Maxima570

iTrader: (1)

For those who have a 6 speed, is the car overly jerky when:

1. You are going slow in 1st or second gear (MORE than usual with a stickshift: if someone flames me I will hunt them down and steal their headlights, EVEN IF ITS A 00-01 )

2. Even when in 3rd or 4th gear and let off the gas? My car really jerks a lot, to the point where it can be hard to regulate.

Could this be motor mount or transmission issues? I can control it, but it is much worse than in my 96 5 speed and my friend's A4. Anyone else have this problem?

Puppetmaster

iTrader: (48)

You suck at teh driving.


















Just kidding. Check out this thread too:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=462851

carsarecool

iTrader: (1)

I know exactly what you mean, i have a 5 speed and i guess theirs a fuel cut tsb and a bad MAF can cause that too, in first or second it bucks and stutters sometimes.

elgrande2003se

iTrader: (3)

My 03 6 speed does the same thing. Wish I knew what caused it.

Paulb

Maxima570

iTrader: (1)

HAHAHA

Thanks for that link, I guess it's just a common problem, I also have several small other annoyances that I can focus on, like when accelerating (not all that hard, it pulls to the right, same thing when hard braking, I don't know if it is the tire?) Also, when the wheel is turned almost all the way in either direction and go over a small bump like at the end of the driveway, it makes a creaking noise from both sides. The fan made a really loud noise once, and now it clicks (like a deck of card in a bicycle wheel) on the passenger footwell. Also the rear air door noise drives me nuts, I'm going to perform that TSB myself this week sometime.

Just had to get those petty things out, other than that the car has been great and I do love it

AND ONE MORE THING: I was pulling through the mercedes-benz dealer near my house, and it was dark, and the salesperson came out and I was talking to her and she said "wow this car is pretty nice looking, and nice xenons, what is it?" And I said with great pride and joy, "It's a maxima!" ha thought everyone would like to hear that

kbohip

The pulling is normal for the Maxima. What you're feeling is called torque steer and this is typical for a high powered front wheel drive car. As far as pulling when your braking? It depends alot on how level the road is and if it has ruts in it. I have noticed though that my Maxima seems to want to go in just about any direction but straight sometimes. I'm hoping this is just because of the ultra crappy Futura tires the previous owner was nice enough to put on for me.

My car hasn't seemed to to the creaking while turning yet so I can't help you on that one. The noise your hearing from the fan is almost certainly a leaf that is caught in the fan blower wheel. You should take out the cabin air filter and see if something got past it. Here's the instructions on how to remove the filter:
http://www.innerbean.com/housecor/cabin_filter.html

boondoxmax

iTrader: (1)

Yes it is pretty jerky. Mine is the same way, and yes it is more jerkier than any stick I've ever owned......

MAXRB8

iTrader: (19)

I've owned over 20 standard transmission cars and every car requires a different technique, this "drive by wire" Maxima is the most sensitive, there are many many factors that could cause bucking even as little as a vaccum leak, but in most cases it's a case of re educating ourselves to "drive by wire" technology which this is certainly my first.

AcerX

AND ONE MORE THING: I was pulling through the mercedes-benz dealer near my house, and it was dark, and the salesperson came out and I was talking to her and she said "wow this car is pretty nice looking, and nice xenons, what is it?" And I said with great pride and joy, "It's a maxima!" ha thought everyone would like to hear that[/QUOTE]

Sweetness. You should have said then (j/k here guys), "Yeeaaaaaaaahhuuupppp. Its no McKlaren but it'll spank your C-class anyday!

hahahahaha

zero2sixtyZ

iTrader: (30)

My maxima is the first manual car I've owned, but I did notice the jerkyness as well, as opposed to some others I've driven. I was told it is normal on this car, and it makes sense if drive-by-wire is that different. Would there be anything or any mod we could do to help the jerkyness?

Maxima570

iTrader: (1)

I took the air filter out and cleaned it, and I let all of the stuff in there blow out all over the car (and then had to vaccum). It still makes the noise, is the fan easy to take out/inspect for debris do you know?

Thanks for all the responses everyone!

djchinky

iTrader: (3)

i didnt know what was causing all that jerkin either.. but my friend told me it was cause of the front wheel drive.. he also said u can get better engine mounts or something like that

vsamoylov

engine managment is at fault here.

