Serious help needed with my Q!!!!!

[jfck2000]

Sorry this is a bit lengthy -I have a 1995 Infiniti Q45t that I bought from my dad who took meticulous care of it. He had every maintenance service done to it on time, changed the transmission fluid every 30,000, oil every 3,000 miles, etc. etc. When I got it, I noticed a small leak of some sort under the car midway kind of in between the two front seats. It started out to be about the size of a nickel, but as time went on it got to be as big as a softball. I also smelled a burning scent every time I drove it. I took it to a mechanic locally who said that the Valve cover gasket on the driver’s side was leaking on to the exhaust and burning, thus emitting an odor. So my brother in law and I decided to make this a weekend project. We tore the car apart a replaced the valve cover gasket. In the process we accidentally knicked a hose and created kind of a flap cut in it (very small less than 1/4") - but when we looked at it, it didn't appear to go completely through the hose, it just appeared to be on the surface. We set the hose aside along with the others and eventually lost track of which one it was, so when we put the car back together, the hose went back in without us fixing it. When we had the car apart, we realized it wasn't even a valve cover leak, but instead a transmission fluid leak. We solely went on what the mechanic told us - big mistake. My wife drives the car and it seemed to run fine after the valve cover replacement with the exception that the check engine light would come on and off. The only thing I could think of was the hose that we cut.One morning my wife was driving to work and when she was making a left turn at an intersection the car shut off. She turned it back on with no problem and it ran fine.I took the car to another mechanic recommended by my brother to look at the transmission. That mechanic said that it was the turbine control sensor in the transmission. He also said the the computer was giving a reading for the EGR Valve (I have the code) – he said a cleaning should do just fine.(I have not cleaned it yet) I was skeptical and took it to my old mechanic (we moved and don’t live real close to him anymore). He looked at the leak and said it was coming out of the breather tube / vent tube at the top of the transmission. He referred us to a transmission place who in turn told recommended we have the transmission rebuilt. We did so for $1800.After we got the car back, my wife immediately noticed a rumbling feeling every time she went 70 mph. We noticed that the RPM’s were at 2500 when it happened. It got worse and starting doing it around 40-45 mph, so I took it back to the transmission place. They didn’t really believe me so I insisted they test drive. As we got on the highway the car lost 4th gear. They kept the car two days and replaced a solenoid.Now, the car keeps rumbling. It is most noticed at 70mph/2200 RPM and at 50mph going up hills. I called the transmission guy and he is saying it is a brake problem. I replaced the brakes and rotors all around and have had them checked – no problems. My wife was driving the car this week while it was raining and every time she made a turn the car almost shut off. She pulled into a gas station and it was bucking like it wasn’t getting gas. She decided to drive it more to see if it went away and it did. She thinks the last time the car shut off in the intersection that it was also raining that day.I am not sure how many issues I have going on here or if they are all related. The transmission still rumbles, the engine light still comes on and off, and now the car shuts off or putts/bucks at times. Does anyone have a clue as to what some of these problems might be? Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

[maxnix]

Welcome to our club and don't be afraid to use the Enter key to start a new paragraph.

One big mistake you are making is taking your car to mechanics and technicians that have no clue about the VH45DE or the RE4R03A. If your mechanic didn't replace the rear main engine seal at the same time he dropped the transmission, that would be a confirmation. Replacing the turbine sensor should have been sufficient. Accepting a local rebuild over a genuine Nissan rebuilt transmission is a choice you may come to regret shortly.

If your vibration at 50 mph is in 3 and you have near 26" OEM specified diamter tires, you need to replace the rear engine (transimission) mount, which is usually accompanied by new exhaust hangers.

