Service and repairs are the most important factor in keeping your vehicle in good condition. Sticking to a certain service schedule is the only way to keep the car serving you for years. Oil changes, major service and similar things are parts of the regular car maintenance and the best way to prevent potential bigger issues is to stick with the schedule you can find here.
Proper maintenance sounds great, but how about the costs. Here, you need to keep in mind so many things. First of all, prices are very different depending on the model you drive. Obviously, more expensive cars will cost you more in terms of maintenance as well. Also, keep in mind that the engine plays an important role as well. For example, repairs and maintenance for a Frontier with a four-cylinder engine are notably lower compared to the V6 version.
Still, these differences aren’t that big when it comes to regular maintenance costs. On the other side, things vary when some of the parts break. In this article, we will stick to the most common service and repair costs.
Oil Change
Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is the oil change. Depending on the engine and type of oil, the oil change intervals can be longer or shorter. Still, manufacturers usually recommend replacement every 6 to 12 months, or after 5.000 miles. This particularly refers to mineral oils, while synthetic liquids can last longer, so you can make a little more miles between oil changes.
In any case, this is the most important part of the maintenance of Nissan cars. Oil changes are critical if you want to keep your engine in perfect condition and a good thing to know is that they usually don’t cost too much.
Of course, it mostly depending on the model and engine. The bigger the engine is, the more oil you need. Also, keep in mind that synthetic oil is more expensive. In any case, this service shouldn’t cost you more than 70-80 dollars. If you drive a small car with a small-displacement engine, you will probably pay around 30-40 dollars.
Keep in mind that prices may vary from state to state, so contact your local dealer for more precise numbers.
Air Filter, Brakes, Transmission Fluid
If you check a typical Nissan maintenance schedule, you can see that besides oil and oil filters, there are few other things to do in relatively short intervals. For example, the air filter should be changed after 15.000 miles, while there is also a chance that you will have to replace brake pads and some kinds of fluids. Of course, these things largely depend on the Nissan model you drive but in most cases, transmission fluid is one of the things that come to mind.
Keeping gearbox in good condition is critical is many ways. Not only that it drastically impacts your driving experience, but transmission repairs are extremely expensive, and usually measure in thousands of dollars, whether you need to replace or to repair your automatic or CVT transmission. Therefore, it’s important to do everything you can to prevent such troubles.
Generally, these things are very expensive. Combined with regular oil change, a service that includes such things won’t cost you more than a couple of hundreds but once again, it largely depends on a specific model you drive. We would recommend you to contact your local dealer for more precise numbers.
Major Service
The major service is much more expensive than the aforementioned things but a good thing to know is that you need to do it every 60.000 miles or so. The thing with this service is that it includes all fluid changes that you usually do in shorter-interval services, but you also need to change the timing belt, as well as radiator fluid. There are a few more things that are included, so a major service will cost you hundreds of dollars. This is also where you can count on big differences in costs, which depend on the engine that runs your car.
Besides major service, another potential cost that you may face at this mileage is the battery. An average cost of such replacement goes between 100 and 200 dollars, in most cases.
Other Repair Costs
All the aforementioned things are part of regular maintenance. Despite that Nissan models are generally very reliable cars, there will be some side issues do deal with as well. Such things may depend on many things, including your driving style. Still, the most important thing to know is that there are always some specific issues that are typical on certain models.
The best-selling Nissan model in North America is Rogue and one of the reasons why many drivers pick this compact crossover is the fact that the average costs of yearly maintenance in the first 10 years don’t go over 400 dollars. Of course, that is a pretty estimation, as we are talking about a new car. Still, the current generation has been around for several years, so we know that there are some typical issues. For example, alternator repair is something you may count on after several years, while there were numerous cases where the replacement of windshield wiper motor replacement was required.
Typically for Nissan models, there might be some bugs with door locking, while this model is also quite sensitive when it comes to wheel bearings. All in all, these are all small repairs, so you shouldn’t worry about potential expensive repairs, at least not in the first several years.
Another popular Nissan model is Sentra. This small sedan is quite affordable when it comes to maintenance costs. Also, there aren’t many issues that have been reported. Like most Nissan models, you may have trouble with door locks, while power windows mechanism may break as well. Other than that, Sentra is a quite reliable car, so average maintenance costs shouldn’t go over 350 dollars in the first several years.
Nissan sedans are still very popular, despite the crossover invasion. Therefore, the third-bestselling model of this brand is actually Altima. The mid-size sedan has been redesigned recently, so it is still early to talk about some potential issues. On the other side, previous-generation models were usually quite reliable, and there are no bigger issues when it comes to maintenance. Besides regular service, you may have issues with things like harmonic balancer, CV axle and brake calipers. Each of these repairs costs between 200 and 500 dollars, roughly.
Conclusion
Those would be some of the most typical maintenance costs when it comes to Nissan cars. Of course, keep in mind that these are just rough estimations and the exact numbers can be significantly different from model to model. Therefore, be sure to contact your local dealer to get more precise figures about all these services and potential repairs. Generally, Nissan cars are among more reliable cars on the market, so don’t expect too many expenses, other than regular maintenance.
