I got my coils at buynissanparts.com (46.39). Ask them about MAF. Even if slightly higher may save overall with only one shipping bill.

 

anarchist pm'd me for the write-up so I thought i'd share here as well...

http://www.lehrner.com/david/sparkplug.doc

 

Dealers are such scum. Back at 38K miles when the coils went out the first time the dealer made a big deal about how nice they were being going ahead and replacing ALL of them even though the car was out of warranty. I just swapped them out again and guess what? The back 3 coils were the new part #, the front three were the OLD part #! Either they only replaced the back three or only used 3 new coils and 3 old coils. Am I wrong to be upset? And did I replace 3 coils that I really didn't have to?

 

My car coded p1320 over the weekend.... coils are ordered and on the way. Installed new plugs today... not too excited about the $400+ "investment" in parts. Car has 65,000 miles.

Called local dealer and they only wanted $95/coil...... yea right... I hope they get real dusty sitting on the shelf.

 

guys keep your eyes on ebay

i got set of brand new coils for 250 shipped.

installed them last week. fixed it right up.

cost me 1/3 of the STEALership quoted me.

 

400 for coils OUCH lol

 

Here's the new coil on the left, that's the infamous grey dot

Check out how bad 5 year old 55,000 mile plugs are

 

Mine looked about the same from my 65k car. The plugs look a little "rich" to me. Perhaps this is directly a byproduct of the weak spark that the tired coils produce.

By the way.. I just got my car buttoned back up yesterday with new plugs and coils and she drives great!

Thanks to the info/resources found here I saved a boatload of $$.

 

i seem to be having the same problem but the only thing is that i took a look at my coils today and i do have a grey dot on my rear coils i have not checked the front yet could my problem be a maf problem? i still do not have a ses light yet so no codes i thought coming up from a 97 to a 2000 would make for less problems.

 

Over a year ago I took my wife's 2000 Maxima SE into the dealer due to the check engine light coming on. The dealer said the #2 ignition coil was bad and that all 6 should be replaced for over $700! I declined their offer and left.

I then went to AutoZone and had them hook up their hand-held computer to the car - sure enough #2 ignition coil bad. I bought a coil from them for $49.95 and installed it myself in less than 10 minutes. This was over a year ago and the car is running great.

IMO I think it is hogwash to have to replace all 6 coils when only one is bad.

 

I am considering purchasing a 2K Maxima with 95K miles. I have learned that there are obvious problems with the coils from these forums. I would be purchasing this vehicle from a dealer and I am wondering if there is anway I can tell if the coils have already been replaced. Ive read that you can tell by a gray dot present on the underside of the coil. Is there any other way to tell other than removing the coil? Since I havent made the purchase yet I dont know if it would be cool for me to go ripping the engine apart. Thanks.

 

you either do rip the engine apart... just lift the engine cover..Plastic read cover and check the front ones for the grey dot. as fo rhte back it depends on how much time you have... ask the dealer to check them out for you.. but stay with the guy...

 

just a word of caution -- I purchased my 2k with about 93k miles on it and the idle air control valve failed in January, and THEN the electronics around it failed in July. I had it replaced at the dealer, because I was dumb ($$$). I dont know if this is normal, but I've heard that some 100K+ Toyota trucks have had the same happenings.

BTW, I've had no problems with my coils, but 2 had been replaced before I bought it

 

i went to mechanic to tell him about my shaking car problem, he tells me he's not sure, the second i turn it on the SES light goes on, he looks at the engine the engine is like shaking out of control, he ran the code its #4 missfired, changed the coils and and all is well. kind of pissed i payed $90 for a job that took about 5 min. the front ones are so easy to change a 5 year old can do it. but i'm more upset at the nissan, so many people having this problem and they ain't doing **** aobut it. i love my maxima, but i hate the service you get. scumbgs as$holes. i hope they get the saim **** when they bring their cars to a mechanic.

