The engine on my two-month old 92SE (75,000 miles) that has been running just fine until now is scaring the s___ out of me. About a week ago the engine started the weird habit of suddenly running extremely rough, just as if it were running on 4 of 6 cylinders. It would do this right after moderate acceleration, nothing excessive. The car would then run very rough until turned off and then would be fine when started a few hours later. Now however, it has gotten worse. The car is vibrating right from initial startup - and it lugs badly when accelarating from a stop ... I'm sure there's less than 6 cylinders firing. Also, for about a month there has been the occasional smell of raw gas in the car that you can also smell from the engine compartment (no obvious leaks).

Anyway, bottom line is, I would really appreciate any Hamilton/Toronto area Max owners dropping some advice on local reputable service centres ... I should add the word 'reasonable' to that description. I've got the poor thing booked into the local Nissan dealer for tomorrow PM if I don't get an alternate mechanic who knows his stuff.
Thanks,
Jim,
..under a half inch of freezing rain in Ancaster Ontario

 

hey neighbor!! Im in the toronto area, actually downtown toronto, I take my max to a former Nissan mechanic, he opened up his own shop a few years ago, he deals mostly with Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi. Performance work avail. too. Im taking my max in tommorrow too to get it scanned again, Im getting the same symptons, negative power after a few mins of abuse, and ive just upgraded the exhaust, I thought it to be a bad catty, but i guess not, Ive narrowed it down to the O2 sensor. Mainly because of the symptons being the same as last times the O2 went sour.
So im getting it scanned to make sure. Also, i want to figure out why, if its o2 again, it is malfunctioning this often.

If the max is to be running on even 5 cyl, youd notice right away thedif, I recently changed the plugs, car ran smooth for a day, until i was killing it for a bit, road rage, and it felt like a chevy sprint.
I drove home, and you could really hear it puffing and fluttering away, even backfiring.
I checked all the plugs, they were clean, i put the old ones back in, it ran fine, so it was one plug that was defective.
So, check all your plugs for spark.

Maybe knock sensor(not to common), air flow meter(somewhat common, if intake has been moded), O2(very very common), bad coil(not sure of how common that is)

Dont know if youre willing to come down here to My Nissan mechanic, but he only does work by appointment, He only takes so many cars per day, he takes his time on his cars, doesnt charge you any more than he should, he just doesnt wanna see your car coming back for some poor work he might have done.
He'll even suggest what you can do performance wise if you want!!

Hes had an Altima that would make Maxima's look like a sentra!!
He now drives an old pulsar, Turbo shhhhhh

Hope this helps any