Help Please,

So I took my car into the Nissan dealership a few days ago to help figure out why I was getting a Random Multiple Misfire Code P0300. They inspected cylinders 2, 4, 6 and found plugs barely tight and possible compression loss. Cylinder 5 was tight but does have some oil in tube due to tube seal leaking, they recommend a new rear valve cover. They said the plenum needs to be pulled to inspect 1 and 3 for oil and plug inspection. They did mention that I could need coil packs but weren't sure which one until I drove the car to see if any other codes popped up, which did. All plugs were tightened and Nissan said that the spark plugs were in good shape and do not need replacing.

3 days later I get a check engine light and go to Auto Zone, now I have a code p0302 "cylinder 2".

Does this necessarily mean that coil #2 is bad? What other things should I do, what steps should I start out with?

Thanks for the help...

 

Are you getting TCS/SLIP/SES on and then on the next start - just SES light on? Does the car runs rough at idle when this happens? If so- replace coil #2 and you can even leave the code alone- ECU will auto- erase it after few starts. It's middle front cylinder and it takes 5-10 minutes to replace.

 

All the same questions, especially does the car run rough. I would occasionally get a 0302 but the car never ran rough - almost didn't even notice the SES light come on. I reset the code a few times expecting it to may be bad gas, etc. Still it would occasionally come on (several weeks or months could go by). Eventually I changed out the plug for cylinder 2, still the occasional code. Plug looked a little fouled so I went with a hotter plug. Still got codes. Changed the coil, still the same. Personally I think there is something else going on - perhaps it is bad gas, etc. But for now I've been living with it as other than occasional SES light there has been no problems, pass SMOG without any problems, and gas mileage remains the same. I'm nearing the 100k mark so when I do the tear down I might have more information. Hope this helps.

 

That's a big OOPS. Cylinder 2 is the first cylinder on the passenger side.. The middle cylinder is # 4.

 

Thanks, my bad.

 

Thanx for the reply,

The only light coming on is the "SES" check engine light. The car runs great and doesn't have signs of power loss. I do have a little bit of a rough idle and its worse when its real hot out. I also get a little bit of weird ticking sounds occasionally when accelerating, I've heard alot of people talking about this on the forums here but doesn't seem like a big problem. The SES light comes and goes. I have 170k on it, the people at Nissan said it was in great shape for that amount. I don't want to take it in anymore, its too expensive.

No problems with emissions testing either.

I just bought an ohm meter and once I figure out how to use it maybe I can test the 3 coils in the front and see if #2 is weak.

 

Coils cannot be tested with ohm meter as it's not just 'coil' but few components together. There's simpler way to go around this - just swap the coils between cylinder #2 and one of the other front cylinders. If the last digit in the code changes to 4 or 6 or dissappears altogether you'd have more reasons to replace the coil which is currently on cylinder #2. Please note that I made a mistake - #2 cylinder is the leftmost (passenger side) front bank cylinder, like so:

 

Sounds good man, I'll swap 2 of the front coils tomorrow and see if another code pops up.. Will I need to do any code re-setting or should that take care of it self?

 

I'd erase the codes to make sure I had none. If there's a problem ECU will record it again.

 

I almost forgot to mention that I have been adding oil every few weeks to top off and Nissan said they found oil sitting in cylinder #5. I believe I heard the tube seal is part of the valve cover and can't be purchased separately. So I guess replacing the rear valve cover would be the whole assembly correct me if I'm wrong.

The rear valve cover is about $50 from Nissan, not too bad I guess.

 

It appears you have a 02-03 maxima because the tube seals do come integrated in the valve cover, make sure you get an 04 rear valve cover because of its better design and much cheaper price. A 02-03 valve cover will start leaking at the seal again eventually. Its a direct swap btw no modifications necessary.

 

Very nice information, I'm going to order the valve cover from Nissan soon. Thanks