I really want to avoid the stealership, so here's my latest issue:

My 2000 displayed the CEL three days ago.
A visit to Autozone revealed DTC P1320.
Ordered six new ignition coils from DaveB, they arrived the next day.
Disconnected battery for an hour and installed the new coils, but still have a CEL.
Went back to Autozone to make sure it's the same DTC...it is.
Disconnected battery overnight, hoping that will reset ECU.
After overnight battery disconnect, I still have a CEL. (Dammit!)
Went back to Autozone to borrow an OBD-II scanner to clear the code and CEL myself.

Autozone "tech" said that the ECU rechecks sensors and will clear itself if it no longer senses an issue. He suggested I drive the car for a while, "80 miles or so", and the CEL should clear itself.

He also said that if I use the OBD-II scanner to clear it myself, the CEL may be off, but a DTC will still be held in the ECU and cause a "FAIL" on Tennessee's emissions inspection.

Should I consider the possibility that the P1320 might be indicative of a problem other than the coils?

Anyone's insight will be appreciated.

 

the ECU will clear itself. The ODB-II will completely clear the code (I did it to pass emisions a while back. Went to autozone, got the code cleared, drove to the emisions place while the CES light was still off and passed with flying colors!).

 

You should read Page 10-21 of your Owners Manual. Killing stored codes in the ECM memory can take up to 24 hrs.... BUT don't disconnect the battery again. Like GB said above, just keep driving it, including some shutdowns and restarts. If the problem is actually corrected the SES light will go out.

 

Okay, thanks. I'll see how it goes for a while.

 

Davidson county is doing emissions now?

-Williamson native.

 

Hmm...good question. I just moved here less than two months ago. I'm just going on what the guy at Autozone said. I got a relocation packet shortly before we got here, and there was mention of emissions testing. Maybe it's a new thing?

 

It's best to clear the code with an OBII scanner. This way, the car will recognize the new sensor(s) and the ECU will re-learn and adjust to the new sensor immediately. Disconnecting the battery will not "clear" the code, it will just take the car much longer to re-learn everything. Eventually, the car will "catch up" to its normal performance, but will definitely take a while after a given amount of mileage and startups.

 

Could be. I could have sworn Metro didn't do emissions testing when I was there. At the time, I was under the impression that only Williamson, Rutherford, and select parts of Shelby County were required to test.

If you don't ever get it straightened out though, and need a shop to take it to, I highly recommend INssan in Franklin, TN. They specialize in Nissan/Infiniti and have the Consult-II, etc.

 

Thanks for that. It's the definitive kind of advice I needed.

I'll have to double-check that emission testing then. Thanks for the shop recommendation too. I've seen that place and it's nice to now know where I can take the car. The Infiniti dealership that used to be in that crappy location right by the Galleria is moving just across 65 to a brand, new facility. Looks really nice. Do you know anything about their service reputation?

 

Davidson county has been testing emissions since the late 80's.

Long before all the surrounding counties were forced to do it.

 

Well, I don't know anything about the current service guys that work there, but the old ones were pretty good. Always took care of me during high school. They then (former service manager and parts manager at Nashville Infiniti) quit and they're the ones that created INssan (also brought some techs with them too).

I don't have much anything good to say about Nashville Infiniti. They gave my dad the run around when he ordered his I35 years back, ended up ordering the wrong color and tried to stick him. He ended up going to Beverly Hills Infiniti and having the one he wanted trucked out to him in Franklin. We only bought my car there years ago because they had the one we wanted on the lot. And he recently bought a M35 from there, and they messed up that order too.

I will say that there's a good Detail guy that works at Nashville Infiniti though (high school friend).

And as for the Davidson doing emissions thing - my bad, I didn't know they'd been doing it for so long. I only knew from living in Franklin and my short state/municipal gov't education at Boys' State that only a few counties in TN seemed to do it.