Please help an ignorant newbie with his 97 Maxima GXE :)

[Jgol]

Hi folks. I'm just a student in Upstate NY who doesn't know much about cars but definitely doesn't want to get taken advantage of either.

I have a 1997 Maxima GXE automatic with 86k. I bought it in the summer of 2005 and it had 69k on it then.

I noticed 3 or 4 months ago that the engine or whatever seemed to sound a lot louder when I would start the car up or any time that I am accelerating. Above 40 mph or so, the other noises drown out this loud idling noise it appears.

I do not have ABS. I have noticed that my braking ability in the rain seems to be a bit impaired. There were a couple times this past Saturday night where it was raining and I would press the brakes , not too hard, but with medium force when approaching a light from from doing 40 mph, and the car skidded a bit out of control(is fishtailed the word?) and the car ended up running the red lights. Fortunately no one got hit because it was 11 at night.

Anyway, I took it to the local Goodyear gemini shop this morning, and I told them what was going on and said I just wanted to find out what was wrong, if anything. They took about 2 hours or so on it and ran a brake test as well as just looking the entire car over, and then came out and gave me a laundry list of items that they said needed to be replaced for the car to run safely.

According to them, I need to have all of the following work on my car done(labor cost is 90 or 95 an hour, can't remember):

2 Wheel Front Disc Brake Overhaul-FWD , consisting of:

replacing brake pads and hardware, overhaul or replacing calipers, resurface the rotors, bleed the hydraulic system & test drive (ceramic pads extra).

They want to charge me $766.14 for this.

2 Wheel Rear Disc Brake Overhaul, consisting of:

replacing brake pads and hardware, overhaul or replacing calipers, resurfaec the rotors, bleed hydraulic system & test drive (ceramic pads extra).

They want to charge me $1054.96 for this.

Serpentine Belt

They want to charge me $88.55 for this

Remanufactured Right Front Drive Axle

They want to replace this for $246.80

New tires

They want to replace all 4 tires with their own because according to them they're in bad shape, but because they're so nice they are going to install them for free. I don't know how much this part costs-it wasn't included in the estimate.

Wheel balance

They want to rebalance my wheels for $31.90

Exhaust from engine to mid pipe with converter

Finally, they want to replace my entire exhaust from engine to midpipe with converter and charge me $2000 for this.

-----------------------

The grand total for the work they want to do comes to a cost of around 4500, not including tax. Needless to say, that is more than the car is worth even.

I should note that my rear calipers were replaced two years ago, and the front ones might have been as well. I will have to look into the front ones, but I know for a fact that the rear ones were replaced. And at least two of the tires were replaced two years ago.

I also had the mid to rear section of the entire exhaust replaced by Goodyear in March. Needless to say, I am now suspicious and looking for the advice of Maxima owners because I figure you folks would know best.

My dad knows significantly more about cars than I do and he advised me to get a second opinion from a local-non chain shop ASAP, so I am doing that on Friday.

The second to last note I will make is that I was in a car accident two weeks ago-just a minor one. I did not hit anyone else's car. Someone cut me off in the rain with 10 feet to spare doing 40 mph and to avoid rear ending them I drove my car up on the curb. The front right tire absorbed most of the impact.

The final note I have is that my car passed inspection on August 8th, so this is only a little more than a month later, although from talking to the people at Goodyear, the car could have still passed inspection with all of this wrong.

I'm perplexed and a bit angry because my dad and others have convinced me that they are trying to take advantage of me.

Thanks for any advice you guys have.

Take care.

[allensteiner]

hi, you don't need any work done except maybe the right cv axle/assembly since that one was impacted during your incident. the brakes...it depends how well you know them and how good of a driver you are. i never had abs in my previous cars and only locked them up in an emergency.give yourself more time/room ahead aspecially in bad weather - it's called being a defensive driver. i'm an offensive one so i usually punch it through a changing light but that's just me...being stupid

[MinisterofDOOM]

Welcome to NICO, Jake. Some of the repairs sound legitimate, others are questionable, but you definitely don't need to spend $4500 on the car.

2 Wheel Front Disc Brake Overhaul-FWD , consisting of:

replacing brake pads and hardware, overhaul or replacing calipers, resurface the rotors, bleed the hydraulic system & test drive (ceramic pads extra).

They want to charge me $766.14 for this.

2 Wheel Rear Disc Brake Overhaul, consisting of:

replacing brake pads and hardware, overhaul or replacing calipers, resurfaec the rotors, bleed hydraulic system & test drive (ceramic pads extra).

