What's up to everyone,I'm a new G owner. I've always been fond of Nissan's in general. My first car was a 90 300zxTT,that sealed my affinity for their vehicles. I've also had a 94 3rd gen Maxima SE, the original 4 door sports car. You'd be surprised in how great that car looked and handled with a 1.5 inch drop and a fully upgraded suspension. It also sounded great with full exhaust,I had one of the first Y pipes that Meagan Racing made when they were first making aftermarket products for Nissan's. Then I've had a 05 Pathfinder that I just sold and a 09 Altima. I had taken a break from owning a sports car, my last one was a 02 Z28. Not sure weather anyone would consider a G35 as a sports car, but I do. It's not on par with say that Z28, 300zxTT, or a Vette. It's an entry level luxury 4 door sports car. Or atleast I consider it to be one.
I almost got another Maxima,but then I was thinking to myself man I wonder what G35s are going for these days? I probably should of waited for a better G to come around,as I initially wanted a Coupe and for it to be atleast a 05-07. I think I may of made an impulse buy. I couldn't find any coupes that were either beat up in poor condition,or had a lot of body damage. So on my 3rd attempt I ended up getting a 04 G35X. He wanted $3,300 for it and I talked him down to $2,500. Afterall it's a 16yr old car and it had just hit 200K. Even though in the add it claimed to have 194k. I also noticed it had been listed for about a month. But to my surprise it was actually in great condition for such an old vehicle. I was amazed by how smooth it felt, the engine was fairly quiet. The fans are literally the loudest thing, well it definitely drowns out everything else. Not sure if this is a common thing. It just seems to be a bit louder than any of the previous vehicles I've owned. There's no ticking or knocking noises, transmission shifts fine, it was overall fairly clean. It just has the typical wear and tear of a 16yr old car. Hell Ive been in and driven cars that had 120k that drove and handled like **** in comparison. I could tell for the most part it was maintained. The guy I bought it from had temp tags on it. So he didn't even have it for long. He works at a used car dealership, so I'm guessing they just bought it from an auction. Plus he barely spoke English,so it was one of the most awkward car buying experiences I had. A lot of lost in translation was going on, so I rolled the dice, went ahead and bought it.
So far, so good...I've been driving the hell out of it. I've already put just about 3k on it. He had already tried to explain something about the rotors and the suspension. I wasn't sure what he was actually trying to convey,but got the I overall gist of it. I know I took a risk,but for 2500 I felt it was worth it. Like I've already stated,I've been nothing but impressed with it so far. Plus I got free dealer temp tags off the rip,so couldn't beat that. Saved me some time to get it registered. So I kind of went overboard on getting this baby up to date on it's maintenance.
The front rotors were warped and the pads shot. I ended up getting a set of front vented cross drilled rotors that came with ceramic brake pads on eBay for $60. I flushed the whole system out as the brake fluid was a dark brown color. I probably should of checked the ATF before I went and bought 12qts of that Valvoline synthetic ATF. I was assuming that it probably hasnt had a fluid change in quite awhile. To my surprise when I went to change it,the fluid was in great condition. I was half expecting it to be a dark red color, but it looks almost new! I've not had any shifting issues whatsoever, so I just drained 4qts and filled it up. I was going to drop the pan and check the magnets and filter. I'll save that for another time. I changed the transfer case as well as the front and rear diffs. They looked to of been in there longer than the ATF. But nothing too alarming stood out.
I just went ahead and ordered some Valve Covers w/gaskets and bolts for only $58 on eBay. Yeah I know some ppl have issues with getting car parts on eBay. But Ive been doing this since 2002 and have yet to really purchase any inferior products off of eBay in general. The brand is called CNS Motors, hopefully they make decent gaskets. Guess I'll find out then. I noticed that it has been leaking a decent amount of oil. But I couldn't pin point the source of the leak. I have put in about 3qts within the past 2 months. Roughly about a qt every 1k miles. It's nothing major as I dont see any fresh oil whenever I leave the driveway. The valve covers do have a lot of buildup which is to be expected, afterall it's a 16yr old vehicle. So I went ahead and got some new ones, I also figured what the hell and painted them. I figured I might as well get em, because I was going to change the spark plugs anyways. Just didn't want to get halfway in it and discover oil in the plug wells. Better safe than sorry, plus since I'll have the whole top half of the engine apart. It gives me an excuse to mod a few things.
