I took the family from NYC to Naples, FL and back in August with a day trip to Legoland and the car ran great the whole time. The roads and speed limits do open up a bit from NC and south which helped pass the time of the 19+ hour trip. The car has a 6spd MT but I rarely had to downshift to 5th to pass during my above posted speed limit traveling. For grins and giggles I did look on autotrader to see what options were around Naples if I wanted to trade it in. The only thing I remotely liked was a gold 2009 G37 with 75K for $10k. One owner and no accidents on carfax so you know it was driven by some retiree.

When I was down there putting around, I got my first p1448 when the car had a 1/4 tank of fuel left and it seemed to only return when it went back down to 1/4 tank. I never let it get that low when here in NYC so who knows how long it had this issue. I ordered a new gas cap since they are cheap and will keep the tank mostly full until inspection next month to get it passed. It's the only code that continuously pops up at 1/4 tank so I can't imagine its the canister. I figured a cracked canister would through a code more often.

Only other gripe is that someone keyed a 12" streak on both sides of the car which really pissed me off but I'm over it now. The car rarely left the driveway so I can't imagine when it happened and my dash cam was useless at night picking things up (poor street lighting). It's now 18 years old and has bumper battlescars from sh*tty people parallel parking.

I did have the space and time so I restored my headlights and they came out great (no finished photos of them though). OK, enough rambling. I just wanted to post a thank you for all the advice I got on here and that these cars are still reliable enough for fun journeys when maintained.

 

looks great man

 

Nice Altima rims. I got those same ones.

Also what did you use to restore your headlights? I used a Sylvania and a Turtle Wax kit, but there's still some hazing.

 

The P1448 code is for the solenoid valve that bolts onto the canister, not the canister itself. This valve sits behind the rear wheel and really gets blasted with all the water, salt, goo, and whatever the wheel throws up. Sometime you can take the valve off and spray WD40 (or similar) into the valve and work is a few times and it will be happy.

 

Thanks, they are the factory Maxima wheels for the 2k2.

I used this kit. It's a bit pricey but works really well. I used it many years ago on the Maxima and it really held up well so I bought it again. I dont think I paid as much when I bought it though.. https://www.cureuv.com/products/ligh...ting-value-pak It looks like they also just sell the UV coating spray so if I was to do it again, I would but the spray and then buy my own sandpaper.

 

Thanks Dennis. I may give that a try next.

Edit - wouldn't the bad solenoid through a code all the time, or only when the tank is low?

 

you can caulk around the valve itself too if if that code is a leak, it worked for me for 5 years. when replacing that valve the bolts tend to be super rusted and sometimes you end up needing a new canister because of the bolts snapping off.

 

I blasted those bolts every day for a week with BP Blaster and still ended up snapping both bolts. The snapped bolts loosened enough to throw the p1448 AND the p0445 codes.

Today, I swapped the canister and valve with a unit from Dorman. I will clean up the OEM valve with WD40 to have as a backup in case the Dorman fails.

Nothing like swapping a cruddy canister while parallel parked on the streets of NYC.I was hoping to not have to lift the car but I couldn't get the damn electrical connector to unclip while it was on the ground. I hiked the car up and was able to have enough room in the wheel well to use vice grips to pinch the connector and wiggle the connector off.

40 minutes total time for the swap. I reset the code and now need to drive it this weekend far enough to get the sensors to register. I have less than 10 days until my inspection expires. They have cars with plate readers that drive around and they connect to the NYS database. If my car gets flagged, they throw a ticket on the windshield. On my second year here, I got a ticket when I had the car at the body shop since they parked it on the street and it flagged as missing inspection.

 

watch out for that dorman unit, i had horrible isues with dorman evap sensors. once i replaced with oem sesnors code and issues literally went away. dorman has a warranty too cuz i was pissed and got my money back.

why did ya not try the caulk method first??? at least you did it right i guess except for that dorman canister. but luckily that canister dosen't have any sensors, so you will probably be lucky =)

 

Since I had to swap it out on the street, I thought a total swap would be easier than caulking. I read up on your dorman issue which is why I am holding onto the old valve. A canister is a canister so I think I'm safe there.