Madmax1991

Well $1200 later, my Maxima has been repaired. I managed to have the dreded coil problem like many of us Maxima owners have had. I bought 98' Max SE with a 3 year warranty from Carmax back on 3/12/04, as an employee purchase. I noticed that my gas mileage wasn't what it should be during the first two weeks. I had the service dept check it out, and they replaced the plugs, new air filter, fuel filter, and cleaned out the throttle body all at not cost to me. I was told to take it to the Nissan dealer and have them check it out, and to bring it back to my job (Carmax) for repair. Well, being the hard working guy that I am, I never really got around to taking it to the dealer right away, but a few weeks ago I did take it in due to a flashing air bag light, so I had them check out the rough idle and poor fuel consumption, and lack of power. The service writter at Nissan tells me that my car in running in Alpha mode (its running lean) and to fix the problem they need to replace all 6 coils, and possibly 3 fuel injectors.

Well I told the service guy at Nissan that I have an extended warranty, and to call them to authorize the repair, so he did. My service guy called me back and tried to convey to me that my my repairs aren't covered. I told him that was odd. I know this warranty inside and out...I sell it to my clients daily! So I told him that I will call them, and talk to them. After talking to the warranty company, I found out that all of my repairs were covered, but the dealer refused to cooperate with them, after learning that, I called the Nissan dealer back and told them what I was told. The service guy then told me to come pick up my car, and not to bring it back again with a non Nissan extended warranty on it.

So after talking back with the warranty company, and telling them about my whole ordeal with the Nissan dealer, they informed me to take it back to Carmax and let them see what they can do. So on 11/12/04 I take it in to Carmax, and they did an diag on the car and found what the Nissan dealer said to be true, based on the TSB, the parts were all ordered: 3 front coils, 3 rear coils and something called an External Coil Condensor. I didnt think Maximas used coil condensors, since they use coil on plug ignition. Carmax found the following codes from the computer P0300, P0305, P01320. And they found and open circuit in the coil condensor hinse it needing to be replaced. All but one of the parts got there on time, and that was the coil condensor, after waiting over a week for the part it finally got there today.

My Maxima is running as smooth as ever...I even hope to see higher gas milage number instead of 250 miles on a tank of premium. But after that whole ordeal, it cost my warranty company $1,067. Less my deductable which was waived because this was an issue that went back to the 30 day warranty. So I got off scott free...you can't beat that. I'm going to use my reciept to show my customers how stupid they are when they dont buy and extended warranty.

By the way, if anyone is in the DC/MD/VA area and looking to purchase a car from Carmax...look me up. I'm not the type of guy that will screw you. So just shoot me an IM.