000 extra the system cost..............$3,000-$5,000 can usually rehabilitate the system.

Would it be safe to say that one can expect to spend about $200 - $300 a year to maintain an active Q45?

I'm looking at Q45a with an functioning system and it appears to have been very well maintained.