Mikeb120

i searched the site and could not find anything in regards to this..

the car starts fine. when shifted to drive the vibration pops up.
vibration is very noticable under 1000 rpm and gets lesser and then not noticable about 2000 rpm.

the car is ok when is drive but then immediately started to vibrate when put into drive.
The check engine light is on with the cat converter code (have had ECM reprogram twice at dealer each time being told its a glitch and that I should ignore it).
(could this actually be an issue?)

Thank you in advance for any insight on this issue.

q45Owner

I have similar issue if not identical. When the car is in Park "P" position, the vibration is subtantially less. As soon as I put the car in Drive "D", the car starts to vibrate substantially more - My idle speed does not change a bit (atleast on the instrument cluster meter) b/w "P" and "D" but the vibration certainly ups as soon as it gets in "D".

I have recently cleaned TB, decardbed, fuel rail flush (injector cleaning), BG44K - all part of the rehabilitation process after acquiring this car.

I am expecting this to be more of a mechanical issue than engine related. Perhaps as soon as the transmission is engaged - some bushing/some connection is not as tight as it should be.

Hopefully some guru will chime in here.....

2003 SE 65K - everything stock

P. Samson

Mikeb......probably a miss caused by a coil. Coils ever changed? When it's vibrating, listen to the exhaust for a miss. If the dealer can't do better than that, go to another dealer............... and possibly the same on the '03.

madisonmxma

It doesn't sound like a problem with the cat, if it were plugged up you would have a noticable loss of power when accelerating, and most likely no vibration. A way you could help diagnose the problem is to hook up a vacuum gauge. See if there is any ocsillation of the needle, or if it holds steady, etc. A vacuum gauge would be a good way to see if it is a mechanical problem without tearing the engine apart.

q45Owner

My 03 runs like new when accelerating (LOL, I did buy it used so really not sure how it drove when new). I come from Q45/8cylinder background and I can recognize when the car is thrusting - if I press the pedal on my 03 max I do get the same feeling as when your airplane turns full power and starts running on the runway. So I have no issues with speed, thrust, acceleration, driveability (engine wise) - just this noticeable vibration at idle when put in "D".

Would not the coil problem manifest at other times and effect driveability? Plus this is an 03 - I thought coil problems were related to gen 5 and not gen 5.5, wrong?

In my case it is a constant vibration in "D" on idle. If one of the cylinders is misfiring it should be in some rhythm that can be distibguished at idle RPMs? Again I have a constant noticeable vibration that I feel most in the steering wheel. The vibration drops to almost half when back in "P" - the idle speed on the tac (instrument panel) does not change a bit (not even a wobble) when switched b/w "D" and "P" indicating to me that my intake system is pretty clean (after all I have done, it should be).

The key here is that the vibration is not triggered only by RPM - the tranny has to engage for vibration to start....I can push the RPM with no vibration as long as the tranny in in "P" position. As soon it goes in "D" it starts to vibrate.

I hope I have not overaken Mike's original problem.....LOL

madisonmxma

Do your cars idle at the normal RPM? What RPM does the vibration go away?

q45Owner

My 03 idles around 700 ish I think. It may be b/w 650 and 700. Once you put the car in "D" I have not tried to push to higher RPM as the car would like to move and cause some vibrations of it's own.

P. Samson

A miss at idle may be there but not that noticeable until you put a load on the engine by putting it in Drive and the idle RPM may still be in spec. The system can adjust for a single cylinder miss. I am kind of surprised that with what seems like a pretty good miss that a misfire code has not been set. The system can take a while to set a code with " light intermittent" missiing but this does seem more severe. Is not the '03 still under warranty? Was this a problem before all the "servicing" was done?

q45Owner

1. If one (or more) cylinder is not firing correctly - this should be evident at all RPMs w/o regard to tranny engaged or not - correct?

2. The idle is smooth w/o the tranny engaged leads me to believe that misfire/cylinder out of spec may not be the case [I can be wrong]. On my Q45 I could have asked for a power balance test using consult, not sure if this is an option for Maxima. In this the Software cuts each injector and the compression is reported for each cylinder.

3. Also the vibration is not present all the times - just initially when moving from "P" to "D" - once the car starts moving [higher RPM], there is less or no vibration

I will try to slightly rev up the RPM w/o the tranny engaged to see if the vibration increases - if your load theory is right this should also trigger the increased vibration. Will post update tomorrow.

P. Samson

If it's one coil/one cylinder missing then a cylinder balance check MAY find it. The cylinder balance test has nothing to do with the "compression", it just looks for a correct LACK of momentary drop in RPM as each injector is deactivated. Reving an "unloaded" engine usually proves absolutely nothing.

q45Owner

power balance test reports compression rather than drop in RPM - you may be thinking of performing the manual disconnect the injector and observe the RPM changes - power balance test via Consult I beleive reports on each cylinder as it cuts the injector.

To an engine, how is higher RPM not equal to a "loaded" situation? I am just trying to understand.

Why do you think loaded engine does not equate to higher RPM?