So I went ahead and got me a Block 5/16th plenum spacer. I also went ahead and decided to get a throttle body spacer as well. I know it's probably not even going to be noticable. But if it helps with overall efficiency w/ better mpg than it'll be worth it. Was only $35, again on eBay, so far I'm averaging 20mpg. That's with averaging 80-90 mpg going on 150 mile round-trips.
Anyways while I'll have everything apart I plan on cleaning the hell out of everything. I've already ran a can of seafoam through the vacuum going into the plenum. I noticed it choking out almost immediately, I've do this to every vehicle when I first get one. They usually wont shut off immediately like this was. So Im assuming there's some kind of blockage somewhere. I'm going to clean the MAF and throttle body. Clean the upper and lower intake manifolds. Since I'll have the valve covers off I'll clean up the valve train the best I can without risking getting any large chunks of sludge dropped further into the engine. I'm actually curious to see how dirty the inside looks to be honest. It just astonishes me on how well this thing runs, considering the amount of miles it has. I could almost be fooled that it isn't even the original engine, that it is a swap from a less mileage engine. But I'm certain that isn't the case, which means the transmission may or may not be the original. Who knows really? It's the risk you take purchasing such a high mileage vehicle. I sort of feel like a fool,as I would never even consider getting a car with over 15ok. Ive also went ahead and installed a system and noticed it was already wired for one. No telling how old those wires were, so I went ahead and pulled up. I'm frugal so I recycled the old 6 guage wires. I'm making a grounding kit, because why not right?
Well I'm curious in how much better it'll drive after I install everything and give it a thorough cleaning. If I'll even notice a difference or not. Oh when I was cleaning the MAF sensor, I noticed it had that damn tornado bullshit in the intake tube. There's no telling how many yrs that pos has been in there, starving the engine for air. All that I really have to do now is a full suspension upgrade. I'm fairly certain that all of the suspension is OEM. So all of the bushings are straight shot, which he told me and it's to be expected for its age and mileage. Due to the fact that it's a G35X and I'm pretty positive that it's the first yr they made an AWD trim? So it's been a p.i.t.a. trying to locate the correct parts. A lot of sites are trying to say that the front forward lower control arm is only for this yr. That basically 05 & 06 won't fit the 04. I can find the part for cheap,but it doesn't come with the bolted on ball joint go figure. Absolutely no where can I find that bs joint by itself! So I can't just find a bushing kit and press then in myself like I'd prefer. I have to find the whole part itself with new bushings and ball joints. I haven't made my mind up on weather I want to drop it or not. There's a lot of selections that are fairly cheap on again eBay. I got the lowering springs for my old Maxima on ebay. Can't recall the exact brand, ST something or another. But I didn't ever have any issues I remember that. It was FWD and it had a LSD front diff. One of the very few 94 Maxima SE's that did, it also was a manual. I've read that G35X's have issues being lowered because of the front axels. Just going off prior experience, I never had a single issue with the Maxima's cv axels.
I really hope that I can get another 100k out of this thing. I need it to atleast last me another 5yrs, which would give me plenty of time to save up for either a C7 Vette or maybe a Q50. I only pay cash for cars, I hate leasing one. Well after I drop 800 on replacing the whole front suspension, it better last that long! Guess I could always throw a LS in it like everyone else is doing these days. I do miss that growl from a cold start LS1. I suppose that I rambled enough, just wanted to introduce myself.

 

The sites are correct about that compression arm having a non-serviceable ball joint. Just gotta buy the entire arm.

A word of advice about that blox plenum spacer, they're notorious for CRACKING where the bolts pass through, if I were to use one I'd apply a thin layer of Permatex Ultra Grey RTV to both sides when installing, yeah it's got a gasket but that thing is going to start cracking eventually and having another layer of insurance won't hurt.

You will need to perform a couple of recalibration steps when you install everything, throttle body closed position, and idle air volume recalibration. Steps are in the FSM section EC - Engine Controls under "basic service procedures"

https://www.nicoclub.com/infiniti-service-manuals

Welcome to the forums.

 

Quite the saga. Showing my age here..."I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"

As a former sedanX owner, couple things I'll add. One: the oil consumption. The early DE engines had cheap Chinese rings; notorious for eating oil; at 200K, that's where it's going. Synthetic won't help; throwing $$ away. Buy cheapest dino oil you can find and stay on top of it. Check level frequently.

Two: lowering. Very hard to do right on sedanX. Eats tires if not done right. Do your research.

Finally, welcome!