Clive - i understand the concept of bigger gap=higher effective ionization potential. but the coils have a fixed turns ratio, and a fixed limit on the low voltage input. to me this means a fixed high voltage output no matter what the gap is. true the air may ionize before the HV side ever reached its max, thus discharging the secondary, but at the very least the secondary windings would be designed for that theoretical max HV anyway. if so, then a bigger gap will not damage the coil... right? I refuse to believe Hanshin would've counted on the plug gap to limit the HV potential, and then designed a weaker secondary coil incapable of insulating itself if the plug gap were too big. that would be insanely stupid.

 

did Hanshin fix whatever was wrong with their coils - is it safe now to buy a Hanshin?????????

 

I tried this on my front coils after the infamous 99 coil packs and mis-firing during idle...

Well to my surprise, its seemed to fix it. I used a dremel and a grinding tool that looks like a tooth pick with a rough ball bearing on the end to grind the conductor. Its just a temporary fix but its good to now bear with the jerking while driving.

Edit : I also removed and sprayed carb cleaner on the front Spark plugs, so that might have contributed...

 

seems like when reassembling the spring that putting some of that electrical gel on the ends would help- that stuff sold in small packs at the auto stores

 

This is interesting. I have another coil going out so I'll try this.

 

i would like to try this

 

I do not think that this "cleaning the contacts" solves any issues.

I had the same issue, bad misfire and CEL, I have a scanner and it had the dreaded ignition issue. So I got some coils from ebay (set of 6 brand new coils paid 120 USD or so). My car worked fine for a few days, and had very bad misfires while I was on a long distance trip within a few days.

Since, I had the old coils in my trunk, but only had a Philips screwdriver, no allen wrench to open the front valve cover - so I swapped back 3 original/old ones I had replaced earlier. The new/ebay coils stayed in the valve cover and perform satisfactorily.

I would still have occasional misses (like 1 miss while I was idling for 2 minutes at a light) - never bad enough to trip the CEL. So, I wanted to clean up my old/original coils to see if that solves the problem.
When I opened the coil connector, all the coils were super clean. I nevertheless used some dielectric paste and put the coils back in.

Everything worked fine for 2 days, and then the CEL and misfires were back.

Since I had already a front set that worked satisfactorily (though never as good as the original) I put 2 of them in front, and kept 1 original coil. A couple of weeks later, I put another old/original one in the front, and this one worked fine for 2 days and started misfiring. I think I had found the bad coil. Put the remaining original/old one in front, and then got a brand new coil from Napa - and my engine is now running fine, on 5 original coils and 1 Napa replacement.

Also, if I use the resistance test to test my bad coil, the readings I get indicate that it is good. So, that test is sketchy at best.

I did not have good luck with e-bay coils and am going to stay away from them.

Also, cleaning the coil does not solve my problem - but I have noticed that disconnecting a bad coil, and then shorting the three connectors, and reconnecting does fix it for a few days - which makes me think that there is some issue within the coil circuit (bad condensor), and therein lies the problem.

I have a 99 GXE with 112K miles. Ignition Coil/coils started giving problems at around 100K

 

doesnt work for everyone...but mine hasn't misfired.

 

what brand does napa sell- hansin or mitsubisihi?

 

Ok, new to Maximas. Are the Hansins and Mitsus interchangable and whats the deal with left left bank and right bank, which is which?
Also, if you need 3 per bank, why are they sold 2 to a box?

 

Yes, they're interchangeable.

Just like any other V-series engine, the left bank is the left side of the engine, the right bank is the right side.

I've only ever seen them sold individually

 

Something no one has mentioned, Its highly unlikely that ALL coils are having the same failure. Some have corrosion, some arc through a bad boot, and some break down in the windings. Doesn't that sound like a reasonable assumption?
My suggestion would be do the cleaning, then Ohm the coils. If it checks good, THEN install NEW boots and use dielectric grease to seal.
If it fails the Ohm test, start over.
Don't argue that its BS cause it didn't work for you. If it didn't work for you its because YOU screwed up, or you had a different failure in your coil.

 

Ive mostly seen the Hanshinds. The Mitsus are actually hard to find.



No one said ALLL coils are having the same failure, just that the Hanshins in paticular may be failing to due to not being sealed very well.

 

Electrical test from ECU = continuity test - ie resistant to ground - ground in this case is the spark plug - ie bad connections internally, as in the spring, and the part that attaches to the actual plug being gunked up could cause a 'test fail'...

OP - interesting thing this clean up - I'll have to do it to mine - when I get a chance...

Did anyone ever answer the 'how much is a coil pack?' that one of the responders asked? (just in case I break one - like to know how much to have ready to go spend....)

 

About $60 a pop at pep boys.

 

I have tried to clean my coils yesterday and did a testdrive today.
Nothing has changed:
The misfires still appear while engine is warm.
Usually heppens in the city (traffic jams slow traffic), when I stop and keep the brake the car shakes from time to time.

 

Im sure some would complain that you bumped a thread started back in 05' but i must say theres some good info in here. At least you searched!

Check the wiring logs that hold all the wires from your coils, etc., and check for any splits that expose the wires, or any areas where the wires are crimped. I found one spot where the log splits just below and to the right of the throttle body cables - another orger who claims to work at a nissan dealership stated the wiring in this general area is prone to causing problems.

Either way im going to be messing around with it today; going to open it up, check for raw exposed wires or breaks, and reseal the area. My misfire tends to only happen during wet whether, specifically when its extremely foggy and misty and moisture is getting under my hood. Fairly confident this may fix my issues, ill update later and next time its raining bad with whether or not its fixed.

 

OMG this is an ancient thread, but I never answered this.
I'm an electrical/electronic engineer, and believe me, when a current passing through an inductor is suddenly interrupted, the secondary voltage will rise until there is some kind of limit reached. This limit is the spark gap of the plug. You can clearly see this on the oscilloscope of a car monitoring computer when plug gaps are different.

 

Listen to Clive, folks, he knows what he's talking about.

Every insulation system has a maximium voltage it is capable of withstanding, and if the spark plug gap gets big enough, then eventually the secondary voltage will be high enough to punch through the coil insulation. Once that happens, the insulation has been compromised and you will get a misfire.

Insulation systems can also break down due to age and heat and eventually be unable to handle the voltage required to fire a plug at the stock gap, but sometimes you can forestall the inevitable replacement by reducing the spark plug gap. I successfully did this to my son's 2000 Maxima after one of the coils started misfiring. It lasted another 18 months with the gap reduced to .025".

 

I have already plugs gap set to 0.025'' because my car is converted to run on Compressed gas(CNG) and it requeres higher spark power.
And still I get misfires when my engine is at 90degrees or higher.
But running on gasoline the car runs without noticable misfires.

I am thinking of switching to aftermarket coil pack set.

 

Make sure you do a good job cleaning it. I wrapped sand paper...I think 240-300 grit to the end of a small shaft dremel bit and gave it a good cleaning to remove all rust. Car ran great after that.

 

Answering a question someone asked you 8 years prior! Awesome. Maxima.org knows all of our car history, and will probably outlive us all.