Dead VQ stories

In light of my recent Maxima fanboy-ism, it occurred to me I've never in all my time around cars seen or even heard of a dead Nissan VQ. For a motor that's been around 15 years now I thought that was fairly remarkable.

Somebody throw me a contradictory anecdote.

My buddy had one in a Maxima (VQ30) with some shiny blingy cold air intake on it. It sat too low, and sucked in a bunch of water one day while driving through a puddle and hydrauliced it.

He also had the transmission weld shut - that was the cars fault.

VQ35s have had some reoccurring warranty issues regarding oil ring issues.

But the engine has been very highly magazine rated for years now.

I love my VQ35HR... but it's only 2 years old right now.

my pathfinder 3.5 is still running like a total beast after 90,000 miles. I don't understand why this engine isn't in everything. I love it.

The Maxima got 17 mpg - that's probably why it isn't in everything.

I find that hard to believe since my 4000 lb 4wd automatic pathfinder gets 18.5.

tuna55 wrote: The Maxima got 17 mpg - that's probably why it isn't in everything.

Mine did 29 on the road

mine gets 27-29 on the road. never worse than 19 in town. typically 20.

I have the 3.5. It used a quart between changes when I first bought it. switched to mobil1. over the period of a year it slowly stopped burning oil. now it doesn't use any.

if you search for a '95-'99 maxima engine on car-part.com, there are 92 pages worth of listing. 50 listings per page. In case your math sucks, there are 4600 VQ's for sale on that site alone. prices start at $150.

I promise, I made him show me receipts. He drove harshly, though.

I was at a tuning shop a while ago, and they had a few VQs that had failed after an supercharger was installed. If you don't mess with them they seem to be pretty bulletproof though. The 4.0 in the GRM/ CMS Pathfinder has been a beast.

did he mistake "1" for "D"?

I haven't been on the maxima forums in literally years but I remember some people crying about really poor fuel economy. I never stuck around long enough to hear what exactly goes wrong to cause that.

andrave wrote: my pathfinder 3.5 is still running like a total beast after 90,000 miles. I don't understand why this engine isn't in everything. I love it.

It is in nearly everything; frontier, pathfinder, xterra, minivan, altima, maxima, z, etc.

And it'll fit in the sentra too. Quite quick as well.

I always thought it was a shame it never made it into the 240sx.

Its lots easier to work on than the older 3.0 too.

Are there RWD manual trannys factory issued with anything besides the 350Z or is everything FWD or automatic?

350z, G35, xterra, frontier, all available with manual trans in RWD.

kreb wrote: Are there RWD manual trannys factory issued with anything besides the 350Z or is everything FWD or automatic?

I think you might be thinking what I'm thinking. VQ powered Locost?

In reply to xci_ed6:

absolutemente'!

The VQ won't weigh much more than a turbo-miata motor, and make power accross a much larger band, while still not overwhelming my '95 donor LSD.

I'm surprised that more people haven't gone this way.

They are reliable and good on fuel but only 190hp in the 3.0 version. Besides the typical packaging faults of an east-west drivetrain layout they are well designed and put together.

kreb wrote: In reply to xci_ed6: absolutemente'! The VQ won't weigh much more than a turbo-miata motor, and make power accross a much larger band, while still not overwhelming my '95 donor LSD. I'm surprised that more people haven't gone this way.

VQ longblock weighs a hair over 300... guess what the Miata motor weighs :) (don't even think about turbo extra weight)

That's on the short list for the RX-7 if I ever get rid of the 12A.

I know they make swap kits for the second gen rx7 to run a VQ, I prefer the body style of the first though.

I've heard of several boost related failures around here...

later, matt