New owner of a 2003 M45 and have questions. Help!?

[M45JDH]

Hello Everybody! I bought my 2003 M45 last friday and I did some tinkering today and now I've got some questions.

Here's what I did today:

Change plugs - NGK PlatinumFlush Radiator - Added Water WeterOil Change - Castrol conventional 5w30 - Fram Extra GuardDiff Fluid Change - Valvoline 80w90Air filter

Now for my questions...

I see the car has 3 resonators. Are the two rear resonators straight through like a regular resonator, or is it, in fact, a chambered muffler? The reason I ask is because I have two magnaflow mufflers that will fit perfectly in thier place. I was going to replace them and in the process get rid of that exhaust valve on the passenger side. Also, if they are a chambered muffler do you think adding the magnaflows would make the car alot louder? I've tried to do some research and what I've heard people say is that they have lost power when adding an exhaust system to the M45's. I was just wondering what people have experienced.

When I went to the autoparts store I got the cheap Purolator air filter because it was between that and a K&N. Now, Im wondering IS the K&N filter worth the extra $30? I've been a repeated K&N user in all my vehicles but what I've read is that people have had issues with the oil from the filter clogging up the MAF. Has anyone noticed any MPG gains with a K&N? Or has anyone had problems with a K&N?

Ok... next question. I bought a new fuel filter and wanted to put it on this weekend but I cant find the current one on the car. Where the heck is it!?

I think this is the final question. At least for right now... lol. The car was owned by a woman in her late 50's and she babied it. I've read that these cars will learn the drivers style and the ECU will adapt to thier driving and change transmission shift points and such. Is this true?? Because, I am DEFINTELY NOT going to drive this car like a grandma. Is there a way to reset the ECU back to factory or will simply disconnecting the battery do the trick?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!

[wylin]

i have the same car and the K&N, and it tends to pool some oil in the air box after installation, check the bottom of your air box...but since the airbox is rather large the MAF didn't get contaminated. Worse case with MAF cars buy a can of electrical parts cleaner at the autoparts store and spray off your maf's hot wire once in a while.

Is it worth it over a oem paper or fiber filter thats up to you. I noticed throttle response is way up with the K&N and the car feels more responsive accelerating. But conversely the K&N filters less effectively than a paper or fibrous filter. For long trips i use an Amisoil made unit which is similar to the stock filter.

The car has on the Y pipe 2 catalysts and 1 resonator. Then another resonator, then the main muffler. I think any increase to even sized piping notice how it narrows in spots would yield some power.

The fuel filter is part of the Fuel pump system you will have to fish out the pump to retrieve it from the gas tank.

The ecu learns driving patterns for emissions reasons, resetting it will resett the emission test cycle and might cause you to fail any emissions testing. Also unplugging it will not reset it as its a flash memory based system.


Modified by wylin at 5:12 PM 4/22/2009

[Andrew224]

Fuel filter is in the gas tank. Check out how to do this in the service manual. http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/M/2003/fl.pdf

The ECU will learn your driving style fairly quickly (probably within 15 minutes of the new driving style). No need to do anything but drive how you want to.

Also, might be a good idea to change the in-cabin air filter if you're not sure when it was last done. Fairly easy but you'll have to get the filter from Infiniti (they run about $50 if I remember right).

Andrew

[CakeDaddy]

The K&N gets a bad rap here because of the oil. I had the k&N in my old Acura and all was good

[szh]

Change plugs - NGK Platinum

As long as they are the stock ones (or the COLD or HOT versions), this is fine! (As an added side note for all others: Please don't ever use Bosch plugs in a Nissan/Infiniti engine - bad things happen in our experience!)

Oil Change - Castrol conventional 5w30 - Fram Extra Guard

Did you use Castrol GTX? If so, that is an excellent dino oil. I don't know about the Fram oil filters though ... I tend to stick with OEM.

Diff Fluid Change - Valvoline 80w90

Good. Is the above synthetic? If not, you may also consider using Mobil 1 Synthetic Gear Oil 70W-90 or 70W-140 the next time - cost is low enough for a couple of bottles and the results are believed to be better.

But, if you change it often enough (I do it every 30k miles), then any good gear oil should be fine too.

The car was owned by a woman in her late 50's and she babied it. I've read that these cars will learn the drivers style and the ECU will adapt to thier driving and change transmission shift points and such. Is this true?? Because, I am DEFINTELY NOT going to drive this car like a grandma. Is there a way to reset the ECU back to factory or will simply disconnecting the battery do the trick?

15 to 20 minutes of driving like you want to, will be sufficient to get the TCU adaptive programming in accord with what you want!

Z