# New Member, New Car, Couple Questions



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Whats up everyone? Just joined the forum here. I recently purchased a 2003 Maxima SE w/ the Titanium Package. Got it for 12,100 with 38k on it which I thought was a pretty good deal. From what I can see it has a INJEN RD series CAI on the car.

I was wondering if you could help me with a few things as this is my first maxima.

1) The car came with rims from a 350z on it. I didn't realize but the rear rims are 245/45/18 and the fronts are 225/45/18. The tires need to be replaced soon so I am looking for suggestions. Right now there are Michelin Pilot Sport tires on the car but from what I have checked out they are pretty pricey. I want an all season tire as I will be driving the car in the winter as well here in the northeast. The guy recommended I go with Toyo Proxes 4's. Anyone have any experience with these tires or have any other recommendations?

2) Will the fact that I have a rear wheel drive set up with the rims on a front wheel drive car hurt anything or negatively affect performance? The guy at the tire shop told me I might want to try and sell the larger rears and buy another set of the 225's to put on the back so I can keep all the same.

3) Does anyone know where I can get an iPod integration kit? I don't want to go with an fm transmitter as they just don't cut it in my opinion. I have the bose system in the car.

4) Any other suggestions as far as mods or upgrades would be appreciated.

Thanks again for helping a newbie.


----------



## brianw (Feb 25, 2004)

All season tires... Toyo Proxies 4, Kumho ASX, Bridgestone RE960AS, Yokohama AVID V4s, Pirelli PZero Nero M+S are all good choices. I've extensively driven the Yokohama AVID H4s, which are the V4s' lower-speed-rated sibling, and they're a bit stiff but not too bad at all. Granted I've only driven them in rain, never in snow.

You should be running the same tire size front and rear, wider tires in the rear will only increase understeer for you, which is usually not desirable for performance handling. 225/45/18 all around would be about the right size.

PAC-Audio (Pacific Accessories Corporation) or a few other companies manufacturer aux-input kits. Most large car audio shops should sell them. Products

At the very least they should have an aux-input rather than a full integration kit.

Upgrades depend on what you want to do with the car and how much money you have to spend. Modest handling and braking upgrades usually pay off the most, IMHO, since if you really want to go fast, I assume you'd have bought a vehicle with a factory turbo (WRX, Legacy GT, Evo, 335i, SRT-4, A4, etc.) where you can just crank the boost knob to 11 and squeezed out far more power for far less money... (ok that's an oversimplification, but it's true to some extent...)


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Thanks for the input. With that INJEN CAI on the car, how much extra HP do you think I am getting with it? Also, if I wanted to get the car up above 300hp what would be the best mods to do?

Thanks again.


----------



## brianw (Feb 25, 2004)

Not much, about the same as any other CAI/WAI... which is what, maybe 5-6whp?

300 crank HP isn't too hard. Intake/headers/cams/cat-back exhaust/ECU should do it, although you're talking $3500 for all those parts, and then getting beyond 300hp is a bit tricky without forced induction. For $3500 you can start thinking about a turbo instead, although keep in mind once you do enough upgrades to take proper advantage of a turbo you're talking more like $4500+...


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

Actually, even though 225 tires will fit fine, it'll look like there is too little rubber. Most 5th Gens with similar spec wheels are using 235/40/18s or evern 245/40/18s with no rubbing issues. 

IMO, the slightly staggered (I assume they are something like 18x8 +30 in front and 18x8.5 +33 rear, based on the tire sizes) set-up is not that bad. It may encourage a little more understeer, but nothing that can't be countered by some good suspension mods like adjustable struts and a rear anti-sway bar (RSB). 

Just curious, which Z rims and what year are these? The Track or Touring editions?


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

brianw said:


> Not much, about the same as any other CAI/WAI... which is what, maybe 5-6whp?
> 
> 300 crank HP isn't too hard. Intake/headers/cams/cat-back exhaust/ECU should do it, although you're talking $3500 for all those parts, and then getting beyond 300hp is a bit tricky without forced induction. For $3500 you can start thinking about a turbo instead, although keep in mind once you do enough upgrades to take proper advantage of a turbo you're talking more like $4500+...


I would replace the ECU on that list with a piggyback + dyno/wideband tune, because in my experience, people have gained more whp from that than the Technosquare reflash. The biggest advantages of the TS flash are to raise the rev-limiter and correct the DBW, but a piggyback is better for the AF refinements to take full advantage of the other mods.


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Puppetmaster said:


> Actually, even though 225 tires will fit fine, it'll look like there is too little rubber. Most 5th Gens with similar spec wheels are using 235/40/18s or evern 245/40/18s with no rubbing issues.
> 
> IMO, the slightly staggered (I assume they are something like 18x8 +30 in front and 18x8.5 +33 rear, based on the tire sizes) set-up is not that bad. It may encourage a little more understeer, but nothing that can't be countered by some good suspension mods like adjustable struts and a rear anti-sway bar (RSB).
> 
> Just curious, which Z rims and what year are these? The Track or Touring editions?


