Hi everyone. I have 2000 SE 5spd. My reverse lights weren't working so I went to replace the reverse switch (located on the bottom of the tranny). Didn't realize that it was also a plug for the gear oil, and it all spilled out. The car wasn't level and I let all the fluid drain out before I put the new one in. I bought some new gear oil and went to pour it in, but when I went under the hood and opened the cap for it, it looked like it was full. What do I do?

 

your lights weren't working so you went and replaced the switch?

Did you bother to check the BULBS first?

 

The bulbs are fine, i had them checked at autozone. my question was about the gear oil

 

I'm confused. Which cap did you open? If you checked the slave cylinder it would be full still.

 

The one in the far back right. I guess that would be the slave cylinder after looking at my haynes manual. What do you recommend I do?

 

The slave cylinder is only for your clutch not the manual transmission itself. See link below on filling instructions
http://forums.maxima.org/fluids-lubr...-gear-oil.html

or.... with pictures...
http://vbxmaxima.8m.com/mtoil.html

Good luck!

 

It can be related and you'll find out when you get it all back together and started up. Let us know.

The EGR tube is a definite PITA. When I went through all my EGR parts it took me a few hours to get it all disassembled. Then an hour or so to get it back together. Patience...

 

Hey all, new member with a 2002 Se 6-speed. Been wondering about how I would go about getting my exterior door handles to be chrome like some of the other maximas I see out there. Can I paint it while it is on the door by covering the rest of the car? Must I remove the entire handle assembly first? Is it easier to order a finished product from somewhere and just replace them?

I'm also interested in getting either clear or smoked side markers. What would you guys suggest for this color (black) and how would I go about getting them?

Thanks for the info, here's a pic.

 

I also have another problem. I recently bought the car from the original owner who had both fog lights cracked, but didn't bother to replace the lens so what happens was the entire inner part of the lamp is rusted. What parts am I going to need to fix this? Will I need to buy two entire fog light assemblies? Where is the best place to buy this from? I am also interested in HID bulbs.

 

You'll need entire fog assemblies. Junkyard or dealer.

 

Well, it's done. Ended up doing EGR Tube, UIM, Both valve cover gaskets and cleaned the throttle body and IACV. Car runs great and is not stalling at idle. I do have a problem still though. On my UIM, followed tightening procedure and torqued to 15ft lbs, well the bolt on the front left broke??. There is a vacuum leak coming from under the intake manifold as well. Im hoping the UIM didn't crack. I sprayed carb cleaner around, but could not pinpoint the leak and no change in idle. I guess i'm tearing back in to it this weekend with a new (junkyard) UIM handy just in case TO my surprise, the car is running excellent, even with the leak. I just know that bolt is broken and I'm not the type to just leave it, even if it means tearing it back off. any suggestions before I do this?

 

If you decide to paint the handles, it would be easier if you removed them. Taking the handles out is a bit of a pain because you have to remove various rods that connect inside the door. Some models of the Infinity i35 have chrome handles, check your local junk yards. It may be a bigger project than you think.

 

Hi everyone,

I recently (a few months ago) bought an 03 Maxima GLE and I've loved it so far. It only had 49k miles when I bought it and it's currently at 52k. But I have noticed that the shifts, (particularly 2nd to 3rd) are a bit delayed; doesn't seem like slipping at all, just not real quick. the tranny fluid isn't terrible looking, barely a little brown creeping in, smells fine. I'm not sure when the last flush/filter replacement was done, there was no service record i could find.

So my question is, for my situation, what would you recommend? I just wanna make sure I keep up with the scheduled maintenance, I don't wanna neglect the filter or anything if I just drain and fill. Bear with me here, I'm not all that mechanically inclined...

Thanks, just searching this forum's already been a big help to me so far!

 

And honestly, it looks pretty ugly on the I30/35s so it would be ugly on the Maximas too. If it were my car, I'd black out the trim around the windows, go for the full black look.

 

i was throwing the p1448 and p0455 codes. replaced the rear control valve, cleared codes and now i'm showing a p0160 oxygen sensor circuit no activity bank 2 sensor 2 and the same p0455. the p0160 is stil showing as pending, been sitting there as pending for a couple days.

i have a stant gas cap that i've had for a couple years now. checked all hoses coming into and out of the canister, dont see any cracks back there.

is there any reason the control valve or p1448 code could be related to this code?
i was wondering if the p1448 would prevent the p0160 from showing up?

which sensor is the bank 2 sensor 2 and will i have problems if i just buy the cheapest o2 sensor available? the body on this car isn't good enough to justify fixing it completely-i am also having problems with the cat, as the monitor likes to show incomplete most of the time. my end goal is to clear the codes long enough to acquire a sticker and get another 3-6 months outta this car.
it's an 01 se with 178k on it. cali emissions trying to get inspected in ny

 

You probably do need to change the O2 sensor, it's probably close to completely going out. A pending code says the problem was detected but then it went away and the ECU is going to wait and see if it happens again before turning on the check engine light.

