While sitting at a stop light, or any time I'm holding the brake while in drive, my car shakes like it wants to keep going forward. I feel an occassional forward jolt until I release the brake. It doesn't do this in neutral or park, but drive and reverse have this problem. Any ideas as to what is causing this?

 

Raise your idle RPM.

 

Ok.....so how do I do that and how high should it be?

 

For an auto it should be around 650rpm in NEUTRAL. If you know where the throttle body is(the thing that throttle cables are connected too, intake goes into it). On the right side of it(looking from the driver's side fender) there is a metal thing with 3 or 4 colored connectors connected to it. On top there is a black, plastic screw looking thing. You need to turn it counter-clockwise to raise idle rpm. Before you do that disconnect the BROWN connector that is connected to the TPS(black thing connected to the right of the throttle body). There are 2 connectors there a brown one and a gray one I believe. The car will run rough for a bit and it will steady out. That's when you should adjust the idle with the black screw.

 

had the same problem..turns out injector failed :-(

 

what is the normal idle speed for a manual?

 

700-750........

 

I checked my nuetral idle, and it's actually at around 700-800. What else could cause this shaking?

 

Dirty brake booster line... clean out the TB, brake booster hose, and while you have all that open, clean out the IACV. Make sure your air filter isn't really dirty - replace that too if needed.

 

a dirty brake booster cable would cause this? can someone explain what the brake booster does exactly? sorry for the newb question, im just curious...

 

this is going to sound crazy, but my old 86 corolla did this. Dealer turned the rotors and it went away.

 

Check to see if your EGR diaphram isn't stuck open. This caused a bad idle on my 95 GLE.

 

um check ignition coils. my car did that also. i changed them out and got new ones then the shaking went away and the vibration was gone

 

With bad coils the shaking and vibrations would be there all the time. He is only experiencing it while stopped or slowing down. It's probably something brake related now that I think about it.

 

i recall a few posts from a long time ago that suggested that the lurching forward at idle was caused by a bad coil, and it wasnt all the time, and im pretty sure it was from credible sources

 

When I had a bad coil, completely disconnected due to a bad connector, the car idled like **** and drove not that much better. It kept stalling in idle and unless I drove it it would die. Now, a bad coil would probably cause the same symptoms and he did not mention any driving issues. I don't know if he has a code or not. Did you by any chance change your plugs recently?

 

Since you have a 99 then it's probably the coil packs. Start the car and unplug the coil packs 1 by 1 and see which one causes little to no change in RPMs, that should be the bad one. Or see if someone local to you will let you borrow their coil packs for a minute to see if that solves the problem.

 

never doubt what i say!!! ohm them out immediatly and then replace it otherwise if you leave it in for too long the injector will go next.

 

The coils are supposed to be infinite resistance right?

 

Well like I said, this only occurs while I'm stopped somewhere and have it in 1, 2, drive or reverse. Just last week the spark plugs were changed. I'll look into the other things that were mentioned.

 

its the coil packs... new spark plugs wont help this problem... its definitely the coil packs... SAME THING happenned to me, bad coil packs were crap in drive or reverse, but car was smooth in neutral or park.... i cant explain it, but that is exactly what happenned and it was the coil packs.... suck it up and spend some $$$$

 

Well that really sucks. Who's got a how-to on coil pack installation? I'm really not the mechanic type, but is it something a beginner could easily do? I have to make a 6 hour drive to school in the middle of August, so is it absolutely necessary I get this done before then?

 

your vehical can take it for a short while maybe a few weeks. its pretty simple to change them out. for left side(by radiator) remove the 4 allen/hex screws from the valve cover. and you'll see the ignition coils in front of you. then with a 8mm socket remove the 2 screws from each coil pack. and unplug the harness. and use a multi meter on it. it has on the side of the coil where to put the ground and where to put the lead for the red wire. G + ? it has 3 prongs. g is ground and + is positive. should get infinite resistance. so Zero is what number your looking for. for the rear banks (by firewall) its the exact same procedure except you dont need to remove the valve cover because there is none. just look over the upper plenum and remove the 2 screws from the coil packs.

 

I was asking if he changed his plugs cause there is a chance one of the coil pack connectors was "damaged". What happened to me was that one of the pins inside the connector got bent and the coil would malfunction. The car would shake and sometimes die. Just go over the connectors, ones that go into the coil, and look inside to see if any pins are bent.

 

if your car dies from just one coil, then you probably have a whole different problem. if one coil dies, you basically running on 5 cylinders.

 

Why are you quoting my post when it's right above yours?

 

that happened to me a couple months ago... just raise yur idle rpm to 700-800 rpm and it wont shake anymore

 

Read a few posts up and that's EXACTLY where my idle is. Are you all absolutely sure it's the coil packs? As I'm reading all your replies, it seems to me you are referring to a constant shaking. It's really just somethign intermittent. I mean, I could count for 10 seconds, and then feel a slight "bump" while I'm at a light. Then another 30 seconds could pass and I'll feel another bump. It's really soft, and someone that hasn't ridden in my car much probably wouldn't notice it. I don't know, maybe I'm just afraid to spend $300 on some new coil packs. At least I think it's $300. I don't know, I'll have to make a run to Autozone or something.

 

dont goto autozone, goto www.jerryromenissan.com really inexpensive for oem coil packs.
you'll need 3 2244831U11
and 3 2244831U16

you might only need 3 of one kind, i dont know which side has the problems. but its safter to replace them all
when you check out use "maxima" as your promo code.

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its is actually not recommened to raise your idle rpm. please dont do this. you probably have another problem. here are the specs.

1995 Manual - 550-650 rpm
1995 Auto - 600-700 rpm
1996 -1999 Manual - 525-625 rpm
1996-1999 Auto - 600-700 rpm

enjoyincubis504 check out your coils also. you'll probably have to replace some. set it back to spec. otherwise when you'll have a harder time trying to stop/brake when comming and going from a stop.

 

wow are u serious?! al this time i've been idling between 610 and 650....

no wonder car shakes so much....

 

just read taht, leaving my sh*t the same. Do the coil pack test before buying new ones. if anything on it is bad, disconnecting it completely shouldnt cause extra vibration...

 

do not ohm out the coils if there is any current going through the plug,. can cause multimeter to blow up. safty first people.

 

What? A multimeter won't blow, no matter what you do, they have fuses inside for that. If you're checking resistance it won't blow them for sure as the fuse is large enough to handle something like that. When checking current it will most likely blow if you don't open the circuit first since the fuse is only 300mA in most. But like he said, just unplug the coil and check the coil not the connector. Since you have to unplug the coil to check the resistance how would there be current goin through?

 

This should be in the FAQ...is it?
SOAD you have a problem with the ignition system..check out my suggestions as well as crak's in this thread ->http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=326747

 

Ah yes. Electrical tape. One of my favorite methods of fixing things. Now I just gotta open my hood and find which plug/coil is the culprit. That'll be hard enough for me considering the only time I've opened my hood was to jumpstart the battery. Hopefully that will work without having to spend $300.