Quick question everyone. Do irridium spark plugs (ngk) really make a difference? I got bosh platinum with 4 tips right now

Irridium does not conduct electricity as well as platinum. Because of that, the spark is not as strong when compared to platinum plugs, but this makes irridum plugs last longer. The average consumer loves things that last longer and can't tell the difference in everyday driving.

The amount or percentage of spark reduction that irridium causes is pretty small. A better word is probably minute. Since the cars are designed to use irridium plugs, the coil packs are designed to work at a higher voltage to compensate for the conductivity difference.

If you really want performance, get copper plugs. But be prepared to replace them evey 10K miles or so.

As to 4 tips being better than 1 tip or 2 tips or 3 tips, I don't know.

Thx for the info. I rather performance than durability. Not as bad as copper then. I thought irridum would give me better performance but in that case ill stay with platinum. Thx!

Hey, I'm new to forums. I just wrecked my 02 and need the whole headlight assembly and fender for passenger side. Anybody have any suggestions?

If you are going to do the repairs yourself, go to the junkyard and see if you can get the parts there. That will be less expensive.

I've been searching the forum for about 20 minutes now and I can't find a thread about how to convert my 5.5 gen fogs to HID. Can anyone tell me how to accomplish this?

I just got a 02 se. The owner said theres no leaks but oil was low a few times. How can I tell if its burning oil. What maintenance should be done, 117000 miles on it.

i would appriciate the help , .... i am trying to install a berk intake on ma 00 max, i understand that there are three hoses connected to the stock intake , one larger one that connects to the berk pipe and two smaller hoses , i would like to know , what am i supposed to do with the smaller hoses ? thanks

how do you post pictures on this website?? thats my question. Help me out please....

You can look under the car for oil leak inspection by yourself, or you can bring it in a garage for an oil change and have them look for signs of oil leak. If there are no sign of leaks anywhere so it's probably burning either through the valve seals or worn piston rings. Does the tail pipe has more than normal smoke when you first started the car ?

I searched for "hid fog lights" and got 245 hits in less time than it took me to type it in...

Here is one of them:

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...fit-build.html

First you upload the photo to a web site that does photo hosting such as photobucket.com or imageshack.com or maxima.org.

Please don't post giant 12 megapixel photos of photos with 2048 resolution. They display too big on the screen

Then get the url for that photo and type it into the post you are creating. Then type [img] at the front of it and [/img] after it. It can be upper case or lower case - it doesn't matter.

Example - url of a photo:

http://racinglineperformance.com/sho...903_detail.jpg

now with the [img] [/img] added to it.

Hi,

The title should be "Nissan Maxima - Sometimes transmission does not shift from Gear 1 to Gear 2"

I have recently bought Nissan Maxima 2002 (3.0J) and i am having a strange issue. Sometimes during driving, my car does not shift from gear 1 to gear 2 - especially after crossing bump or stopping at signals, when the car downshifts to gear 1. When i push the accelerator, it revs high. I even tried shifting to neutral, D2 and back but it does not work. Whenever this happens, I have to pull over and turn the engine off. When i start immediately, the problem persists, however, if i start after 1-2 minutes, the car behaves OK.
This problem usually occurs after 30-40 minutes of driving when the car is totally warm.
Apart from above, sometimes Check AT light also comes when i start my car (It keeps on blinking for 08 sec or so). But this happens occasionally too. The car works extremely smooth and fine, no other issues except this one. Accelaration is perfect and shifting is smooth too.

I have also changed transmission oil recently, but the problem is not solved
Please guide me what could be the possible causes and solutions. Is there any DIY which i can experiment?

The A/T in our cars are notoriously bad. It could be one of many things though and thats the problem with tranny issues. You changed the fluid recently? did you use dex3 or better? It stays in 1 and doesnt shift at all past 1?

Noxitrao i believe i may be able to help you. first off if u have an 02 then its a 3.5 or a 01 3.0. Refatdless i had a similar problem. In my case sometimes it seems as if my car would go to neutral and it wouldnt shift untill i turned the car off and back on. It also occured aftwr some time of driving when it was good and warm. In my case turned out to be transmission speed sensor or revolution sensor which was extremly easy to change and took about 10 minutes. I cannot tell you for sure that it your problem since it coyld be a number of things as your torque converter for example. Maybe if u can tell us more about thr symptoms we might be able to help more

It was Dex3. The car is working fine in all gears. However, when the problem occurs, it does not shift at all from Gear 1 to any other gear and I have to stop the car, turn it off, wait for sometimes and restart again

Thanks for the reply guys. I have 3.0 J. This problem occurs while the car is running and hot. Most commonly when i decelerate while crossing a speed breaker or stopping at signal lights - when the car goes into first gear. It happens sometimes, you can say 2-3 times in a week. Long drives are fine and there is no problem whatsoever in other gears.

hearing it only happens when it is warm is telling me it is probably burnt clutch plates. When the tranny fluid warms up the clutch plates probably start to fail. Take it to a mechanic and have them check the transmission control module for codes. The bad news is that you probably need a new transmission. Once you take it apart you might as well go ahead and change everything in there. Find one in a salvage or pull-a-part and find a mechanic who will install it for cheap. Its not complicated just time consuming

This might be a possbility. But my point is, the car works perfectly fine in all other gears. There is no slippage at all. I have done several long routes 300+ miles and the car shifts very well. Why does AT check light comes sometimes when i start the car when it is cold? Does AT check light also tell you about condition of clutch plates?

