Anyone who knows Nissan cars is familiar with the famous VQ35DE engine and it’s throaty growl. I first became familiar with this engine when a relative bought a 2002 Nissan Altima 3.5SE – what a sexy sound! Sadly, that car was totaled in an accident, and I set out to help her find another car. 
Doesn’t look that bad, huh? It wasn’t. However, the body shop assessed the damage at $4800 to start. The headlight alone was $800! 
Moving on…I stumbled across a one-owner Desert Platinum Metallic 2004 Infiniti G35X that had been advertised for weeks, so I figured there must be something wrong with the car. Anyway, I decided to book an appointment to see it.
Skeptical, but I’ll take a look…When we arrived to look at the car, it showed a few very minor cosmetic bruises, but it had relatively low miles at 103K. The seller presented us with service records that indicated the car had been well maintained – he’d recently replaced the tires, steering rack and struts, changed all the fluids, and had the car detailed. The seller also pointed out the factory-installed Aero body kit, which visually set this G35 apart from your standard G35. Just a beautiful car.
Not willing to tip my hand, so to speak, and show my excitement, I got official and sternly pulled out my OBD2 scan tool to check fuel trims, look for fault codes, check coolant temp, and see if I could find anything else wrong with the car. Nada. Not a burning smell or a misfire to be found, no leaks anywhere, brakes in good shape…Hmm, this could actually work out.
Alright, time to take this dude for a test drive. Once we left the seller’s quiet residential neighborhood and reached the arterial, I gave the G35 a little gas to see what it could do, and the throaty growl I’d remembered about the Altima’s VQ35DE engine was even throatier in the G35. Wow! Excited, I decided to, uh, open it up a little, and it showed nice power for a 12-year-old car. Overall, it felt like a solid car. I then let my relative drive, and she immediately thought it was the perfect car for her.
After briefly going back and forth on price with the seller, and after a short trip the bank, we took the G35 home.
The G35 has been a great car over the last couple years, needing only a coolant hose and a ball joint replaced – all done by yours truly, of course.
Well, not so fast…My relative recently called me about a groaning noise, which I later determined to be a bad front wheel bearing. Since she was going out of town for a week, I figured it was a perfect time to replace both front wheel bearings and do some “testing” of the car’s performance…you know, to make sure it was still up to par. 
Check out this video series, where I jack up the front of the car and replace a wheel bearing.