They want to charge me $1054.96 for this.

Much of this is probably unnecessary. You may simply need to replace your brake pads (which should cost less than $100). Even having the system bled should only cost around $50. One good way to tell if you need new brake pads is to look at your safety inspection results, since the inspection was so recent. The safety inspection will probably score the brakes by remaining surface area (for instance, 2 out of 5 or something like that). That should give you a good idea of how much life they have remaining.

Quote »Serpentine Belt

They want to charge me $88.55 for this[/quote]I'd have a trusted mechanically inclined friend or another mechanic verify that the belt needs replacing.

Quote »Remanufactured Right Front Drive Axle

They want to replace this for $246.80[/quote]It's possible that this is causing the new loud noise, although without more details of the noise it's hard to tell. What were the reasons the shop gave for needing to replace the axle? With only 90k miles on the car, it's possible that this does need to be replaced--especially after hitting the curb. However, if you're going to do it, it's best to replace both at once.

Quote »New tiresThey want to replace all 4 tires with their own because according to them they're in bad shape, but because they're so nice they are going to install them for free. I don't know how much this part costs-it wasn't included in the estimate.[/quote]Your tires are likely responsible for the car's poor wet braking. You can easily check yourself, though. Tires have wear indicators in the tread valleys. If the tread is worn down to the indicators, you need to replace the tires.This is what the wear indicators look like:

Quote »Wheel balance

They want to rebalance my wheels for $31.90[/quote]Their "free installation" is probably being made up for in this price. Still, any time you get new tires installed, you should have the wheels balanced. Since you're getting installation for "free" I'd say this one's totally reasonable.

Quote »Exhaust from engine to mid pipe with converter

Finally, they want to replace my entire exhaust from engine to midpipe with converter and charge me $2000 for this.[/quote]Does Buffalo do emissons testing? If so, and you passed your recent test, there's no reason to replace the catalytic converter (which is most of the cost here). It's possible that an exhaust leak is responsible for the car being noisier as you noted above. Best solution here is to take the car to a shop that'll put it up on a lift and have the tech show you why they want to replace the exhaust. If you passed emissions, though, it's most likely that none of this needs to be done at all.

4 tires should cost between 3 and 4 hundred dollars installed and balanced, brake pads should cost ~$30-$60/axle (if you replace them yourself, which isn't particularly hard).No reason this should cost more than a few hundred unless there's a major exhaust issue or you really do need a new front axle.

[Jgol]

Thanks a ton to you both, especially you Minister. I can tell that you put a lot of time into that reply and I appreciate it.

I will be home again(in Syracuse, about 150 miles away) during the second week of October. Do you think my car make it another month on the same tires and brake pads? I must admit that my biggest and unprobably unfounded fear is the brakes just failing on the interstate home and me dying because I crashed into someone at 50 mph. I don't really drive much-only about 6,000-7,000 miles a year on average so that would probably only be another 500 miles or so on the current equipment before I can make it home. If possible, I would rather just replace them then where I have my dad to help me. Then I can get the new tires rebalanced anyway. Because it will be mid-October at this time, I think I will just purchase 4 new snow tires(which I've never had on this car) because of the terrible winters in Upstate NY. Then I could replace the non-snow tires when spring comes around. What do you think?

I am still going to take it to the mechanic on Friday morning as my dad suggested, but I must admit I feel better about it. The Goodyear guy made it sound like my car was a deathtrap and could just fall apart at any time. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable, but do you think that they were deliberately trying to deceive me? I mean I don't see how my car could possibly need $4500 in repairs without any engine or transmission work being done even, but I'm no car expert. My dad knows a bunch though and that's his opinion.

Thanks a lot!

[allensteiner]

snow tires are a great thing especially if you get studs in them - about $10/wheel at a tire shop.and don't think you're driving a "death trap" because that'll stress you out and you'll make it one driving affraid of what might happen:rotflmao

[MinisterofDOOM]

You're probably okay making the trip back home. Unless the car is actually behaving on the road in ways that are scaring you. If the brakes are making you nervous, just make sure the pads look good. The fact that your tires locked up in the rain means your braking system is probably working fine...you just need new tires. If it were me, I'd probably wait and make the trip.

[Jgol]

Thanks a ton minister-one followup on the tires if I may.

I'm looking over the diagnostic invoice that they gave me and ran today for $150 total and I see that the tire tread depths are listed for all 4 tires

Front left: 6/32Front right: 6/32Rear left: 3/32Rear right: 3/32

I don't know much about it but I just did some quick googling and apparently the law in NY is 2/32 for minimum tread depth, but consumer reports recommends replacement at 4/32:

"In it's November issue, Consumer Reports recommended consumers use a quarter instead of a penny to measure tread depth-a change that effectively doubles the depth at which car owners should consider getting new tires from 2/32 to 4/32 inch.

