hey guys,
i drive my maxima in new orleans, and i noticed that at red lights, my rpm guage fluctuates between 1 and 0 vigorously. coupled with that, my car jerks before it takes off. it sounds like a cylinder misfire, and i don't know what to do.
has anyone ever had that problem? how did you fix it? also, if you know about it, please be kind enough to walk me through what i should do step by step.
peace

 

Tell it to stop doing that or it will go blind


But seriously.....it can be a number of things: fuel related(injectors, clogged/dirty filter, bad fuel from the last time you filled up etc.), iginition related(check your ign. coils), bad spark plug(s), oxygen sensor etc.

When is the last time you had a tune-up done? If its been a long time since you can remember....start with that. Good luck.

 

hey man,
i remember fueling it with 87, instead of 93 octane gas, and i changed the head gasket for the coils a while ago. could it he messed up again?
also, if it was the coils that were bad, shouldn't there be a misfire code? cuz i don't see anyc codes showing a misfire."
thanks in advance

 

If i was you i would clean da throttle body with some throttle body cleaner to get rid of da dirt, and dat should fix da rpm.

 

Clean the TB and put in 93 octane gas when the tank in near empty. If the coil packs are dying and not completely dead, they will not throw a CEL. They only throw a CEL when they're completely dead.

When was your last tuneup? Use NGK spark plugs, change the air & fuel filter, change the PCV valve, and you can try some Sea Foam (http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=284423)