There is alot of information you need to learn here about maintaing your car. Start by reading all the posts by Q45tech and you shall be rewarded.
Modified by maxnix at 9:24 AM 10/7/2006

[Romeo5k]

1st.... Never let a non G50 mech under that hood again. Matter of fact.. you would do better than a regular mechanic.. because they know just as much as you do about your engine.2nd.... Find a G50(Q45) mech immediately. Otherwise you'll be looking at buying another car soon. And end up like me!!!3rd... putt.. puttt and almost shuts offf could be a couple of things...MAss Air flow... Fuel Pump... Bad gas... Air Filter...ive also heard about wrong spark plug, but i havent proven that , and I WONT. but to make sure.. pls make sure they are NGK. If its bosch ... you'll be sorry.4th... dont drive the car anymore than you have to. Before something really goes out.*** Now with all that said... Pls try your best to find a Q45 mechanic. Remember.. just cause he worked on an infiniti b4 doesnt mean he knows about G50s***

[96Qowner]

The rumbling, as maxnix said, is your transmission mount. If they didn't replace it when they rebuilt the transmission, ya gotta really wonder about their "expertise".

The stalling and bucking is probably a bad MAF. But first, make sure your transmission fluid level is full.

You can try cleaning the MAF according to these instructions to see if the symptoms go away:

http://www.q45.org/maf.html

[Peterofdevon]

Having lived with 4 G50s I cannot now recommend this car to anyone who does not have an expert G50 tech. Unless you live near T-3 in Georgia...forget about it.

I've been on this board for almost a year and the G50 problem posts are finally getting to me. This car is to be avoided. Vibrations, transmissions, injectors, drive shafts, chain quides, valve gaskets, rubber etc. You name it...it will fail.

I have had several issues with my two current 94 G50s and Infinity mis diagnosed both cars. Out of the four I've owned..only one required reg maintenance.

I have put way too much money in these cars in way too short a time. No one knows how to work on them near me and I live in the 5th largest pop center in the US---Philadelphia. If you buy one be prepared to spend at least $4,000 to get it sorted out at a minimum.

These are my last G50s. I've had enough. When I sell one, someone on this list should buy one of them. You'll get a 10K invested car for almost half that.

You've been WARNED. And I've driven G50s for over 375K total. I may be one the highest milage users in the US. My only good one was a 93 BTW.

I'll cross post this to start a thread to help warn folks.

Peter

[Rex]

Peter - It may be too late, but Keith Van Meter (sic) in south Jersey should be able to more than address any of your concerns. Based on previous posts by satisfied NICO members.

[Q45tech]

There are at least 400 techs [8 per state on average] in US that understand the early Q, unfortunately there are over 900,000 MECHANICS who don't have a clue. In ATL we have 10 knowlegables at 3 locations plus each of the 5 dealers has one [maybe].

Remember in the early days there were only 100 dealers that went up to 150 now 200? Most of those properly trained left for other makes in the mid/late 90's when sales fell. Business didn't pick up until 2002.

Just think of owning an early Q as a big bloated 4 door Ferrari.

As I always point out owning the Q has cost $40,000+ in maintenance and repairs over 16 years [ considering my donor cars/parts or discounts add another 25%] say $50-60,000 if you bought services at retail.

[maxnix]

Peter, I think the lesson is learn what you are buying. Why we always recommend, and too few believe, it is absolutely essential to obtain the Infiniti dealer's service history first before even test driving the car. Other service records are important, but the clincher should be the inspection report from a senior Infiniti tech. Once a subsystem is abused or worn to its limit, things can be very expensive quickly.

Those of us who stay current with preventative maintenance usually don't have these debilitating problems. Most wait until something breaks then wonder why the part is so expensive. Few cars are even now being produced with the G50 tolerances.

For someone who has owned the car for awhile and neglected preventative maintenance, it is just a question of how soon it will auger into the ground.

[superuber]

The G50 is a great car for the DIY'er. as long as you have the skilland are tooled to maintain it. If I had to rely on others to repairmy car here in Pa I have no idea who I would go to. I have done allmy maintainence and my car has never had one problem. Maintainedthey are a GREAT car! Neglect it, you might just want to buy a Lexus!