 

I've had the ses light for a while now and took it to the dealer yesterday to check it out. The service guy told me that he could not ID which of the coils were bad and would need to change all six to insure the problem was solved, cost $671. Two or three days before I looked at the front coils and noticed a gray dot on the second, so after I left the dealer I purchased 3 rear and 2 front coils and 6 Bosh plat. spark plugs for about half of what the dealer wanted, the coil should be in today.

 

They can test to see which coil is bad by checking each one at a time There's only six afterall. Hope the repair turns out well for you.

 

dumb question -- are all vq30's distributorless?

 

[UPDATE]

I installed the Boush Plat. plugs and the two coils ($69.99 each) I ordered from Autozone (arrived next day), the car ran fine. The coils I ordered from Napa came in 3 day later (should have been next day), I sent them back because they were the wrong ones and because I didn't need them, saving $188.

The total amount saved from the dealer's quote is $517.88

THANKS FOR ALL THE INFORMATION

 

I'm assuming there hasn't been any change in Nissan's position on the problem? (ie - they're not going to do anything about it....)

It's annoying to read how this post has been going on since 2003 and not much has changed.

My car (00 max, 45k) started violently shaking just shy of a year ago and the engine light went on (5th cylinder misfire). Needless to say, it went away and I ignored it.. not really the best idea.. but anyway, just yesterday it shaked again only for a few minutes.

I'm going to try calling Nissan to get a quote.. then calling the corp. to see if I can plead my way into a "goodwill" free service.. (after all, this is the 2nd max I've own, and my family in total has purchased almost 10 cars from Nissan)

I'll let you know how it goes..

Any other suggestions?

 

This thread is the best resource ever for any 5th gen maxima owner. Use it and you will save $$$$$$$$$. BTW, I had the SES on for a while pulled the codes and they were O2 sensor and cylinder misfire.

However, the car worked fine when it was warm and when it got cold the engine would shake like crazy. Just these past few weeks this car would not move if your life depended on it. I decided to replace the MAF, and that didn't help the situation. I wasn't ready to change all 6 coils so this past weekend, I tried to change the spark plugs; went to a mechanic to do this and the SOB scared me to death.

He was talking about all these different scenarios and how expensive it will be to fix this problem. I left the SOB very upset, read through this thread several times and I decided to test each cylinder for the one that didn’t worsen the problem. It only took about 5 mins and the problem had been narrowed down to one cylinder in the front.

I went to the dealer bought a new front coil for $60.15, went to a different mechanic, got some tools and installed the new coil with the grey dot of course; I only replaced the front 3 plugs as they were too easy to do.

My maxima feels very ALIVE!!!! I'm glad I didn't waste money looking for the problem.

If anyone in the Jersey area has this shaken problem and needs help trouble shooting, PM me.

 

Hi Guys,
I am faced with the same problem now. Can you suggest places to get the newer set of Ignition Coils ? From the prev. posters, i hear that Dave B isn't reachable. Other reliable places to get the replacement coils ? Also, please suggest methods to identify newer Ignition Coils from older ones ?

 

Dave B should have them. I spoke to him and he was very helpful; was going to order from him, but I got one from my local dealer who gave me a deal.

Daves number is 1-888-254-6060

 

I need to change my ignition coil, but i have a 2k2, and all 3 in the rear are bad.. this is going to be a pain the butt getting the ones in the rear.

 

The back three are not hard to get to, however, you will need a socket extension and one of those extending rods with the magnet on the end for picking up dropped bolts. There are two or three cables that run across the top of were the coils are that will need to be moved.

Good luck.

 

My coils have the silver Dot on them and they are the original on the car from day one. So what does that mean?
Good thread! learn a lots!

 

Hey guys, I have a 2000 SE with 60K miles and my SES light came on about a month ago. I took it to Autozone and code P1320 came up (Ignition misfire). I took it to a local garage and they game me a tune up and replaced one of the coils. ($314 total). They reset the SES light and three days later the light is back on and the car is hesitating again. I'm not really asking a question here, just thought I'd share my story. Actually, I do have a question. What do you think I should do now?

Dave
Pittsburgh

 

Just got 6 coils and 6 plugs for $402 shipped. Cant wait till they come.

