jetboy

My 99 Maxima with 60,000 miles has an intermittent problem. When the engine is idling (in drive only)the engine loses 1-200 rpm briefly, then recovers. I have always used 91 or higher oct. fuel. I have used 94 for the last few months and have faithfully followed the recommended maintenance schedule. My Nissan dealership can't seem to find the problem. I have had it back there 5 times. The problem doesn't show up on their diagnostic machine. They replaced one coil and it ran great for three days then it started again. I have put gas line anti-freeze in the fuel tank, nil-fix. ( I live in a cold climate) As I said, this doesn't happen all the time and there is no consistency, sometimes the engine is cold, sometimes after highway driving it occurs.
Anyone else experienced this problem and any suggestions for a fix?

FLO_BOY

coils on 99s seem to be going bad these days...
I'd guess you should re-check those.

my $0.02,
FLO_BOY

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Your at 60,000 miles. It's tune up time. Make sure you have your fuel system and throttle body cleaned as well. If it's still there, then look at the coils again.

jetboy

They actually replaced them all at one time ( without my go ahead) they are about $150 each here in Canada. Handed me a bill for $1400 bucks. The car actually ran worse after they did the job and I made them put the old ones back and look for the one that was causing the problem. (As per my conversation with the service manager)I may have to as you say have them re-checked. I was hoping for something simpler. Thanks

jetboy

Did have it tuned up. I guess I'll try getting the injectors cleaned. I think the the throttle body has been done.
Thanks

jetboy

I think I found the solution myself at vbxmaxima.com. It seems the symptoms I am describing fit a faulty throttle position sensor. I'm going to try it and see if that fixes the problem.

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

a bad tps should throw a ecu code. it's also one of the things they're supposed to diagnose with your symptoms. strange
Jae

zmxh20

I have exactly same problem with original member who wrote this topic. I had 99 GLE and 60K. Dealer in Houston said it has missed IDLE. I took to my friend shop and took 6 hours to find one bad ignition coil and replaced for $125.00 including Labor. I do all regular maintenance and done replacement of 6 platinum spark plugs and tune up.

After the replacement of coil, the vibration in engine is gone. It is now 3 days after the replacement. But, I can feel the car is not smooth as my 95 GLE at park and drive. Should I have to do engine trottle clean or fuel injection services? Do we need to report to Nissan for their awareness or recall of this problems? Suggestion are welcome. Thks.

FLO_BOY

where in Canada are you?

I have the same problem, and I'm starting to think that my
problem is wiring related, and will be checking that avenue
out when I return home from bid-ness...

I'll keep ya posted, but, try wiggling the wiring harness near
the passenger side strut tower and tell me if it affects the RPMs.

cheers!
FLO_BOY

Euge82

I own a 1999 GXE with 49,000 miles. I live in Cleveland. In June of 2002 the car started doing exactly the same thing. It was intermitent and I could not pin it on ambiant temperature, operating temperature, cold start, warm start, highway vs city, AC on or off, etc. I took it to the dealer, they could not replicate the problem, and did not offer any explaination. I had the fuel injectors cleaned, replaced fuel filter, air filter and spark plugs. I switched from BP premium to Shell premium. The problem stopped until the check engine light came on last week while the car was sputtering. I took it to a local shop. The code came back intermitent ignition problem. It is driving OK now. My biggest concern is a "Mystery" problem. To me this is more an indicator of a design flaw as opposed to a part failure. More troubling is the dealership said they had no bulletin on this problem, which from these boards seems to be common.

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95Max

Check the TPS, idle air sensor, o2. I had a weak o2 senor (no code, mechanic says it was just good enough to keep from throwing a code) in my Z and was getting strange idle. Replaced it and ZZZoom...no more problem.

jetboy

I am in Barrie ,Ontario (about 50 miles north of Toronto)I haven't had a chance to investigate the TPS or other things (workin) but hope to look at it next week. Thanks for the info I'll try what you suggest and see what happens. Will let ya know

Hot99Max

I have the same problem with my Max too. I've taken it to Nissan numerous times and they couldn't figure out what the problem was. I've had the TB cleaned and the problem still hasn't gone away. I've had two independent shops look at it and they told me that everything appeared to be ok. I did the search and looked over everything from the coils to the fuel fuel filter. I just recently bought the Bosh Platinum 4 spark plugs (hoping this is the problem). I'll let you guys know how I make out.

jetboy

Thanks for the reply. Appears to be a pattern emerging on this issue. As someone suggested earlier, perhaps it's time to bring this to the attention of Nissan.

dvpatel99se

iTrader: (1)

I have the same problem too. I have a 99 with 38xxx miles. I started seeing this more than a year ago when I did my 30 K service at 27.5K miles. Since then the dealer has told cannot reproduce a couple of times. Then they replaced the IAC valve under good will about 6 months ago. The problem is still there. If anyone can tell what exactly is the problem, I can go back to the dealer. Otherwise, I have learnt to live with it.

FLO_BOY

this is B.S.!!!
is there anything that we can do?

