Last night, after returning from a road trip, my car starting running really rough. Shaking violently at idle and hesitating throughout the rpm band. The car was barely driveable.
No CEL, no hidden codes, only 0505.
This morning the car runs perfectly. WTF???

Another odd thing was that I got a repetative ticking from my engine while the car was turned off. I have never noticed it before, and it's seems unlikely that I would not have. When the engine is off but the key left in the "on" position, there is a loud ticking from the engine that seems to come form under and behind the manifold. The ticking stops when the key is removed. I never noticed this untill last night when the car started running bad. Don't know if the noise is normal or related but the best I can guess is that it sounds like it's commin from one of the injectors maybe. I can hear the ticking when the car is running as well.

Only thing that I can think of is that maybe there was someting clogging my exhaust.

Any insight would be nice.

 

How are your MEVI screws?

4th gen injectors are quite loud, so ticking from them is normal, but not when the car isn't on.

 

Oh wait you need help from maxima.org? what happened to I30.org?...heheheh

Anyways sounds like a interesting problem. I have never heard a ticking come on and off from my car while or without the key in the ON position. This might be a clue to your problem, but the only thing i can think of that might cause this is either a bad ignition coil(s) or a bad injector. It might be a intermitted problem so the CEL might not be coming on yet. If i were you i would drive it around until it reoccurs again or you get a CEL.

Good luck!

 

The butterfly screws were the first thing I thought of. Although I did go back and put lock tight on them after your expierence, I still was scared to death removing the VI cover. Screws were fine. That was a big relief.

Although it seemd just like a bad injector or coil pack, no codes were thrown. I will put some miles on the car later today and see what happens.

the ticking I hear is just like the ticking the injectors make, but just does not stop when the car is turned off.

 

Do you have a compression guage? Check your plugs?

 

No i don't have one, but would love to check my compression becuase my car is not running the times at the track that I think it should. I am clueless about checking the compression, can you point me in the direction to buy the gauge and how to use it?

If the problem comes back I will pull my plugs and check them. I have NGK coppers with about 15K miles on them.

 

I have this guage:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39224

You can get one at any auto parts store. The process is easy:

- Kill fuel pressure
- Remove plugs
- Plug guage into a cylinder
- Get in the car, open the throttle and crank the engine 5-10 times
- Do that for each cylinder

I do it every time I have the plugs out, just to keep tabs on things.

 

My car will tick sometimes after it's shutoff, but I've always attributed that to the expansion and cooling of hot metal. It's a bit odd that you can make the ticking change by just having the key in the ignition.

As for the hesitation, check ALL your vacuum lines especially any thing in-line with the intake system. If a line is loose, the car will stumble, hesitate, barely idle, and accelerate horribly. Do a vacuum test. If you're vacuum isn't steady or is below 18 hg, you've got problems.


Dave

 

It's not that kinda ticking. Trust me there is someting in my engine bay making steady ticking noise. It's not random at all, it follows a perfect rhythm. It's about the exact same tick that the injectors make and I can tell it's comming from right under the manifold, where the injectors are, or next to the firewall.

Driven the car about 20 miles this afernoon and it runs fine now, but still the ticking????

 

Maybe it's the IACV or TPS. Try unplugging one by one and see if the ticking goes away while you do it.

 

does it have a distributor? if so, try a new one.

 

I get the same problem from my 96 Maxima, it produces a constant ticking noise whenever the key is in the ignition. The only CEL I get is one for a bad knock sensor and nothing else, so the computer isnt picking up anything wrong with the car (except for the bad KS).
Idle quality is **** poor on my car and it just failed emissons testing for to many HCs. I have a list of things to do on the car if anything helps to eliminate the problem I will let you know. My guess is EGR system or a vacuum leak, I dont think its an injector problem because the ticking is at the same frequency and doesnt change with engine RPMs.

 

If it ticks about once a second, it's the IACV. If much faster, it's the injectors.

 

The more I listen to it the more I think it's not the injectors. The combination of the terrible hesitation and the ticking made me conclude it was the injector. But now the car is running fine, and I still get the ticking, and it is about once a second, so I'll look into the IACV. Don't know much about the IACV system, but I think it's for emmissions and should not really cause my car to run bad. If I am wrong correct me.

 

IACV=idle air control valve. Responsible for idle, including upping it for A/C. The ticking it makes is normal. You usually hear it when your car is cold, when it'll be louder. Some have said cleaning it resulted in a smoother idle but I doubt it's the root of your woes. I think your problem sounds like an intermittent spark plug/coil/injector problem. Also, since you have the MEVI, be aware that massive vacuum leaks can cause a huge misfire-like condition--been there, done that. This shouldn't be that intermittent though.

