did i miss him mentioning an imminent divorce?
I'm a Nissan mechanic, and I personally own a 95 Maxima. I'm a Maxima nut, I think they are fantastic cars, but I wouldn't own an 00 or 01. 89-94 are tough as nails, but they are really old now, they have timing belts (except the rare SE), and they are slow. The 95-99 is my personal favorite, as I appreciate the basic, boxy look, and the vq30 is a fantastic motor. They do usually need valve cover gaskets, starters, and the occasional coil pack, but mine has 195k and runs like a champ (my brother's 96 is probably more than 250k by now). In 00 they changed the intake design, and although they are more powerful, I do see a lot more problems on them than the other years. Coilpacks, catalytic convertors, and the ECU frying the IAC valve (or visa versa). If you like that body-style I would go with an 02-03, as they have the MUCH more powerful vq35, without the oil burning problems or the timing chain tensioner noise of the later vq's. They are a blast to drive, and as usual they had a manual trans as an option. Just my $.02.
my timing chain is a little noisy on my '03. mainly at startup. is that just a tensioner? what am i into for that?
Could just be the tensioner, but the chain may just have stretched out a bit too with age and mileage. It's quite a job to do a timing chain. My 95 rattles a little on start up too, but I kinda expect that with nearly 200k.
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