Thanks to all here on the "org" I down loaded the instructions, got the needed tools, removed it and guess what? It was cracked in several places! So basically the plastic housing was not harnessing or supporting the proper sensing signals to the ECU. Thus my very poor Dyno result's. Even though I was reluctant to have it done, I would have never known someting was wrong. So thanks for insisting I get the Dyno before my Header and Catback install. The removal of the freaking Knock Sensor is no big deal, but the re-instalation of the new one is trickey because you need small hands to get in there. I'm not too tall but my hands are very beefy and thick, but as I was having a cow and gathering my thought's on what else to take apart so my hand would fit her comes my very, very, good looking neighbor, did I forget to mention she is gorgeous and very sweet! Also she has very nice, fine and slender hands. Yes indeed so she actually threaded the bolt almost all the way just with her hand!! Unreal, I just touched it up with the rachet and the 14" extention and the flex 12mm socket and it was all done. I thanked her and promised to buy her a pizza, took the car out for a spin and punched it a few times, just didn't know what I've been missing all this time. Just amazing. The instruction's you can down load are great but they forgot to mention you need a babe with slender hands!
Later Guy's.

 

congrats man!... my friend mustafa(thamax96) who is also on the org.
changed his knock sensor and lemme tell u man...wow again lol... there is such a big difference in speed man.. i would say a good 15-20 hp... just for that little piece lol...have fun with ur car man

 

Come do mine...

 

How do you know if the knock sensor is bad? What indication does it give you? just curious

 

when did you discover the KS code? or did you just decide to change it due to the poor dyno?

 

i think i need to change mine too. but then again, this is my 1st max and i only had it for 2 months so i dunno if its at its full power or not.

what makes ks go bad? how long do they last?
link me to instructions!

 

just had mine replaced (thanks jeff) last week... it'd been so long since the thing had gone bad that I almost forgot how my car was supposed to feel coming off the line... such a big difference in the low end from a retarded half-inch piece.

 

it is SLOW! basically if it doesnt feel like a 15 second car, suspect your knock sensor! you can test its resistance, but sometimes they are intermittent. sometimes they are too tight. i think a good way to test it is to put a 550k ohm resistor in the line and reset the computer, if it changes anything, your knock sensor has a problem.

 

im changing mine too

 

link yourself to instructions by searching. there are a zillion threads.

 

My little boy put in the KS for me, he is 9 years old, and I just did the final tightening. I just made sure to cover all of the edges of the cave with rags so he would'nt cut his little hands .

 

Slavery ended a while back, but u did protect him....

 

little hands are good but if none are around a 1/4" drive universal joint, 12 mm socket, some extensions (covert 3/8 - 1/4 before the joint), magnetic pic up tool, and or another set of extensions with no socket just for leverage will get it in with some patience and a little luck.

actually if you can magnatize a 12mm 1/4" drive socket it would be really quick..


btw, be VERY careful NOT to drop your new k/s. The fsm states do not use a dropped k/s.

 

I told you guys, it's like adding a ypipe to your car... the difference is night and day!

That's awesome man, I changed mine a couple months ago and had the same reaction... hehe

 

**** **** ****!!! I want to replace my knock sensor just to see if i lost hp. I havent received any signs to replace knock but i have 141k and lots of bolt ons but can only get a 15.5. I blame that on my retarded driving but maybe its the car? Dam, u think u can buy knock and return it if not needed?

 

Electrical parts are NONRETURNABLE...But if you ve got 141 k and still have the original one,I d do it anyway

 

Yeah, I really need to do this... my performance off the line seems worse than it should be.. At first I was blaming it on my 17" evo5s but they are only like 21 pounds, nothing too terrible.

 

Same as PloMaximus said, my boy Mustafa used to have a bad ks and when we would do a 2nd gear pull(we both got 5speeds with i/y) I would gain like a good 1-2car lengths from 4k-redline!!

Now after he changed it, we are dead even. Noone pulls we stay side by side in a 2nd gear pull. It's only the shifting that I f*ck him up cause his clutch doesn't catch for sh*t. I ran him a 15.4 in his car. Before it was 16.0!

Myself, I went from a 15.5 to a 14.7 just from changing the ks.
-Paul

 

when do you really need to replace it? my car's at around 90k and all of a sudden my gas mileage decreased like hell after changing pcv valve and fuel filter. And when i took my car for diagnose test, it threw code for mass air flow and knock sensor. Could it be the knock sensor causing the bad gas mileage? btw..never changed my ks b4

 

Im interested in how many miles you all have/had when you changed your KS. I have 70k on '98 SE and am noticing poor gas mileage. I did the 60k tune up but still not getting what I used to with gas!

 

my car has 108k miles on it...

signs? slow start... i floor my car with my potenxa RE950's and can't grip first gear from a rolling start on dry pavement....

you'll feel a pull in second gear... if you don't feel any power in the low end change it!

 

my KS went bad at around 75k miles... but I didn't realize it until about 84k. =p

symptoms?
your car will struggle to get above ~3k rpms a lot of the time, if you've ever driven the car without a faulty knock sensor you'll know what I'm talking about...

example: my friend's '94 V6 chevy lumina beat me off the line before I replaced my KS. heh. really bad.

your gas mileage suffers with a busted KS also... I was only pulling ~240 miles to a tank.

 

Tip of the day: Check and replace your KS if needed BEFORE WASTING MONEY ON MODS YOU WILL NOT EVEN GET THE FULL BENEFIT FROM.

 

is the KS a big problem in the maximas? all ive been seening latly are post on the KS? where is that B**** located at? i am wondering if mines needs to be changed, i get about 150miles to a tank of gas, an my car is really slugish even with my factory 16" wheels, i curently have 19" on there but they only like 5 pounds more than my factory wheels. someone please help.

 

I actually asked him if he would like to help me. He said "ok". I asked him if there was something that he would want me to buy for him since he helped me and saved me a lot of money, he just wanted to go see some toys at Toys-R-Us. I ended up taking him to Dave and Busters and we spent the whole afternoon there.

 

Dang Nomad,
And you didnt get a pic of her puttin it in?

 

If you were getting ~240 pre KS replacement, what do you get now??? How many miles do you have when you replaced it????

 

Sorry Dude but really you have no idea. Double D's VERY LARGE
and w/ HID's!!! on all the time.

 

Get the stuff and the small hand's and I'll do it killer.
It's all good. Plus you've been good with me.

 

I researched it on the org and found that site for the code check on the ECU, it didn't look mthat bad so I saved it as a short cut on my desk top. Then I cuold not open it the next day or find it again. I have alot of miles so I said screw it.
Got the tools I needed and went at it. Happy with the result's. Plus it was nasty looking, cracked all over the plastic and so on.

 

Very holsum story>

 

That's it !!!!!!! I'm gonna change my Knock sensor!!!