Hiya. New to the boards, hence the... "never seen you before" whole thing.

Anyhoogle, bought a 1992 Maxima SE back in July. Bought it from a family friend (my first car), so he outlined some of the "issues": The ticking sound (He told us what it was, the whole cam shaft issue), and a hesitation that sometimes occurs, usually under full throttle/merging/"when you need to go most, it does it."

Basically, the ticking we're going to live with. Moving to a synthetic oil (Castrol 5w-50 full synthetic) helped to lessen the intensity/length of the time it ticks), so thats okay.

However, the hesitation has us stumped. Running fuel cleaners through it didn't help to stop it. Now, its not a constant problem, as I said: It just kind of happens sometimes, and will even surface when the cruise control is on, running at ~75 MPH on level ground. You can always get out of it quick enough: Push in the clush, rev it up, then re-engage, but its an annoyance, plus it kind of "scares" the passengers, heh.

Before we start just "replacing" things, ie, spark plugs, get the injectors looked at, etc., has anyone else ever experienced this? I mean, it could be so many things: Fuel system, engine management... since I'm new to the Nissan Maxima scene, I'd love to know if anyone else on here has had this happen to THEIR Maxima, and, heh, what they did to get out of it.

Secondly, and of less importance (for now), struts: Looking to replace just the struts, no desire to get lowering springs, mostly due to the issue of ground clearence (My dad has a 325i which we lowered, and it scrapes more than we'd like, so we thought we'd just skip that chance on mine and do struts). Anyone have any suggestions? Since I honestly don't know what it was like stock, I just want to tighten it up. They do have the original struts @ 145k miles so it won't take much to do that. But a little better than stock would be nice. Right around ~200-300 dollars, we're looking @ some Boge/Sach struts and some Tokico's... anyone have any experience with either of these?

Anyways... thanks for reading, any any suggestions on my issues would be greatly appreciated. And if I missed an "FAQ" which included my issues (besides the ticking), please point it out

 

Your problem is probably the knock sensor with the notorius heat soak. If you look at the 3rd gen stickies there are two posts. One about a lack of power tsb(http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=179903), and another about replacing it(http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=168035).

I had hesitation/power loss when the engine warmed up. Basically when I floored it, it made alot of noise with little progress. I took the cheap route and did the tsb technique. It cost me 35 bucks for the part and took a minute to install and solved the problem. Or you can replace it which there is a detailed writeup at www.4dsc.com (http://www.4dsc.com/articles/drivetr...k_sensor.shtml)

If your symptons sound like mine, plenty of power when its cold, but loses it when warmed up then that is probably it.

 

no not the knock sensor hes got cracked coils packs the ks will make your car slow but not hesistate and stumble my ve had a bad case of this up untill about a month ago when i replaced all 6 coil packs when i first got the car it happened ocationaly and up untill last month it had gotten alot worst like several times a day i bought my coils used but you can get new ones from autozone with lifetime warenty for about 60$ a piece and theres 6 so your problem can be solved for about $380 with tax

 

I don't think his problem is the knock sensor "heat soak" deal. Although if his car has 145K on it, the knock sensor should be replaced or bypassed. He's describing the freeway cut-off problem where the car just bucks and slows down like it stalled out. I've never experienced it myself, but from what I remember the most likely culprit is your ignition coils. Some may be cracked or gone bad. Take them out one at a time (very easy), look them over for cracks or discoloration, then do a resistence test across the terminals. All should be about the same, I forget the actual number you're looking for. Good luck! They're about $50 apiece.

 

Hmmm... thanks for the answers guys

I'll check the knock sensor, because it does it during acceleration and, sometimes, on the highway, so I can check the ignition coils as well.

Thanks again, and again, if anyone has any advice on the struts (no springs), I'd be very grateful.