What's my problem? Afm?
 

Either way, I think I figured out the problem on my maxima. The arrows on the belt were not on top as they are usually. They are on the side, and this threw all the gears out of position.

I got the belt straight now. As I was trying to start it before, I had put some starting fluid in (after the afm, before tb) in order to see if it would give any sign of firing....and indicate maybe I had a fuel problem. I think what happened is since the valve timing was a bit off, it blew the starting fluid back to the afm and blew it.

Symptoms now: When I have afm hooked up, I have to pump the gas quickly to keep it running. It acts as if one of the large hoses, like the brake booster vacuum hose, is off...giving a huge vacuum leak. It will not idle. I unhook the afm and it fires right up and idles...but won't rev up high.

You guys agree with me that the afm seems to be ****ed?
Anybody have one they can part with at a reasonable price?

Will a z31 afm work right on this Maxima? It's a gxe, if that matters...

thanks

I'm confused, what belt are you talking about and how did you "fix" it? How would the arrows being on the side of it affect anything?

could be the timing belt and the arrows that point which way to put the belt on...?

with it idling when the afm is unplugged and it not when it is plugged in that would definitely seem like an afm problem. if nothing else you might try cleaning it and see if that helps.

Yes, that's correct. The arrows ,that are usually on the top between the 2 cam gears, were on the left side (tensioner side)...causing me to put the belt on wrong. I found this problem and fixed it...leaving me as I mentioned above with the symptoms that seem to indicate an afm problem.

I've never cleaned an afm, but it can't be too hard...I'll give it a shot.

Do you guys know if the z31 one will fit? Parts for the z31 are usually cheap used. Or anybody got one from a Maxima for sale? I'll check classifieds here also...

i'm not sure if the one from the z31 would fit or not. there might be one that works on the maxima but i'm not sure which model year it was. there were some Z's with the same o2 sensor as the maxima which might mean the ecu is similar. i'm thinking it would be the 87-89 because I have an earlier ecu and its definitely different. If it were me, I'd probably try an 87-89 N/A maf and see if that goes.

I think the car is starting w/o the MAF because it's going into some fail safe mode. I'd try to clean it and see what happens. You might have damaged it by spraying starter fluid into it before. Did the engine ever backfire when the cams were out of alighment? If so, that also might have damaged it. Also check to see that the maf connectors are clean/not bent/making good connections.
If all else fails, try a boneyard maf. But some Z31 units might work as some of the na ones were essentially a maxima engine.
PS, glad to see you decided to come back.

Thanks for the welcome back.

The car didn't backfire when I had the belt on wrong, but it did make some odd sounds which I believe were sounds of air comming back out the air filter.

Usually on the Z31, the "limp home" mode will kick in when the afm goes bad and the car will idle and run ok, but will be limited to 2000rpm. Maybe these maximas have ecu's that handle a failed afm a bit differently.

On another note... is this site VERY slow for everybody? It takes about a minute to load a page, and I am on a cable modem with a good transfer rate. I'm not complaining and understand that if the people that run the site are limited on bandwidth or hardware or something... I just wonder why it's so slow for me.

Nope it's slow for me also. Don't know what's bogging it. I believe the 3-gens has the same limp mode at 2,000 rpm also. Although I don't remember any members experiencing it. I know some 4-genners have had it.

i've experienced the limp mode way too many times. it definitely does the same thing.

Maybe there's more than one way to fry the afm. All I know to do is get another one and try it out.

Do the SE's have the same afm? Basically, what years and trim level maximas will have this same afm? all from 89-94?

I believe they are all the same

Get some sleep dude!! haha

dang 3:20 am and you're still up. I have to be at work at 6am, but couldn't sleep. Even the Ambien the doctor gave me won't make me sleep the entire night (only about 5hrs usually).

thanks for the advice.