2006 Nissan Quest: Blue Monster

*** News ***

• 1/8/2006, 29 miles, Purchased as a replacement for the trusty old 1998 Villager.

Specifications

Lug nut torque: 83 ft-lb (112 N-m) (According to the owner's manual at courtesyparts.com page 8-42.)

Brake pad minimum thickness: ???

Impressions

So far, I'm not very impressed with this car or the dealer from which we purchased it for a number of reasons.

• On the plus side, the headlight warning tone is very different from the seatbelt warning bell. This means you'll really notice when you leave your headlights on.
• Can't open and close the power side doors reliably when the transmission is in Drive. You have to shift all the way to Park. Admittedly, this sounds reasonable. But, imagine an accident situation where the driver is unable to shift back to Park, and the passengers would like to escape the vehicle.
• Too big for our garage. It fits, but you can't open the door to the house all the way. The 1998 Villager was 4.831m (15' 10.2") in length versus this "Blue Monster" at 5.184m (17'). That's an extra .353 meters (14 inches). On the plus side, this means a more roomy interior than the 1998. But still, over 5 meters! Lordy!
• Can't install your own radio as it uses the proprietary N-Bus architecture (which I hear is based on Clarion's CeNet). Until someone develops an N-Bus adapter, we're stuck with the crappy 6-disc CD changer that can't play MP3 CDs. I'm looking into an FM modulator to see if those work at all.
• Stupid tire pressure monitor system (TPMS) doesn't agree with my pressure gauges, and the dealer (DARCARS Nissan in Rockville) sold us the car with one tire underinflated.
• Dealer also gave us the car with the steering fluid at MIN cold! I guess you pay for what you get.
• Salesman tried to convince us to buy an $875 package of BS that included "free" oil changes, insisting that changing the oil on these "new cars" is difficult. Funny thing is, the owner's manual shows exactly how to change the oil, and it looks just as easy as it was on the 1998. This is such a typical car salesman scam to convince you to use their service department. Did I mention they sold us the car with low power steering fluid and an underinflated tire? This speaks volumes about their "service" department.
• They didn't even give us pretty new tags for the Monster. The dealer that sold us the Villager did that, and switched our insurance for us. That's service. Not here. Instead we had to wait three hours to drive out of this dealer.

Oil Filter

According to Fram's website, this thing takes a PH6607. However, I found this to be a hilariously tiny oil filter. In fact the guy at the auto parts store joked with me and said, "That'll be $724.31." Turns out the PH7317 should also fit, and it is larger. I'm going to try one on the next oil change as there's plenty of room for it. The original filter was a Nissan 15208 65F01. Oil change is much easier on this car than on the 1998 Villager/Quest. Clearance is quite a bit less under the car, however. My oil pan/tank barely fit underneath.

Power Steering Fluid

Since the dealer sold the thing to me almost out of steering fluid, I checked the owner's manual and discovered that Nissan recommends their own power steering fluid instead of the usual Mercon/Dexron that's so popular these days. There's a discussion over on the Xterra Owner's Club message board where a Nissan technician says that Dexron III is fine. Given that a tiny bottle of Nissan "PSF" costs $8 versus a few bucks for a big bottle of Dexron, I'd say Nissan's out to make some money. It's up to you what you choose to do. I'm crazy and use the Nissan stuff.

FM Modulators

Monster Performance Car RadioPlay Wireless (Model: MPC FM XMTR). Identified in its owner's manual as a Monster RadioPlay 200. Makes a strange squealing noise with the engine off and the CD player plugged into the car's 12v supply. Sounds fine when the CD player is running on batteries. I'm guessing the car is to blame here with dirty power, and the adapter I'm using with my Sony players (I tried two models) is also to blame for not cleaning up the power. Need to test it with headphones. Then, need to try another 12v adapter. I believe I have several laying around here. If you put the player on the passenger seat, the cord is stretched and makes a better antenna. Frequencies: 88.1 - 89.5. Verdict: Ok.

Links

Owner's Manual

Nissan Publications - Well, here's something Nissan did right. You can order shop manuals on CD for the past 6 years online. I guess we can just forget about Haynes.