It could be the alternator. Do you have the battery and brake lights on?

Regardless, get a voltmeter and measure the battery voltage before starting, after starting at idle and while revving the engine to perhaps 2K rpm.

readings should be approximately (in above order) 12.5, 14.3, 14.3

But before you do anything, check and see how tight the alternator belt is.

 

Hey guys it's been awhile, I recently ran into an issue where my car isn't responding to me stepping on the gas pedal after I step on it once. On top of that my brake and battery light are on. I know that usually means the alternator. But I just changed it this past summer. I also tested the battery on and off and the alternator is working. So my issue is why is my gas pedal responding intermittently? Any ideas ? Thanks

 

Hello,
I just purchased a 2003 SE with 68K on it. Im new to the Maxima and to Nissan and am trying to absorb as much of this forum as possible.

I was hoping someone could point me to some posts/stickies of the first maintenance items I should check or complete on it. Kind of a what would you do first question.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

Welcome to the org.

Start with an oil and filter change since you probably don't know when it was last changed. The in-cabin air filter is another good idea to change.

Check the brake pads and the alternator belt for wear. Check the rubber boots on the drive axles for rips and tears.

At 68K miles, the car is still below some of the more major things, like struts, spark plugs.

Here is a link to the FSM (Factory Service Manual):
http://boredmder.com/FSMs/Nissan/Maxima/2003/

In section MA (maintenance), pages 7 & 8, there is chart for recommended maintenance.

I would recommend that you download the entire FSM for quick reference.

Section IDX (Index) is the alphabetical index for the manual. Section FWD (Forward) is the cover page that tells you what the sections are and their abbreviations.

At the begin of the 5th gen forum are threads called "stickies". There is lots of information in them such as the "5th Gen General Information, Maintenance, and Common Issues" thread. Reading these threads and learning how to use the search function will many times get you an answer faster than creating a new thread with a question.

If you need to ask a question, please always tell us what year the car is. Nissan made changes every year. 2000 & 2001 are fairly similar and the 2002 & 2003 are fairly similar.

 

Wow, fantastic. This is exactly what I was looking for and the manual is a bonus. Thank you, I really appreciate it.

 

I have a 2000 Nissan Maxima with about 220 plus thousand miles on it. About 30,000 miles ago I started having issues with the automatic transmission coming out of gear. Basically I'll be driving along and it will seem like it goes into neutral no matter what gear am in. what I do is pull over turn the car off sit there for about a few minutes put it back in drive and drive off like it never happened. It doesn't happen often but when it does its a royal pain in the butt. Also in the summertime on long trips it will go into first gear and not come out. I basically pull over and let everything cool down and everything works fine after that. That has happened 3 times. It has come out of gear while driving about 7 or 8 times now. Again this only started about 30,000 miles ago.

A little background information, I had a code that said one of my solenoids in the transmission were bad about 15,000 miles back. I replace the entire solenoid pack and the code went away but didnt fix my issues. The transmission still drove fine it was just throwing a code I did not experience anything out of the normal for the most part. The transmission still drives perfectly fine until it kicks itself out of gear or get stuck in first gear on long trips.

Any ideas of what this could be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I Had this problem. It's a cheap fix. It's called the "speed sensor"
You will find two, one with a green gear, and a normal looking one. Don't get the one with the green gear. Attached to this post is a picture of what you are looking for. I bought the sensor on ebay for $50 and replaced it my self. It was 15 min job. Take of the driver side wheel, and peel back the plastic, you'll see the current sensor placed in the transmission. Look up online on how to replace it. It's very easy.

Oh and also, It down shifts to first gear, Not neutral. I Almost died because of this, lol. It decided to down shift while i was doing 80 on the highway... We all know how that ended :O

 

Anyone here vouch for Edward Lee? He is selling some eibachs that I would like to buy, but I just got burned by another seller on some springs and am dealing with paypal now trying to get my money back. Thanks in advance!!

 

Long time member.
You should be fine.
Always buy with Paypal and never choose as a gift and you should be fine IMO.

 

Thank you. Ordering one now!

 

Hi everyone.

I have just become the proud owner of a 2003 Nissan Maxima SE and I have a few questions that google has shown you could possibly help with.

1) There isn't an owner's manual with the car, is there a pdf of it somewhere online?
2) The car is at 89,400 miles, is it too late to bother switching to synthetic oil?
3) There is a hole in the pipe connecting the catalytic converter to the muffler. It can pass emissions with this problem but is kinda loud and I plan on fixing it. Is this a job that could be done at home with some ramps or am I better off finding a place to do a patch job?

Thanks!