BTW, have you driven the car when it was convulsing? Sometimes the misfire code only comes on after a time of driving it...at least it did for me when one of my coils was intermittently failing before it bowed out for good. The code helped me isolate which bank was at fault, and sometimes even the coil #.

 

Thanks for the info.

About 5 months ago I got a CEL for misfire in cylinder #6, idle was rough and I could hear the misfire at the muffler. Checked the resistance on the coil and injector, pulled the plug and everything seems fine.(I had never used a voltometer before and was not really sure if i was doing it right)
After I put everyting back together and cleared the code the car ran fine and the code never appeared again.
This time the car was acting similar to when I had the misfire code, but much, much worse. I could even feel the misfire when driving this time. But no code, only 0505. I have put 50 miles or so on the car since it happend so that should be enough time to give me a CEL. Your probably right that I have a coil or injector about to go. I just wish I go a code so I knew where to start replacing things.

If it come back I'll give an update.

 

Mike, gas prices are really booming now ! And I understand its hard to refuse regular unleaded, but please man ..for goodness sake dont put that stuff in your car !!! lol !

good luck !

 

Never, would I do such a thing

 

yep, it's my IACV. unpluged it and the ticking stopped Should I remove and replec/clean it? I don't have any real idle problems. The rpms's dip down a couple hundred every once in a while, but no big deal.

 

If your rpms dip a lot when disengaging the clutch, ie. coming to a light, your base idle is probably too low. The ecu eventually corrects it before the car stalls but it may behoove you to reset the base idle to normal range for driveability. Again, I doubt that's your problem.

Just FYI, when one of my coil packs was misbehaving, they all would test out fine! Ultimately, got a good deal on a brand new set from ebay so I just replaced them all. My code (when one eventually popped up) was for cylinder #3. I swapped in a new spark plug and it kept intermittently misfiring so I knew it was probably the coil. I then swapped coil packs around but before I could isolate the bad coil pack, I installed the brand new set. I'd keep your eye out on ebay: new sets go for $200, used (presumably good) sets go for $60. If your car was sputtering badly, it's possible that even more than one was failing.

 

now I am confused and worried.

Car started to misfire really bad again, but this time I got a CEL. Went to pull the code, after turning the screw the CEL disapeard and never gave me any flashes to count. Now I can't pull anything, not even a 0505. It does nothing. Car is running fine again, but what concerns me now is that the procedure to pull codes does nothing.

I am starting to think Jim Wolf did something wrong when it upgraded my ECU

 

I've had it with this fucing car. Now it runs fine and gives me an 0505 code. I am selling this pos

 

Were you getting misfiring before you upgraded the ecu? I thought mine might be the JWT too but when I swapped the ecu for stock, it did the same thing. It would misfire intermittently and always as soon as I started the car. In other words, it did not startup fine and then later in the course of driving just start to misfire. I really think the intermittent nature points to a coil pack that is ready to bow out. I'm betting the misfiring will get more and more frequent. YOU NEED TO PULL THAT CODE when you get it again.

 

I totally agree with you. Yes I had a misfire in #6 or #5, I can't remember which one. That was before the JWT ECU. The problem went away but now it's back.
I was so happy when I got the CEL today, then it just disapeared. I am just going to wait for it to come back so I have some idea of where to start replacing things. I just hope it gives me the cylinder that is misfiring, and not just a multiple misfire code.
I am keeping an eye out for those $200 coil packs on ebay, I am not spending over $500 for all new coil packs.

Add on the fact that my IACV is messed up and my harlan is completely toast as well, and that's just another headache to deal with.

Oh, and thanks for your help, sorry for b!tching so much.

 

Let me know when you find out which coil pack is bad.

My old 2-4-6 are definitely good. If one of these is bad on yours, you can have one of my old ones for nuthing. If 1-3-5 is your problem, can't help you as one of mine is bad (don't know which one) and I kind of want two good ones of each bank as back up.

Carleton

 

 

Mike change that "I30.org , MAXIMA sounds cheap" avatar to:
"Fools.org i was foolish enough to pay more for a retagged car"



just jokin with ya bud, dont get mad

 

Foolish? In my zip code my 98 I30 in good condition with my options comes out to $9,130 trade in. A 98 Maxima GLE with the same options comes out to $9,030 trade in. For me the Infiniti service has been more than worth $100. The prices when I bought my car two years ago were also roughly the same.

 

Get out of here, you have your own forum!
jk

 

ticking problem solved. My ECU diagnostic screw was turned all the way clockwise instead of counterclock wise.

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