Aight, I'm stumped. I come from jeeps and am pretty familiar with engines in general, but I'm lost on this one and hopping its some sort of obvious maxima thing that all of ya'll know and I cant find any info on. The Car is a '99, I think its a GLE but its V6 A/T with about 180,000 miles of neglect.


Random miss-fire code and rough running. I replaced all spark plugs with NGK and the problem persisted. By unplugging coils at idle I was able to narrow the problem down to cylinder 4 (center on the bank closest to the radiator). Replaced the coil pack and noticed no change in idle, I swapped the 2 and 4 coil and the problem stayed with the cylinder, so I believe the coil to be good. I replaced the connector to the coil pack cause it looked rough and noticed no change. all of the coils have continuity to ground at 11.77V at the charge. I was unable to get continuity between ANY signal wire at the ECU and at the coil connection so I'm blaming my test setup on that. Compression test gives about 110PSI, not ideal but it should run fine. I also replaced the ignition condenser cause it was melty (found it while tracing coil trigger wiring until it enters the main engine harness above the valve covers)


I'm stumped I'm assuming it must be a wiring gremlin on the trigger side, but I'm open to suggestions. Does anyone have access to wiring diagrams for that? Are there any connections between the ECU and the coil, or does the wire go straight through?


Appreciate all the help in advance, I'm on a bit of a time cramp to get this back running and it has been a pain in my tail enough so far.

 

oh and there is white smoke and heavy fuel smell out the back, so I'm pretty sure the fuel system is fine.

 

Injectors …

 

yeah, I was doing some more nosing around on the white smoke and as soon as the rain here stops imma go pull the #4 injector

theory being its stuck open and dumping fuel into the cylinder so much so that the spark is inadequate at idle to allow the engine to run.... thanks for the nudge in a new direction!

 

Definitely injector.

 

replaced the #4 Injector and cleared codes (P1320 - could be from plugging and un-plugging coils, P0325 - Knock bank 1, and P0300 - random miss) after clearing the codes the smoke was gone if not significantly lessened and the idle seemed smoothish. Unfortunately un-plugging the #4 coil pack still resulted in no change in idle quality where the 2 and 6 did, and there was still a bit of a gugle in exhaust (maybe from being flooded with fuel hours earlier?)

I'm guessing maybe all of the injectors? I also noticed a bit of a scrape or click coming from the rear bank timing chain sprocket, kinda like 2 marbles in a plastic cup coated in sandy oil, sound came around maybe every 3-5 seconds, couldn't hear it with the hood down.

at 180,000 i'm wondering if its not over-due for the timing chain and stretched/skipped a tooth.

 

+1 You beat me to it.

 

Occam’s Razor …

Replace or rebuild the fuel injectors. All six (6) of them.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/30278493569...ally+Aspirated

To do the injectors like new,, also replace the Grommet Insulators that go below them and the cushion insulators that go between the Injector top and top cap. Nissan sells the top pieces and RockAuto has the lower ones from FelPro and Reinz for around $9 a set.

Also get a JIS #2 Philips screwdriver. The Japanese use a different and better head interlock system and after all these years, regular Philips usually strips out the screws.
Many of us have replaced the screws and washers with Stainless Steel M5-0.8 x 16mm Capscrews with the appropriate Washers that use Allen Keys with some antisieze.

 

Alright, I'm dredging up the old thread because the car is still giving me trouble. The smoke is gone and the idle is much improved, but it is still quite rough and at times, un-drivable. The car has sat parked for probably about a month while I dealt with other things, but the time has come to either make it useful, or get rid of it.

Before I dump $100 into a set of injectors, (which I imagine the car does probably need) I have been sorting out why un-pluggung the #4 coil has no effect on the idle quality.

The #4 has roughly 110PSI of compression, and a new injector, new plugs and a good coil. I tested the coil for spark and it has a nice white jump across the plug, the plug is clean and the cylinder smells of fuel when I remove the spark plug, so I am throughly confused. I assume this leaves timing which is controlled by the computer, but why the timing would be out on 1 cylinder is just really confusing.

I would assume un-plugging the coil would have a profound negative effect on an already rough idle, or the miss-fire must be originating from that cylinder.

any ideas?

 

replacing injectors should be done all 6 at once. If only one is replaced, the electrical could throw high/low circuits infrequent and the new injector could cause more fuel to come out of one injector (new or old). That’s for any set of 6, plugs, coils..

I would get new eBay coils (all 6) or go to junk yard and find a fair car to part from. As your idle runs rough, there’s some sort of high circuit(coil).
check your fuses also.

I’ve had hard code P1320 on my ‘99 GLE Maxima for 5yrs, started as a P0302. From the experience of solving this issue.. Any one of the below could be causing high Air to Fuel ratio:

-clean MAF
-clean TB->can reuse gasket unless it falls off
-clean EGR->replace gaskets top and bottom
-clean IACV (careful, could cause high idle 1500rpm and potentially need more troubleshooting)->iacv gasket aren’t easy to find without purchasing entire gasket sets

more specific to the injectors and plugs:
-replace valve cover gaskets and spark plug tube grommets
-clean/replace PCV (aftermarket part has larger diaphragm into grommet, might need new grommet)
-replace UIM gasket

lastly and more specific to the P1320:
-test, clean/replace
-CAM sensor
-Crank position sensor under crank pulley
-Crank position sensor (rear) near transmission bell housing (bottom-driver side)(this is a new one to me, just consulted guy at Autozone who said p1320 could be the wire harness but also is a main crank code. found the below YouTube on p1320 code)

make sure everything is torque to spec or be diligent about hand tightening bolts.

 

Coil packs from autozone oreillys or advanced auto should be bought as all 6…. ALL aftermarket coils will remove P0301-306 misfire code but will not remove P1320 code



below are the best aftermarket coils I got for $60 on eBay and after a year cylinder 4 coil blew out

 

Did you remember to oil the O ring before you installed the injector? A dry O ring will rip when you install it.
The ripped O ring will allow lots of fuel to leak past it, then into the cylinder.