I was throwing a 0302 code so I cleaned my TB, IACV (including the sensor inside of it), MAF, EGR and EGR tube with all new gaskets. The coolant temperate sensor was also replaced. The knock sensor is only a few months old. No codes have been on since I reset it.

My erratic idle went away along with the low speed stalling. Throttle response seems to be much improved and car seems smoother and more powerful overall.

But after driving it a day or two I noticed a shudder while driving a perfectly smooth street. It only does it when I doing about 30-40 mph rpm's are around 2 to 3 K. The speed is constant. It doesn't do it while the car is going faster only slower with the gas pedal very slightly pressed doing about 30-40 mph. keeping it steady. It almost feels like the gas is being turn on and off. It's very light and one might not notice it if the rough were rough.

I've scoured through the forums but still am unsure what it might be. It wasn't there before I cleaned everything. Could I have messed up my MAF while cleaning it. I was very careful and only used MAF cleaner or could it be a TPS (throttle position sensor)?

Thanks for any help.

 

I knew u were tryin to start ur own thread. Freakin noobies lol

SO u had a misfire and that prompted the cleaning. Thats cool. Misfires come from fouled spark plugs, bad ignition coils, or fouled fuel injectors.

My advice, check the spark plugs for fouling in cylinder that has been misfiring and/or replace. Complete the ignition coils test by swapping known good coils with the suspected bad coil. How do u know which are good? If u disconnect a good coil while the engine is running, the engine will begin to run rough. If the coil is bad, when u remove it the engine will keep running the same. Then jus replace that coil. Also, drop some fuel injector cleaner in it..USE CHEVRON TECHRON..its the best and i swear by it.

 

@cashoit,

Yes I was trying to start my own thread. I've read the other similar thread for two days now and didn't find one that had the problems after the cleaning it's usually before people did the cleaning. I was actually a member years ago. For some odd reason my username got lost/deleted when the new org site went up. I was also a donating member too.

I'm perplexed because I didn't have the shudder feeling until after I did the cleaning. The only codes I threw before the cleaning was the EGR, 0302 which I had reset on and off for the past year. What prompted the cleaning was the recent stalling in parking lot during rolling driving. My plugs are going on 100K and wonder if I should just get them done. Are the coils easy to remove? So would you say it's ignition related? That is as accurate as you can guess. I'm not going to hold you to it

I'll pick up some Chevron Techron tonight.

 

Yea i had the same exact problem when i first bought my maxima after 2 or 3 thousand rpms it would go away but guy befor me had two bosh double platinums, two acdelcos, and 2 motorcraft... i was like wtf????? but go with ngk they are awesome

 

oh something else mine threw out those codes plus knock sensor a bad maf sensor and about 12 others but new plugs and not another problem

 

4ThGEN,

Did the plug change make the problem go away? How much are the OEM Platinum NGK's? and where is a good place to get them. I wonder how much the stealership will charge to put them in.?

 

Here is the cylinder layout

firewall side

1 3 5

2 4 6

radiator side.


Plugs are super easy to replace try urself first. plugs 3 bucks each. Get platinum tip. U will need a spark plug socket head to remove the plugs.
Ignitioin coils are the rubber black extenders that provide current to the plugs to make them fire.

All this u CAN do urself man. Dont go to the dealership until u try this urself. Jus make sure that the plugs are screwed in correctly

 

@cashoit,

Thanks for all your help and patience in answer all my questions. I just ordered 6 NGK PFR5G-11 Platinum plugs for $9 a piece and free shipping plus $4.32 Bing cash back on ebay! Woot!

I'll let you know how it goes. Gotta change out my hood lifts too. Hopefully the plugs will be here by this weekend.

 

Update,

On the way home I monitored my problem carefully. I noticed the erratic RPM and almost stalling came back. I guess cleaning the TB, IACV, MAF didn't help. The car almost stalled when in drive at a light. The RPM's would jump up and spike when it almost stalled at 300 RPM.

I started driving and I noticed the problem that I had described earlier started to happen when drive slow, basically with the gas depressed as light as possible almost a coast but not slowing down.

I did some more searching from this thread

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...puttering.html

The more I think about it, I think my problems are a bad MAF or TBS. I'm going to replace the spark plugs because they've gone 100K anyways. I'm pretty certain it's not a misfire or coils issue.

If anyone has any suggestions I'm open to them. I know my car pretty well and just don't think the dealer will be able to fix this without spending a ton of money and just guessing on my dime.

 

I just replaced my MAF with a new $95 ebay one and the car is not stalling anymore. I had already replaced the air filter, EGR solenoid valve, the engine coolant temperature sensor, and took out and cleaned the throttle body.

I think the MAF is the winner, but I still have a little bit of unstable idle when the car is already warmed up. I think I have a minuscule leak somewhere (maybe intake manifold since it's dirty and gets wet in one spot), but I'm not sure it's worth worrying about right now.

Anyhow, I really think the MAF is the main culprit of the random stalling and poor driveability I was experiencing. Good luck.

