I live in the Netherlands and I drive a 2 liter V6 Maxima (1996). It's a different version than the Maxima that is sold in the States, but the engine is basicly the same. When I bought this car it had 120,000 kms on it and ran very smooth. Over the last two years I noticed the performance slowly going downhill. So I decided to do the following;

new spark plugs (NGK Copper)
new fuel filter
new air filter (KN)
cleaned throtle body (was very dirty)

The idling has become much better, but has increased to 1500 rpm and can't get it lower than 750. But the accelaration still wasn't as good as it used to be (feels like the engine is working hard, but the performance just isn't there). Furthermore there is a hesitation around 4000 rpm. So I tried to do a diagnosis. But alas, my ECU does't allow it (no self diagnosis on my ECU). So i decided to go to my dealer and they found a knock sensor code, but they said that this could probably be a ghost code.

Back home I tried to test the KS myself with a digital multimeter. I followed the lead coming from the KS to a connector and disconnected it there. Although there is only one lead coming from the KS, the connector has two pins. I measured resistance between the two pins and it seemed like an open circuit. After that I measured between pin 1 and ground and pin 2 and ground, both seemed like an open circuit. I believe that a normal resistance for a KS is about 500 K Ohms so I decided to fool the ECU and put a 560 K Ohm resistor in the female connector. But there was no noticeable difference in performance. Maybe I have to reset the ECU, but alas I can't do it myself. I disconnected the battery for a few seconds, but i don't think this is the right way to reset.

I would very much appreciate any suggestions what to do next.

Thanx in advance.


PS: sorry for the long story and my bad english

 

If the ECU still has the 03 04 Knock sensor code, you probably haven't solved the problem using the resistor. Even when you replace the KS, you have to reset the ECU. So your maxima is not so similar that you cannot pull codes or reset the ECU?

 

if that resistor fix would have worked that would have been real cool - i dont think a 1500RPM idle is a good thing, try loosening your throttle cable, it should be around 600-700RPM, and roughly 1000 when your a/c is on

 

Alas, no self diagnosis on my maxima. So I can't pull codes or reset myself. I thought disconnecting the battery would reset the ECU, but it didn't (it should run like **** for about 30 minutes after resetting but it didn't).