Puppetmaster

iTrader: (48)

I don't think he was referring to torque steer. I think he was talking about driving in a straight line and the car pulling or drifting to the right. If that's the case, it may be the alignment, tires, etc that are possible causes.

MaxHind

i have that problem too. very annoying sometimes when ur in traffic with people in the car and u get tired of trying to drive smooth. I got used to it, my gas pedal is so touchy.. like just breathing on it makes it go up to 2000 rpm, and its jerky in 1-2 gears. Feels kinda race like sometimes, so it has its good and bad.

02SEleeper

I think it’s your motor mounts. When I first got my max it accelerated smooth without wheel hop. As it got faster, the harder I drove it; and as a result the wheel hop started and continued to worsen. I replaced my motor mounts with PR mounts, problem solved. As I drove the car hard again, the wheel hop returned, PR mounts suck. I should be receiving my ES mount inserts next month due to a back order issue. I believe the problem is that the engine rocks upon acceleration, and rocks back upon deceleration; what I believe you are feeling is motion in your engine compartment.
My $.02

djchinky

iTrader: (3)

I had this problem with my car.. it would pull to the right a bit.. i did a tire balance and it fixed that

carsarecool

iTrader: (1)

Well for one i know that nissan engineers got this engine to be so smooth and vibration-free from the motor mounts, i guess their pretty soft and people on here have changed them out to stronger ones- they get more vibration at idle but it takes care of wheel hop. On the bucking issue, i hear ya with it getting annoying on stop and go, its like the only fix is to give it more gas haha. Well its true, and thats what makes me think its something else since if it was MAF it would buck even at 1/2 throttle too, but when you give it a decent amount of gas(not flooring it but enough to get some power) its fine but when you blip the gas and try to accelerate slowly it bucks.

kbohip

This is exactly what it feels like to me. I think Nissan probably uses very soft motor mounts to make the engine smoother at idle but this in turn lets the engine move around a bit too much. Too bad we can't put a camera under the hood and go find a traffic jam.

EDIT: Crap, that's what I get for not reading the last post in the thread before I post. carsarecool pretty much already said the same thing I did.

boondoxmax

iTrader: (1)

From what another org member said it's the gearing. First gearing being so short may have something to do with it.

orangejuicejay

i have noticed the torque steer problems but if you just keep your hand on the wheel its not going anywhere haha. the wheel hop i have not experienced....it does shift jerkier than other manual transmissions but if you are smooth with your shifting then its really not a problem at all. i owned a 240sx before my 02 max and its really all about how smoothly you shift....just gotta be smoooooth with it.

02SEleeper

I’m not to sure if he was referring to actual shifting in the original post. I think what he was referring to is when you’re moving at a slower speed and are forced to keep it in first, second or third @ 2000 rpms. There’s a point where you are bouncing between acceleration and deceleration; the car will have a kind of bucking feel to it. I notice it most in heavy traffic.

cwc412

I have an 03 6 speed and not had any problems with jerkiness. I'm no mechanic but I do know that there is a TSB issued for an upgrade to the ECU for us 6 speeders. I have had problems with other cars in the past where the throttle felt like an on-off switch. Cleaning the throttle body helped. Maybe it will work for your max.

Best of luck!

Konrad

iTrader: (5)

I had the same problem. At first I thought it was torque steer. When i accelerated, it would pull to the right, when I deccelerated or hit the brakes, it would pull to the left. It wasn't torque steer, although it is part of the problem. It ended up being one of the struts/shocks in the front. It was worn out. I changed both fronts and now I'm just left with torque steer. Check them out, see if they crapped out. Good luck

ganoid

iTrader: (1)

I notice the Jerkiness you are talking about as well. Having driven tons of computer controlled Diesel trucks using the drive by wire system I can say with out hesitation that its in the pedal. The graduation of the sensor in the accelerator pedal is a bit course for a high torque motor like the VQ35 in a low ratio manual. If some one wants to feel a really course pedal just get into a mid 90's Ford Power Joke... err stroke and slowly press the pedal down @idle and you can literally hear each stage of the sensor respond in the motor (its about like stepping on a 10 stage toggle switch). That Jerky feeling comes from light pedal pressure and the car switching between idle mode (no pedal input) and the first stage of the sensor (accelerate mode). I just avoid this with brisk acceleration when its time to go and pulling the car out of gear when I'm slowing down to stop (Hint...the less time you have your foot on the clutch the longer it will last).