Hi guys, my car had a CEL light for quite a while, so i decided to change the coils and MAF, because supposedly they were the cause. I have been running a CAI for a couple of years now and and CEL was going on and off, sometimes going off for a week, sometimes staying on for 3 months. Well, before i changed the coils and MAF, i went back to short ram intake, and surprisingly, my CEL went off after about 15 minutes of driving. I already bought the coils and MAF, so there was no way back. I installed NEW MAF and coils and went back to a Cold Air Intake also. i drove for about 80 miles since then and got a CEL today on the way to work. I was so pissed i almost started kicking the car. I mean what the heck is going on? what can be wrong now? I decided not to reset the ECU, so that i could pull the code tommorow morning. But still, this is rediculous, the car worked better than i ever remember and boom, here you go, a CEL!!! Could this be my CAI? thanks.

 

Pull the codes and we will be able to help you further...

 

Could be the cat. my CEL was coming on when I had driven long enuf 2 get it hot. then the cat would crap and o2 sensor would not be happy and CEL.

 

yup pull the codes man, its easy...
you do clean you filter every 5-10k miles right?

 

i installed a brand new filter with my CAI...

 

i cannot believe this!!! not a single autozone withing 15 miles of my house has a rental OBDII scanner to read my codes...fantastic!!!

 

have you tried the one in millbrae?

 

yeah, i have. they said they do not have any...

 

Did you reset your ecu after the coils an maf install? It could just be a code that needs to be cleared.

 

well, when i installed the new stuff, there was no code to begin with... the CEL was not even lighted up...

 

well, when i installed the new stuff, there was no code to begin with... the CEL was not even lighted up...

 

I would try resetting the ecu then, theres a write up in the 5th gen FAQ.

 

i thought that write-up was for VQ35 equipped vehicles...

 

just my 2cents worth: why not try bringing your car to the dealer and have them reprogram your ecu? when I changed my 02 sensor, CEL kept popping up. Dealer said that ecu had to be reprogrammed to get used to the settings of the new 02. Best thing I ever did.

 

how much did you payu those stealers?

 

im curious about all of this as well. i just put an injen CAI on my girls 00 maxima gxe and i'm having all sorts of issues. first gear wont wine out, power is hesitant, CEL just cut back on today after being cleared (p0171), and i have a mystery hose that has no home but i'm sure that doesnt have much to do with it. when i first put it on i got the running lean codes for bank 1 and 2. of course i'm in the same boat of getting the advice of changing the o2 sensors, MAF, coils, etc. didnt have this problem before the CAI. the car does have some hesitation when first started though but it stops on it's own. if you're lucky you have the p0171 code and then we'll be in the same boat. i've been searching forums, google, and yahoo to find help but nothing seems to answer my specific issue.

 

Frisco -
suggest you double-check the vacuum connections to the intake, as well as the coupler pieces to make sure you have no vacuum leak. The fact that you only have this problem WITH the intake on suggests that it is not an O2, MAF, or coil issue....

What brand/model of intake is it?

the mystery hose, I assume, is a little u-shaped curl between the battery and the engine.....if so, don't worry about it. It's a breather and doesn't attach to anything.

your situation sounds like a vacuum leak as well, though I've heard from many on here that the Injen intake causes loss of low-end (aka hesitation in some case). Since you haven't switched back to stock for comparison, there is the possibility that you damaged the MAF, which could cause an incorrect air volume reading (and could cause lean running).

Since she has an 00 maxima, the MAF is fairly cheap to replace (under $100) - I would go ahead and get a new one (call DaveB for the best price). If it works, great. If not, it's still a good thing to have, since the MAFs are notorious on our cars (I carry a spare when on long road trips).

 

I was wondering what that hose for. When I was checking all the fluid levels, I noticed that little hose. At first I was a little worried but then I figured it must be ok because I couldn't find anything that it could attach to.

 

i know i am pathetic but it is the $55 ebay CAI... forgive me

 

all the hoses and clams are secured super tight. there's no chance there might be a leak anywhere... i am thinking of going back to short ram for good...

 

maybe your car is trying to tell you something? short ram ftw.

 

Cosmo Racing (E-bay) from canada has a decent CAI for 100 bucks. It has all the vacuum ports for our cars.

 

apologies. I'm not famiiar with the word "stealers". If you are referring to the body kit: $800 all around from Stillen. If you are referring to the projectors, 180.00 plus cost of HID.

 

Reyrey, he's referring to the dealerships AKA stealerships.

Irish44j, i'm going to reinstall the stock intake this weekend to see if that makes a difference.

