Post by
armybrat »
https://forums.nicoclub.com/armybrat-u256738.html
Fri Jan 15, 2021 4:07 pm
When I bought it in Sept 2015 it had just came off of a 3 year lease and had 52k miles. I put almost 73k on it in the 5+ years I drove it. It was stock except for the intake, exhaust, Uprev tune and aftermarket fog lights. The only two issues I experienced were the P0024 DTC at 60,400 miles that led to the oil jet/timing chain recall work being performed (at no cost to me) and the recurring P0420 cat code which seems to plague several of our members. With that said, I was going to continue driving it, as the car was running great and I was totally satisfied with it. However, with the current interest rates at all-time lows and due to some upcoming maintenance items, I decided to reassess keeping my car. The O2 extender was a temporary fix to address the P0420 DTC so that I could pass NC emissions this year. Eventually the manifold (probably both of them) will need to be replaced. I had also bumped a small deer which cracked my grill and scuffed the front fascia. Because I drive a lot on the interstate, the windshield had a lot of pock marks and was getting to the point of needing replacement. Both fog lights had busted lenses. The strut towers needed to be rebuilt, all of the fluids except the AT were due for a change, and my tires were getting close to needing replacement. One of the tires had developed a small leak, so I was having to add air about once a week. The gas cap door recently started to act up; sometimes I had to lock/unlock the car door a few times before it would release. In light of all this, I decided to sell the car and get something else. I just wanted to share my thoughts and experience on owning it over the 5+ years and comment on some of the more common threads I was involved with relating to this model.
Exhaust system…if I had to do this over again, I would’ve saved the original set up instead of chopping it up. This way I could’ve reinstalled the stock system and sold the aftermarket parts and recouped some of the money spent. It wouldn’t have been worth the time and effort for me to do it after the fact, so I decided to leave the X-pipe exhaust and sport mufflers on the car…lesson learned.
Intake…I did install the HPS silicone hoses which, according to their website, netted an additional 9 – 10 HP at the wheels. In a car already making 420 HP at the crank I really couldn’t tell a difference, even after it was tuned. I had saved the stock intake hoses, so those went back on the car when I sold it.
Uprev tune…I believe this car is tuned conservative from the factory, and can benefit from a custom tune with exhaust and intake mods, especially now with new support available in the way of headers, diff swaps and VVEL tuning tables. I was able to flash back to stock before selling it, and in accordance with Uprev’s latest policy on license updating, I installed the updated license back to the cable, which allows me to use it again or sell it.
Battery…personally I never experienced any of the battery draining issues that seem to plague a few of our members, so I never performed the alternator wire mod. My main commute is 25 miles at a time, back and forth to work. In the 5 years I had my car, I replaced the battery twice. First time was in 2016, when the factory battery finally crapped out. Next time was this past spring 2020. I did on rare occasion experience the “click” mentioned in conjunction with this issue when attempting to start the car. It happened so infrequently that I never did anything about it. Maybe the start button wasn’t getting a good connection?
Fog lights…mine seemed to be a bullseye for rocks and other debris. I’m not sure it this was by design, as I never had issues with fog lights on my other vehicles. Wonder if other folks have the same issues with theirs. I replaced them twice in 5 years and was needing to replace them again when I sold the car.
Antenna…definitely a must do upgrade if you’re getting crappy reception; mainly pre 2014 models. As you all know I did a write up on this.
Catch cans…I installed these to start with. I was trapping some oil so I thought maybe this was a worthwhile mod. However, when I replaced my PCV valves, I noticed a drop in oil levels in my cans. Turns out my old PCV valves were leaking by so I ended up removing the cans and reinstalling the original hoses. For my driving style I wasn’t trapping enough oil to mess with maintaining them. On a side note, oil consumption is a function of driving habit, so if you do a lot of racing around and/or WOT’s you might want to install the cans.
Gas/catalytic converter…I tried running ethanol free gas for a while. However, while it’s supposed to help with reducing carbon deposits on the intake valves and improve gas mileage, I found out that it’s best to stick with oxygenated fuel for exhaust systems with three way catalytic converters and computerized closed loop feedback. That fuel burns cleaner and is designed for maximum performance with that type exhaust. I am partially convinced that I started getting my P0420 DTC because of the e-free gas. It doesn’t burn as clean and the extra soot probably coated the catalyst material over time, causing the efficiency threshold to drop below setpoint. On a side note, I never had any issues with the passenger side; only the driver’s side which was odd. Most M56 owners I’ve seen on this forum and on Facebook seem to have issues with only the driver’s side as well. The driver’s side has a baffle installed in between the manifold and secondary cat. The passenger side does not. I discussed this in a thread a while back about a possible connection to the P0420 but I don’t think an explanation was ever found.
Anyway, I want to thank those who responded to various posts over the years for your feedback and advice. It is truly a pleasure to be a part of this forum, as it is by far the best resource for anything Nissan/Infiniti. As a now former owner I am still available as a reference for anything M56 related. The above comments should not be construed as fact; only my 2 cents worth. I only offer the comments based on my personal experience with my car.
I do have the following items from my car if anyone is interested:
New replacement set of OEM style fog lights.
Uprev tuning cable with updated license installed.
Black HPS silicone intake hoses with box and all paperwork and accessories.
The set of secondary cats that were cut out when I installed my X-pipe. I debated on using these as primary cats if I decided to install headers.
Sheet metal cross member piece that bolts under the mid pipe. I had to remove it because the X-pipe ran a little lower than the frame.