bunch of questions about the VE motor in the '94 maxima SE. Mine has 104k and no VTC noise. It runs smoothly, but after it warms up I experience hesitation and power loss. One time in particular, after idling for a long time in rush hour traffic on a hot day, the car was extremely sluggish and unresponsive. I want to clean or replace my knock sensor - can anyone give me detailed descriptions of where it is and what it looks like? I know it sits in the valley between the cylinder banks, but other than that I'm lost. Also, my friend has a '92 with the same motor and over 160k, and after fixing a loose cylinder head temp. sensor connection, his car lost similar symptoms and now runs much better than mine. Can someone tell me where that is located also, and what it looks like? Any other tips for power loss when after warming up? Thanks

 

Some of that sounds like a "heat soak" problem. I'd suggest doing a search, under "heat soak" for some more detailed analysis/evaluations.

 

The temperature sensor is located on the right side of the engine, it has a red connector, the sensor is inexpensive but for now you can simply clean the connector and sensor contacts to remove the oxidation that on it.

 

wasnt there talk of it being timing and not heatsoak?
MrGone

 

I think someone DID touch bases on that a time or two, yeah.

 

check the injectors, mine went at 114k on my 92

 

It is NOT any sort of heat soak. If it was, then these cars would have been doing this straight out the factory door and nobody would have bought them!! Sheesh!

Somebody came up with the heat soak theory because their car was sluggish only when warm. A lot of VE's are like that. Well, when the coolant warms up, the engine computer goes into closed loop mode, which means it starts measuring data from the various sensors on the engine. When the engine is cold, it's in open-loop mode, where it's running on preprogrammed data to run the engine. It will not make any adjustments to ignition timing or fuel mixture in open-loop mode. Now, when the engine warms up and the ECU is in closed-loop, it reads the sensors and tweaks the engine parameters as it sees fit. Well, if you have a bad sensor, the engine will think it's not running right and adjust the ignition timing and/or fuel/air mixture as such. Therefore, you must hunt down the rogue sensor(s)or wiring harness that is the culprit.

Please can't we all just kill the heat soak theory? The only thing it's good for is using "heat soak" to search about this topic.