Friscomaxima, hope i didnt steal this thread from you.

i found a company on EBay called SRT motorsports that sold me the injen intake for $225ish which i thought was a great deal. any idea how to convert that to a short ram or is that no possible with this model?

 

[QUOTE=05wrxblowths]Reyrey, he's referring to the dealerships AKA stealerships.

LOL...to reprogram the ECU, this Nissan dealer we all go to up here charged $45.00 Canadian ( about 43.00 US). By we, I mean the Toronto Maxima Enthusiasts Club. The Service Manager is a great guy to deal with and does a lot of work for Maxima enthusiasts.

The car feels a lot quicker after the reprogram...and most importantly, got rid of my CEL's

 

last time i called the stelers (about 6 mos ago) they told me that 2000 ECU is not reprogrammable...

 

i found a company on EBay called SRT motorsports that sold me the injen intake for $225ish which i thought was a great deal. any idea how to convert that to a short ram or is that no possible with this model?[/QUOTE]

If you follow thsi link:

http://www.torontomaxima.com/

then go to the performance section, there is a thread entited converting your Injen to Frankencar type intake. A member made his own short ram out of steel tube. You can probably do the same witha 3" PVC pipe and bore out the holes for the various vacuum hoses. If you use the porper brass hose connector and attach this to the PVC or steel tube, you have yourself a cheap sort ram intake.

 

i've got an update for everyone on this topic. my girl took her car to the nissan dealership she used to work at and the tech is telling her it could be the cat. that's a long laundry list of things that it "could be". so far we're up to o2 sensors, coils, vacuum lines/leaks, MAF sensor, reprogram, and cat. sorry if i missed any. i dont understand why everyone else can put a CAI on and be fine. this is killing me.

 

omg. wtf!!! how could a CAI influence a CEL caused by Cat?

^lol, i wounder if noobs would understand this...

 

One way to really find out is just re-install the stock intake and clear the CEL's. If all is good, make note of all the vacuum lines and sensors ( my 01 has 3 vacuum hoses and 2 sensors: MAF and Air temp). I've interchanged between the Injen and short ram Frankencar. I have not thrown a CEL yet. It must be a cut hose that is causing this.

 

grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

hang in there and just check each hose leading to the CAI. A small cut or even check the sensor wiring. One may have been pinched enough to cause an open circuit.

 

well hopefully i will reinstall the stock intake sometime this week and let you know. be nice if i can get it done tonight to speed up the process but she doesnt get off until 7 and i have to get my bike to the shop so time will be tight. sounds like frisco and i are going to become really good friends LOL

 

lemme go quadriple check everything again...be right back...

 

ok, you might as well slap me...

i went down to the garage and started checking the intake piping, it was rock solid and when i yanked it from side to side had maybe 1/8" of play at most. then, as you all know, there are 3 hoses leading to the intake piping after the maf: the crankcase filter, the medium size hose (which i dunno wtf is) and a small size hose (dunno what that is either). well, the largest and the smallest hoses were secured so tight, you could probably tow the car by them, but the medium sized hose was not secured tighly AT ALL!!! and apparently it leads to some vaccum sensor, because i tried to blow into the hole and suck air out of there (yes it sounds weird, you pervs!!!), but there's not air movement to it. i traced the pipes leading to a sensor of some sort near the passenger strut mount. so yeah, i secured everything correctly now. so we'll see if my CEL will go away now.

 

hey let me know if that works bc i know that all the tubes i put on were tight but that could be part of it. may have to get some small clamps to put on there since they dont have it now.

 

well, went to work adn back, total of 16 miels and the light is still on... besides that the car felt like a piece of crap before it warmed up. getting this weiird hesistation before hitting 2000-2500rpm,,,

 

that hesitation is a good sign that the MAF is going bad....mine did the same thing before I replaced it. SOmetimes the MAF (which is VERY fragile) gets banged around and damaged when doing intake work.

but....you should get the code pulled first, on the chance that it is a bad coil (also notorious in these cars).....we can tell you more when we have a code to work with.

 

The light will not clear on its own. You will have to clear this off. It sounds like one of your sensors (either MAF or Air Temp) is gone. I will try unplugging the each one independently tomorrow and see if I get the same results ( poor engine idle, stalling etc and what codes I pull up).

If I may suggest, it may not be a bad idea to invest in an OBDII code reader. I did when the cost of each one was close to 200 each. The unit paid itself off since I purchased it. I think you can buy a cheap one off eBay.

 

this thing is that the code went off by itself when i went back to short ram and the car idled so well, i had to look at tachometer to figure out if it's running...