Here's the story. I love my 3rd gen Maxima (I better after all of the money I put in), but I am tired of driving cheap beater cars each winter or bad weather day. Then my beater 1989 S10 spun a bearing...after only 50,000 miles!! So I started driving my prized baby every day. Argh!! Then two of my window regulators went bad, so I went to the dealer (I have a great relationship with the parts guys) to buy my regulators and I saw a truck that I really liked. So I checked it out. It was nice. A 2001 Frontier Desert Runner SC. It has 54,000 well kept miles and is fully optioned. I couldn't believe the price so..I bought my Maxima a big brother.

Full leather

And my favorite part

Introducing the new family member

They seem to get along nicely

Now what to do first....

Well, it has been a year since purchase and I have done a few things. First I did the K&N cold air kit and a Nismo stainless larger diameter exhaust. Love the new sound. It really lets the blower breath and when you get into the throttle you get a distinct vacuum cleaner whine with the blower sucking in air. The exhaust adds a subtle tone that is very pleasing.

Then I added a smaller pulley on the blower. I went with a quick change kit so I can swap between stock boost and increased boost in a matter of a couple minutes. I tell you, the smaller pulley is definitely a feeling of more boost. The black one is the stock size (2.64") and the silver one is a little bit smaller (2.3"). You simply loosen the belt, remove the five screws, swap pulleys, tighten everything back up and BAM...more boost.

I got tired of having to remove the skid plate to change the oil, and also disappointed with the small filter, so I installed a filter relocation kit. I put the filter behind the bumper on the frame beneath the radiator support. It is easy to get to, keeps the filter cooler and also takes a larger Wix #1 filter adding another 1/2 quart of oil.

Then I added some body armor for some attitude. I added a front safari bar with some Hella 500 fogs. I wired them into the running lights so in really dusty, foggy or snowy conditions I can run without headlights. It really improves visability in those situations. I also wired in a switch in the dash.

The added benefit here is that the headlight switch also powers the fogs. The power runs from the battery thru the headlight switch and then powers the running lights which, in turn, send power to the fogs. That means I still have the alarm telling me that lights are on and I cannot run down my battery by forgetting the fogs or by bumping the switch.

As you can see, I also added some billet grill inserts.

I also added some heavy rock sliders to give the body some attitude. I am not a fan of the "everybody has them" running boards. These were a little different and much more heavy duty.

I was under the truck the other day and found a broken shock. Solved that problem with a set of Bilsteins. No wonder it was riding a little different. Rides nice now.