ok so here it goes.. i have a 1998 maxima se with the 5 speed. Here is the problem, sometimes when driving the car feels as if it lost about 50 of its horsepower to the point when i punch it in 1st on wet pavement and it would just rev and wont spin the tires or throw u in the seat like it should. And some other times it feels normal throws u in the seat and would spin on wet pavement. This is really weird its like the car is tired sometimes. car is fully stock just has an intake. the engine light is on but when i tried to decode it, it had 5 small flashes and 5 fast flashes and when i checked online to decode it, it says no trouble codes recorded but then again my engine light is on.. Just to let you know the engine idles fine and runs smooth but when its acting really sluggish the engine feels like its hiccuping really faintly under normal acceleration and when i mean faint i mean faint lol.. so please someone help me out here its starting to **** me off. TIA

 

Bump! anyone??

 

I believe it's the knock sensor, that's to make your car feel like it lost it's power or kick. The wire could be short or the sensor it self is bad. I would check the codes and see what you got.

 

okay i was thinking the knock sensor as the code was there when i checked with a scan tool a couple weeks back.. what do you mean by the wire being short?

 

I mean there could be a voltage shortage in the harness in the knock sensor area.

 

ok thanks for your reply man.. on another note i was reading up and came across a thread about cleaning my maf with CRC maf cleaner and had alot of members there saying it improved performance and got rid of the chugging/sluggish acceleration which is what im having sometimes. I will give that a shot.

 

replace the knock sensor and sub harness...cheap but should clear up your issue.

 

Clutch slipping?
Sounds like a misfire. Check coils.

 

Yeah clean maf and tb it should help. Also do a tune up if not have done one yet. U know the regular spark plugs check your coils. Also check your wiring on your coils. I had a bad wire going to one of my coils and it was acting up or sometimes it will act normal.

 

It aint the knock senor but replace it anyway.

Replace your front O2 sensor...on the 98 its down below the front exhaust manifold. Trace the exhaust down nearly to the bottom of the Y pipe.

 

With only an intake, the clutch shouldn't be slipping.

 

And with an intake, the clutch never will slip.

A clutch slips when it gets burned down and doesn't catch as well anymore.

 

clutch slipping can also be caused by over upgrading, having too much power

 

/facepalm

Last I checked, "just an intake" wasn't over upgrading. Lol could be wrong though

 

check your fluids, and filters, it sounds like the clutch might be slowly deteriorating.

 

Clutch is mint i know what u mean tho haha. i meant it takes forever for it to rev sometimes thus not being able to spin the wheels in the wet. I cleaned out the MAF earlier today and i did notice a gain in power and no more bogging on regular throttle.. but on another not i am going to replace the knock sensor and subharness as i have a KS code.

 

I don't know how long you have had the car but piece of advice. When you get an older car like this before any upgrades you should do maintenance before modding. Spark plugs, cleaning sensors, replacing O2 sensors, flushing and replacing all fluids, replacing gaskets. Ths way you can cancel this stuff out when you have an issue within a window timeframe. You can always go to Radio Shack and buy the resistor to test and see if that fixes your issue with the knock sensor and then replace. You said you had that code if I read correctly above. I just think if you had misfires you car would throw the code pretty quick...even the MAF you car would bog really bad under heavy load to the point where you wouldn't get a mile before you pulled it over and said WTF.

Just my thoughts, good luck!

 

which is why my first reply was "with just an intake clutch shouldn't be slipping"