Hello; have a 14 Q70S and have been debating doing some unnecessary cosmetic changes.. specifically taillight swap from a 15+ and swapping out the mirrors from a 15+. Does anyone know if 15+ would fit? A WALD rear bumper I've been eyeing listed for 11-16, which makes me think tails/trunk/bumper are interchangeable, and I wouldn't be too worried about picking up AVM, just like the look with integrated turn signals.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum. That conversion has been done a few times. Funny enough I had a 14 Q70S as well and did the swap. I ended up buying the tails, the trunk, and the rear bumper from a 15+. Some say you don't need the trunk but I didn't want to risk it. Hopefully this helps.

Thanks; searched around but didn't see anything definitive.

I'd really like to do WALD Black bison rear, 15+ taillights and not worry about the trunk; I just don't see how the trunk tails from 15+ would fit in the 14 trunk... look to be completely different shapes, extending more into the centerline. Did you run into any wiring/fitment issues with the 15+ trunk?

No, everything was plug and play.

Also Wald's claim that that rear bumper will fit the 11-16 M is wrong. There's no way you'd be able to run that bumper with the 15+ tails without modifying it.

Good to know it's plug and play; not looking forward to maybe having to do trunk as well.

And that was my thought too; although I have a feeling at this point if I go with the WALD rear bumper, I won't be doing tail lights anyway so it may not matter too much. If you don't mind me asking, where'd you source parts / what was the cost of converting that rear for you? The 15+ rear bumper isn't hateful, and not big on the side flare/vents the WALD has. Leaning more towards the look of the LED's than stock lights w/ WALD.

I was easily a few grand in, between parts, paint, and labor for the install. I just searched eBay and ended up finding a guy who had a wrecked car he was parting out. I agree, I'm also not a fan of the side vents on that rear Wald bumper..if I got it, those would have to be filled in.

I'm having a hard time understanding your last sentence. Are you saying you're looking towards the 15+ refresh over the Wald bumper?

Yea, sorry, saying I think my preference would be for the look of the 15+ rear tail LEDs with the 15+ refreshed bumper. I was hoping to get away with just swapping the housing's and doing the WALD rear (would have had to get the flares filled too lol) but if I have to do trunk as well, I'll scoop up a rear bumper from a 15+ and try to keep the cost around what it would be just for the WALD rear.

I work at an Infiniti dealer and get decent pricing on parts, but I'm sure we'll get a wholesale 15+ I can do a bit of negotiating on to strip some parts.

Ah ok, thanks for clarifying lol. Good luck with the refresh and keep us posted!

What dealership do you work at if you don't mind me asking?

DoN_BLaZe34 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:27 pm

Ah ok, thanks for clarifying lol. Good luck with the refresh and keep us posted!

What dealership do you work at if you don't mind me asking?

I'm at an Infiniti location in NOVA. The flow made sense when typing but I've also been thinking about this a lot. The 14 rear looks good; I just really like the LED's of the 15+... all about how deep into it I want to go.

Oh ok cool. Lol I'm glad it made sense to one of us. I read and then re-read it a few times and kept thinking "yeah I'm lost" lol.

I liked the 11-14 rear up until the time of the refresh then immediately began to think and realize how dated the pre facelift looked when compared to the 15+. That plus I always felt the 11-14 rear bumper looked plain..like it just needed something. While the 15+ is of course stock it at least has a little more going on when compared to the 11-14. That's what lead to me doing the upgrade.

Exactly my feeling.... stock exhaust looks acceptable on the 11-14, but I put the ARK on about 2 months ago and it pains me a little to look at the rear end. Just not enough ... substance (?) especially with the larger exhaust.

I did stumble on something interesting, and perhaps why you said some say the trunk isn't needed. I guess the trunk is a 2-piece, and the rear plate is somehow removable. I think I'd need a rear plate from a 15+ only, and the trunk lights, but that might save some money.

Nice, congrats on the Ark exhaust. I have one as well and love it.

I wanna say that I have in fact heard that before, I just don't know of anyone that's been able to verify that that trunk finish is interchangeable. I hear you, if it is then that'll certainly save some money on the entire project.