"In making its recommendation, the magazine cited its own and others' research that show braking distances in wet weather increase markedly after tires reach the 4/32-inch mark."

http://www.dunntire.com/Learni...Depth/

Obviously at least the rear tires should probably be replaced in spring after my new snow ones come off, but do you think it's worth it to replace the front ones too? I hope these numbers help re-inforce your opinion that the tires are at issue. And do tires start out at 32/32 or what?

Thank you!

[MinisterofDOOM]

Glad to help.

Tires don't start off at 32/32 (unless it's a seriously beefy offroad tire. It's actually just a measurement of depth as 32nds of an inch. So your rears are down to 3/32nds of an inch of tread depth.

Those numbers definitely support my thoughts that your tires are the reason for the poor wet-weather braking.

I would probably replace all 4 in the spring. OR alternatively, you could get snow tires on the fronts and all seasons on the rear this winter, then buy two more all seasons for the fronts in the spring. Since the Max is FWD, having real winter tires on the back isn't critical, though it can help. I personally have always just run all-seasons on my Maxima, even in snow-heavy winters. But studded snow tires definitely make a big difference.

A tire shop might be able to tell you how much milage you can expect from the tires you have now (as they'll know wear ratings).

[Jgol]

Thanks a ton minister.

Bad news on the car though.

Was driving a friend and I to our bowling night tonight and after I picked him up from his house and prepared to get on an interstate highway here, I looked at my friend and asked him, do my headlights look dimmer to you? And he said yeah. And then I noticed my air bag light was flashing. And so I turned onto the onramp(stupidly) and then I noticed that all the lights on my dash were flashing basically and the car was getting ready to stop. So i moved it over to the right side of the shoulder and put my hazards on.

I called Triple A(I have it, fortunately) and they were on their way. I called my dad and told him what happened and he said it's a belt problem. Remembering one of the more inexpensive things goodyear listed that needed repair, the serpentine belt, I asked him if that could be it? he said that yeah it wraps around the alternator and that loud noise I've been hearing for months was probably the belt on its last legs, and what happened tonight was the serpentine belt snapped. Does this make sense to you minister?

Anyway I dropped the car off at a place that Triple A towed me to(closed , obviously) and put the key in the drop box. I'll call them tomorrow morning and see what's up, but the Triple A concurred with my dad that it was the serpentine belt, and didn't even try to jump it.

That explains what happened tonight I guess as well as the noise, so tires are probably the only repairs after this? Lame night haha. Hopefully they can get to it tomorrow so I'm not screwed for the weekend. How much in parts and labor costs do you guys think I'm looking at? Goodyear estimated it at 88.55 total on my sheet(22 for the part and 66.50 for the labor). Is this a sign that maybe Goodyear was telling the truth about all the parts that needed repair or am I just paranoid? Sorry if this is convoluted and not making sense. The car just dying on me like that scared me a bit, and fortunately it was not a busy time of night(10 pm).

Thanks guys,Jake

[MinisterofDOOM]

It could be the belt. Definitely sounds alternator-related, but whether the belt or alternator itself failed is hard to say without seeing the car.

[lightsout]

such great advise from everyone! Great job guys I read the entire thread, and feel that all the repairs are minor, but can seem major b/c of how the car reacts. Your Maxima is going to be great to you for a long time to come once the minor things are adjusted or repaired. Don't freak out b/c then you'll end up throwing money at the mechanic to fix your headache. Just take each issue one step at a time. If you or your father need any more Tech help, come here first!

btw....WELCOME TO NICO

[Jgol]

Thanks a ton guys. The honest repair shop that AAA dropped it off at fixed it for me. Both the serpentine belt and alternator needed replacing obviously. It cost me 480 plus tax, which I think is fair because the Maxima alternator replacement is an expensive part at 200+ for it alone, and they gave me a student discount on the labor. Car starts and runs fine now, and that nasty sound I described in my original post is gone.

[mike98i30]

That Good Year shop seems like a Ripoff You need to find a good independant shop that won't take you for a ride....

[hustlingtech]

yeh, they are trying to make money.you should get to know a tech that could do job after hours.I normally charge $60 for the front or rear brakes.rotors and pads,I bet you don`t need new calibers, they might get stuck but a experianced tech could fix it.the belt should be about 40.