major power loss
 

I have a 2001 Maxima SE (auto) and lately its been realllllllly sluggish. Throttle response is slow and it feels like im driving with 6 people in the car. When I got it floored on the highway it is taking longer than i remember to get through the upper rpm range (4000 on). Any idea what this can be?????? I got about 56000 miles and I've been lazy/dumb/bad and havent changed the oil in the last 4500 miles, but otherwise its always around ever 3000-3500. I'm thinking maybe air filter is clogged/dirty but it didnt look that bad to me. Anything else that it could be?? Fuel filter maybe? I don't know? Any help is appreciated. I know these things all need to be changed but right now I don't have the cash to do everything that needs to be done.

Thanks again for any help guys.

It could be one or more of the following:
 

Air filter
Spark plugs
TB
low tire pressure

Re: It could be one or more of the following:
 

I'm assuming by TB you mean Throttle Body. If its that, how do I go about fixing, cleaning, whatevering the TB to get it working back to normal.

Re: Re: It could be one or more of the following:
 

If someone has a better article than this, feel free to help Fixxxer:

http://www.geocities.com/bracecraig/maxima/tb/tb.html

thanks t-bone

just want to make sure though.... it says for 92-94, does that still apply to my 01?

I had the same problem with my 2000 last fall. I even dynoed it to convince Nissan to take my claim seriously (a butt dyno isn't taken very seriously). After showing them my dyno (I was losing 40 hp) they took me seriously. They took the car for a test drive and realized how bad it was. The ECU wasn't giving any error codes so they were pretty much guessing. They tried replacing the ignition coils (as per the TSB) by using another car's coils. That didn't help. They checked the y-pipe and the flex section, the main cat, the tb, the spark plugs, and many other things and found nothing. Finally, one of the mechanics was getting frustrated and decided to swap the MAF with another car. Now normally, when a MAF goes bad, you can't rev over 3000 rpms or so and soon after, your car won't even start. I was going on 2 months with this power loss problem. Once the mechanic changed my MAF, my lost power was recovered. It was weird but it was the MAF. Anyway, Nissan then ordered a new MAF under warranty, now that they knew what it was.
If you're on good terms with a dealership and your ecu doesn't give you any codes, replacing various parts with other cars is a good trial and error method of doing things. Saves you from buying a part and finding out replacing the part didn't help.

Yes you would want to use the same procedure, however I would take it easy on the cleaner, meaning don't use too much. It might even best if you put some on a rag instead of spraying it inside the TB.

Also do not overlook the airfilter and the sparkplugs! A lot of 5th gen max owners are finding that they need to replace their plugs before the nissan recommendation.

interesting.... my car is out of warrenty by ohhhhhhh i dunno, a lot lol.

i think im gonna try cleaning the TB, changing the oil, putting a new air filter, and seeing if it still feels that way. if it does then i dunno, how much is a MAF?

don't forget to change the plugs; it's time to change them if you have 60K on your engine. :cool:

How do you change the plugs on the cars without wires. I never attempted that yet? Is it hard?


Also aren't they rated for like 100,000 mile life/change.

The plugs on a 2k1 are not too hard to change. Pull one out and check its condition.

that is what they are rated for, but people have been changing them as early as 30k. I guess our cars can be hard on them.

they are rated for that long but they are also fried at the point as well. many have pulled them at 60,000 and decided they were already at the end of their life. if you change the plugs, make sure the air filter is good and clean the throttle body then i would bet you reclaim the lost power.

Just curious - but is the MAFs on these cars cleanable?

On my previous car ('96 T-bird w/ 4.6L V8) I was able to remove the sensor part out of the MAF housing and clean it with some rubbing alcohol and a q-tip. You could tell the little metal coil was much cleaner after I was done. This made the car run & idle sooo much smoother.

It never got to the point where it was running crappy however..

Being that I'm leasing this car I probably won't ever have to do this, but hopefully someone would be able to use this tip and save some money.

4th gen guys clean theirs as normal routine maintenance. as far the 5th gens, mainly 2k2 they are so sensitive that if im not mistaken using an liquid as led to some failures. some even used the k&n cleaner since it removes the oil from the filter but the sensor did not last more than a few days. the only thing i have ever done is wipe down the mesh screen in front of the sensor, mine of which becomes fairly dirty in about 10k miles of driving. i just spray intake cleaner on a cloth and wipe it down. it doesnt remove as much as a dirty throttle body but mine had a pretty good buildup.