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2000 Nissan Maxima has some character flaws
Raekreu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I decided to upgrade from a '96 Taurus to a '00 Maxima. I bought new tires, new brake pads and shoes, and front end alignment done. Basic maintenance and such. Other than that, I haven't done anything to the car except wash it.
The issue I'm having seems to be a malfunctioning MAF sensor, but I wanted to see if anyone here could give some insight. Basically, the car runs ok, but it feels somewhat sluggish when I accelerate. Sometimes it feels like the car is losing power - gas pedal stays at the same position, but there's a lurch or hitch followed by a slight drop in RPM, and then it corrects itself. It also spikes to about 1200 RPM when I start the car and doesn't drop down until I shift into gear, at which point it will drop to ~500 RPM and sometimes stall. Likewise, it will sometimes stall when I put the car in park.
Any ideas or advice, H/A?
The issue I'm having seems to be a malfunctioning MAF sensor, but I wanted to see if anyone here could give some insight. Basically, the car runs ok, but it feels somewhat sluggish when I accelerate. Sometimes it feels like the car is losing power - gas pedal stays at the same position, but there's a lurch or hitch followed by a slight drop in RPM, and then it corrects itself. It also spikes to about 1200 RPM when I start the car and doesn't drop down until I shift into gear, at which point it will drop to ~500 RPM and sometimes stall. Likewise, it will sometimes stall when I put the car in park.
Any ideas or advice, H/A?
Raekreu on
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However I'm no mechanic so it could be something totally unrelated.
The mechanic told me to grab some octane booster, and toss in some premium gas from Sunoco.
Then to hop on Route 1 and just floor it. Completely cleared everything up.
Fingers crossed that the trouble code points to something cheap.
On the highway the car would start to lose power and upon accelerating my RPMS would increase, but there would be no movement. I had to pull over, restart the car and drive in 10 minute spurts.
Mazda first replaced the MAF thinking that was the problem. $500.00 by the way. $300.00 for the MAF and $200.00 to plug it in! I should have done it myself considering it takes all of 2 minutes to do. Eventually they traced it to the fuel pump which was about $700.00 to replace.
They're not so easy on this car...the 3 on the front are easy enough to get to, but the ones on the rear require, like, a +5 ring of dexterity and a 10" socket extender. I've got the +5 ring, but I do not have the extender. I pulled the front 3 for inspection and while they're not new they're not covered in crud and the gap looks ok. No oil, no fouling, just a small amount of carbon buildup.
Regardless, good sign so far. Have you looked into the usual service life of the injectors on your engine? They may be fouled or going out. Fouled you can clean out, going out is a lot more work, although you seem to have a good enough grasp on the mechanical to understand what that would entail.
Yeah, it's a side mount VQ30DE. That's why I wasn't able to check the rear bank of plugs - the coils are only about 6" away from the hood, very awkward position to get at them, plus I didn't have a long enough socket extender to actually get to the plugs once the coils were off.
I ran a tank of gas through it with injector cleaner added. Didn't help, but it didn't seem to hurt it either. Hopefully that's not what's causing problems, though.
All the info I've looked up seems to point at it being a bad coil pack, maybe a bad plug as well, coupled with a dirty throttle body and maybe a bad sensor. Sort of a one thousand paper cuts type of situation.
Any signs of rodent/road damage to your wiring connectors? I've seen bad connecters mess with EFI before.
Nope, they look old but spot checking didn't reveal anything worth getting worked up over.
The '00 Maxima has electronic motor mounts paired with automatic transmission. When the electronics fail on those mounts, things tend to get biblical. Apparently, that's what happened to me. Consensus seems to be 1) unplug the motor mounts and pretend they're not, nor ever were, electric, and 2) replace the components that the P.O.S. motor mounts fried in their death throes. For me that appears to be the IACV and one or more coil packs.
If I'm unlucky, the mounts also took out components on the car's computer that keep it idling and timed correctly. Fingers crossed that isn't the case, as a new computer costs about $1000 and will require a trip to the dealership to get my keys reprogrammed.
Enthusiast forum is where I got the info from, stickied right at the top of their maintenance/troubleshooting page. The idea behind the mounts is that 2 are plain old mounts and 2 have electric motors on them. The electric ones (front and rear) go rigid when you're driving and soft when you're at idle to reduce vibration in the cabin. Unplugging them does no harm but they'll either be locked into rigid or soft depending on whether you unplug them at idle RPM vs unplug them at 1200-1500 RPM.
They probably do make aftermarket kits, but the stock ones are safe to drive with. You just need to make sure they aren't getting any electricity because they are a horrible idea and are known to cause serious problems when they fail.