girman

First off, I want to thank all the maxima.org people who have written about this issue. This is the first time I've ever attempted something other than oil changes and tire rotations. Without your help, I wouldn't have my story...

I first had the "Slip" and TCS lights come on on a sunny day last spring. Worrried, I pulled over and checked things out on line (here) to make sure the car was drivable. (Aside: I pulled off at an R/C airfield - new hobby!) Drove to auto parts store and they said "P1320. Didja ever replace your plugs and wires?" "Nope." "Well you probably should".

It progressively got worse until a couple months later I brought it into the shop. The owner told me: "I'm seeing a P1320, and they're tricky to diagnose. It's probably your coils, but your computer isn't telling me which cylinder. And if I look online, it seems like I need to replace them with OEM coils. Since I don't know which cylinder, I would have to replace them all - You're looking at $800 (with labor). Or you can wait until it gets worse and the computer can figure out what's going on" I told him thanks and that I would wait for it to get worse.

After the shop replaced the plugs and wires (and the cracked intake gasket), the car was running almost smooth again. But the SLIP and TCS lights were still on. It didn't take long - a few weeks maybe - before I could hear it misfiring again. It progressively got worse and worse throughout the fall. Fast forward to today, it was so bad that the SES light started blinking and I could not get the misfiring to stop - even at high RPMs. I drove back home, re-read the forums, took a look at the shop manual, watched the youtube of replacing the coils on youtube(thanks boredmder!), and called up Napa to order the Echlin coils.

They had the fronts in stock, but not the rears. Since I still didn't know which cylinder(s) were the problem, I ordered three fronts and one Hitachi rear. Why the Hitachi? Because Napa will let you return stock items - which the Echlin fronts were, but the Echlin rears were not(???). The Hitachi rears were stock items at the "warehouse" and could be returned for a 10% restocking fee. My thinking was, the Hitachis were probably not going to clear the P1320, but would get rid of the misfiring. So I could figure out which one(s) it was, return the Hitachi and then order the Echins.

The Hitachi coil wasn't going to be in until later in the afternoon, so I tried diagnosing which cylinder might be the most likely suspect. I started by unplugging the leftmost front and could hear a very noticeable difference in the RPMs at idle. The center one was almost as drastic, but the rightmost front didn't make much of a change at all (there was a difference, but it wasn't as drastic). It was the same in the rears - left was drastic, center a bit less so, but the removal of the right most rear coil seemed to be a more noticeable change than the right front. I even unplugged the front left a few more times, so that I could use it as a comparison. I wanted to be able to tell the difference between a big change and a weak change at idle.

A quick stop at auto supply store gave me the diagnostic codes that got thrown in the morning P0300, P1320 and P1126 (prob need a thermostat, too!) and then onto Napa. Walked out with three fronts, the Hitachi rear, and a 10mm socket. Replaced the most suspect coil (front right) and fired it up...

Success!!! No SLIP and TCS lights. A smooth running engine! No misfires!!! I'm thrilled! Total cost? <$100.

I walked back in, returned the remaining coils, and got my money back for them. I may need them someday. But not today!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you to all of you!

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

Glad that you were able to get it fixed without spending too much .