The car runs perfect! (thats the ignition/misfire code for any who don't know)

A friend of mine MUST pass inspection by the 1st of July.. He has an 01' with 90k miles on it.. Never changed the plugs and the car was stumbling a bit. So he got his plugs changed, and now the engine runs silky smooth. Revs are steady as well. Only problem is, each time you clear that damn code, it comes right back with the CEL.. I unplugged all the coils, one by one.. Each time I unplugged one, the engine stumbled. Which led me to believe they were all good. BUT, I went the extra mile and checked all of them physically for any visual cracks like on my VE30DE.. They were all perfect.

His mechanic told him to drive the car for 50 miles or so and if the CEL doesnt clear on it's own, hes gonna need to replace all 6 coils. That doesn't sound like a great idea since they are 80 a piece from what he was told.. Please guys, any quick info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks fellow 5th genners.

 

^an ignition coil has been changed and an aftermarket coil was used....I put $100 on it

EDIT: Acquire a known working OEM front and rear bank coil, using the process of elimination go through each cylinder one by one...first clear the code, put known working coil in place, start car twice, if code comes back put the original coil back in that cylinder and move good coil to next cylinder....use the process of elimination to find the bad coil

 

wouldn't a digital multimeter help find the dying/aftermarket/non-grey dot faulty coil as well if it's even that. OP here is the service manual possible causes. Yes even though its usually the coils don't rule the other options out either. good luck

Possible Cause
NFEC0572
I Harness or connectors (The ignition primary circuit is open or
shorted.)
I Power transistor unit built into ignition coil
I Condenser
I Crankshaft position sensor (REF)
I Crankshaft position sensor (REF) circuit

 

Thanks guys. So my next course of action should be to get at least one OEM coil for the front, and one for the rear, and try the process of elimination thing? Man this sucks.. I wish I knew how to check exactly what was wrong without throwing parts at the thing. Im really stunned on why a bad coil would still not cause the car to run poorly. Unless it's an aftermarket coil and just not compatible with the ECU, but he claims they were never changed. He's had the car since new.

Edit: do usually the front ones go or the rears? Or doesn't matter?

 

Ive had 2 rears go and 2 fronts.

 

I've had my 1320 code for probably a year and a half. I really didn't feel like spending hundreds of dollars to get the light to go out. It would be my luck that i'd need to replace all 6 coil packs and both crank sensors for it to go out. Since we don't have inspection here in Florida, fck it...

 

Did they look perfectly fine when you pulled them out? Also how was the car running?

You are so lucky you dont have to go through these dumb emission inspections

 

like the manual said... possibly a short in 1 of the harness

 

depends. On 2 of them it was a definite misfire, for the other two the car was running absolutely fine with a CEL and I was like "wtf is this ish?"

now I have another coil that is starting to go bad ( I can feel a slight misfire at stop), but no codes, no light...I have individually checked them yet by unplugging them though

 

Sweet.. Thanks. Oh does the code clear right away when you replace the faulty coil?

 

^yes after 2 starts

 

Cool. Thanks a bunch. I'll let ya guys know what happens.

Edit: the front and rears are different, right?

 

yes front and back are different....

I had that code for about an year on my 00 se... just b/c the coil does work at idle it doesn't mean that it will work under load... same story as mine... i checked all coils and all were good but once i started driving the car it will fail... I end up giving up called DaveB an ordered 6 new gray dot coils from him I also replaced the plugs and now more than an year latter I am SES light free and no problems what so ever... I believe I have put close to 20K since I put new coils but it is worth it on the long run... it is pricey but I got used to live with the fact that nissan part are just expensive... also the MPG improved and the engine runs silky smooth...

 

Nice.. Im still in the process of elimination. Checked 2 fronts so far. No luck yet. Surprisingly the first one we swapped with the new one on the front, it took maybe 5 start ups and like 20 minutes of driving to get the light to come back. I was surprised since normally it would come on right away.

Btw DaveB has some OEM coils for cheap?