ivelweyz

So this friend of mine tells me that you can just replace the air temp sensor by the intake with a 4.7K resistor. At first I didn't believe him, but I did a search and it apparently works. The resistor makes the car think that cold air(32F) is coming in. It is also apparently the same thing that they sell on ebay for $20. The resistor itself only costs about 20cents and I want to try it. Has anyone done this and did it actually work for you. There are tons of posts about this but they all bash people for being stupid enough for spending money on that crap. Well it's 15-20 cents, but I don't want to screw something up and pay tons for 15cents of crap that ****ed my car up...

hacim105

iTrader: (6)

If you don't want to get flamed in the future you have 2 choices.
1) just try the mod at your own risk and if it works, post it.
2) everyone has bashed the idea, you asking again is only going to cause more bashing. So make a decision on your own.

Street Reeper

Most of those posts say that the temp sensor does nothing, I really don't know. Just to be sure when I put the JWT intake on I am going to mount the intake sensor in the path of air coming form the stock snorkel.

Why not be a pioneer and try it. If your friend is confident enough that it will work tell him to install it. The worst that could happen I would think is that you would have to put the old one back on, and possibly clear some codes.

Good luck.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

So what is the advantage of tricking the ecu into "thinking" it's receiving colder air than it really is?

95bluse

iTrader: (1)

Car run's a higher ratio fuel mixture, hence producing more power or that's the theory anyway. I've heard of guys doing this for 1/4 mile runs. The downside is your fuel consumption would suck much more than it is now with this cold snap.
Heck, maybe I should dig out my FSM and check the explanation. I can be the guinea pig if no one wants to risk it

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Nope. Not unless the car runs unusally lean. Plus leaner mixtures make more power than rich mixtures(within reason).

Street Reeper

+1

More fuel in the cylinder (rich) would make you run slower, a leaner mixture with more oxygen is ideal for power, that's pretty much what nitrous does, nitrous contains much more oxygen than our atmosphere.

Jime

iTrader: (10)

A lot of people think that a little richer mixture will make the car faster in the 1/4. Thats why the Honda guys pay $75 for a gizmo that screws down on top of the stock FPR to increase the fuel pressure.

I guess it makes them feel good. Only way to prove something like that is on a dyno.

Romeo

well said

MacGyver265

The most powerful mixture is a perfect ratio for the environment's temperature and pressure. Not a lean or a rich mixture, a perfect mixture, but that's not all that practical. A rich mixture can help to cool down the cylinder, but you will end up suffering in power. Lean mixtures will allow higher fuel economy, but extremely lean mixtures will run the engine really hot and create excess NOx emmissions. A rich mixture will run cooler and create more hydrocarbon emmissions while fouling out your spark plugs.

If you can replace the temperature sensor with a resistor, then the actul temperature sensing device is a Thermistor, basicly a resistor that changes resistance with the temperature (usually inversely proportional). If you put a set resistance, the vehicle will only run optimally at the corresponding temperature to that resistance. If its too cold, you'll get a lean mixture, and if its too warm, you'll get a rich mixture.

Bottom line, don't defeat this sensor. There's no good reason for it, it will only hurt your performance, or at the very least, fuel economy.

ivelweyz

Thanx for the reply *******. You were the only one to be a **** about it. I thank everyone else for thinking about it and discussing it. This exact idea hasn't been discussed much. I found an old post by someone on the 5th gen forum that was exactly the same as mine but he didn't get any replies. My friend already does have it on. He has it on his CAMRY, the thing is I might need a different value resistor. Also with this mod the engine actually lets more gas into the engine to even out the a/f ratio. His gas mileage dropped about 11 gallons a fill-up...

Dave Holmes

An easy answer is that it will be pointless for performance on a Maxima. According to the FSM, pg EC-117, the Intake Air Temperature Sensor is "not directly used to control the engine system. It is used only for the on board diagnosis." It may in theory work on other cars (or in theory it may not, I don't know), but it will do nothing for the Maxima's performance. I'd just leave it alone, because when faulty or disconnected, it will give a trouble code.


Dave

95bluse

iTrader: (1)

You made more sense than my "theory", which was something I repeated after reading "somewhere"

As someone else posted, replacing a thermistor with a resistor is a big no-no. Replacing a knock sensor with a resistor on the other hand, saves me some bucks

Romeo

you put in a resistor instead of your knock sensor? what resistor and what are the effects of it?

SkylineGTR

if u know how an engine works, and which end of spectrum(lean/rich) the maxima is on, u could probably figure this one out. if u set the resistor and make the car 'think' that its 32 degrees, and on say a hot day, ur feeding in more fuel then it needs, considering the maxima runs a bit rich, and leaning out a bit produces a little bit of power, it obviously wont work the other way. if it gets better going lean, its gonna get worse going rich. now if u set the resistor to make the car think its 100 degrees, then u will be running leaner on a normal temp day, and in theory u could make more power, until it gets too damn cold out and ur knock sensor takes over, would have to be really cold. now all this is assuming that the temp sensor on the maxima, actually affects the fuel ratios, if it doesnt, then theres no point in changing it.

95bluse

iTrader: (1)

I think it was at 10k ohm across the connector that hooks up to the sensor, I can't recall exactly. I checked my manual to see what voltage the ECU expected to record if the knock sensor was good, then removed the bad KS. I then put a resistor across the connector that plugged into the KS, which is close to the driver's side front bank valve cover. This got rid of the the code & brought back my performance.
Downsides are:
1. I am running the risk of detonation (bad), if I happen to get a bad tank of gas (hasn't happened)
2. I'm not sure if the KS sends a variable resistance during normal driving, there by continuously varying the timing. I haven't noticed any adverse effects really.

UTIMaxima

iTrader: (2)

I think it does.