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What to do with my old car? **Update: SOLD**

KeithTalent

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
**UPDATE**

Sold for $4,250! I will be getting $2,000 of that and giving the other $2,250 to my buddy since he did all the work. Sweet deal! :awe:

He said it was corroded leads to the battery and there was something off with the starter too? Not sure, nor do I really care to be honest, but he also fixed the sunroof which had not worked in forever and cleaned it up overall.

Thanks for all of the help/tips guys!

KT

**/UPDATE**

So I've finally had enough of my old fully loaded 1997 Nissan Maxima. I bought a new car today (2008 Acura CSX) and now have to decide the best way to dispose of my old car.

The main thing is it's not running; I believe it is corrosion of the leads to the battery as the car will not start and I did see that weird powder near the leads of the battery (the battery itself is brand new). I called one of the car donation places and they said they would come take it away and give me a $100 tax receipt, which seems quite pitiful to me.

Everything else works fine on the thing, but I'm just trying to figure out whether to:

1. Take the $100 and have them tow it away

2. Get the car fixed then list it for sale privately (similar running vehicles have been listed for $2,500 - $3,000 recently)

3. List the car on Craiglist for a grand AS IS.

I know nothing of cars, so looking to you guys for help.

Once I can figure out US citizenship I will move to California and buy the 1954 convertible Corvette that fell in love with, but for now, I deal with this.

Thanks in advance!

KT
 
Last edited:
KeithTalent said:
So I've finally had enough of my old fully loaded 1997 Nissan Maxima. I bought a new car today (2008 Acura CSX) and now have to decide the best way to dispose of my old car.

The main thing is it's not running; I believe it is corrosion of the leads to the battery as the car will not start and I did see that weird powder near the leads of the battery (the battery itself is brand new). I called one of the car donation places and they said they would come take it away and give me a $100 tax receipt, which seems quite pitiful to me.

Everything else works fine on the thing, but I'm just trying to figure out whether to:

1. Take the $100 and have them tow it away

2. Get the car fixed then list it for sale privately (similar running vehicles have been listed for $2,500 - $3,000 recently)

3. List the car on Craiglist for a grand AS IS.

I know nothing of cars, so looking to you guys for help.

Once I can figure out US citizenship I will move to California and buy the 1954 convertible Corvette that fell in love with, but for now, I deal with this.

Thanks in advance!

KT
Click to expand...
A high mileage max makes a great first car. Do you have any family members who are coming of age?

You could also make it fun. Make a craiglist ad asking for incredibly random things or extremely hard things to find in trade. Then film the crack heads as they come out of the woodwork..
 
what do you mean 'will not start'? do the dash lights come on and when you turn the key it doesn't crank?

if it is what you suspect, take 5 minutes with a wire brush and wrench and see if that does the trick - you've just added $1K+ to the car
 
a running car is always going to get you more money then a non-runner. My friend recently had a 93 accord not start and he was going to sell it to the tow guy for $300, I asked to look at it first. Put $150 into it and it runs great. He sold it a month after for $2200 and gave me $500 for the work (all i asked for was to pay for parts and lunch)

If you believe its mainly the battery, then get jumper cables to get the car running. If I can get running with the cables then it will be the battery. $100 will make your car worth $3000 on the used market.

My brother/parents are driving a 98 maxima that i used to own and now has 130k miles. Aside from a knock sensor replacement ($15 ebay sensor) and it now needs a wheel bearing ($150 repair) that needs to be done next month. Its a solid running car. Those cars are cheap to keep running. A battery ($100) or a starter ($150) is whats holding the car back from running. Maybe look at maxima.org for some handy guys in your area and pay them to fix it for cheap. I know there was a good amount of guys from the north when i was on the board a lot.
 
Good lord, stupid forums have been down forever.

When I turn the key there is a bit of a click, but nothing happens. The power in the car works if I do the half turn, but the actual engine will not fire up.

I did try to clean off the leads with some steel wool and everything looks spotless; really the only thing that looked off was the weird bit of powder around the leads on the battery, all of the metallic bits looked perfectly clean.

I'll take a look at Maxima.org, thanks. I don't know anybody that would need the car, it would be sale for donation or sale only and I just want to see what is worthwhile.

KT
 
Might be a stupid question, but have you tried jumping it? The battery may have enough juice to turn on the lights but not enough to turn over the engine. If that doesn't work it could be something as simple as a starter. The boost in value because the car is running should easily be more than the cost of replacing a starter.
 
So it clicks, did u try to jump start it yet? Sounds like a battery doesn't have enough power to turn the starter but enough to power the lights
 
If its not the battery, the starter may be stuck. You can try tapping on the starter motor with a hammer. If not, it probably needs a new starter/solenoid.
 
Have not tried jumping it yet, but the battery is maybe two months old. I'd be very surprised if the battery was dead. Not sure how I would get it jumped anyway.

I can try that starter thing and see if that helps. Thanks.

KT
 
KeithTalent said:
Have not tried jumping it yet, but the battery is maybe two months old. I'd be very surprised if the battery was dead. Not sure how I would get it jumped anyway.

I can try that starter thing and see if that helps. Thanks.

KT
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised, batteries can do funny things. Why couldn't you have a friend/family member that could help jump the car?
 