[Peterofdevon]

Peter, I think the lesson is learn what you are buying. Why we always recommend, and too few believe, it is absolutely essential to obtain the Infiniti dealer's service history first before even test driving the car. Other service records are important, but the clincher should be the inspection report from a senior Infiniti tech. Once a subsystem is abused or worn to its limit, things can be very expensive quickly.

Those of us who stay current with preventative maintenance usually don't have these debilitating problems. Most wait until something breaks then wonder why the part is so expensive. Few cars are even now being produced with the G50 tolerances.

For someone who has owned the car for awhile and neglected preventative maintenance, it is just a question of how soon it will auger into the ground.

Brian, you don't read my posts very carefully. I've owned 4 G50s and the most recent two are nothing but problems. One was gone though by the sr. G50 (so they said) tech at Infinity of Westchester pa. Said it was perfect. 6000 miles later its cost me over $7,000.

I neglect nothing on these cars. Plus, no one keeps these cars serviced at the dealer this long. Service records are useless. Once they come off lease its a crap shoot. I drove five of them in the tri-state area before I bought my most recent ones--they all had obvious problems. The production runs were low over the years due to poor sales and thus there was little incentive/profit for Infinity to refine (reinvest in) this car. Its too bad...its blows away the old big Lexus

I have to respectively disagree with you. These are not good second hand cars for folks with limited funds. These are absolute m-o-n-e-y pits. Need you forget I've driven this model car almost 400,000 miles!!! Remember--I love the G50.

Peter

[Q45denver]

Definately not the best car if you want to rack up the miles or you are not a DIYer. On the bright side think of how much you saved by not getting a Ferrari. BTW my 1995 has been trouble free and has not required any repairs or maintenance other than oil changes since I bought it a couple of years ago. The valve covers are starting to leak however only noticable in very cold weather. On the other hand my 1990 over the same mileage required major repairs. If I had known what I know now I could have avoided most of the repairs or at least could have done them for a lot less.

[redmanfx]

I agree and think the G50 has a limited fan base these days! If you can fix things yourself the car is a very nice "tinker with" car, but if you need the mechanic to fix it, then you might as well sell it because the G50 is a money pit! On the bright side of things, once you've got it running nice then you can see why this car was so responsive and has it's small cult following today. To add to the discussion, I love the G50 and want to buy as many as I can with the limited funds I have!

[breaksr]

I have to tell you I also think this car can be a good car for the DIYer but not for someone who has to bring it to a mechanic everytime it starts to shake. I have now fixed two of them 1) a '91 that I'm currently driving with 195K and I bought it with 78K and 2) a '95 with 174K that needed plenty of repairs $3000 in last two years and that was after a dealer did some of the initial repairs (pitiful). My '91 I have spent less then $6000 in seven years of driving. It comes out to about $75 a month to own the car.

I'm also thinking that the MAF is bad on your car (bucking, stalling). It just goes to show you even the dealer maintained cars are very minimal repairs for maximum pricing.

[maxnix]

It just goes to show you even the dealer maintained cars are very minimal repairs for maximum pricing.

Readers of the previous posts know this is not news. Dealer and OEM minimal maintenance procedures are not sufficient to maintain as new OEM performance. This is what any one who spends even a minimal amount of time reading Q45tech's posts learns.

Notice that all the complaints come from owners who let their cars slip below this line, or do not raise them above it. Those that restore or maintain them are more than satisfied even when comparing against cars that are a decade or a decade and a half newer in design. Few other cars of any era can match that.

[Peterofdevon]

Notice that all the complaints come from owners who let their cars slip below this line, or do not raise them above it. Those that restore or maintain them are more than satisfied even when comparing against cars that are a decade or a decade and a half newer in design. Few other cars of any era can match that.

With all due respect.

I do everything to my cars to make them as new. You must not have the experience with the G50 as I do. This last round with them is nailing the coffin. These cars are falling a part with age, not miles on them.

