Well, I just purchased the funnest thing I've ever owned. Last week I bought an 04 G35 Coupe in Midnight Blue with a MT and 85K. It is fully loaded except for the in-dash nav. I can't believe I made it through the first week without a single ticket. I'm coming from a 1997 Ford Ranger, so I feel like I am driving a Ferrari.

I believe the seller I bought it from was the second owner by the sounds of it and he took amazing care of it. The only thing I can find wrong with it is a tear in the driver seat in the leather on the corner. Even though I am sure everything has been well maintained, I am someone that likes to verify it by doing it myself. So I had some questions on what kinds of things would be good for me to do. I want to make sure everything is in the best shape I can have it.

Should I use any fuel injector/system cleaner or anything of the sort through it?

I plan on replacing the oil just so I know when it was done, he says he uses regular oil and not synthetic because it is a somewhat older engine, does it matter?

Should I do the transmission fluid, air filter, or anything else I should do just to check it off of the list?

If there is a stickie or another thread for this please redirect me, but I couldn't find one. Thanks a lot guys

 

-Change your MT Gear oil (in my opinion replacing it with factory Nissan MTF from a Nissan dealaership since it's cheaper than Infiniti for the same stuff).

-Change your Differential Gear Oil with something high end such as Amsoil Synthetic

-Change your motor oil with a nice synthetic oil... German Castrol or Amsoil are some of the better ones. Some people have had bad results with Mobil-1, so I'd recommend avoiding that. I'll warn you right now that oil changes in our cars take a long time because the engine under-cover is held on by something like 19 or 20 screws and you usually want to remove this to do the oil change without spilling oil all over it.

-Pop open the airbox and check out the condition of your intake air filter. If it's dirty, you might want to replace it with something nice like an Amsoil EA-Nanofiber drop-in replacment air filter. I don't recommend using a K&N as they let a TON of dirt through.

-Check the pad thickness on your Brembo Brake pads. Rotors for the Brembo system are extremely expensive and you don't want to have to unnecessarily replace them due to your pads wearing out and grinding on the rotors.

-Lube up all of your door hinges including the trunk and hood. Pay extra special attention to really working it into the hood hinges as these things are known to freeze up and do serious damage to the side panels when trying to open the hood while the hinges are frozen. Use White Lithium grease for this.

-You're starting to get close to Spark-Plug replacement territory, although the recommended interval is 100K, so just something to keep in mind for the near future. When you change the plugs, keep an eye out for oil in your spark plug tubes and on the plugs. The Valve Covers/gaskets are known to fail and leak on these cars as a result of the material that the manufacturer opted to use for the valve covers.

-Keep your ears alert and listen for any clicking noises from your rear axle as you take off from a stop. This is a common problem that can be easily remedied with an hour or two of time and a container of grease.

-Take a look at the inside edges of your front tires. Our cars wear out/feather the inside edges of tires way prematurely and you'll eventually start to notice a weird noise and slight vibe as you drive down the highway on worn front tires. This isn't real obvious at first glance unless you know to look on the inner edges of the tires.

-Don't plan on getting much longevity out of the stock Bose multi-disk CD-player. The CD unit usually starts to fail internally, rendering CD-playing almost useless. The rest of the system will function fine though for playing the AM/FM radio or tapes.

-Wash the whole car and throw a nice coat of wax on it. Make sure you also wax the headlights. Try to regularly wax them actually... they are prone to fading, oxidation and yellow discoloration. Also hand wash and wax the metal on the inside of the engine bay with a wet rag and throw a coat of wax on that to prevent rust buildup in there and make future grime removal easier. Don't spray a hose into the engine bay though... just wash and rinse everything by hand.

-Try not to use your Fog lights unless it's foggy out. The heat from them always being on will eventually crack the inner reflective housing that separates the main head light beam from the fog-light beam, resulting in an S-shaped crack visible to the naked eye when you look down from above into the headlight while standing in front of the vehicle and leaning over the hood.

-Wash and wax your rims and the Brembo calipers. It helps make brake dust removal easier with a coat of wax on them and they'll look nicer.

-These cars have an in-cabin air filter that is in the dashboard behind the Glove Compartment. If you notice any stinky smells or lack of airflow from the blower unit, you might want to change it out.

-Lube up the tracks on your power seats liberally with White Lithium grease and try to avoid unnecessarily moving them up and back, as the plastic gears that drive the seats are very prone to failure.

-Try to avoid using the Auto-up feature on the power windows as this can often lead to premature failure of the unit and the window will roll-up all the way and then start rolling down again rather than staying closed. The motors eventually fail in the windows anyways if you use them a lot.

-You didn't mention where you're from.... but if it's snowy/icy, or just really cold there, be aware that these cars are not very good in those conditions, particularly when equipped with a stock/summer tire.

-Make sure your spare tire exists in the trunk, is inflated and the car has a jack in the trunk along with the associated tools to remove the lug nuts and turn the jack. It's a crappy situation to be in when you get a new car and don't find out that the car is either missing a jack, tools, or spare tire until you have a flat on the side of the road some cold winter night.

 

In regards to the driver seat tear it's a all so common issue that everyone gets a some point. It's simply a poor design flaw. Also your coming up on 90k miles and it will be time to change all fluids.

 

This was probably the best newbie advice that could be offered. Thanks party man!
As someone who just had a window switch fail, make sure you don't use auto up/down if you have a. Choice. Replacement is ~ 100$...

 

holy crap Partyman66 you are awesome. I learned a lot from this post and Im newb too
thank you

 

Can someone sticky that? That was amazing

 

partyman thanks a lot man, that was exactly what I was looking for. Sorry I have not been able to get back and sit down and write a reply. School and work have been laying it on thick. I made a list and plan on getting to work once the semester ends here in a week or 2. First thing I want to do is change the oil and trans fluid, prob air filter, and then go from there.

As for where I live, I live in Charleston, SC. no real chance of snow or ice down here so not really worried about that.

I do have that clicking noise if you can point me in the direction of an article or something to get that done.

I also plan to have it detailed as well and keep it in the garage. I plan on maintaining it after but I thought I would have a pro give it the full treatment, would an Infiniti dealer be my best bet for a good exterior detailing, or try finding a good professional place? It has a few minor dents I would like to try and see if they can get out, but no major scratches.

 

The clicking noise is probably a result from lack of grease on the axles. Here is information about that here: https://g35driver.com/forums/engine-...xle-fixed.html

The dealership would be not be a wise choice for detailing. Google local detailers and find reviews on who does good work. Also you can try doing some stuff yourself. Check this out: https://g35driver.com/forums/repairi...your-ride.html

 

That was a pretty good post partyman. You don't often see someone willing to take the time and explain something in great detail.

 

Subscribed to save for later. Thx partyman!

 

Good post partyman66, thanks for the great info

 

Yeah partyman that was the best post lve read on here thanks!lve only had my X 3 months you pointed out alot to look for.