 

Mike,

I'm with you on the MAF being the culprit. I've read through hundreds of post and pretty much deduced that I have a malfunction MAF. Right now I'm just debating on buying a used, new aftermarket or eom which costs a fortune. How was the quality of the aftermarket ebay MAF?

Keep us posted on how things go long term.

 

THe reason why i ruled out the MAF is because you got the p0320 code which is a misfire in cylinder 2. MAF wont cause that issue but fouled plugs, fuel injectors or a bad coil while.

However a misfire wont cause the sar to stall either. Its more of an annoyance than a real problem. U can still drive with 5.7 cylinders instaed of 6, u jus have pinging and knock.

But what u described when driving home sound more like a MAF. I hear mixed reviews about the ebay MAFs. Someone has specifically told me the new ebay MAFs dont work. Do some research man and let me know

 

I don't know if I did a typo but code I threw was 0302, which I believe is an egr flow malfunction. That is why did the standard TB, IACV, EGR clean. I spend about 5 hours on the forum last night. I love my car but car issues can be a pain in the a$$.

I actually went to the classified on the org and bought a used MAF off of ajcool2, a really nice org member. On a side note, I did some searching on replacing the plugs and took a look at the engine and the rear's on top towards the back end of the UIM correct. I have to carefully remove the packs and extract them. The fronts seem pretty straight forward. I've done plugs on other cars before, I just thought for some odd reason that the rears were under the UIM.

Any gotchas I should look out for when extracting plugs? I should probably apply anti-seize and torque to about 20lbs right.

 

p0302 is a misfire cylinder 2. I typoed hehe. Check Pmhor's decoder page in the forum. A misfire is definitely MAF unrelated. And EGR wouldnt cause misfire either.

But ur the one driving the car. So i cant tell you what it feels like. You have to tell me and i can only make suggestions on what could be wrong with it. Changing the plugs, coils, and possibly the fuel injectors may should solve ur problem with misfire.

the MAF issue will cause stumbling upon acceleration. Sometimes cleanin the MAF doesnt help especially if its crapped out.

 

Check the TPS with an ohm meter. Make sure the sweep is smooth and linear, especially near the closed throttle position.

 

1+ for checking TPS sensor, they fail all the time.

 

Here's the latest update:

I got my used OEM MAF which I bought from the forum today. I decided to install it right away since I don't want to work on my car on Saturday. Man was it a pain to remove the old one after I put the new rubber grommet in when I cleaned the TB, The grommet/gasket connects the back of the MAF to the throttle body chamber tube. I wrestled with it for about 20 minutes to get it sealed light against the gasket. I really took my time to get things tightened and sealed up.

I also changed my plugs with the stock NGK PFR5G-11 plugs, I got em on ebay for $50 with free shipping! I took cashoit's suggestion and installed them myself. The fronts were a piece of cake. The rear three were a little harder. Getting the coil screws out without dropping them was the hardest part. I ended up dropping a screw from cylinder 1 into the crevice of the UIM and spent about 20 minutes trying to fish it out. It got logged tight and a claw grabber and magnet grabber didn't work. I had to work it loose with a small allen wrench and then I was able to grab it with the extension-magnet. I used the magnet to do the other two so I didn't drop any more screws after that.

The 5th cylinder was the hardest since some tubing and and metal bracket was in the way. After scraping my knuckles up pretty good I finally decided to remove the bracket to give me some more room. I did one plug at a time in the rears near the firewall since I didn't want to risk dropping anything in the plug holes.

I also tested all coil packs, which were all good! After the initial start I threw a bunch of SES codes but I reset them. I figured I would trigger a bunch of them when I unplugged the packs while the engine was running during my coil testing. I did get some random flash of the SES light while driving the first 5 minutes, but after I shut the car off and started again they all went away.

The car definitely pulls harder now, like when it was newer. It starts so much better now. The car starts instantly now and cranks over with authority. It's hard to say conclusively if the shudder has gone away since the cars runs so much smoother now, I would say it's very slight now, but I'll have to drive the car for a few days before I can come to a better conclusion. Sometime the road in my area have small rolling bumps, which make it hard to discern if the shudder and shake is there? At this point I don't know if my mind is playing tricks on me, but the car is definitely running better now. It doesn't seem so sluggish either.

I did try to test the TPS, but my cheap multimeter, which only has auto mode wouldn't calibrate and was all over the place. The ohms did change when I moved the throttle position. I'm thinking I might change the TPS out next since it's really the only thing left to do. I believe autozone carries a TPS for around $59.99.

Hopefully max will be good to go until my other car gets paid off. The stealership would have charged me a fortune for all the work I've done in the last two weeks. All-in-all, I would say all the work was well worth it. This forum rocks! I don't know how I would have done everything without the posts and how-tos. In fact I might have just had the dealer do it out of intimidation. I found out I can do a lot more on cars that I had thought I could.

I thought some folks might want to see what my plugs look like after running them for over 100K miles. Don't know what the recommended interval is? I think it's 80K? I've attached a photo of my spark plugs as in the order they were pulled. I think they look pretty good for 115K miles on them. My 97 SE has 186K now.