Thanks; been loving it so far. Buddy and his girl both has RS400's and swapped their Stillens for Ark once I put mine on. Torn on getting the highflow cats from ARK, not too concerned about it being too loud for me, I just don't want it to be a "bad" loud if that makes sense.

I'm going to do some more digging on that rear finisher. An 18 L we had just got picked up for auction, water damage; they told me too late otherwise it would be going with out a back end LOL

Lol at them switching over. They made the wise choice. There really is no comparison between the Ark and the Stillen, it boggles my mind that it's so quiet. Pricey as all heck but a very nice exhaust. I know exactly what you mean when you say "bad" loud.

As for that '18, that sucks man lol. So close. I'm sure another will pop up soon for you.

I haven't heard the Stillen on the Q70 with the 3.7, just a Q50 3.7 but it also had test pipes and I was not a fan of the sound.

I see your flair (? idk, I haven't been on forums like this in like 15 years) says 14 5.6. I'll drive my current one til it dies and/or I line up an insane deal on a 5.6, but how has your experience been with that motor? Some of the more recent threads have me reconsidering and just sticking with the 3.7 for the next one.

Thanks for that, I never updated it, just did so. My 14 was good, never gave me any issues. And because it was a latter model I never had to deal with the dreaded timing chain issue, granted mine had relatively low miles on it (sold it with just under 80K, bought it with 11K). I've seen the same horror stories that would lead you to want to stay clear of them but to me it always feels like it's the 11 and 12's that had those things happen, then again, I could be biased lol.

Yea, I feel I'm at least a year or 2 out; I've had several 96/97/98 Maximas/I30's, all made it to 200k plus, would love to see that out of the Q70. Who knows, maybe by then Infiniti will have gotten the Q80 out of concept phase LOL.

Goes to show you just how reliable these cars and the brand is when you take care of your ride. You've got what's considered the more reliable engine so I'm sure you'll see that for your 70.

We'll see that Q80 when pigs are flying lol. I've just about given up on Infiniti, feels like my 70L will be my last one if they don't do something, which at this point, I don't think they will unfortunately. This will be even more so if they do the rebrand to Nissan plus or whatever. I'm really frustrated with the lack of direction the brand has had lately. After this I may have to jump ship and look for an LS500 when I can afford one haha

Yea, passing the blame on market conditions was a little foolish... why spend $50/$60k plus depending on motor/packages on a Q70 in 2019, when it's a car whose tech is stuck in 2009. Just using BMW as an example... 19 540i offered HUD, massage seats, digital gauge cluster, wireless charging, Apple CarPlay. So disappointing to only just now be getting some of those features. Plus, consolidating assembly lines, building off the same platform. New QX60 looks great and was long overdue, but it's a Pathfinder clone with one less seat and a $15,000 price increase.

The LS500 would be nice... F Sport is only $82k. I don't know if I could do that grille every day though LOL

You're so spot on. Seems like the company never moved on from the idea that while they offered reliable and fast motors(thinking of the G's when they first came out) but that wasn't going to be enough. They never committed to catching up the latest trends in tech, again just boggles my mind. Like they wanted to compete with the higher end companies but did absolutely none of the leg work to properly do so. But then turned around and priced their cars somewhat similarly to its competitors. It's almost insulting if you really think about it.

As for the LS I'll say 2 things,
1) my lady has the 2020 F Sport NX, you get used to the front grille lol. It's really not THAT bad. Sure they all look the same but oh well

2) IF I couldn't get around it, just remember I'm inside the car, looking at the grille will be everyone else's job haha

I rag on the QX60, but the redesign has caught that model up a lot, and it does drive very well. If it's any indicator of what's to come for the rest of the line-up, I hope we'll see some more steps in the right direction.

And you're right, the grille is not thattt bad. It's nice there is a unifying design aspect, but did they have to go with the grille and/or make it so large?

I definitely agree, from an anesthetic standpoint that redesign is huuuuuuge upgrade. I actually don't fear what they do with the rest of the current lineup, I'm more so sad about them getting rid of what I felt were the nicest cars they had (The 70 and the QX70) though I know sales didn't justify keeping them.

Lol I'm glad you can admit the grille isn't all that terrible. I'll concede and agree that it's a little obnoxious, although the 2022 lineup does appear to have shrunken them a bit. It's always reminded me of Darth Vader lol.