I'm not sure what year they are or weather they are track or touring. I was told by a couple people that they were 350z rims however. I was also told that they were 18x7.5 in the front and 18x8 in the rear. And again they have 225/25/18 tires in the front and 245/45/18's on the rear. For all I know they could be wrong but one was from town fair tire and another one was a car dealer. Here is a picture of the car... don't know if you can tell by looking. And thanks again for all your help guys!!!


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Puppetmaster said:


> I would replace the ECU on that list with a piggyback + dyno/wideband tune, because in my experience, people have gained more whp from that than the Technosquare reflash. The biggest advantages of the TS flash are to raise the rev-limiter and correct the DBW, but a piggyback is better for the AF refinements to take full advantage of the other mods.



Puppetmaster,

I appreciate your insight and ideas. However, I am not completely familiar with alot of the abbreviations that you are using. If it's not too much to ask, could you please explain a little more about the things you were talking about doing and where I could find them?

Thanks!!!


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Guys,

It was recommended to me that if I want to go w/ 18's that I should go 225/45/18 on tires which would sit best on a 18x7.5" rim. The reasoning behind it is through this calculation which can be done through this website.

Tire Size Program

I am sure many of you know about this already but I figured I would post a picture of my numbers which I took via a screen shot for your analysis. The key from what I was told is to get the 2 numbers at the bottom (the speedometer reading & new speedometer reading) to be as close as possible. 

Thanks again!!!


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

Those rims are from a G35 coupe. They are 18x8 +30 offset all round but come with different (staggered) tire sizes from the factory. If they are originals, that is, because eBay has replicas that are 18x7.5 +30 offset. 

That being the case, 235/40/18 will work and won't be far off in terms of speedo reading. Since the rims are all the same size, you will even be able to rotate them normally. 

For all you need to know about G35 wheels on Maximas, see here: 

Wheels/tires Sticky? G35 wheels on maximas - Maxima.org Forums

And for "semi-official" G35 wheel specs: 

G35 Factory/Oem Wheel Sizes & Offsets - G35Driver


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

TyRaNt101980 said:


> Puppetmaster,
> 
> I appreciate your insight and ideas. However, I am not completely familiar with alot of the abbreviations that you are using. If it's not too much to ask, could you please explain a little more about the things you were talking about doing and where I could find them?
> 
> Thanks!!!


The two most significant mods in terms of power for these cars are headers and a piggyback air-fuel (AF) controller. Unfortunately, I'm at work and this could be a long discussion, but I have it documented, so my advice would be for you to take a look at the following link and some of the other links posted in there:

5th Gen / 5.5 Gen Header Thread - Maxima.org Forums 

Obviously, there are many other supporting mods like intake, cat-back, etc, that you can research, but these two provide the biggest gains. Search around this forum and on Maxima.Org and you'll learn lots more about these cars. 

Feel free to post more questions here too of course.


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Puppetmaster said:


> Those rims are from a G35 coupe. They are 18x8 +30 offset all round but come with different (staggered) tire sizes from the factory. If they are originals, that is, because eBay has replicas that are 18x7.5 +30 offset.
> 
> That being the case, 235/40/18 will work and won't be far off in terms of speedo reading. Since the rims are all the same size, you will even be able to rotate them normally.
> 
> ...


They do say nissan in the center of them though... don't know if that makes a difference??? And I don't believe they are all the same size. The guys at 2 different places told me they weren't. They said the fronts were 7.5x18's and the rear 8x18's. What size rim would you be looking at with a 235/40/18??


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

TyRaNt101980 said:


> They do say nissan in the center of them though... don't know if that makes a difference??? And I don't believe they are all the same size. The guys at 2 different places told me they weren't. They said the fronts were 7.5x18's and the rear 8x18's. What size rim would you be looking at with a 235/40/18??


Many Maxima guys will take Nissan centercaps to replace the Infiniti centercaps. 

Also, if I were you, I'd personally look behind each wheel to see if the width is stamped on there to be absolutely sure. It should be. Why? Because I'm guessing that neither of those guys you asked actually busted out the tape and measured the wheels but instead were going by the tire sizes that were on the wheels at the time. 

If the previous owner bought genuine Infiniti coupe rims, they are *definitely *all 18x8s and would have come with 225/45 and 245/45 tires, like you have on there now. These style rims did not come staggered from the factory, that is a fact. If he went out to eBay and got replicas for his FWD Maxima, it is unlikely that he got a staggered set-up (unless he was careless) and stuck on different size tires too. 

See where I'm going with this? This of course, is just my theory, so the only way to tell is to get the wheels off and look at em or measure em. 

235/40/18s work on 18x8s or even 18x8.5s.


