Hi, my apologies if this question has been asked before, but with the search function not available, I didn't find anything by browsing.

Basically, my "service engine soon" light has been coming on and off intermittently in my 2000 Maxima SE, and I'm not sure what to do next.

It began last week, when the "service engine soon" light suddenly came on while driving. (It isn't the gas cap not being tight, etc. as I've ruled that out)

When it didn't go away after a few days, I took it into the dealer. They said the code indicated I needed a new Airflow Meter (MAF). That surprised me, since the car appears to run pefectly, and I haven't noticed a thing wrong with the engine, acceleration, idle, etc. The repair is also really expensive - just shy of CDN$1000 after service, parts, resetting the ECU, etc. is all thrown in. (As an aside, I'm really ticked off to find that the MAF costs $660 Cdn up here in Canada, while it's only $100 US in the US!).

Since they didn't have a MAF in stock, I headed off. While waiting for the part to come in, the light went off, and stayed off for 2 days. It then came back on for 3 days, and lo and behold, this morning, it's off again.

Nissan and the dealer haven't been much use, except to say that they can't check or verify anything when the light's off (as there will be no error code), but if they found the error code once, we should go ahead and replace the MAF even if the light goes off. Does that make sense? Could it be a loose/faulty sensor? Is there a way of checking whether the MAF really is faulty? If I can, I'd like to avoid such an expensive repair if I don't need to, or even worse, find that replacing the MAF doesn't solve the problem!

Any suggestions/advice much appreciated!

Mike

 

Even if the light is off, there may be pending codes. They can still plug up the code reader to the car and see if any codes are pulled. If so, they should diagnose whatever problem is related with the pending code.

 

I had a similar problem. I had mine turn on and off as well. Mine was a airflow sensor total price was 176. it was 115, for air flow sensor from dealer. then 65 for one hour labor. I would contact a dealer in the US. find out if they can get it to you for cheaper. Or somone u know here, or visit parts.com

 

just buy it from the US and have it shipped and get it fixed

 

Samething happen to me when on vac light came on. Car ran fine, light would would go off. It happen about 5 times. Had it checked when I got home. MAF sensor. eazy to install.

 

Charged me $65 to just hook up the OBD-II check tool. I have since bought one on ebay. Many parts stores will lend for free. Good idea to check error codes yourself before going near a mechanic.

I'm a !