Take it to a trusted local, independent mechanic (not a chain or the dealership) and tell them what your car is doing in the brakes department. You might only need pads and rotors, or you might need caliper(s), or if you haven’t had the brake fluid flushed since you bought it, that should be done too. But it’s hard to tell you what to ask for without knowing what the car needs.
Re: the bumper. If you can find a body shop that will install a junkyard part for you, that’s a less-expensive way to go if you get the bumper from a car that’s the same color as yours. Some salvage yards expect you to take the part off of the car while others do that part for you. Know which kind you’re going to before you go.
As to the buffing it, only if necessary.
The most economical way is to get the part and install it yourself. Here’s a video that shows you how to remove your bumper:
In my experience, the only model that had that type of ride quality was the old Citroen DS, which had an incredibly advanced hydro-pneumatic suspension.
… at the expense of gas mileage, tread life, handling/roadholding, and resistance to blow-outs.
Ergo… lowering the tire pressure in order to get a softer ride is NOT a good idea.
You cannot make your Sentra ride smoother other than tires. Most people that modify cars want them stiffer and lower, not softer, so parts are easily available for stiffer.
I used to develop suspensions for a living. I can make air spring systems ride like a limo or a race car. Same for those hydropneumatic units on the Citroen DS. Air springs by themselves don’t make the ride. Softer spring rates, softer shocks, softer rubber in the mounts all help. But no one makes this for a Sentra. Not even Nissan. The expensive stuff come in the form of better structure and more available suspension travel. Big money re-engineering. You’d be better off buying a Maxima.
Replacement tires are your best bet. If the car has 50 series tires… the number in the 205/50/17 tire designation, putting 60 series on with a 16 inch wheel - 205/60/16 will help. In my experience, higher end models of Michelin tires are among the softest riding tires available. But they are expensive.
What about GM’s magneto-rheological dampers? I think they debuted on the Corvette but I think even Ford is using them now. Maybe as far back as 2003 the Corvette could quickly adjust the damping when it sensed an acceleration rate like a pothole and prevent the wheel from going down into it.
Aside from that giant boat Eldorado I had back in the day, I rode in a Corvette of that vintage and the ride was pretty amazing.
Actually the Cadillac Seville STS got them 6 months earlier in 2002.5. 'Cause Cadillac! But there were 2 earlier versions that didn’t use MR fluid.
MR is now used on a number of GM cars, most all Ferrari models, Mustang GT and Shelby GT350, Several Audi models, Land Rover models and 3 Acura models.
Concur w/above advice, tire replacement/inflation adjustment is the only $-practical method to improve the car’s ride. Won’t provide a major improvement, but should be noticeably better.
Good for you for wanting to learn how to diy service and repair your own car. It’s certainly possible for you do to learn how to replace brake pads. If you google “Nissan Sentra 2014 brake pad replacement” I expect you’ll get a list of u-tube videos you can watch. My opinion however is to start with a job that’s a little easier to do, build your tool collection, gain some confidence, then build on that. Changing the engine oil and filter is where I suggest you start. Once you feel competent doing that job (which has to be done anyway), then you’ll be in a better position to do the brake work.
In the meantime purchase a Chiltons or Haynes service manual and study up on each section at your leisure. The objective is to understand how the car’s systems are designed to work. And from that knowledge the reason the manual shows the specific repair method will be more clear.
Only advice I can give here,
Hopefully you have a cell phone with a camera, Take lots of pictures while disassembling, take a picture, take a part off, take a picture, take a part off, take a picture, take a part off…
Also, only do 1 brake at a time so you have the other side for reference.
As far as Nissans go, the little Versa has a better ride than a Sentra. That is because the Versa is actually a Renault design and the French prize a good ride above other things like reliability. Drive a used Versa and see what she thinks.
my wife used to have 2013 Sentra SR, the one with slim tires profile and [slighly] stiffened suspension, the ride was reasonably smooth for the class of the vehicle
and yes, this is such an econobox that everything what could be cheaped out by the manufacturer was done already, leaving little space for improvements
base trim had higher tires profile, so I assume it would have softer ride, at expense of slightly worse cornering
you might look for the wheels from the base trim on a local junkyard, then sell your wheels on craigslist
AFAIK Sentra has no difference in brake disk size between base trim and SR/SV trims with slim tires, but you might want to confirm that first
Just a couple of suggestions. The tire pressure for a Sentra is 33 psi, I wouldn’t go much lower than this. I have a 2010 Cobalt, the bucket seats are pretty uncomfortable on longer rides. The suspension was firm but not unbearable. I ordered a set of Coverking Neosupreme custom seat covers.
A little expensive, but good quality, holding up well after 8 years. The extra layer of cushioning in the seat cover made a noticeable difference in comfort. Also it has a set of Goodyear Comfortred tires which improved the ride a bit.
