first post. not an owner yet, but i plan to be. 2004 or 2005. wanted one forever.....orrrrrrrrrrrrrr 7 years...but it feels like forever.

so i found one in town that i'm looking at. 2005 dark silver, manual, wing, premium wheels. and only 32K miles... BUT when i went to open the hood, the back corner hit the corner of the passenger fender....brought it up to the dealer and he said "it's typical for these hinges to bend, and infiniti keeps them in stock." I start to smell some BS.

then i get to looking and see a spot on the front bumper that looks like a drip of clear coat that was hard and someone just broke it off. Dealer says, "rock chip" then on the other side i see a big huge paint run in the clear, running from the bottom up....dealer says, "at least they took it off the car to paint it..."

i did a little searching around here to see if i could find anything about the hinge issue. the body gaps look good....until you open the hood...

my main thing is, i understand it's a low riding car and the front and rear bumpers may take some damage and need repainted, especially if the car came from a snowy area. BUT...with the hood scraping the fender...i smell a front end collision...what do you guys think? wants 21,995, but after i started pointing stuff out he came down to 20,700 plus he would fix the "hinge problem" and the curb bite on the rims.

 

Not the case....^....the hinges on the G35s have been an issue for years and just need to be replaced when failure occurs. If you're seriously looking to buy any used vehicle get a CARFAX before you lay down those big $$!
Gary

 

+1 the hinges happen all the time.

 

well...that's good to know. they gave me an "autocheck" by experian....it scored a 99 and was clear. but i know the front bumper has been repainted. i know it's a "your decision, and your money" type issue, but with those super low miles for an 05, think i should still consider it even with the repaint issues??

i knew if i found a good forum i could find out about the hinges quick. thanks.

 

What happens, exactly? I don't understand. Does it happen from lifting the hood too high?

 

Browse here for a little more info:

https://g35driver.com/forums/interio...g-problem.html

Quote from thread (Wrathernaut):

"The problem is that the hinge itself has an unreinforced bend right near the axis of rotation. Combined with the really tight tolerances in the pivot of the hinge, once the small amount of grease that can get in the pivot area is gone, there's a huge mechanical advantage from the hood you lift to cause the bend to get twisted."

 

Yep, its common

 

Yep its a very common issue happened to me i just put some WD-40 and bent it back in place and now hood works fine. Just make sure you put some WD-40 on it every once in a while so it doesn't go dry and bent again.

 

Another vote for spraying lubricant in towards the hinges every once in a while, I had one which was binding so bad the hood sometimes wouldn't shut properly, the lube fixed it.

 

Would using WD-40 be good enough? Or something else recommended?

 

Mine are both bent on an 04 6mt sedan. I will try lube to unfreeze. If it doesn't work, are they easy to replace? I know they're around $35 each. Do they have to be soldered? Do the fenders require removal? Thanks in advance.

 

I would like to know please as well.

I cant open up my hood.unless it bends both my fenders.

 

Is the hood touching the fenders? Try and get some WD-40 in there for now, not sure if thats possible with the hood closed though.

 

Thanks for the response bro,

Well, yeah they do touch each other in the process of pulling up the hood. Only way I can fully open up the hood is by sacrificing my fender by getting it bent by the engine hood. Also chips off the paint as well.

So I don't know how I'll put on WD40 on the hinges unless I open it up all the way.

 

You could adjust the hood as a temporary solution so it doesn't touch the fenders , its only 4 bolts that secure it to the top of the hinges. But unless there's a necessity to do so replacing the hinges at this point would be the best option.