Hey all from Charlotte, NC. Love this forum, an absolute godsend for people who work on their own car. Purchased my 05 sedan about two months ago at 130,700 and it currently has 133,800. So far, I have changed the oil, diff oil, trans oil, power steering fluid, clutch fluid, and installed a Mishimoto compact baffled catch can as well as had the wheels balanced and car aligned. About 300 miles ago the power steering pump went out, so I had it replaced by a local Nissan mechanic for about $450. He noted that the power steering pumps usually never go out on these cars, so I am not sure what went wrong. The clear coat is absolutely horrid, but not a big issue for me. Also, my windshield cracked the other day, which is what I assume to be the product of being black on black and sitting in the sun.

I am absolutely in love with this car. My first car was a 2011 V6 Altima, which definitely made me fall for the VQ, but i always felt like something was missing. Turns out, I needed rear wheel drive and a third pedal. In searching for my second car, my only criteria was manual and RWD, so the g satisfied both as well as being somewhat quick and a joy around corners. My goals for the car are to do any and all preventative maintenance before I return to school in the fall.

Thanks for reading. If you guys have any suggestions about what to do to my car next, please let me know.

 

Congrats on your new addiction lol. Our cars are a blast to drive and you made a good choice with the 6MT. Pay attention to your oil level, the rev-up engines, which you have with the manual, are prone to excessive oil consumption. The 5AT motors are as well but it seems the rev-up has more of an issue with it. The crappy rings Nissan installed on these motors are the culprit, but it usually doesn't turn out to be a big issue until it gets really bad. If you do suffer from it just keep a quart of oil in the car and top off as needed.

I will suggest looking at aftermarket sway bars as your next performance mod, they will completely change the way the car drives and handles which I think you will appreciate. Read, read and read some more and you will probably learn more about your car than you care to. Welcome to the family and we hope you enjoy your stay for as long as it lasts.

 

Congrats on the new vehicle. Next thing you should do is completely clean up the ground system, battery cable is a jumper to the chassis, under the coolant reservoir (remove single 10mm bolt and lift straight up, leave the hose attached) is another 2-bolt lug like the battery cable chassis connection, it attaches to the timing cover, also clean the single ground connection at the TOP of the timing cover and both headlight grounds on the front of the wheelwell.

Use a wire brush, clean the bolt threads and the wire lug, coat with a very light layer of electrical anti-oxidation grease (NOT dielectric which actually BLOCKS current flow), and retorque, it will help prevent future grounding issues.

Some day in the future you will definitely want to replace the rear diff bushing but in the meantime you should at least inspect it for cracking to see how much life is left in it, if it's cracked then it's shot and likely bled out it's goop a long time ago.

I'm sure you've already noticed this but the rev-up motor usually likes to drink oil, you can buy the Nissan conventional 5w-30 for pretty cheap on the internet, Amazon has 6 packs for $22 with free shipping, it's a lot cheaper than buying from the dealership. Always check your oil level weekly

 

Congrats and welcome! 06 black/black 6mt sedan here, I was in the same boat, wanted a rwd manual, loved the Z but wanted something more practical. These are Amazing cars, you'll continue to love it as long as you have it haha. There's a whole laundry list of things to sink your money into to make it your own, so be careful! Let us know if you have any questions!

 

Hello fellow college student with 6MT black on black slightly cosmetically challenged G who does his own work!


Only difference is mine's an '04 coupe with great clear coat but rusty rear quarters.


Welcome!


My suggestion is to get real familiar with the state of your suspension and start collecting tools now if you don't have them already because there's a lot of labor intensive suspension work somewhere in your future when you decide you want that G driving like factory... unless you had a PO who did it all already in which case, good buy!

 

If I had couple solid pieces of advice to offer to a younger person turning their own wrenches:

Don't use anything but 6 point sockets/wrenches, if you have 12 point ones sell them on craigslist and buy 6 point ones. Every time I've EVER had a problem with a fastener it was with a 12 point socket/wrench. The only exception I'll make is "spline drive" wrenches (google it if you don't know what they are), never had a fastener problem with those even though they are "technically" a 12 point but I usually try to use a 6 point if possible.

You will almost NEVER encounter 12 point fasteners, sometimes they're used on driveshafts and such, if you do ever encounter one just buy a single specific socket.

Second advice, buy torque wrenches, you need a 1/4" drive, 3/8" drive and 1/2" drive, EVERY. SINGLE. FASTENER. has a torque spec, pay attention to the manual and torque EVERYTHING to spec or use generic values if you cannot find a specific spec. Google fastener torque specs and print off both the metric and SAE generic values for grade 5 fasteners and use those if you don't have an actual torque spec for non-critical fasteners.

Any type of "lubricant" on the threads needs to have a reduced torque value, doesn't matter if it's penetrating oil, motor oil, thread locker, anti-seize, etc. If there is any on the threads you reduce torque values by -15-25%, just use your best guess, if you wiped the threads clean then go for -15%, if you are actually applying anti-seize or thread locker then go for the -25% range.

These few things will save you a lifetime of headaches dealing with damaged fasteners, I wish I knew then what I know now

Craigslist and Amazon.com are your friends when it comes to amassing all the various tools you need to do it yourself, they may not be the best but the correct tool, even if a lower quality, is better than the WRONG tool.