If there is something wrong the light will be on from when you start it to when you turn it the car off. Only way to find out for sure is to go check the codes. If it happens when its warm then its probably the plates. Intermittent means its probably really close to completely failing. I would check it out asap so your not stranded 300 miles from home

Yeah i suggest that you would take the car to a trusty local trans shop, at least to have them scan for code, could be just a sensor as said above that throws resistance off spec or something. If so you can get it fix before it getting worse.

First off, you better off taking it to a local parts store where u can get scaned for free. Get the codes and research about it. Second dont get ahead of yourself and go spend all kind of money when it may be your transmission speed sensor. Here's something you can do and wont cost you anything. Your tranmission speed sensor is locaded on the top driver side corner of your tranny. Jack the car and pull driver side tire off. You will see it, its small and a 10 mm bolt holds it in place. Pull it off and look for sings off wear and tear as well as dirt or shreded metal. Clean it and clean the wire contacts and put it back on to see if you get any improvement. How many miles you car has?

^^^ I don't think OBD (check engine and SES) is the same system as the transmission codes that trips the AT light. I think you need a separate diag for transmission, right?

Can someone confirm?

There is a self diagnostic that you can run on the auto transmission. The "check at" light will blink and you count the blinks.

If the trans is working ok at the time you run the diagnostic, I would expect the results to be "no problem detected". So I suppose you will have to run the diagnostic when you experience the problem. Keep a copy of the diagnostic proceedure in the car and pull into a parking lot or someplace and run the diagnostic when you have the problem.

Download the FSM to get this proceedure. It is in the AT.PDF section, starting on page 51 in the 2002 FSM.

http://boredmder.com/FSMs/Nissan/Maxima/

You do get DTC codes, all in the P07xx range. If you want to know the specific codes, they are listed in the table of contents in the AT section of the FSM.

^^ thanks

Okay...I tried that ...tube is straight...I basically changed out everything outside of the gas tank....vent hosese and charcoal canister....still won't let me pump more than a quarter at a time....tried the snake it goes straight into the tank no problems.....Any other suggestions?????

I've got a 2002 Maxima, stock. In the past year I've had issues... changed bank 1 and 2 intake valve timing solenoid, new throttle body, new catyllitic converter (central). after that one of my piston rings blew. So i was burning a lot of oil. I decided to have the engine rebuilt. In addition to the rebuild both actuators were replaced (@ $500 each). I picked up the car yesterday, it ran great for a bit then the engine light came on. Still runs fine. The code that its throwing is P0011: the intake valve timing control (bank1) causing an advanced timing issue. the timing control for both banks are new. Any idea what other issue may be?.... I plan on taking it back to the rebuilder and having them check the timing, hopefully they just screwed that up.... But I'm afraid they are going to tell me that there is nothing else that they can do. Any one with similar issues after having so much work done?:

FWIW, a low mileage used engine would've cost less than the $500 (each!) VTC actuator.

As for the P0011, how's the oil level and condition? Correct weight? Note that the code can also be caused by an issue with the cam and/or crank sensors.

If I remember your original post, you have had this problem since you got the car. Do you know the repair history of the car? Specifically anything to do with the gas tank?

I ask because there are 4 hoses that go to the fuel tank. The filler tube and vent tube are 2 of them. Looking at the service manual, the vent tube may consist of 2 tubes. I can't tell what the 4th tube is doing or where it goes.

What I'm thinking is that if the fuel tank was removed and the hoses got mixed up when it was re-installed, maybe this is the problem. But I am just guessing, I really don't have any idea of what is going on.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yeah surely will try that and will post. I am currently having 153,000 Kms or 95,625 miles on it. How to check the codes? I mean the AT check light does blink for 08 secs after the car starts, but this too happens occasionally. Where is ECU or TCU located where codes are shown? I'll definitely take the car to mechanic this weekend and will post the outcome. I live in UAE by the way. How much does a new tranny cost? I have 3.0 L engine and how much does used one cost?
Regards,

The codes are not shown on the ECU or TCU units. You will have to get an OBD code reader plugged into the car. The connector for the OBD code reader is located in the lower edge of the dash, left side of the car, about where you left knee is when you are sitting in the car.

A brand new transmission from Nissan is very expensive, approximately $3500 USD. A complete re-build by a repair shop may cost approximately $2000 USD. The price of a used transmission varies, it depends on availability. The prices start at around $500. But since you live in the UAE, prices could very different.

Quick question. I got 188k miles on my car right, and havr never changex power steering fluid. Should i change it? And if so whats the best way?

Yes / turkey baster.

Ok. Forgive me for my lack of knoledge here but turkey baster?

Yes, use a turkey baster to suck out the old PS fluid. Google the procedure.

Thanks. But every time I type anything in the search box on the forum it shows "No Results" so i had to keep going through thread after thread >.<

Gotcha. Thx!

Hi guys. Quick question my horn does not beep when I lock my 02 se with the remote. But will when I do panic button or just sound the horn regularly. What could the problem be a fuse or what?

It's a feature/option.

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...ing-doors.html