gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

So Friday morning I drive to work, no issues. I drive home from work, no issues. My commute is less than 5 miles (each way). I get in my car hours later to go somewhere and it starts rough, but starts. I then notice that it is idling rough (like it's miss firing) and it also smells very strongly of gas. I went to pull onto the street and immediately notice a cloud of white smoke coming from the exhaust. So I turned around and went back home and popped the hood. I drove it less than a mile before returning home.

When I looked under the hood I noticed that the coolant reservoir was practically empty so I filled it up to the max fill line. Other than that I didn't notice any other issues.

Then I left and went out of town for the Holiday weekend. This morning I did some reading and seems like maybe the head gasket is the issues, but I'm not sure. So I took the car to autozone and had the codes pulled. It pulled the usual knock sensor and also bank 5 misfire. I've had coil issues in the past and I have replaced all 6 of the coil packs about 2 years ago. The rough idle that I'm having now feels similar to the issues I had in the past when the coils went bad, but previously when the coils went bad it just ran ****ty and idled really rough, but no white smoke. That's why this time I know it's different because of the white smoke and strong smell of gas. Anyone else had similar issues before?

I have a 99 I30 with 228k btw. I also checked the engine oil and it appears to be normal color. I know that a lot of people (on here) say the engine oil will be a lighter/milky color if the head gasket is blown.

PowerTotheMax

You have an issue with an injector.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Awesome. Is it best to get an oem injector or is there another brand that's better or equivalent. I'm not planning on driving the car very much longer so the cheaper the better.

NissanNismoZ

Sounds exactly like what my 96 5spd did when the cyl 3 coil went out. Replaced it with OEM coil, amd no problems. Did you replace it with a OEM coil? Or ebay/part stores coil? It can make a difference, these cars are picky and ebay coils fail fairly soon.

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

Fuel injectors are a lot harder to change than ignition coils. But you need to make sure that you are changing the correct part.

Swap the #5 ignition coil with either # 1 or #3 and see if the problem has followed the ignition coil. If it has then you replace the ignition coil. If it stayed at cylinder 5, then perhaps the fuel injector is the problem.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Thank you guys for the input. The more I thought about a bad coil the more it made sense. I replaced the coils with auto parts store replacements. If the coil is bad and that cylinder is not firing then it won't burn the gas being injected into said cylinder hence the smoke and smell of gas. I'll let you know the outcome of swapping the coil. Thanks again.

asand1

iTrader: (1)

Bad coil wouldn't cause smoke, not enough unburned fuel. A leaking pintle cap would though.

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

Welcome to the bad injector club. At your mileage, consider refreshing them as maintenance. That's what I did.

https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...ite-smoke.html

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Update

So I was having a misfire on cylinder 5 with the white smoke coming from exhaust. I replaced the injector for that cylinder and now the smoking is gone, but it's still misfiring. So back to have the codes run and now it's throwing a code for "multiple random misfire" and it's not specifying which cylinders are misfiring. It's also throwing a p1320 and knock sensor (which was already there).

So now I'm thinking it's multiple bad coils??? But when I had multiple bad coils in the past it said specifically which cylinders were bad. Any ideas on the random misfire code?

Slamrod

iTrader: (11)

99s can be a living hell with the random misfire bs. Based on what i dealt with on my 99, id venture to say that the wiring for one or more of your coils is damaged.

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

How do you know the new injector is good? Believe it or not, when I had a bad injector and chose to replace all my injectors, I had the same conclusion as you. The smoke went away but I still had a misfire. Turns out one of the new refurbished injectors was causing a problem. Once I swapped him out (thankfully it was cylinder 2), my misfire went away.

So now you have to figure out if it's an injector or coilpack issue. My money is still on injectors.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

So how do I know if it's a bad injector? Also why would it now throw a multiple cylinder misfire when before it was only showing misfire cylinder 5. That's why I now think it's a different issue. Also because it doesn't smell like gas and it's no longer smoking.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Is there a way to test a coil pack outside of the car? I replaced all of the coils a few years ago and I kept the old ones because not all of them were bad. So I was wondering if there is any way to test them when they are outside of the car to see if they are good or bad?

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

You can measure the resistance of the coil packs.

Each ignition coil has a transistor built into it. The transistor is the on/off switch that controls current flow through the primary side of the ignition coil. The transistor gets its on/off command from the ECU.

Measuring resistance (ohms) is, for the most part, measuring the transistor.

I took these readings on my 1997 Maxima with 150K miles. Readings were taken for reference - no known problems. All the coils were factory originals and all the coils measured very close to each other. The numbers here are an average.

There are 3 connections on the coil pack:
Pin 1 - red wire on every coil pack, 12 volts
Pin 2 - black wire on every coil pack, chassis ground
Pin 3 - different color on each coil pack, trigger from ECU

measuring between Pin 1 and Pin 2 connections:
reads 1.6 K ohms (polarity doesn't matter).

measuring between the Pin 2 and Pin 3 connections:
reads 7.1 M ohms (polarity doesn't matter).

measuring between Pin 3 and Pin 1 connections:
positive lead on Pin 1 reads open (or infinity)
positive lead on Pin 3 reads 7.7 M ohms

Since you have a 99, you might get different readings than I got on my 97. The main thing is that all your coil packs measure close to each other.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

DennisMik Thanks for the post. I'm sure that was probably posted somewhere else and I could have looked it up, but I appreciate you posting it. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this random misfire.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Update:

-Just had the codes checked again and this is what's showing now;
P0134-O2 sensor Bank 1 Sensor 1
P1320-Ignition signal
P0325-Knock sensor
P0300-Random cylinder misfire

So this is what I am thinking of replacing now and seeing if that makes a difference; knock sensor and Cam Position Sensor. These seem to be fairly cheap and easy to fix. I was just planning on getting parts from Rock Auto or ebay. Any suggestions on one place vs the other or are either of them fine. Thanks for all the help everyone.