FLO_BOY

zmxh20

I spoke with Nissan Customer Affair dept today. They seem to be not aware of this problem. They asked me to go the Nissan dealer and find out the problems and paid by my own expense and report to them. The lady I spoke said that due to my warranty are exprire, they can not help us. Only she would forward to their Engineering dept my finding and let me know what to fix. But, I think it is major flaw from their design and defects and they should take responsibility.

Pls contact 800-647-7261 X 3830 at North America Nissan USA customer affair and explain your problems. I think all Max lovers should express our concerns on this engine "hiccup" and vibrate engine (IDLE). Nissan North America USA direct line is 310-771-3111 and ask for customer affair dept or higher cheese at Nissan. Keep our finger cross. Thks.

zmxh20

Lokks like we have same problems from recent Max owners. Pls see late 12/3/02 and 12/4/02 postongs. All of them has same problem oike us. This is what I do today.

I spoke with Nissan Customer Affair dept today. They seem to be not aware of this problem. They asked me to go the Nissan dealer and find out the problems and paid by my own expense and report to them. The lady I spoke said that due to my warranty are exprire, they can not help us. Only she would forward to their Engineering dept my finding and let me know what to fix. But, I think it is major flaw from their design and defects and they should take responsibility.

Pls contact 800-647-7261 ext 3830 at North America Nissan USA customer affair and explain your problems. I think all Max lovers should express our concerns on this engine "hiccup" and vibrate engine (IDLE). Nissan North America USA direct line is 310-771-3111 and ask for customer affair dept or higher cheese at Nissan. Keep our finger cross. Thks.

jetboy

Good stuff, will do it asap. Thanks

jetboy

Sorry I took so long to reply. I finally got a chance to take my car to a shop. They put the engine on their diagnostic machine and the only thing that showed up was a mass airflow meter running at 108% instead of 100%, so they cleaned debris out of it. Then they did a complete vacuum check of the engine, which was fine. Finally they did an engine flush, cleaning all the fuel injectors. $365.00 (Cdn) The car ran fine for the drive home. Next day going to work the problem reappeared. I tried the Nissan number but it doesn't work in Canada, so I'll have to try and dig one up here, but like your car the warranty is up on mine also, so I doubt they'll do squat.

Velcro

just my 2 cents here but I ONCE had bosch plugs in my max and they actually robbed performance, this has just been my experience, I would go with NGK's

jetboy

I have new NGK plugs. Tried to get thru to the Nissan Canada C/S line. Busy and they tell you to call back. Some customer service!! Anyway called the service manager at my dealership, he's convinced it's the ignition coils. Says its hard to ascertain which coil or coils may be causing the trouble. They are $150 apiece x 6 =$900 plus labor. He tells me they tend to come down in price as new models come out. Seems like this is not something new to them and perhaps Nissan should be looking at a design problem with these things. Sure making me think twice about buying another Nissan in the future.

Velcro

I would start looking @ codes b4 I suspected the coils I got 132k on my 97 max and still the original coils

jetboy

I have has it to two places and they say they can find nothing in the codes

FLO_BOY

I was convinced it was my coils once too...couple of points:

1) Buy one coil...try swapping one out, drive around, see what happens...eventually, you could find the bad coil.

2) I thought it was my coils --> turned out to be bad wiring. Check the grounds for the coils, a bad connection F'ed Up my car for months!

3) It's possible that a coil is not sitting right on your plugs...In fact, sometimes the sleeve that sits on the plug gets stuck and rips...you could take each one out and see the condition they're in.

4) If you do buy the coils, by them online. I had one dealer quote me a price of $60US/each...and they're always backordered by 2 weeks!

...so, OFCOURSE Nissan is aware of the problem...

hope this helps,
FLO_BOY

MrEous

iTrader: (11)

I'm starting to think this problem is for the 'newer' 4th gens.

I have a '99 SE-L and it just started doing this too. Yay.

I wanted to wait till I had changed the plugs/fuel filter before I posted but I wanted to point out the fact that most of the people with this 'hiccup' or hesitation problem are mostly the newer 4th gens. Not only in this post...I think I saw 2 other posts with the same problem.

(I really hope the fuel filter/spark plug change will solve mine though, but I'm starting to doubt it after reading the symptoms.)

Just to explain my problem...I also have hiccups going WOT and every so often the idle drops a little. This doesn't happen all the time but it's enough to make me worry.

One last edit--My service light flashed a couple of times once while it hiccupped but it didn't stay on.

FLO_BOY

Um....there's (unfortunately) A LOT more posts then two...
If this is "starting" to happen to you, go to Nissan while you still
have a warranty and get them to change your ignition coils!!!

FLO_BOY

MrEous

iTrader: (11)

Too late as of March '02...per Nissan service department. SOL

Euge82

I guess that would work, but I believe the front three and back three are different. So you would need to buy one of each. And what if you have two that are bad, but go bad at different times. Since the part is defective that is very likely.
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jetboy

Thanks.... good suggestions, will try it.