 

For the owner's manual, try this link:
http://www.courtesyparts.com/pdf/2003-Nissan-Maxima.pdf

You can change to synthetic oil anytime you want, but it isn't always economically feasible. Because of the higher cost, if your car burns or leaks oil, it gets expensive.

I personally don't believe in patching an exhaust system, but if you can get under the car, you can patch the exhaust pipe. All you need is one wheel up on a ramp and you will have plenty of room for patching. But you will find that many ramps are too tall to fit under the fender so that you can drive up on it. Measure.

 

I have owned this 00 Nissan Maxima auto for a couple of months now and have just started modding it. I just put a kenwood head unit into it to replace the stock Nissan one, I went to an auto store to purchase adapters for the car because I don't have the time and experience to hard wire it myself and don't have the money to pay someone else to do it, I put the head unit in and everything worked on it. As I was going to work after I was finished I was reversing it up the driveway and it was loosing power and refusing to rev. It usually does this when it's not warm but this time it was more drastic in refusing to rev. After that as I would drive it the gear changes would be delayed by about 2-4 seconds and it would not pull like it used to. I'm hoping it's not a computer problem because I hear they're very expensive to fix.

 

It may be the MAF. Not wanting to rev is usually a MAF.

 

Hey I got 2k2 maxima without the Bose system all of my left side speakers do not work and I have replaced the HU with a new aftermarket one. Does anybody know what's wrong?

 

Were the speakers not working the reason you replaced the head unit in the first place or did the problem show up after replacement?

Without more precise information, this will be a generic shotgun approach.

If the problem was the reason you replaced the head unit, then the speakers and the wires going to them need to be tested.

If the problem happened after the head unit was replaced, then the head unit and the wiring adapter need to be tested.

 

Could this be just my tie rod or is it the wheel bearing?help please!

 

also this temp sensor connector is broken and corroded am i safe to assume i can just solder a new one on there without problems?

T.i.a.
-nestorl.

 

Yes, that would be fine. You can just throw a regular spade connector on there instead of the proper connector if you wish, that's all it really is.

Tie rod. With that amount of play I'd be suspecting the outer. If it's just the wheel bearing, the caliper and bracket would stay still while the wheel/rotor/axle had play. Also you more generally see wheel bearing play up and down, not really side to side.

 

Thanks pmhor...Just what i suspected...

 

Maxima Forums! Thanks for all the help over the years. New question. 2001 200000+ miles. At a stoplight my rpms fell off and the car died suddenly. I was able to start it back up and gave it a lot of gas at the same time and shot off. The car dies immediately upon start up unless it's revd and as soon as the foot comes off the gas pedal the car dies. I crossed my fingers for a quick cheap fix and changed the pcv, no fix. I've checked all air houses for cracks, taken out and cleaned the throttle body and the iac, no fix. When the car is on and being revd up there is no check engine light on and everything sounds ok (no hissing noises) fuel pump sounds like it's priming as well. I'm wondering if my next step would be to buy a new IAC valve, as far as price hierarchy goes? Wouldn't a non working one throw a CEL? I so much appreciate it, thanks in advance for any advice.

 

You could check the throttle position sensor. I could be bad or mis-adjusted.

see page 179 - http://boredmder.com/FSMs/Nissan/Maxima/2001/EC.pdf
or - http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Maxima/2001/EC.pdf

 

I've got an '02 Maxima SE. My passenger side low beam has turned a pink hue, which I believe means it has gone bad. I've looked behind the headlamp assembly and it has a number of high voltage warnings. Is there anything I should be aware of if I try to replace the xenon bulb, or simply make sure the ignition isn't in the ACC or ON position?

Also, is it a simple twist, remove the bad bulb, insert the new bulb and twist it back in or do I need to remove the entire assembly to make that happen? When I run a search I find tutorials for removal of the entire headlamp which seems to require removal of the bumper cover. I'm hoping this isn't all needed for simply replacing the bulb.

 

All of the above, no removing of housing/bumper, etc needed. It's a twist and pull type of exit, and then there is a metal clip that holds the actual bulb in. Just work slow, and move things out of the way (i.e. harnesses etc.) to make it easier.

 

So I've done extensive reading on here and tried various solutions but my problem still persist. I'm going to accurately describe it as much as possible.

Ever since my car's engine head gaskets were changed because of an oil leak, and also the transmission mount, my car has been struggling to change gears in a timely manner. It could just be plain coincidence and the problem came by on it's own. The car has 143k miles.

