Originally Posted by Bimmer1

I left the 2004 G35 with a local mechanic. He's telling me the cooling fan clutch is bad and the struts are shot. I'm going to have him change the water pump for good measure. The mechanic said the car looks good for 143,000 miles and the selling price of $5,000

Originally Posted by Mustang5L5

That's why I'm gonna drive the car til the wheels fall off.

Originally Posted by jimNC

Here here. I maintain the car far too well to ever get book value and have it be anywhere near what it is worth to me.

Originally Posted by Mustang5L5

Exactly.

I'm at the point now where every mile i drive just saves me money. I think i can make it to 200K miles and beyond rather easily.

Originally Posted by jimNC

I believe that too. At ~70k I bought 80,000 mile tires (Michelin Hydroedge, I can highly recommend) and figured that would probably be the last set of tires I buy for the car. Now at 149k, I will probably get the same tires again for two reasons: 1) no reason to believe the car won't last that long given its ~10 year history so far and 2) hell, 80k tires don't cost very much more than 50-60k tires from what I can see.

200k seems a certainty for me, the question is how far after that will the life be. Only ongoing issue is oil consumption that started about 17k ago, so I am just living with topping off the oil once in awhile.

Originally Posted by Bimmer1

This is my first post. I am a relatively new G35 sedan owner. I own a 2007 G35 Sport sedan and most recently purchased a 2004 G35 sedan with 143,000 miles on the odometer for $5,000

Although $5,000 seems like a great deal I may end up having to put more into the car than it is worth. I thought I would ask a few questions here and get some opinions.

The car has new tires and brakes all the way around. The two accessory belts are brand new. The door seals show some age but I do not see any leaks during heavy rain. The interior is pretty good for its age. Everything inside the car is functional. The auto transmission shifts smoothly.

I have no idea what has or hasn't been done to this car over the years. I have the feeling that the original owners just drove it and didn't do much to it as far as maintaining it. The car starts and runs fairly well but I do notice that the car has a slight skip when idling but it idles at a normal RPM on the tach. I plan on changing the spark plugs and PCV valve in the next few weeks and maybe that will cure the slight engine skip sensation I feel at idle. Any other thoughts? I am using a Techron additive over the next several fuel fill-ups.

The larger radiator cooling fan comes on as soon as you start the car and never shuts off until you turn the ignition off. I don't think this is normal but the operating temperature is right at half way on the gauge. Should I be worried about the fact that the cooling fan runs constantly?

When driving the vehicle over small bumps in the road I notice somewhat of a pronounced "thud" under the car. It's like running over railroad tracks. I don't really feel a jolt it just sounds like you are taking a heavy object and striking underneath the car when you hit a bump in the road. Almost like a hard object is hitting the floor pan. This is only when going over bumps and the bumps don't have to be very large. Could this be the control arm bushings that I have read so much about causing this? If so, can the bushings be changed with after-market bushings without having to replace the entire control arm?

My fiance is currently in school and is driving a tremendous amount of miles weekly and I purchased this car for her to hopefully drive for the next year so she doesn't continue to rack up miles on my other vehicles. It would be nice if I could keep this running reliably but the above mentioned items are on my list of questionable repairs that need to be done soon.

Any thoughts on these items and other suggestions for keeping this car running would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by G2B35AGN

Oh, and about the rough idle: I wonder whether you might want to try a throttle body reset before getting into spending money. See instructions on the last page of the Motordyne plenum spacer manual:

http://motordyneengineering.com/manual.pdf

And while you are on that page, might as well do the ECU reset. It leads to a whole lotta fun. See the following thread on that:

https://g35driver.com/forums/engine-...resetting.html

HTH. Good luck.