# Maintenance Questions - 100K



## Brandy (Aug 14, 2005)

Hi, new to the forums, and new to Altimas.

I recently bought a 1999 Altima which didn't come with any record of maintenance or a manual.

So aside from plugs, wires and fuel filter (car feels a little more sluggish than it should be) what would you folks suggest I have done to make sure the car's up to date? (belts, etc?)

Also, when I move the steering wheel to the right, there is a squeeling noise, which sounds like it's coming from the right side.. what might that be?

Thanks for the help!


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## dsmracer (Jul 30, 2005)

how many owners? mileage? private owner or dealer? this has some to do with whether or not you really need to "make it up to date". i have the same car. altimas are pretty sluggish until you do something to the drive terrain or the car as a whole. i'm not too sure what the sound could be comming from, but as far as making the car up to date, i really dont think its very necessary, unless you want to do something to the performance. but if you dont, then i would get new rotors -if yours are like mine were, never changed since they were bought, then chances are you need new ones. and just check your brakepads and air filter...but like i said before, it all depends on the milage, etc. mine had 99,000 when i bought it, 3rd owner, and bought from a dealer, just to give an illustration. good luck with it though, sry i couldnt help about the squeeling noise.


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## dsmracer (Jul 30, 2005)

correction. i didnt mean all are sluggish, but for the most part, the 2nd gen's are.


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## _surge_ (Aug 26, 2005)

dsmracer said:


> correction. i didnt mean all are sluggish, but for the most part, the 2nd gen's are.



98 to 01 altima se's aren't sluggish,but the rest maby since they don't have the sport suspension.00 and 01 se's,I read they made a couple of improvements on the 2000 and 2001 se's,one of em,the the anti-sway bar,front and back.


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## Brandy (Aug 14, 2005)

Don't know any of the owner history. The brake pads and rotors have already been changed, so they're fine.

I replaced the spark plugs; they were corroded and burnt pretty badly.. looks like they were the OEM plugs that came on the car. I changed the plug wires at the same time just because they were cheap. I changed the distributor cap and rotor because they were also cheap.. the cap looked fine when I took it off, but the rotor was pretty fried.

Changed the alternator belt and power steering belt, and I'm going to change one of the belt pulleys because I noticed it didn't spin as smooth as it should when I was changing the alternator belt.

I changed the fuel filter.. looks like that hadn't ever been changed. When I poured gas out of the filter it was black... crazy amount of silt in it. 

Anyway, since doing all of this, the car runs and drives like new, and also idles much better than it did before. Not bad for a $165 dollar investment in parts. I'd take that improvement over a short ram intake any day.

As for the suspension... yeah, it totally sucks. Not fun to drive in the least... it's actually scary doing a lane change at highway speeds. So.. springs, struts, sway bars, and strut tower bars come next. After that I'll be pretty happy with the car, aside from the stick shift, which feels like mush.


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## tremer88 (Aug 18, 2006)

yeah, I fixed that pesky "sluggish" problem when i got a short ram intake and an exhaust. lol still needs headers though. The automatic transmissions on the 98 99 shift way too early unless you have it goosed pretty good. I dont really like it. anyone know how you can change the shift points?


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