Just watch this board and see all the catastophic failures of late. I think the G50 car in 2006 is only for commited enthusiasts with lots of money or a full service bay.

I think we should not miss lead new owners as to what they are getting into. That's the soapbox. I really think we need a warning thread sticky

Peter, and I'll have a G50 till someone prys it from my cold dead fingers.

[Jesda]

Luxury cars are a thoroughly enjoyable waste of money.

The left lane is my personal playground.

[96Qowner]

The rumbling, as maxnix said, is your transmission mount. If they didn't replace it when they rebuilt the transmission, ya gotta really wonder about their "expertise".

Forgot to mention that the two front motor mounts will also cause a rumble at 2250 rpm, as well as the exhaust hangers at the transmission mount. If they put in a new transmission mount, you may have to do the front mounts too. My experience is that about 70% of the vibration comes from the transmission mount and another 20% from the front mounts, then 10% from the exhaust hangers.

[Q45tech]

EVERYTHING RUBBER or rubber isolated will need to be replaced eventually on EVERY CAR to bring them back to as [near] new............most of the metal parts don't bend MUCH in normal low mileage operation............but beyond 100k even the steel bends minutely..........shock towers, suspension mount points on rear subframe, etc.

Only so much stiffness can be built into a 4,000 pound lux car........modern cars have gone to aluminum to save weight so more stiffness [weight] can be added to weaker areas.

Notice that the new M45 [with all those aluminum goodies] actually weighs more than the 90 Q45.

If you don't have a back yard full of wrecked old Q. new [recent price increases] parts get very expensive.

I keep posting the $40,000 M&R expenditure in hopes people will think before they just purchase a Q without PAYING AN EXPERT to look over a half a dozen examples to find one that will minimize their M&R.

Paying a tech $500 to look at 5 possibles is sure less expensive than buying one that needs $10-12,000 in repairs. Always assume that any 10 year old car will need the purchase price [MINIMUM] again in just repairs!

[Q45tech]

We have seen a few of those pristine low mileage Q purchased from ebay at inflated prices due to so called perfection and low miles.

All of them need serious repairs to get them back to where they would have been if the AGE was appropriate to mileage. Leaky subframes, shocks, leaks, rubber replacement, AC problems.

Getting a current 1994 [12 years old] back to how it was in 1997 when it would have had normally 45,000 miles is a $5,000 to $8,000 proposition.

Age destroys everything a lot faster than mileage at least under 150k.

[DrewQ45]

Sorry this happened to you.

Having had my transmission replaced a year ago, I can point you to the likely cause. Checking transmission and exhaust mounts etc. are a good idea, but I don't think they suddenly failed as soon as your transmission was replaced. You can check my theory by driving the car at the speed where it starts then neutralling the transmission. If the rumble stays, it's your driveshaft.

My guess is that your "mechanic" probably removed or installed your driveshaft incorrectly. The properly way to remove a shaft is by disconnecting it at the rear-most point where it connects to the differential flange then pulling it out in a complete unit. When installing, there is also a procedure as detailed in the FSM.

Take a read....

zerothread/201042

[qsiguy]

Back on subject since some have turned this into a debate about if the G50 is a good car to buy....

From my personal experience...MAF can/will cause stalling/bucking but it may not necessarily the MAF sensor itself. When mine has done this I just have to wiggle the MAF plug and I'm good to go. Next, I had the exact same vibration you describe. Mine seemed to get worse over time, changed the transmission/exhaust mounts and vibration gone. I think if it was going bad on yours and they moved it around removing it and reinstalling it they might have easily collapsed the hard rubber and made it get worse fast. It's not to expensive and you can do it yourself in an hour or two.

Another suggestion on the stalling. Can you hear a buzzing coming from the trunk while the car is idling? Fuel pump is going bad if you can and might be contributing to this problem. Done this myself as well, plan on a couple hours or so, not too difficult.