Definitely look into getting it fixed. Thanks to cash for clunkers, even absolute POSes (not that your's is one) will fetch a decent sum if they start and drive.
 
My last car had a similar issue at about 100k miles. It would click but not start. Shop replaced the battery and starter .... still had problems ...
They replaced the starter under warranty .... still had problems ...

Finally they replaced the battery cables.... and the problem was resolved ...
I sold the car about 10k miles after that when I bought my Forester ....

It was a slow power draw, meaning one of the wires had corroded to the point where it was draining power overnight... It fvcking sucked!

Anyhow, if the car is worth 2-3K when running, it's probably worth spending a bit to get it running... If you can jump start it .... then you don't have to worry about getting it to a mechanic to take a look at it...
 
Interesting, I bet something similar is happening with my car. From everything I have read that powder indicates corrosion, so if the cables are corroded and drawing the power while stopped, that would explain why it will not start.

I did call a buddy who deals with stuff like this and he's going to take it and try to fix it up. If it gets up and running, we can sell it and split whatever we make. I'm fine with that as it clears up my parking spot for my new car and I don't have to worry about dealing with any of the mechanical stuff.

Thanks for all of the help guys! Hopefully my new car holds up so I don't need to bug you again any time soon. 😀

KT
 
scrap it, scrap steel prices are high right now and i'll bet that maxima is worth 300-400 in scrap. Even after paying $100 for the tow that will leave you with 200-300 in your pocket.
 
KeithTalent said:
So I've finally had enough of my old fully loaded 1997 Nissan Maxima. I bought a new car today (2008 Acura CSX) and now have to decide the best way to dispose of my old car.

The main thing is it's not running; I believe it is corrosion of the leads to the battery as the car will not start and I did see that weird powder near the leads of the battery (the battery itself is brand new). I called one of the car donation places and they said they would come take it away and give me a $100 tax receipt, which seems quite pitiful to me.

Everything else works fine on the thing, but I'm just trying to figure out whether to:

1. Take the $100 and have them tow it away

2. Get the car fixed then list it for sale privately (similar running vehicles have been listed for $2,500 - $3,000 recently)

3. List the car on Craiglist for a grand AS IS.

I know nothing of cars, so looking to you guys for help.

Once I can figure out US citizenship I will move to California and buy the 1954 convertible Corvette that fell in love with, but for now, I deal with this.

Thanks in advance!

KT
Click to expand...

Become a terrorist and make a car bomb
 
That is a shame if you scrap it.
4th gens are my favorite Maxima ever.. They are great cars... Should definitely get it running and sell. It has plenty of life left.
 
Rifterut said:
scrap it, scrap steel prices are high right now and i'll bet that maxima is worth 300-400 in scrap. Even after paying $100 for the tow that will leave you with 200-300 in your pocket.
Click to expand...

Wut?

A car that won't start and he should scrap it for a few hundred when, once running, the car could easily fetch 2k?

Personally, I'd fix it or have someone fix it. Sounds like you are already doing that. No sense destroying a car like that because it doesn't turn over. Shit, if everyone did that you'd only see new cars on the road.
 
Well I was just getting sick of putting money into the car, hence my thought of ditching the thing. Hopefully my buddy can get it up and running so we can her back out into the wild. Was sad to see her towed of my parking spot last night; some very, VERY good memories in that car. :whiste:


KT
 
KeithTalent said:
Have not tried jumping it yet, but the battery is maybe two months old. I'd be very surprised if the battery was dead. Not sure how I would get it jumped anyway.

I can try that starter thing and see if that helps. Thanks.

KT
Click to expand...
Maybe something got left on, or an accessory went bad.

I had a cheap CD-MP3 player several years ago that would kill the battery after about 2 weeks without being run. (During college, the car didn't get used very often.)

If you've got a voltmeter, check the battery's voltage. It should be at least 12V.
10.8V means it's dead and should be recharged soon to avoid sulfation.
 
KeithTalent said:
Good lord, stupid forums have been down forever.

When I turn the key there is a bit of a click, but nothing happens. The power in the car works if I do the half turn, but the actual engine will not fire up.

I did try to clean off the leads with some steel wool and everything looks spotless; really the only thing that looked off was the weird bit of powder around the leads on the battery, all of the metallic bits looked perfectly clean.

I'll take a look at Maxima.org, thanks. I don't know anybody that would need the car, it would be sale for donation or sale only and I just want to see what is worthwhile.

KT
Click to expand...

Sounds like you didn't actually remove the battery cables from the actual battery... You need to remove them in order to actually properly clean them... If you only did the surface area without disconnecting the clamps and cleaning both mating surfaces, then you wasted your time.

It really does sound like corrosion coupled with a dead/low battery....Simple simple fix.
 
oh yea.. i think 4th gens had ignition switch issues too, cheap fix part is like $25 last time i looked at it. Taking the steering trim to replace it is cake as well.

this is if the battery is working.
 
KeithTalent said:
Once I can figure out US citizenship I will move to California and buy the 1954 convertible Corvette that fell in love with, but for now, I deal with this.

Thanks in advance!

KT
Click to expand...

cali isn't going to kick you out, so go ahead and do that now. worry about ICE later
 
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