I need a new coil on a 2000 maxima SE. Is there a way to test them and see which on has gone bad? And which piston bank it is front or back??
Please Help

 

how many miles does she have? i would receommend replacing all 6 at the same time. sooner or later they will all go bad..

 

There are people on this forum selling new coils.
Check out:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=280643

 

The reason I need to narrow it down to one. Is that the car only has 40k miles on it..
Is there some wite up on testing these things?

 

I wanna know too!!

 

As far as I know, there is no DIY technique to test coils. A diagnostic machine is necessary. I also recommend changing all six. If you haven't done your spark plugs, I would do them as well(money permiting).

Chris

 

Actually, there is a way to determine which coil(s) are failing. On my car for example, I am getting the check engine light on pulled these following codes:

P1320: Bad ignition signal sensed
P0300: Mulitiple cylinder misfire
P0301: Cylinder #1 misfire

Knowing this, I pulled out my DMM (digital multimeter) and started to test each of the ignition coils on the car for resistance. On each coil there are 3 prong. They are labeled as:

1: (E)nergy
2: (G)round
3: (Ig)nition

So If you place your DMM probe on Ground and Ignition you should be able to read a resistance. Note: If you accidently probe Ground and Energy, it will show 0 ohms. A good coil will show a resistance and a bad coil will show none according the Nissan Service Manual for the 2000/1 Maxima (VQ30DE).

For my car:
Coil 1: 0 ohms
Coil 2: 1.96 K-ohms
Coil 3: 1.82 K-ohms
Coil 4: 1.84 K-ohms
Coil 5: 1.92 K-ohms
Coil 6: 1.83 K-ohms

Note:

...........................Firewall Side
............................1 3 5
............Coils/Cylinder
............................2 4 6
........................Radiator/Front of Car

Thus from my guess, since coil #1 is faulty (P0301) it sent the bad signal to the ECM for timing (P1320) and cause the other coils to misfire (P0300).

BTW, I am in contact with Nissan North America right now regarding about these faulty coils we have in 2000/1 Maximas (TSB NTB01059 ). They do cost a lot of $$$ and Nissan should do a recall on them. I have over 140,000+ miles on my cars, so it is obvious I am out of my warantee. My Nissan North America advisor is Coleman (310-771-8473) and I have disclosed all my personal feeling about this situation to him and what other 2000/1 Maxima owner think also from the Online Petition for a Recall (http://www.petitiononline.com/NIS_IGN/petition.html)

Please...if other Maxima owner feel Nissan should a recall, call Coleman or Nissan North America (1-800-NISSAN-1) how you feel and e-sign that petition if you haven't so. I told Coleman I am #416 on that petition. My next move is to contact the BBB and the NHTSA about Nissan's reluctance for a recall.


steve...

 

I stand corrected. You should submit this info to studman to be included in the 5th gen how-to sticky if you haven't already. Thanks for the information. This definitely needs to be in a sticky.

Chris

 

Thanks Omegasrk
But when you check the resistance with your DMM is the car completely off or is the key turned until the lights on the dash is on.

 

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



Please......do it!!!

 

NO matter how many miles you had in your car something if wrong with them.....

 

To test them properly, you need to remove the ignition coils from you car. That way you could see all three prongs and attach the DMM probes to (G) and (Ig). The label for the prongs are on the body of the coil near them. You'll be able to see the:
(E)nergy
(G)round
(Ig)nition

BTW...Take out your coils from you car when the engine is cold. Handling hot coils is not fun at all.


steve...