 

From where?

 

http://www.petitiononline.com/NIS_IGN/petition.html

 

Has anyone had to replace the grey-dotted coils? A dealer told me today that I had 0300 code.

Took it in due to poor idle (drops to 400 after about 10 secs). BTW, I've got 5spd SE. The engine stumbles from 3200 rpm on up as well.

I was thinking it was the MAF since it hasn't been replaced yet and was exhibiting many of the symptoms. So I was quite surprised when the stealer told me to replace all 6 coli packs at $604.

 

yeah, i just did replace a coil with gray dot on it. put in another one and it was not stumping anymore. the idle is still a little low, got the rest but did not put it in. also order the MAF, which i am interested to see if it improves performance at all.

 

SES light just came on a couple of days ago, took it to the dealership and he tells me that it's an ignition failure and that I need to wait until the car skips to bring it back up there so he can tell exactly which one it is. Charged me $70 for a diagnostic fee (I should have read this board first). Tells me when I bring it back up there that it will cost $260 to replace 1 coil. Again, after reading this board that is just a *&^%&* ripoff. I replaced the spark plugs a couple of months ago and it seems if I can do that then this shouldn't be a problem, though I'm a girl so I'm not that mechanically inclined....any suggestions would be helpful

 

If you can replace a spark plug, you do have the skills to replace the ignition coil. Someone here told me how to test to see which one was bad. But the syptoms have to be manifesting. In my case, the engine was jumpy, like as if it was going to turn off. but it maintain to stay alive. when that happen, i just unplug one coil at a time to see which one did not have an affect on the engine sound. you pull one out not all the way, just far off the spark plugs so you start to hear the spark arcing off the cylinders walls and then push it back in. This trick is only good when the engine is running ruff.
hope that helps.
Jack

 

My check engine light came on a month or two ago and I just took it in (I know! I know! should have gone right away) and it's the ignition coils. Jerks wanted to charge me a ton for it, so I shopped around. Prices ranged from $780 to $950.

I checked here and just ordered the coils and new spark plugs from Dave B for hundreds less. Found several instructions online for how to replace them on a 5th gen, so I'm going to do it myself and save $400-$600.

This will be the first time I've ever messed with anything under my hood, but I'm confident I will be successful.... now if only I can find someone who can let me borrow a torque wrench... =)

 

The car doesn't skip or anything like that...and actually drives pretty good. It doesn't have as much power as it did when I got it, but I figured that would happen to any car with 93k miles on it. It does cut off when I slow down to turn or come to a complete stop sometimes but cranks right back up. It has been doing this for about a year, well before my SES light came on. Is the ignition coil causing this or does this sound like something else?

 

i took my car to autozone, it have multiple misfires. i have a 2k2 , its not the plugs, its the coils.....

 

My new coils and plugs came in. Did everything myself and its like night and day.
Not a difficult job, but without the right tools I would never have even attempted it.

 

I'm experiencing the same problem. This code has come up a few times, I have found out from the previous owner, but the car ran fine so he didn't do anything about it. Three days ago I fired it up and the SES light was on and it was idling really bad. I shut it off, let it sit, and fired it back and it has been fine...until today, when it did it again. Twice, in fact. Very shaky while idling and driving, and then it will just disappear. I think I narrowed it down to the #3 coil, which I will be replacing myself tomorrow. Hope it fixes it!

 

2000 Maxima w/ 63k....I've been having the same problem with the SES light on and the engine occasionally running rough after starting it up. With mine it seemed that when there was a misfire the SES light, the SLIP light, and the TCS OFF light all came on and the car would run rough for a short period of time and sort of slip out of the roughness and into normality. I took the vehicle to a mechanic to have the code read and he indicated I needed new plugs. This past weekend I replaced all 6 spark plugs with NGK OE plugs...this did not solve the problem...so after reading this thread, I called Dave B and ordered 6 new coils @ just under $61/piece....is this the going rate now for coils through Dave B?

 

You guys probably should not have to replace all 6, just the bad ones. I did a write up with pics, on how to test yours.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=451830

Fat