The P0455 and P1448 may be related. The P0445 says it could be the gas cap or it could be the EVAP Canister Vent Control Valve. The P1448 says the EVAP Canister Vent Control Valve is bad. The FSM says if you have both the P0445 and P1448, fix the P1448 first.

So check the EVAP Canister Vent Control Valve. It has a habit of failing. It is bolted onto the EVAP canister behind the driver's rear wheel. It is a solenoid valve where the plunger will stick. Sometimes you can take it off and spray WD40 in it and free up the plunger with a screwdriver and not have to replace it.

 

If I were in your position I would drain the fluid, drop the pan and inspect for metal shavings. The pan has a couple magnets to catch the metal shavings so you will spot problems right away. Some final metal dust is perfectly normal, but if you see a bunch of metal shavings then you have a bigger issue.

There is a metal screen, which really is not technically a filter, but acts like one. You can pull it down and inspect it as well.

If you are unsure you can always take pictures of the pan and the screen then post it on here to show us and we can give our thoughts.

If you find nothing abnormal with the pan or screen then it is likely your TCM (transmission control module). There is a bunch of information on the 2nd to 3rd "slipping" if you look up TCM. The TCM isn't terribly difficult to replace, but you have to remove the center console to get to it.

FYI...when you drain and drop the pan be sure to pick up a new gasket (it uses a paper fiber gasket. You will need approximately 5 quarts of ATF to refill. The best way to make sure you don't under or overfill is measure out how much ATF you drain and add that amount back in on the refill. You don't need to replace the bolts for the pan as some would suggest. They will be fine to reuse.

 

Alright. Long story short, In august, my car died. There was steam coming out of the tail pipe. Dad and I figured it was a head gasket. Sure enough when we tore it down and removed the heads, we saw flash rust on one side of engine. we replaced the head gasket put the engine back in and have reconnected everything. Here's the problem. When we try to start the car, it turns over and its trying, but it never fires. Fuel is getting to the injectors, but it's not starting. Occasionally when trying it will catch and sputter for a half a second but it will never actually run. Help!

 

Number 1 quick answer is check the FSM.

 

I own a '00 with just over 150k. I recently replaced all four brake rotors and pads because of strong pulsation (felt in both steering wheel and brake pedal) all the way from 80-0. Tires have less than 3k on them, wheels are balanced. My brakes still pulsate when stopping.

Pulsation seems to get stronger as I drive (first stop feels smooth). I also have a torn CV boot, but I don't hear or feel clicking and the joint is still greased.

My brake shop suggested this may be a transmission problem, as brakes feel smooth at high speed but pulsation is very bad around 10-20mph. I think they may be trying to get out of doing warranty work on the rotors they installed.

Any thoughts? I'm familiar with the possibility of warped rotors out of the box, but he claims they checked runout...

 

Did they or you do a proper bedding procedure on the new brakes and are you sure one of the calipers doesn't have a sticky piston causing one rotor to always be braking and thus getting too hot? Our 5th Gen's have IMO too small brakes for their bulk, but unless you have bad bearings on a front wheel that would cause this (like the outer hub is ready to fall off with the rim...) and I seriously doubt this because you would feel it all the time, then you still have a brake problem I would guess.

 

They did bleed the system, I went to Midas so I assume they did it correctly. Pedal feels firm. I don't feel the car slowing at a higher rate when I let off the gas, and I don't hear any brake rub. I will check this and report. Ride is great at any speed, no wobble, bounce, or rumble until I brake.

Is there any chance this is related to the trans like the Midas guy suggested? It does shift hard occasionally, especially in stop+go traffic when it downshifts. I would assume engine revs would fluctuate if this was the case, but I haven't experienced that either.

 

Not bleeding, my friend, bedding. It's always a good idea to bed the new pads to the rotor surface. Look it up to find out the correct way to do this. Your brakes will be in much better condition and will last longer this way.

 

And I suppose it could be a trans problem as well, although I personally have never experienced that kind of shaking from a transmission and it seems like it would be more pronounced at high speeds rather than low speeds and shaking regardless of hitting the brakes or not. Look at all your new rotors and see if one is all discolored. That will at least give you an idea if one of the rotors has gotten overheated.

 

An easy way to discount the transmission as part of the problem is to put it in neutral during braking and see if there is any difference in the symptoms/issues. If not...then it is not your transmission.

 

Good point @foodmanry, I tried this last night and no difference. I'm becoming convinced that either the rotors were warped out of the box or they warped in the first week before they were broken-in. Any case, I will bring the car to another brake shop and ask them to measure the runout and inspect the system in general. Learned my lesson with the big-name shops...

 

@Galactica thanks I misread the previous post. No, I did not complete this procedure, though I have done so in the past, with bikes and cars. Will make this a standard part of my brake-in procedure.

