I know it's been a long while since I posted, have been lurking on and off to keep up with things. But checking in to say that I'm afraid it's time to let the old girl go.

I haven't been driving the car much over the past couple of years due to health/physical issues, but recently decided to finally bite the bullet and replace the badly leaking valve covers. I ordered the parts and found a mechanic willing to take it on for a reasonable fee. He put it on the rack to do a once-over and found severe corrosion/damage to the rear suspension- It looked like the springs were ready to punch through the rear lower links. Along with other damage to the exhaust (cracked manifold), steering issues, and a ton of little nagging issues, we decided to not do the work .

The body is still very clean and looks great. The engine hums happily and pulls strong (at 226K miles!). Even the transmission somehow seemed to heal itself over time . But all good things...

I'll post the parts I bought over in the marketplace in case any other Y34 folks want to snap them up. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with the car yet, maybe will see if I can get a few hundred on a trade-in at some point.

Anyway, thanks to everyone here for support and camaraderie over the years. I'll still pop in from time to time. This was THE BEST car I have ever owned. cheers,
MaxB

Sad to see another one go. That car is in such beautiful outward condition too, can tell you really loved it. It is an unfortunate part of life that these cars are just getting old.

Do you have any ideas about what your next car will be?

I myself just got a used 2022 Genesis G90 as my new car, and I know quite a few of us in this community were looking at G90s over the years as replacements for the Infiniti M series. The new 2023 model looks absolutely amazing with its extra plush headrest and massage seats, but it is also extremely expensive. I still have my 06 M35, and I'll be using it as a bit more of a project car. So it isn't a complete goodbye for me here on these forums, ill still be around. But I had to go out and buy a new car as California would no longer allow me to register the M35 as a street vehicle with a change to the law last year that they forced onto everyone. So it was either move to a new state, spend thousands to return the car to stock, or buy a new car for normal driving. So since the car was starting to show its age I opted for the new vehicle since I found one on a deal with a winter sale and very low miles

Sad to see such a pristine car go. I barely drive my M56x as well and sometimes I think of downsizing to one nice fancy SUV (we have the M and QX60) but I love M's and cant let her go. She's so rare, just like your Y34.

That's really a bummer that CA basically outlawed your M35, doesn't seem right.

My next vehicle probably won't be anything exciting.. I have a neuromuscular issue that is making me rely more and more on a wheelchair, so ramp-vans are in my future. Not much fun to drive lol.

I had my M equipped with hand controls several years back, which were actually pretty cool. Felt like I was flying a jet when I'd pull the throttle back lolol.


One drawback to this was that when shorter people drove the car (using the regular foot pedals), moving the seat forward would push the hand control forward, engaging the brakes. My wife drove like this one day and the left front wheel got extremely hot and started to jam/buck on the brake (I guess), what a mess.

EniGmA1987 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:10 am

Sad to see another one go. That car is in such beautiful outward condition too, can tell you really loved it. It is an unfortunate part of life that these cars are just getting old.

Do you have any ideas about what your next car will be?

I myself just got a used 2022 Genesis G90 as my new car, and I know quite a few of us in this community were looking at G90s over the years as replacements for the Infiniti M series. The new 2023 model looks absolutely amazing with its extra plush headrest and massage seats, but it is also extremely expensive. I still have my 06 M35, and I'll be using it as a bit more of a project car. So it isn't a complete goodbye for me here on these forums, ill still be around. But I had to go out and buy a new car as California would no longer allow me to register the M35 as a street vehicle with a change to the law last year that they forced onto everyone. So it was either move to a new state, spend thousands to return the car to stock, or buy a new car for normal driving. So since the car was starting to show its age I opted for the new vehicle since I found one on a deal with a winter sale and very low miles

What law? I'm in California are you referring to?

Six_Legs wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:32 pm

What law? I'm in California are you referring to?

California now enforces a law they actually made back in 2013. The change to enforcing it was done middle of last year. The Volkswagon diesel debacle finally made them implement it all. Basically, CA decided it cannot trust any vehicle manufacturers or drivers on the road with regard to their emissions. So what they now require is all ECU programs to be registered with the state and they go through this whole testing procedure to know that the specific ECU code is emission compliant. If you have a tuned car, you WILL fail smog check now. A smog check does do an actual emission check of the specific vehicle sensor data, but they also now look at ECU checksums to detect a non-compliant tune. This means that if your car is tuned at all, you fail smog and cannot get registration tags. They do allow OEMs to register "performance tune products" that modify car performance as long as they are staying within emission specs, but you as an individual cannot go through this tune registration process without spending many thousands of dollars and time to get your ECU tune registered and tested with the state. Thankfully, Up-rev has a CA compliant registered tune you can put in your car to get a bit better performance than stock. So if you currently have an Up-Rev tuned car, you have two options before your next smog check: put the stock tune back in AND remove your Up-Rev license as that will cause a fail, or buy a generic CA compliant Up-Rev tune and have that installed on your car.

My problem is that my engine has JWT camshafts, larger injectors, and runs E85. I cant run a generic tune that is registered with the state. I could go back to stock injectors and regular (expensive!) gas (E85 is normally $2.49/gal at the pump), but I really don't think a generic Up-Rev tune for CA compliance will work with larger degree and lift camshafts. Id have to take the engine apart and put the whole thing back to stock, which would be a lot of money and time. I could do it of course, but at this point I also dont even want to go back to a stock M35. So I am left in the position that I cannot register the car, even though the car was registered before this change to the law and meets all CARB smog emissions tests for being within regulations. Plus, I already bought a 4L crankshaft from a VQ40DE I was really looking forward to trying to fit into my engine as a next project hopefully this summer.