[Blamecanada999]

There are at least 400 techs [8 per state on average] in US that understand the early Q, unfortunately there are over 900,000 MECHANICS who don't have a clue. In ATL we have 10 knowlegables at 3 locations plus each of the 5 dealers has one [maybe].

Does anyone happen to know of any Q45 Techs in New England? I've had enough of regualr mechanics just scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders. My current mech refused to change the plugs on my car.

[Rex]

Does anyone happen to know of any Q45 Techs in New England? I've had enough of regualr mechanics just scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders. My current mech refused to change the plugs on my car.

Fly Wes out, he'll probably do it for the fun of it and some site seeing , you just have to do the rear allen screws on the covers

In all honesty, if you cna't afford to maintain a $50k car that's out of warrantee and don't have the time, means, willingness nor desire to do so yourself, no used luxury car is for you ... unless you're looking to buy/drive/ditch on a 2 yr cycle. A sad sad fate for a Q in my mind.

[MinnyQ]

Just to pull you up short of completely miserable I'm here to tell you my '95 Q, with 253k is still running strong on the original transmission, only one replaced fuel pump, eight new injectors (225k), two wheel bearings and a new valve cover gasket. No oil leaks. No oil use to speak of. I owe a lot of the best tips I got on maintaining this car from Q45 Tech and others on this site. But I agree that there's no advantage to trying to maintain it on the grey market. Take it to the damned dealer. Pay the extra 20%. I think its a terrific car. Wonderfully smooth. I test drove a '96 Volvo 960 with 84K the other day. I was considering buying it for my kid. Great seats but what a miserable ride, and talk about tacky interior fit and finish. Sorry to hear about yours.

[maxnix]

Does anyone happen to know of any Q45 Techs in New England? I've had enough of regualr mechanics just scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders. My current mech refused to change the plugs on my car.

"A man has got to know his limitations." Harry Callahan

Be thankful they do.

Your nearest best bet is:

Keith Vanmeter Auto Repair(856) 415-2022395 Wenonah AveMantua, NJ 08051

[Q45tech]

Somehow use guys [in honor of NJ] have to find a dealer master tech who moonlights at $50 an hour............Almost every tech needs extra cash money --------- as Festavus is near.

[jfck2000]

Thank You very much - I will try this.

[jfck2000]

Thank You for your post. I am pretty mechanical and a do it yourselfer, so I would like to try to install new transmission mounts - Do you have a suggestion where to get the mounts? also, when I had the transmission rebuilt, it came with a two year warranty - I wonder if I should be contacting this place to get this done or if this is something they won't cover.

We do a hear buzzing noise coming from the rear of the car, but its been doing it for a year. We asked the mechanic that told us that our transmission needed the Turbine Control Sensor and they didn't really say much about it. Do you think after a year of buzzing that the Fuel Pump could be the cause of the buzz?

Thank You for your help - Really appreciated!

[maxnix]

Yeah, you can do it with a lift and a transmission jack, and a friend.

Less each of those, it gets harder and harder.

Transmission shop had no clue it was out of specification, I am sure. And that's probably not included on the work order.

Get the fuel pump (before you fry your FPCU) and rear motor mount and exhaust hangers from http://www.infinitipartsusa.com

[qsiguy]

.............Get the fuel pump (before you fry your FPCU) and rear motor mount and exhaust hangers from http://www.infinitipartsusa.com

That's where I got both of them for mine. They are local for me tho I've known Joe since before I got on this board. I built a car audio display for their showroom a while back.

I did the transmission/Exhaust mounts by myself and it wasn't too bad. Front of the car was on jacks and used my floor jack to lift the transmission. Put a wood 2x4 or something similar across your transmission oil pan and lift on that with the jack so you don't bend up your pan.

And I would bet money that the buzzing is the fuel pump NOT the transmission. I wouldn't go near that mechanic with a 10' pole.

Here's a photo of mine after install. I painted the other pieces black while they were out.

Here's a pic of the old and new mounts