Hey guys, looks like I've finally got around to registering for maxima.org. Spend most of my time at the Acura sites (but I'm not here to plug those). My wife’s car is the Maxima, mine the TL. Love them both BTW.

Anyways, I need to enlist your help. My 2000 Maxima SE will occasionally start to rev on it's own. It's not a pulsating rev, but a steady quick climb to redline. We first noticed this a few months ago, because the car would jump when you came to a stop and would idle at 1500 (while trying to climb upward). If you put the car in neutral or park it would act as if you were stepping on the gas and would eventually redline within a few seconds if you didn't shut the car down. It's been to the dealer a few times, including this morning - but of course they can't find anything. I've stressed to them my safety concerns, even more now with a newborn in the car. This has only happened a handful of times within the last few months, and the only common denominator I can think of is that it's been warm, nice day outside (if the temp has something to do with it).

Does anybody have any clue as to what this may be, or has this happened to anyone else. The dealer seems to take it seriously but doesn't seem to want to take the time to really investigate it. And the car is still under warranty with only 28k miles on it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

-Jeff

 

Being dumb here. But when it happens, is the gas pedal fully released? The cable might be binding or not as "well" lubricated and "sticking". This would be my first examination. I would NOT expect Nissan to be smart enough to think out of the box.

Inspect the cables and make sure its:
* free near the pedal and nothing is impeding it release. Carpet in a funny way or something else
* Free in the engine bay, nothing stopping it from moving either way.
* Its got the proper lubrication in the wire/sleeve assembly.

Best of luck to ya!

 

nope, hopefully we checked all the obvious.

Doesn't anybody have any ideas on this?

 

You should go to another dealer. Something like that is not right. Was the first dealer able to duplicate the issue? It doesn't make sense for them to not do work on something so apparent (the car revs to redline in park )

 

the problem is that it's very spuratic, thus it never does it at the dealership. And there are no codes in the car's computer for this event.

 

You expect Nissan to trouble shoot and replicate the problem when no codes exist....

No offense but these dufus' cant trouble shoot thier way outta of box. They could not trouble shoot my bad interior sensor...I used the ESM and did it in 10 minutes. Took them 2 hours to say


Good luck to ya!

 

I had the same type of problem on my old 93 mercury tracer. I had brought it to the dealer and it turned out to be a throttle body problem.

 

I hope this is the only and last time that a Maxima is compared to a 93 Tracer. Do you remember exactly wht the throttle body problem was. Because the best answer I've got from Nissan so far is that "it might be the throttle body".




(colonel - I love that smiley)

 

Two other things:
1. Is the floormat getting caught on the bottom of the peddle? (I know this sounds dumb, but it's easy to over look).

sorry colonel missed that in your thread

2. It may be the cruise control. I don't know what the linkage looks like on a 2000, but if it's possible, unhook it and see if it still happens. I had an '89 Camaro that used to do the same thing, unhooked the cruise control linkage and it never happened again.

 

1) nope, I actually think that's the first thing I checked when it happened.

2) that's an excellent thought, and certainly a possiblity. I know that we don't use cruise that much but it sounds feasable. I'm not going to disconnect it, but next time it happens I'll play with the cruise to see if it effects it. But I'm sure it's happening when the cruise is off. Is there a way for the dealer to diagnose the CC to see if it's working properly and not short circuiting.

 

Jeff,
I had the same thing happen to my 2001 maxima a couple months ago. I don't recall if it was warm outside, although up in the Northeast I doubt it was very nice. I was actually in line at a car wash and doing a lot of stopping and starting. Next thing I know, the car is revving up to 5000 rpms on its own. So I turned it off, back on, then it did it again. Of course, I brought it to Nissan and they couldn't find anything. Hasn't happened again since, but I gotta think it's something that's just getting hung up. I'll let you know if I find out anything. Hopefully that was the one and only time.

 

I don't know how they could diagnose it. When I had the problem this cruise was always off. The cruise control on the camaro was vacuum powered, and for some reason the solenoid would kick in. I think your Max is electric, could be a short somewhere.

 

Well here's two documented cases of the same exact problem.

 

I'd take out the throttle body and clean it. Sounds like it's getting stuck. Actually, make Nissan clean it out if you can.

 

Another dumb question...can there be enough carbon buildup on the leading edge of tbe butterfly that it keeps it from closing? Is that even possible?

 

I'd say check the floor mat first. Check the cables for binding/sticking. Check the IAC valve (or Nissan equiv) and make sure it isn't sticking (TB service should clean it.) The engine CANNOT rev if the throttle plate is closed and there are no vacuum leaks. So, you either have a TB/valve problem or a "intermittent" vacuum leak, which would be rare.

 

OK, after almost 4 months and countless trips the dealership, I think we finally have this solved. The car acted up again on tuesday, so my wife drove directly to the dealer (again). The tech took another ride with her and the car actually did it for them. They took some reading from the car and gave us a loaner while they took the time to diagnose it. Two and a half days later, we get the car back, FIXED.

Here's what's on the receipt:

CUSTOMER STATES THE VEHICLE IS IDLING HIGH.....
VERFIED CUSTOMER COMPLAINT... FOUND WHEN VEHICLE WAS RUNNING
AND IDLING FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME VEHICLE RAN ROUGH...
FOUND CRUISE CONTROL ACTUATOR CABLE WOULD NOT ALLOW THROTTLE
TO CLOSE FULLY WHEN THROTTLE OPENED SLIGHTLY/CABEL DID
NOT HAVE ENOUGH SLACK WHEN ENGINE COMPARTMENT BECAME HOT...
ADJUSTED CRUISE CONTROL CABEL AND RECHECKED OK...

So basically the rep said that the cable was too tight and when the engine heated up, the cable would tighten even more, keeping the throttle open.

I was always concerned how unsafe this was, so hopefully I've helped bring this problem to all of your attention.

Thanks for all of your help, and props to snj2k2 for guessing it was related to the cruise control.

-Jeff

 

Wow....that's pretty messed up.

Glad to hear that you got it fixed....could have created a very unsafe situation.

 

Happy to hear they (finally) figured it out.
Geez you would think this has happened before and they could go right to it, but maybe not...
Thanks for following up - this will give me the answer right away in case it ever happens to me

 

I'm glad the figured it out.
When I had that problem, it scared the s*** out of me a couple of times before I figured out what it was. (Mine went full throttle when it did it)

 

Doesn't metal expand when hot? How would the engine compartment expand but not the cable? Am I being dense?

Glad you got it fixed. For now. I guess I've been lucky with my Nissan dealer's service. They're great but I haven't had strange problems like this!

 

yeah, your right - I guess that doesn't make sense. Anyway, they said it's fixed, but we'll still be careful with it.

 

wow, there have been some G35 drivers complaining of runaway throttle too..