 

i have an big issue...
2000 nissan maxima 3.0 automatic tranny...
i recently had my radio stolen and the thieves cut my wires leading to my ac control unit...which was manual....
i bought a full dash wiring harness ($75) to replace the connectors and i bought a used ac control unit...automatic....is there any chance that i replace just the wires and connectors leading to the control unit (wire by wire) or would i have to replace the whole in dash wiring harness...and is it possible to convert the manual control unit wiring to the automatic control unit wiring....or should i just bite the bullet and take it in to nissan....more than likely coming back with over a 2500 dollar bill...at the least....

 

Unless I am mistaken the manual controls are not interchangable with the auto controls very easily, but I could be wrong. And unless the wires are all hacked up bad, I would think if you really wanted to take the time to do it properly, you could resplice the harnesses back to the original wires. I would get the solder-type butt-splices to ensure good and permanent contact though. They have melting solder inside with a shrink-tube outside so you know you're making perfect connection.

 

My passenger heated seats button sometimes works and sometimes does not. No idea why. Whats the first thing I should do?

I also have a few other electrical problems. If the driver side window is open and you try to press the automatic close button, it will close then reopen about about 1/3 down. The sunroof also does something similar, it will close and then reopen about half way.

 

Search for the reset procedures for the window and sunroof in the forums. The heated seat thing could be as simple as the switch and more probably the heating element in the seat going out. My driver side heater only works about half as well as it should.

 

Hi,
I have the primary ignition problem with the SES, TCS and SLIP lights on my car (2000 Maxima with a 3,0 engine). I have read many treads about this. But still not sure whether I should start with changing the coils. If I do all it costs almost $500. I do not seem to be feeling a hesitation or any kid of misfire with the engine. The scanner just gives the core P1320 without any other code. It starts/cranks totally fine. Could it be the camshaft position sensor instead of coils or will the coils get worse with the time ? By the way I think the gas consumption also increased a lot recently. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

Sounds like you do have a couple bad ignition coils. To save money, your best bet is to buy one front and one rear ignition coil. Change them one by one to see when your P1320 goes away. I had the P1320 with a tiny bit of misfire and found it to be only one bad ignition coil.

Be sure to track your gas consumption very closely. It could be inter-related or it could be a wholly separate issue such as a primary O2 sensor going out.

Take care of the P1320 first...

 

ok so where would i find those specific diagrams for that alot of the wires dont look like they match up with the new harness but if i can figure out the basic functions of each wire i should be good...i can live without some of the features missing...but i just wanna be able to turn the ac on and off...

 

dont know how valid this is but an old friend of mine told me that its best to just change all of your coil packs at once ...yea its a pain...prolly run ya about 350 but... you shouldnt run into that problem when changing all at once... i had the same problem...p1320 and this was right after i replaced a coil pack that came up as a mis-fire...changed my spark plugs and that coil pack...the mis fire code went away and 1320 popped up....finally got home after a couple months and changed all of the coils at once...code gone...try it out...cant hurt to have all of em brand new....

 

Beautiful, windows work perfect now! Sunroof too!

Heated seats apparently were always working, just the light burnt out. :/

Thanks Galactica!

By the way, is there anywhere where I can order JUST the lens for the fog lights? I don't want to buy the whole fog light assembly.

 

Only way is through a used one at a junkyard. Even then, you look for the assembly. A junkyard or ebay might be your best option for a used fog light assembly.

 

It depends on the miles on the coil packs. If they all have high miles on them and you can afford to do so you change them all at one time. Most people don't have $500 lying around to pay for all 6 coils at once which is where the one by one method comes into play. OEM ignition coils typically go for anywhere from $90 to $120 depending on where you look.

NEVER buy aftermarket ignition coils as their quality is far inferior to OEM. You'll end up with more headaches over time with aftermarket coils.

 

The FSM...you can download the FSM for your year from here.

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

 

Hello I'm new. I have recently acquired a 2001 Maxima M20 with 147.000 from a small dealer with a small warranty. After 200 miles on it the service engine soon light came on{looking back, it was surging a bit} I took it to autozone and got codes 0420 and 0430. I foolishly let them clear the codes and then proceeded to the state inspection. Turns out they couldn't read it and they told me to drive it out and if the lights stayed off come back for the sticker. Since it's the holidays I couldn't address it and continued to drive about another 140 miles before it started acting funny. First we smelled burning and pulled over. Then it started idling up and down wildly so we put it on the OBD and it was the dreaded code 505 for the ICM. I've read all around about how it takes out the ECM and AFS etc. My issue is my measly warranty and how to approach these extensive repairs. I have a deductible of $100. each visit and a drive train 6/6.000 miles. I cannot allow them to $100 me to death for all these electronics 02 sensors and cats. Any advice is much appreciated. I'll know more if I am deciding to get the carfax. After reading through it seems I will be needing this. Should I drive the 60 miles to the repair shop or have it towed? Should I replace all these trouble system parts at once?