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

Hold off on the knock sensor. That code comes up anytime the engine isn't running right. Fix the other problems and the knock sensor code will probably go away.

Slamrod

iTrader: (11)

Rockauto is always a solid choice for parts. However with electronics and sensors you generally want to stick to OEM only as a rule of thumb, aftermarket tends to not cooperate with our cars' ECUs.

As dennismik said, save the knock sensor for last, that codes pops up in the presence of other codes and likely isnt even bad. The primary o2 sensor code (bank 1 sensor 1) could mean that sensor is on its way out - but its always quite possible that the injector problem fouled up the sensor and it just needs to be cleaned.

If you havnt already, start with the coils. They are notorious for causing the problems you are experiencing, especially on 99's.

Just a shot in the dark, but on the camshaft sensor (the located smack middle of the timing cover), does there happen to be any oil seeping out from there? When i was having the same exact issues on my 99 (minus the o2 code), i fixed a faulty oring on the sensor - along with a loose wire heading into one of the coil plugs at the same time - and the problem was gone. Cant say if the new oring contributed or was merely coincidence but my point is that the sensor itself might be fine.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Ok, so I'll just test the resistance on the coils and see if they are all operating closely. There is oil seeping from the camshaft position sensor and has been for a while. So I can just replace the o-rings on the sensor? That would be awesome so I don't have to replace the entire sensor.

uttadms31

Yes especially since you have no code for camshaft position sensor there's no reason to get a new one, just buy a new o-ring for it. I got mine at the dealer for $6 last year, takes a few minutes to install, and hasn't leaked since then.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

The reason I was going to replace the camshaft position sensor is because it can cause the P1320 code. I'll start with the o-rings though

maxinout93

sounds like you have either a bad fuel injector or injector o-ring.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Update:
So I bought all new injectors and replaced them all yesterday...STILL MISS-FIRING AND IDLING VERY ROUGH. This is driving me insane. I haven't checked the resistance on the coils yet so I'm hoping that's it. Otherwise I think I may be done.

The one thing I've noticed is that it idles very rough and runs rough up until about 40 mph. After that it runs much smoother which I thought was weird. I just noticed this because yesterday was the first time I've had it out on the highway since this started. I will report back with the readings from the coils.

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

Well, your down to checking/replacing the coilpacks and MAF (I think).

bumpypickle

iTrader: (1)

What brand did you use? try oem either at a junkyard or a member here

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

bumpypickle
"What brand did you use? try oem either at a junkyard or a member here"

They are Intermotor brand

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Update:
I tested the resistance of all 6 coils and here's what I got:
Cyl. 1: 1.10
Cyl. 2: 1.40
Cyl. 3: 1.58
Cyl. 4: 1.07
Cyl. 5: 1.62
Cyl. 6: 1.09

So coils for cylinders 1, 4, and 6 need to be replaced. Luckily I held on to the old oem coils that I replaced because I didn't think they were all bad. Most of the old coils that I have tested in the 1.40 range so I'm going to replace coils 1, 4, and 6 with the oem ones and hope that fixes my issues. I am also going to clean the MAF and get new spark plugs. Thanks for everyone's help and I will report back tomorrow after I replace the coils and plugs.

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

Don't put too much stock in coilpack testing. The results can sometimes be misleading and inaccurate. I've had bad coils test good, and the other way around. good luck though

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

Well that doesn't make me feel very good. I just hope the coils and plugs fix this issue. I'm not putting anymore money into it unfortunately. It's just not worth it. I will post the results of those changes later.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

So I replaced the 3 coil packs that were testing lower than the others (cylinders 1,4, &6), new spark plugs, and cleaned the MAF. Started her thinking we'd be all good.......... BACK TO MISFIRING AND WHITE SMOKE! I mean wtf? How could that have happened from doing those things.

I also noticed that as I was taking coil packs out of about 3 out of 6 cylinders (2 of which I replaced the the coil packs) there was a significant amount of oil surrounding the coil packs and spark plugs? Any idea what that would mean? Valve cover gasket maybe?

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

Spark plug tube seals. If your spark plugs are getting covered in oil, they can't fire properly.

Maybe you're having my luck. Maybe one of your new injectors is bad.

gknuckles

iTrader: (1)

How difficult is it to replace the spark plug tube seals?

Also how did you figure out if it was in fact a bad injector?

jholley

iTrader: (13)

To replace those tube seals both valve covers will need to be removed so you'll need to replace their gaskets as well. I installed this VS50494R Felpro kit 4 years ago with no leaks since.

For tips search this forum 'valve cover replacement'. Valve cover leaking is a common issue with these A32s so they've been replaced my numerous members along with those tube seals. Here's a good thread for guidance https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...pair-info.html

Those tube seals need force for removal. I used a large screw driver and hammer to pop them out of the valve covers.

maxprivate

iTrader: (12)

sounds like an issue I was having in my 3.0 with white smoke. I replaced all the coil packs even after they tested good. Problem still remained, my issue turned out to be blown piston seals ( I was FI ) but in any event keep us posted.

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

CEL told me misfire at injector #2 after I installed 6 so-called refurbished injectors from Ebay. . My newly refurbished Ebay injector was dead on arrival. I contacted the Ebay seller and he sent me a new one. Problem finally was solved.

Keep in mind that after you fix the issue you have to drive for about 5 miles for all the residual gas/crap to get out of the system and the white smoke will stop.