I have a 5 speed 2000 Max, I have driven manuals my entire life, the only exception ever being rental cars, and the Max has got to be the most difficult car I have ever driven to get off from a stop in 1st.

I don't stall it very often, but I do have to get the revs up to what I would consider to be an unusually high level to pull away cleanly. Is this related to the fuel cut issue and does anyone else have similar experience?

Thx

G

 

When I first got my Maxima, I was not used to the throttle feel. It seemed to be either "full on" or "nothing", which can cause you to stall easily and/or rev the engine too high when starting out. My way around this is to blip the throttle with the car stopped to about 1100 RPM or so, and release the clutch while the RPM's decrease from the throttle blip. This way, you don't have to worry about giving the car gas at the same time as you are releasing the clutch. You will get used to the gas pedal after more time with the car, but it is still not "normal". Heel and toe manuevers are also difficult in this car, as it is hard to tell how much "blip" to give to the gas while you are in the middle of the downshift.

The sensitivity of the gas pedal is related to the fuel cut issue, since you are being robbed of full control over the amount of air being taken in by the engine by the ECU. On a fuel injected car, the gas pedal actually only opens up the butterfly valves on the throttle body, which just allows air into the engine, and not air and gas combined like in a carburetor. The lack of ability to control the throttle on our cars comes from excess air bypassing the idle control vavle which leads to the fuel cut sensation in 1st gear as well as the increase of RPM's during upshifts. This was all discovered by bigk200, a member of Edmunds.com and Maxima.org

Dave Z