Just joined Maxima.org today. Drive a 20th Anniversary SE 5spd with 223,000. Car has served me well and fun to drive, right up until a month ago. While exiting the highway and decelerating on the off ramp the SES light came on and the engine died at the light. The only way I could get it running was feathering the gas pedal. My code reader (dont remember the code at the time) said the MAF was bad, purchased a new one at NAPA and installed (the old one was missing the heated wire, weird). Cleared the code and it ran poorly again. At this time I noticed a little electrical aroma (rookie mistake and ignored the chip cooking issue of these cars). At this point P0505 SES showed. Before I threw more parts at it I went to two shops. The first said "no thanks" and the second, a Nissan dealer, said I needed a new ECM (at the tune of $1100 and $500 to install). I said no thanks and limped her home. I then purchased a new IACV and the car ran, but RPM was bouncing between 1100 and 1800 RPM. Through more research I learned of the cooking chip issue in the ECM and shipped it off for repair ($229). Received the repaired ECM and installed. Car ran perfectly (700rpm +/-50) for one evening. Next day SES light came on with another P0505. For grins I went to a U Pull salvage yard and grabbed another IACV from a 2000 Maxima donor car. My car ran well, 1100rpm for a while and then started to fluctuate again. Right now it seems like the ECM is trying to do its job, but is having a hard time. Could the problem be the fact that the IACV is have installed is not OEM Hitachi? Could it be that simple? Or from my description do you think I ruined the ECM again. Please help! I'm at my whits end. I am fairly mechanical and will to tackle almost anything, within reason.

I know my 2001 has many more miles under the hood and I don't want to give up on her just yet.

 

To try and solve my own problem I ordered and installed all Hitachi parts.... Air Sensor, IACV and TPS...... and sadly there is no change in my 2001's behavior (all described above in my original post). I opened up the ECM again and the chip repair still looks good with no distortion of the new chip. Since the car drives just fine, I did find a cure for the SES light, black electric tape.

I am disappointed that my post has been reviewed 67 times and no one has any suggestions.

 

All suggestions you'll ever need are here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Npo...ew?usp=sharing (reposting)
And yes, you should only replace with Hitachi/OEM.

 

Thanks for simplifying finding this, joined the forum just to say thanks!

 

Should this also be considered preventative maintenance for a 2002 MT Maxima?

 

Yes. As a master mechanic who doesn't specialize in Maxima's by any means, I have made a point to look to forums to find information on cars only fanatics can compile when we are dealing with difficult diagnostics or expensive, hard to find parts. If I owned one I would follow these steps immediately now that I've found them.