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Puppetmaster said:


> Many Maxima guys will take Nissan centercaps to replace the Infiniti centercaps.
> 
> Also, if I were you, I'd personally look behind each wheel to see if the width is stamped on there to be absolutely sure. It should be. Why? Because I'm guessing that neither of those guys you asked actually busted out the tape and measured the wheels but instead were going by the tire sizes that were on the wheels at the time.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the insight. I guess I will have to have someone pull them off and look behind the wheel's to be sure. Thats great news if they are all 18x8 and I can just replace the tires because they need to be replaced ASAP and I thought I was going to need to buy new rims. I will let you guys know what the outcome is.


----------



## brianw (Feb 25, 2004)

Yes, check the wheels.

I prefer to go Technosquare for a reflash, but I'm down the street, I can have them custom tune it. That's something to consider.


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

brianw said:


> Yes, check the wheels.
> 
> I prefer to go Technosquare for a reflash, but I'm down the street, I can have them custom tune it. That's something to consider.


Good point. If I lived down the street, I'd have done the L-Spec flash too.


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

brianw said:


> Yes, check the wheels.
> 
> I prefer to go Technosquare for a reflash, but I'm down the street, I can have them custom tune it. That's something to consider.



brianw,

What is a reflash?


----------



## brianw (Feb 25, 2004)

<WELCOME TO TECHNOSQUARE>

Have fun...


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

brianw said:


> <WELCOME TO TECHNOSQUARE>
> 
> Have fun...


Very interesting. Do you guys know of any reputable shops on the east coast, preferably in CT??


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

TyRaNt101980 said:


> Very interesting. Do you guys know of any reputable shops on the east coast, preferably in CT??


Technosquare is the only one in the US who does it for 2002-2003s, AFAIK. I know UpRev does a reflash for the Z/G ECM, and could probably do it for Maximas, but I've yet to hear of anyone going to them for it. 

For the TS reflash, most people will just pull out the ECM, overnight it over, and wait for the them to send it back. Unless you can find a spare ECM (and have a Nissan dealership program your keys to use with it) while the original is sent to California.


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Puppetmaster said:


> Those rims are from a G35 coupe. They are 18x8 +30 offset all round but come with different (staggered) tire sizes from the factory. If they are originals, that is, because eBay has replicas that are 18x7.5 +30 offset.
> 
> That being the case, 235/40/18 will work and won't be far off in terms of speedo reading. Since the rims are all the same size, you will even be able to rotate them normally.
> 
> ...



My only concern is, will there be any rubbing? With the 235/40/18's? The 245/45/18's take up alot of the wheel well in the back and I just want to make sure that I am not going to have any rubbing if I put the 235's in the front because right now they are 225/45/18


----------



## Puppetmaster (Mar 28, 2005)

TyRaNt101980 said:


> My only concern is, will there be any rubbing? With the 235/40/18's? The 245/45/18's take up alot of the wheel well in the back and I just want to make sure that I am not going to have any rubbing if I put the 235's in the front.


According to the Maxima.Org discussion, 235/40/18 is the "safe" choice if you're afraid of rubbing. I know a local guy (Irish44J) who runs 235/40/18s on the G35 wheels and he's slightly lowered on Eibach springs and experiences no rubbing whatsoever. 

245/45/18s are too big for the 2000-2003 Maxima, front or rear, IMO. 225/45/18s will work I guess, they'll just look like you have hardly any rubber on the tires.


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Puppetmaster said:


> According to the Maxima.Org discussion, 235/40/18 is the "safe" choice if you're afraid of rubbing. I know a local guy (Irish44J) who runs 235/40/18s on the G35 wheels and he's slightly lowered on Eibach springs and experiences no rubbing whatsoever.
> 
> 245/45/18s are too big for the 2000-2003 Maxima, front or rear, IMO. 225/45/18s will work I guess, they'll just look like you have hardly any rubber on the tires.


I did the calcs with the 235/40/18's. This is how they came out










Will the fact that the speedometer reading is faster w/ the 235's cause the odometer to clock miles faster or slower??


----------



## TyRaNt101980 (Jul 10, 2007)

Ok, I had a mechanic I know measure the rims. He just used one of those caliper looking things but they are the same. He said they looked like 8.5 but I don't think they even make an 8.5 replica and the stock ones are 8". I mentioned going w/ the 235/40/18's instead of 225/45/18 and he said that it would be too thin and that I could bend a rim easily w/ the 235's. I would have thought that the 235's would provide more "meat" to the tire no???


----------



## brianw (Feb 25, 2004)

You should be running a 235/40/18. You sure the wheels don't have the size casted into them on the inside of the rim?

"too thin"-- check your post above about "side wall height" and have a look as to what he's talking about. People run 235/40/18's all the time and don't bend wheels, I think your mechanic is just being conservative.

Check your graphic above about speedometer reading, too.


----------

