Hello gents, been out of the loop for a bit now. Recently took the car on a 2,000 mile round trip down to Tennessee to attend Bonnaroo. The drive sucked horribly, but the trip itself was amazing. For most of the journey, my old trusty maxima held up perfectly with no issues at all.However, on my return trip, my car started acting up. I pushed myself to knock out all 15 hours to get back home in one trip (stopping for food and gas, of course). I made it all the way back to the NYC area when things got a bit sketchy. Between 2k-3k RPMs, the car began to hesitate and stutter and got all choppy. It was most noticeable in higher gears. At one point it was doing it so bad that my CEL began to blink, signalling a misfire, for about 10 seconds before going away. That being said, I babied the car the final hour home, and as I had just finished driving for 15 hours and it was 1am, I went to bed. The next day I checked it out and couldnt find any issues at all. Fluids ok, wiring ok, all vacuum lines sealed and accounted for. No CEL or any ghost codes when I scanned it either. This was nearly two weeks ago now - since then, the issue will sporadically come and go with no rhyme or reason. Ive tried all sorts of driving styles to see if I can force the issue to appear and there doesnt seem to be any set pattern - it just starts acting up when it wants, and goes away just as fast. Most days it will drive perfectly, and then randomly one day itll act up again, before going away later that same day. Luckily it hasnt been bad enough for the CEL to flash again, but it definitely is unpleasant to be experiencing any type of issue like this on such a new motor.

Any ideas what could cause this? My first guess is the MAF might be getting ready to kill itself since its the original OEM one back from 2002, or that it might need a cleaning. I have not gotten around to cleaning it but does that sound like a likely culprit? I thought maybe sparkplugs could be the issue, but that doesnt seem right either, as those plugs are very young in terms of their lifespan. The coils are OEM and came with the '14 motor so I doubt they are at fault - typically that would cause a more pronounced misfire and subsequently a CEL code. I dont see it being a fuel issue either, as the injectors are also very young, and Id imagine a fuel pump issue would be much more blatant. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, if its not a MAF issue then Im stumped lol.

Edit: It seems clear that what is occurring is a misfire of some nature. I want to clarify that it is the mildest of misfires - enough to notice and worry about, but not to the point where the car is ******* it and sounding like a diesel. Its like the motor misses a beat or two, best way I could describe it.

 

Your MAF is bad - and that's a safe bet.
On our cars, a bad MAF typically does not throw a code, so cleaning or trying a replacement is the only way to go.
I have a spare MAF just for this purpose.

 

Your motor is fine.

I bought this one about 3 months ago and have about 3500 problem-free miles on it:


I paid $95 shipped at the time. Sorry

Edit: I have my old one that was working just fine if you want it. I even cleaned it up with a whole can of MAF cleaner and ran it with no problems til I put the Hitachi in. Let me know if you want it. If Child drops in and confirms MAF, you're pretty much solved! Good to see you back. Was wondering where all the swap days members went. It's like I'm the only one documenting cool stuff anymore and not just another new user with a "help me fix my car" thread.