When I start the car, everything is fine. I start driving, if I leave my foot on the gas pedal like i used to do normally when all was well, it will quickly rev all the way to 5000-6000 rpm whilst the car is still struggling at 5-20 mph still hasn't changed gears. Then after a few seconds it will change. If I start driving by slowly touching the gas pedal so it won't rev as much (3000 rpm), It will still change gear in an untimely manner maybe after like 6 to 10 seconds. Or if I let go off the medal, then press again it might change the gear maybe 2 seconds faster.

Then after it reaches second gear, It drives better but rpm still high at 3000 and to reach at 60-80 mph, I have to be pressing till 4000 rpm. I don't think I have ever reached 3rd or 4th gear because it starts revving really high and I'm scared that I will overheat something in the engine.

I have replaced the TCM, Shift solenoids and revolution sensor (all used) after reading some posts on here but the problem still lies. If someone can identify my problem it would be very helpful.

Thanks

 

The TCM or shift solenoids wouldn't allow a near free-rev like you're describing. The most likely (read: only) cause is clutch slippage. Take a look in the pan, I'd bet there's a lot of clutch material there.

Just to note though, you do have the proper amount of trans fluid in there, right?

If you do the rebuild yourself and only need clutches and steels, you could get by for under ~$300 for a basic rebuild kit and fluid, but a rebuild at a trans shop would likely be >$1k. Easiest and quickest would be to throw in a low mileage used trans.

 

Thanks for the info. There did have some worn out material in the pan when the solenoids were changed. It was cleaned and the fluid was refilled to the same amount that was in there.

I just wanted to see if any other fixes were available other then the rebuild/tranny change. I'll do it as my last resort since it is very expensive.

 

Ok so I had my computer scanned and got the code p0744 which says that I could either have a wiring problem, the tcm or the solenoids. I would like to know if the throttle body is part of the transmission wiring circuit so I can check it out.

 

The throttle body has nothing to do with this code.

The code says that the torque converter in the auto trans in not locking up for overdrive mode.

You can download the service manual and look in section AT (Automatic Transaxle). In the beginning of the section, the index will have the page number for P0744. You can read that for more information.

link to manual - http://boredmder.com/FSMs/Nissan/Maxima/

In the future, please tell us the year of the car. The manual is not the same for all years of the 5th gen as the cars are a little different.

 

Thanks for the help. It was a little more involved than the tail lights, etc. but pretty simple overall.

 

My 2002 Bose Radio randomly fades in and out OR just has a hard of and on while driving.

Example, start the car, radio is playing -- then suddenly no sound form any speakers. Randomly, it kicks back on. Always different times, no real rhyme or reason.

Sometimes it will fade out and not just cut out. Then it will fade back in to 100% volume.

Any idea what could be causing this?

 

Welcome to the wonderful word of Clarion radios with the name Bose on them.

For the most part, the head unit (radio) is going bad. 99% likelihood. Extremely small chance that the antenna amplifier located in the right C pillar is going bad or that the connection on it is coming loose.

Without swapping something, I don't know how you would figure it out.

 

Sweet. Time to start looking for a new aftermarket unit.

 

Hi everyone. I'm new here, I live in SoCal and am the proud owner of an A33 (2000 i30 base model). I've had it since 2009 as my daily driver, and I absolutely love the car.

I recently decided to mod it, so I'm turning to you experienced A33 owners for help and advice (I apologize if my question was already answered somewhere in this forum).

I have the regular basic halogen headlights. I'd like to upgrade to the stock HID setup that we can find on the higher "Touring" trim.

- Can I just purchase the stock HID lamps, plug them in and call it a day?
- Or is it not that simple and I need to purchase new connectors? Or even new headlight ballasts?

Thanks in advance fellows.

 

It is not plug and play. You need to add ballasts and modify the wire harnesses. Read this thread for putting 02/03 HID headlights in a 00/01 Maxima that did not come with HID.

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...guide-diy.html

 

Hey guys, I've been searching but probably not using the right terms. I lost my fill plug on my transmission (2000 5spd LSD) and none of the dealerships can tell me where to get one nor what size it is. Does anyone know the tread size and pitch or if autozone or O'Reilly carries the part?

 

you can probably go find another car like yours in the junkyard and swipe it from them...probably less than 5 bucks I'd think.

 

Why not just get it from the dealer? PN 00931-2121A, $3.56 @ Courtesy.

No, you're unlikely to find such a random part at a parts store.

 

G.A.B...could something like this be used instead of the plastic container under the battery? I also have a small air scoop from a different car a Buick it a little shorter but has decent profile and fits perfect on the lower open vent of the bumper I'll have to cut the bottom splash guard a little.
So basically i'm trying to leave stock air inlet and everything else intact with the hose(pic)connected to the down spout and the other end connected to the scoop in the bumper in FRONT of the radiator.
Will two air inlets be better than one?or not?

 

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