Definitely not. The mounts on Maxima's are fairly accessible compared to a
lot of cars. The mounts themselves are around $110 each aftermarket
(Pepboys, Autozone etc) and labor should be 2 hours. Then again, I do most
of my own work of this type. Take it to independant shops and see what kind
of quotes they can give you.

Also, visit http://forums.maxima.org and take a look at the stickies in the
4th (1995 - 1999) and 5th gen forums (2000 - 2003). I'm pretty sure they
have one in there on how to fill the airspace in the mounts with
polyurethane. They make idle slightly rougher, but greatly strengthen the
mounts, and prevent what seems to be bad driving habits (or a misdiagnosis
from the dealer). I have nearly 130k on my 1996 Maxima, and the mounts have
just started showing signs of wear.

Just about any mechanic should be able to do this without much trouble. Its
a fairly simple job.

Besides excessive vibration and the chance of destroying the remaining
mounts, there isn't too much damage that can come of it. But, if all the
mounts get destroyed, that can be trouble for the drivetrain because of
excessive wheelhop etc.

Are you auto or stick? Bad stick drivers can destroy motormounts in a year,
good ones can have them last the life of the car. If you're driving an auto,
then perhaps you left off and on the gas to harshly? This jolts the motor
bad and forth, wearing out the mounts.

-Nick

OK... my 2k1 started the same noises, the motor mounts are a common
problem.  I  didn't want to spend the money for replacing them so I
disconnected them!

In idle and low speed operation they are softer, to better isolate the
engine from the passenger compartment and reduce vibration. As the
engine goes above 14-1500 RPM the motors in them "stiffen" them up, to
keep the engine more tightly coupled to the drive train.

What I did was to locate the wires that lead into the mounts, trace
them back to their connectors.  I then started the car and asked my
wife to put the brake on hard, put it in gear and idle up the engine
to ~2k RPM.  I heard the mounts change to firm... then I disconnected
the wires.  Idled down, the mounts stayed in the firm state... no more
noises!

The increase in roughness is very slight... I can only feel it through
the steering wheel.  I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't
experienced the car when they were working.

Originally, this was a temporary fix but I've left it this way because
the impact was so small.  Also,  I have noticed that stop-sign
getaways seemed a little crisper too!

BuddyWh

I had the engine mount problem (loud noise) with my car just as I rolled
into the garage for an oil change.  It did cost me about 6 to 7 hundred
too.  My car 2000 Max with about 38K miles then.