Thanks

P. Samson

I am talking about the cylinder balance test as done by the Consult ll. That's all the Consult ll does, is deactivate each injector. If the cylinder is not firing for any reason (not just no spark) such as really low enough compression pressure so as to have the cylinder misfire, yes it could be found using the same cylinder balance test. But it can't suffice as a compression test or leak down check on an engine or cylinder, if that's what you're driving at. If you are just talking about reving the engine in Park or Neutral, as putting a "load" on the engine.....in ain't so. It is nothing for a piston engine to "spin" itself up when "not loaded" and it proves nothing. It is producing squat in the way of power. Re coils.....a while ago a friend's '99 Maxi developed at first an almost imperceptable, intermittent "twitchy" kind of thing in Drive at idle, not noticeable in Neutral. Didn't notice it at first on acceleration or any other time. It took about a year before it became more pronounced and consistant in Drive at idle and acceleration, and finally the misfire code and SES light. One coil was changed and so far it's OK. Is yours progressively getting worse?

madisonmxma

the power balance test is done to single out which cylinder is the problem. When you put the car in D, there is a load on the engine as compared to when it is in P. Try and hold the brake and the gas for a moment to put a good load on the engine and see if it gets worse or not.

q45Owner

I did this test and experienced no noticeable additional vibration in the steering wheel (the tranny was in "D" with one foot on brake pedal and one on the gas pedal). I upped the RPM to 1500 and then to 2000 and still no extra noticeable vibration from the baseline of "D".

Just to make sure I am clear in defining the issue - the vibration is not like the entire car starts to shake when the tranny goes from "P" to "D" - it is enough of a change that I can recognize increased vibration in the steering wheel (again this is when the car is not moving, just moving the level from "P" to "D"). By no means the car is shaking or anything, just additional constant vibration.

The car is out of warranty as it has 65K miles....

q45Owner

I hope maximas do not have the chronic injector problem my Q45 used to have. In places where the gas is oxygenated, these injectors were prone to fail prematurely. I was told that the newer injector design took this into consideration and this is not a problem any more.

How do you guys check if the each cylinder is OK?

Ignition Coil Test?
Injector resistance?
cylinder Compression?
Powerbalance test?

What applies to Maxima?

I did notice this morning when I started the car that the car was idling a little rough when I started in the cold - there was an obvious shake in the driver side door when the door was left open - I could see the door started to shake a little.

Given that the car was cold from overnight sitting, still was around 70 degree in Phoenix when I started it, it was RPMing at about 1500 or so (cold). I would think the car would be idling a little rough when this cold. The idling smothed out when the car got to the normal temps (650 RPM)

Mikeb120

my max idles at around 700. The vibration goes away above around 1500.

AcidJake75

iTrader: (7)

Mine does the same thing - also mine vibrates when its cold only (trust me MAF was just changed, so its not that)...its gonna be the coils IMO. I only recently had a misfire and my check engine light came on for about 5-10 seconds about a month ago..have yet to see again..did some homework on the ORG and its prolly just one coil..but its best to change them all..bit pricey, but to be honest - with almost 94K on my car best to change them all (along with the spark plugs). If one is going out - others will soon follow. There is also a test to see which coil is bad..but I will let you do some of that homework. I hope this helps or at least gives you some ideas of what it is causing the vibration.

IF THAT IS THE ISSUE - I believe you can get them for about $72 (each) from courtesy parts..

PAREDLINE

Sounds like you have one or more bad motor mounts. The higher RPMs would get smoother due to the natural frequency of the engine.

foodmanry

iTrader: (15)

I have a little vibration at lower RPM on my 2k (140,000 miles). I've replaced all O2 sensors, installed the updated coil packs, installed the updated MAF, cleaned throttle body, cleaned injectors, etc. It is still there. Gotta be the motor mounts.

q45Owner

How do we check for the mounts -the looks of the mounts appear solid. this is an 03 with 65K miles on it, are the mounts prone to premature failing?

Thanks

foodmanry

iTrader: (15)

Easiest way is to take a look at the engine while it is parked. Start it up and idle for a while. There shouldn't be any engine vibration at idle. Rev the engine as well to see how much it moves, there should not be excessive movement.

And yes...there have been a good amount of members here who have had premature failure on the motor mounts.

P. Samson

The first two posters on this thread have Autos with the ECM controlled fwd. and rear eng. mounts. These are "soft" at idle and "hard" at all other times. The kind of vibs that seem to evident here I believe are not normal and actually being produced by the engine because of an operating issue (a miss). These engines are inherently smooth and even with duff mounts should not transfer normal vibs into the car like we seem to have here. If the engines "heaved" or "torqued" then I would think that it might be mounts. If the Auto electronic mounts fail and don't go from "soft" to "hard" for example, you will feel/see this "torquing" motion. The neoprene mounts (the left and right) I don't see failing at this point or causing this problem. I've had engine mounts (neoprene) fail on a couple of my previous cars and engine "vibration" was never the indicator.

5thgenmaxima

iTrader: (1)

I didn't read all of the posts, so this maybe a repost but a "glitch" is a bull**** way of saying they don't want to diag it and not get paid for it since it's still probably under warranty. (Warranty pay sucks and unless authorized they don't get paid for the diag).. Take it back and if they tell you the same thing get it in writing and call Nissan North America and threaten to have it fixed asap or you're calling the EPA.

Also if you are under 80k miles and they charged you for the reprogramming, they owe you an IMMEDIATE refund.
I took the following from this website http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/warr95fs.txt

What Are Specified Major Emission Control Components?

There are three specified major emission control components,
covered for the first 8 years or 80,000 miles of vehicle use on 1995
and newer vehicles:

* Catalytic converters.

* The electronic emissions control unit or computer (ECU).

* The onboard emissions diagnostic device or computer (OBD).

When they reprogrammed your "ECM", they are refering to a potential problem with the ECU and that IS covered under the 8/80..