The Sentra fixup

7 minute(s) of a 14 minute read

We're doing an oil change, so jack the car up like posted before.

Adjust wheel locks in the rear.

Grab a pan and your socket, size is 14mm for oil drain

Drain, put back in bolt, remove filter, replace. Fill with oil.

Capacity is 4.1 quarts.

Brake pad time!

Remove the front wheels. There are 2 19mm bolts holding the caliper to the hub.

Hanging the caliper off the spring with a wire or coat hangar makes things easier and makes sure you don't stress the brake line with the weight of the caliper.

The rearward clip has tabs on the sides while the front doesn't. The pads came with several different styles and sizes so make sure the ones you pick match so you aren't struggling to make the wrong one fit.

The old pads are thinner than the new ones so you'll need to press the caliper piston back into the cylinder. A caliper press tool works wonders for that.

Make sure the clips are seated and install the pads with the friction material facing inwards towards where the disk will be.

You can add some caliper grease to the mating surfaces of the pad to the caliper. Don't put it on the friction material on the inside or you'll be greasing your rotors and crashing into stuff.

Once the pads are seated put the caliper on the disk and start threading your bolts back on.

Check what torque they have to be tightened to. The Sentra is tightened to 98 ft lbs.

While we have this open I'm putting in the new wheel well liner. Thankfully I have a bunch of extra plastic Christmas trees that kind of match what Nissan used.

7/6/17

Got some goodies in the mail!

Starting with the spark plugs. You have to remove the intake manifold which is held on with 5 10mm bolts in the front that you can almost see in the picture below.

Unfortunately these dumb things block your access to 2 of the bolts so they have to be removed with a 10mm.

There is another 12mm here, and this hose will have to be removed from the manifold.

I'm going to remove the throttle body and intake hose to get access to the O2 sensor so there are several plugs and vacuum hoses to undo.

The last bolt unfortunately is behind the throttle body which is removed with 4 8mm bolts. Remove the intake hose clamps with a standard screwdriver.

There's the last 10mm. Its a pain you have to remove all this to get to the spark plugs.

Look Ma! I can see the valves!

You'll have to unplug the 4 coils from the harness then a 10mm unbolts the coil.

A 9/16ths spark plug socket with extention will get them out. The valve cover gasket seal makes a snug fit on your socket, I was worried about the socket coming off but if you go slow it will be ok.

New air filter vs. old.

The cabin air filter is located in the center console on the drivers side. This side panel pops off.

This door pops off if you pull the bottom tab.

You really gotta squeeze the filter to pull it out.

Old vs new.

Just squeeze the filter to cram it back in and replace the door.