I second Shadowfax’s suggestion to find a good independent mechanic for the brakes.
Thank you for the Seat cover suggestion. This actually ticks off another box I needed. We want to spruce up the car a bit since its as vanilla as it can be and as I said before its basically her office. So this is greet advice. Also I wanted to thank you all for continuing to help me with the videos and all the suggestions.
Would it be possible to offer a link to the tires you suggest Mustangman? Also are these all weather tires or would I have to keep changing tires depending on climate. I live in NYC. In an apartment and we do not own or have a garage where we can perform car work. I am learning little by little, but on my own and not something I can put to practical use right away.
Stiff suspension is better than a softer one? Maybe I have my terms mixed up. What kind of suspension would make the car ride better with less damage to your physical body? NYC streets have pot holes, imperfections, rough terrain, all kinds of nonsense that really make me worry about the car and my wife since she drives all day long visiting patients.
Most car buyers don’t live in NYC or Chicago and aren’t so worried about hitting potholes every 3 feet. As such, they want a car that handles well, which is why they want a stiffer suspension.
What you want isn’t something that’s been generally desired by the majority of the US motoring public since the bad old days of the 70’s/80’s American car cloud-mobiles. Those rode very nicely, but also handled like a drunken cow.
Even if you already knew how to do vehicle repair work where are you going to do it ? Where are you going to store all the tools and support jacks you might need .
Instead of trying to make over this vehicle you need to start planning on a replacement .
As for tires just search on line for reviews and talk to a few tire stores and compare what each one says. Ride comfort is so subjective to each person that it is almost impossible make a recommendation.
The kinds of modifications you are looking at are expensive. A new car might be cheaper. Your car may have 16" wheels with 205/55-16 tires unless you have the SR or SL. They have 17" wheels with 205/50-17 tires.
From reviews on tirerack.com, there are clearly preferences for tire ride and comfort from different models of tires. If you go to tirerack.com, you can look up your car and see whick tires have the highest ratings in comfort. BTW, two of the highest rated tires also are rated for mild snow conditions. They are not rated for winter in an area that gets lots of snow or ice, but for occasional snow or ice where having separate winter tires is not economical. Lots of information on that site.
Your vehicle has struts instead of shocks and you can expect them to cost $4-600 each installed, maybe more. You could do two at a time to spread the cost out. KYB struts are pretty good at providing a smooth ride. I would recommend the KYB strut+assembly because it includes everything (including new springs) already assembled and an honest mechanic will charge less for the labor because it saves him a lot of time.
Anything beyond this and it really is not economical to do. As for the bumper, see this:
There is something that can be done to get a better ride, but it involves a risk: Bigger tires and less inflation pressure.
According to Tire Guides a 2014 Nissan Sentra came with either 205/55R16’s or 205/50R17’s.
Let’s assume for the moment that your car has the 16’s.
It’s possible that your car can accommodate 2 sizes larger - as in 215/60R16’'s. The risk is that the tires may rub. Most car manufacturers leave enough space for chains to be fitted to the stock sized tires and that’s what might make it possible to get those larger tires on without rubbing. BTW, rubbing would be very bad as not only could the body/fenders/frame rub through and cause a flat, the sudden rub could cause the vehicle to suddenly veer off the intended direction of travel.
But if you can fit a 215/60R16 on that Nissan, you could use as low as 7 psi less than what the placard says.
Unfortunately, no one publishes a guide as to how big a tire will fit without rubbing - and you either have to take out the spring to physically see what the worst condition is - or use a laser to measure the wheel well area. I know that both Tire Rack and Discount Tire have done such things in the past, but even if they still do those measurements, I doubt they will tell you how large you can go because that would put them in a legally indefensible position.
Are there other down sides? Not really. But the difference in tires (meaning make and model) will have larger effects on all those other parameters
Also, you may have trouble getting a tire shop to use anything but the original tire size - again, for legal liability reasons…
I like the comparison between the car and a computer, being that is what I do.
You wouldn’t buy a Black Friday computer to play high end games on. The Sentra is probably better than most Black Friday computers in comparison as it is at least decent and reliable transportation if cared for. It can actually make it up a hill with a passenger or two in it while that might not be the case for some of the sub-$300 computers out there.
People buy a cheap computer and want me to upgrade it. The problem is that it is either not possible or will cost more to do this than just replace it with something different. The closest car to what you might want could just very well be an Escalade and not a basic compact car.
Some of those luxury cars depreciate very rapidly. You might be able to pick one up cheaply. The big issue is that they can be costly to repair or maintain. Tires for a Sentra are going to be cheap compared to an Escalade. So a used luxury car is likely going to ride better than this newish compact car. I would much prefer a 3-5 year old Intel Core i7 than the newest Celeron or AMD A-series from Wal-Mart, Black Friday sales, etc.