I have a 2000 maxima 5 speed. I have had it a little over a year, and just started acting up about 3 weeks ago. I have looked at the TSB’s and other things that could be wrong, but now I am lost.

My car just clicked over to 74,000 miles. It has died several times after I push the clutch in. I can rev it up and it just dies. You can tell it tries to stay running but at 200 RPM not a lot can happen to keep it running. I took it to the dealership this morning to look as the fuel cut off TSB but they said they can’t do that cause its not throwing a code. Then he also said the fuel cut off TSB would not cause the car to act like that. He said leave it with me we charge $90.00 an hour..plan on half a day to diagnose the problem. He also tapped on the tub where the MAF is and said he doubts it’s the MAF…can you really tell my tapping on the tube where the MAF is if it bad.??? After it dies it starts fine no hesitation at all. It also seems like it is lacking power in the top end. It feels like it is cutting out kind of. Thanks you in advance any help would be appreciated.

 

Well I took my car to the dealership and they found nothing wrong with my car…of course it ran perfect for them and its not throwing any codes. I don’t know what’s wrong.

I have a question about the fuel cut off TSB should nissan do that for free or should I have to pay them to do it?? I told them to do it and they said they need to charge me.

 

Sometimes the MAF is a problem w/o throwing codes. Same thing w/coil packs. One time I had the car stalling at a stop yet everything else was OK--the base idle needed to be reset!

 

take your car to another dealer, complain that the VIAS intake isn't opening past 5K RPMs, and you have idle issues and bucking when cold. MAF will fix your idle and bucking issues, where a whole new intake manifold will fix your top end power problem. I'm ditching the stock MAF for something more reliable next month, going with a Q45 MAF which is know to be able to survive a nuclear invassion, where the Maxima MAF will go bad if you hit a BIG pothole ! Maxima MAFs on the 5th gens just suck totally. I am on my 5th one now and I'm starting to suspect its going bad.

 

Would a Q45 MAF work - on 5th- 5.5 gen max? what does it take to work ( swaping MAF harmess)

 

I have a Emanage programmable piggy back system that allows for MAF,injector changes. I'm turbocharging my Maxima right now to make a little more power than stock, and the stock MAF is only good (when working good) till 350WHP, past then you max it out voltage wise. What happens is, the air going through it is changed over into VOLTS, the MAF gets a 5V refference voltage from the ECU, more air, the more voltage comes back to the ECU, at 350HP the MAF reads 5V, and anything more than 350HP is not being seen by the computer. The ECU don't know there is more than 5V of air going into the engine, engine runs lean, engine goes boom (unmetered air). So in order to fix that, you get a 300ZX Twin Turbo MAF, or a 1st Gen VH45DE Q45 MAF. TTZ is good for around 500HP, Q45 ones haven't really been put to their limits yet- but I seen them used on 1000+HP Skylines. Q45 is the biggest Hitachi MAF they make, since I'm shooting for more than 500HP, I want the biggest MAF I can get. This is the reason I'm getting mine. Emanage works good for non turbo cars too, and if I where to stay non turbo I would change to a Twin Turbo Z MAF and just fine tune the fuel and ignition MAPs and not worry bout the crappy 5th gen MAF going out on me every 30-40K miles.

 

BlackBIRDVQ now that you mentioned something about the car bucking. I forgot to mention that at first my poor maxima bucks likes crazy when it’s cold. I’ll have to order a new MAF see what that does. I guess after that I can replace plugs and coils..see if that helps. Thanks for the advice

 

Does anyone know of any aftermarket MAF's available for the 3.5?

 

Same thing happened to me (2K 5-spd, 68,000). It idles lower than normal and when applying brakes (which drains a little power) with clutch depressed, the RPM drops below stall point. First time that I've had a legitimate reason to start the engine with a clutch pop.

Then I noticed it only happens with the A/C off (I use the A/C most of the time here in Florida). I just figured that my ECU needed to be reprogrammed. My solution -- turn A/C back on. Hasn't stalled since.

 

What do I need to tell the dealership to do?? Or how can I get them to reprogram my ECU. Last week when I talked to them they would not do it unless they charged me $90.00 an hour then he said leave it with me for half a day.

 

I suggest you let them have it for a day, but dont pay any diag charges unless they find a definite problem. You wont have to pay any more than the $90 charge without them asking for your authorization. If they cant figure it out, pay nothing and try another dealership.