Well with only 11k miles on the car a coil failed and boy with 5 cylinders hitting the car does run like crap.
Anyway, this seems like a rare failure as I've not seen it mentioned on this site, plus two different dealers don't stock the coil, so they must be pretty reliable.
After I got the car back (it is drivable when cold for short trips) various other electric functions are not working. I'm wondering if the computers need to be reset after pulling the code on the bad coil and the mechanic won't do this untill the new coil is installed. Am I right on this?

 

Actually, they're on backorder because other 2k coils have been failing.

 

if it really is running on only 5 cylinders, then you would be throwing a lot of codes

 

I can vouch for that. Mine failed and I had to wait more than three weeks to get a replacement. They told me not to drive it. I was able to get a loaner (Sentra). I also know a friend that had one go bad. We both have early 2K models.

Dan

 

how can you tell if a coil goes bad?
also, can we preemptively swap them out?

 

the engine will ping like crazy. You can replace them yourself. It is pretty easy. Dave Burnette said that maximas built before 1/00 may have the bad coils. The later ones apparantly used the newer coils.

 

First symptoms will be the intermittent pinging under a load. More then likely, your "Service Engine Soon" light will come on as the coil goes bad and it will trip a misfire or ignition related code. When the coil(s) are really bad, the car will shake and miss at idle, have poor acceleration and gas mileage, and the SES light might flash while driving (especially over 3000 RPM). This is what happened to my car (2000 SE 5 spd).

After being told the coils were on backorder and would not be delivered for over 6 weeks, I called Nissan in California to file a complaint and argued with them telling them my car was unsafe to drive due to the misfire and that I could not safely merge into traffic due to the degraded performance. I told them if I have to wait for the parts, I want a rental car, which they would not give. I then told them I would be stopping payments to NMAC since I will not pay for a car that I cannot drive. Somehow, the 6 coils then turned up a few days later at my dealer and they were replaced. If your car starts to run as rough as my car did, you better fight to get your coils replaced sooner. Otherwise, you will be at the end of the list like everyone else. Good luck.

Dave Z

 

any other 2K owners having this problem??...

 

Well I was told the coil would be here in one day.
More BS from the service manager. The parts guy told me "it will be a while" and to call in every day. This part is on national backorder
I'm glad my car is running fine on short trips (<5miles).
when mine failed there was a lot of shaking and vibration from the engine felt through the whole car. Of course low on power.

Hope I don't have to get nasty with Nissan over this. I'll give them a week, then we'll see

 

none so far.... but mine was a late 2k build

 

how late is late model? i bought mine in july of 2k and i think the build date is like a month before that in june. is it safe to say that i'm clear, or should i go ahead and buy some coils ahead of time?

 

mine was built 5/00 ... you and I are in the same situation. I don't think we need the newer coils since they may be the same as the ones we have now, but I am not 100% sure...

 

What if I my car was one of the first bunch made but I don't know if I am having a problem with this yet should I go ahead and get new ones anyway? Will I see a performance increase? How much do they cost because my warranty has been voided along time ago.

 

Dave Burnette quoted me $39 for the rear coils and like $41 for the front coils.... so about $240 for a set

 

I have an 00 GXE built in 11/99, very early build. Sometimes when I start it (only when cold) the car, the whole thing, starts shaking, like someone is moving the car. Could this be causing that. It doesn't happen all the time, every once in a while. I always use name brand fuel. Please let me know, I have 45,000 on mine, I don't want to have to pay for this if they fail at 60,001 miles.

 

I don't think that is a coil problem if it goes away once the car warms up. You will notice the coil problem if the car is under load and it pings or you lose power.

 

Yes. Many of you will recall last winter I posted a thread about my weird, sporadic ignition issue. Happened just a few times...

See: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=23984

and: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=30493

It didn't happen all spring or summer, then this fall it started happening like crazy. 85% of the time when I start the car, this was happening.

Symptoms: TCS OFF light, SLIP light, and SES light come on. Car runs like absolute crap. ECU throws "IGNITION FAILURE - PRI" and "CYLINDER MISFIRE" codes. Car shakes like crazy, especially when in Drive, stopped, and at idle (traffic light for example.)

Finally they looked at it again and said it definitely needed the new coils. It took them 2 weeks to get them in, but they finally installed them in the car and I picked up the car tonight. It runs great so far. No sign of the trouble.

 

or maybe the oil filter, I heard of problems like this when it takes a few seconds for the oil to get through cheap filters.

 

so... what's a coil

 

I must say, I have seen mine come and go. I had times when it was running really bad when I started it, but by the time I got it to the dealer to look at it it was running almost perfectly.

Also, I've had times when it was running great for a while, then all of a sudden it goes into "lawnmower mode."

 

wierd

stop using the lawn mower switch on your car

 

i've had mine back from the dealer for about a week, with the new coils. the car is running great.

 

Mine was built 12/99. Only one time when I was accelerating in 2nd gear did I notice pinging. I had the defroster on high in front and had the rears on also. I could hear a loud metallic clack and then I turned off the HVAC and the sound went away. I don't know if this would be a coil failure.

 

My 2000 SE with 12,200 miles (02/00 manufacture stamp) was having intermtent pinging under medium to high load. Took it to dealer yesterday am armed with TSB info from this thread. They replaced all six coils under warrenty and got car back in the afternoon. They listed the coil charge as $180 (6 @$30/each) and labor as $32, but don't know if that is special pricing back to Nissan.

To my surprise, they didn't squak about my engine mods effecting warranty (JWT Pop, y-pipe, etc).

Thanks maxima.org!

 

My '97 SE used to do this occasionally (once every 1 or 2 months)- the whole car shakes and it's like it's only running on 4 or 5 cylinders. Shut it off, then back on and all is OK

Actually, since my mower is a honda, it runs smoother then the Max did on 5 cylinders

2K hasn't had this happen yet, but it was built in June'00. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed

 

My 2k max se also had this problem, the dealer ordered the coils and they never arrived, so after enough *****ing the dealer put me in a new car.

 

At 38k,the SES light came on, bad coils, was told under emission warranty and then after the work was done I had to pay 90 for labor and Nissan paid for parts. My car is much smother in traffic, thought I needed the fuel cut tsb, it was supposedly already done at another dealer, they wouldn’t check. I dropped form 26mpg to 21mpg and the car stumbles a little when cold Called the dealer when I came back from my driving vacation, dealer didn't want to hear from me, "if your car runs better I can't do any more”, but losing 5mpg is not better. I hoped he would say we can check it, back to the phones 1800nissan no service... they didn't return call yesterday.. build date 11/99