Thats one thing Ive been thinking about while trying to figure out your problem and its also why I asked if the contact between the tranny and the block was shaved down alittle because I know alot of your parts are painted/chrome plated. It just may be causing the problem. I would try it.

 

I find out yesterday that there is some sort of sealant between the engine & tranny. It's one of my friend who mate the tranny with the engine while I was out. I just called him and asked if he remember, he said he though that the tranny housing had to be sealed and put some red silicon, I was like what ? fock... I honestly saw some red stuff 2 days ago but I though it was some tranny oil, maybe having a small leak, but this morning when I tried to wipe it off, I quickly find out it's not tranny oil. My vision from close is no longer what it used to be, I have to put my glass on otherwise I dont see small details like this. Even though all this crap, the engine started 2-3 weeks ago, so go figure, anyway I'm going to make some good ground between the engine and tranny at lease at 2 or 3 different point and see if that make a difference. If not I might take it out and clean that mess.

 

run a ground wire to those two wires strait to the batt neg or a good chassis ground

 

yeah definately try that.

 

Hey guys, I have made few more ground with copper attach point and check with a multimeter and the grounds are good. I tried to start the engine for a good 15 minutes, even though it came close it did not start, I'm going to check the compression on all cylinder, so I might have a better idea of what's going on. To be honest I dont have a good feeling. I'm going strait to the local shop to take an appointment and will have the car tow asap.

Edit: mis- typing error

 

Hmm that sucks man. It is hard to diagnosis this kind of stuff by yourself.

I wonder if it is crank/cam sensor related.

Also did you add the tranny grounds?

 

It might be just that... I stop at the shop this afternoon and PAT one of the owner has suggested that I do a compression test first. Prior to visiting him I had bought a compression test gauge. I only had time to test the first cylinder ( I had to go get my son at the KG ) cranking five second gave me 150PSI, I'm going to perform a test on the 5 others. But one thing PAT mentioned is exactly what you said, that it might be the CAM or Crank sensor, one thing I'm almost sure it's not the crank sensor since I have a brand new one and the engine did not start with it. I'm going to shop online tonight for a cam position sensor.

There is another one between the engine and tranny, dont know how it's call tough but might not be a bad idea to replace all the 3. Beside the sensor the most probable option would be that the timing chain might have skip few teeth on the cam sprocket. Why ? that would be another question but for tonight I'm going to focus on the compression test.

Is there a way to test the cam / crank sensor ?

 

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/

Yea check the EC section for the FSM. Also check the 4th gen forum. OCnooby had a thread on testing them last week

There are two crank sensors. Crank REF is the pulley side one and Crank POS is the tranny side one. Timing could have skipped a tooth but I doubt it(i hope)

 

Ok good infos. I will check it later. I have already check 4 cylinder and cranking like 5 second give me a consistent 150PSI on all cylinder, if I crank little more it give 180PSI.

Today while buying the compression test gauge at Canadian Tire, I was refer to a Nissan tech that live very close to my house, he just called me. I talk with him on the phone and explained where I stand, he was very nice and seem to be very knowledgable, he's a certified Skyline GTR technician. He will be on vacation starting this friday but he said he could only come in to check my car after his vacation, which is fine since I'm also leaving for a week at my town house this coming friday. He said he will bring the Consult II computer so if programming is needed he could perform it on the spot. In the mean time I'm going to order a cam sensor and a new crank ref sensor, so I'm sure we have good sensor. Until then I'm going to flush the oil and finish other stuff and working on the car body.

Edit: I downloaded the 2001 FSM ( I think I had the 2000 ) it's going to be very helpful.

Thanks a bunch.

 

You should test the ones you have before you go buying new ones, the procedure is in the FSM as stated above.
The one on the trans side is (in my experience) more likely to be a problem. Check to see if it is physically in line with the teeth and sitting close enough to get a good signal.

 

Ok thanks for the advice, I'll read the procedure in the FSM and test the sensors before replacing.

 

I have checked the compression on all cylinder and everything is fine, depending on how long I crank it average 150PSI but 2 second more and it's 180PSI.

Until the Nissan technician come by to check, I have started to work on the car body. Yesterday I purchased an orbital polisher with a good compound, I have started to clean the car, I am amaze to see how effective it is, it will save me from entirely re-paint the car at least for now. I have also worked on the front bumper, I have cut the fog light room so to speak and I'm covering it with fiberglass, because of the intercooler thos had to be cut and fog light are gone. I'm going to buy another style of fog and see how I can integrate it in the bumper with style. The bumper is going to look very nice, at least to my taste, I will post pics once I'm advance working on it. I'm leaving for the country house for a week vacation with the family, for the next few days, fishing, water skying, eating good food, wine and lots of fun will be my daily concern.

 

Hey guys, it's been a very nice week of vacation. I started to do some body works on the car so below is some pics. Comments are welcome, good or bad as it can be helpful down the line. As some of you know I have a JDUB body kit that was bought 2 years ago but for a number of reasons, I have decided to not install it, instead I'm modifying the stock front bumper and I think it will turn out nicely. Because of the I/C piping the stock fog had to go, so here is the first step modifying the front bumper.

On those 2 pics, you can see the layer of FG & resin that where put underneath.



Covered the fog hole with some tiger hair from top.




1 st coat of bondo




I will finish the work this week and hopefully paint it next week. I have purchase the PPG base coats and primer which are now water base because of the new environment law. I have never use that stuff before so I hope it work well. I have read mixed opinion using water base coat but anyway I dont have a choice, since it's no longer possible to get the urethane PPG stuff I used for the engine bay.

 

Thing are going very well, the second coats of Bondo on the left side is all sanded and look good to me, just minor imperfection that the 3rd coat will cover. The line of the side bumper flow quite well on the front. Left side took a little longer since the tiger air didn't dry as fast as the left side, I probably put a little less hardener. It's really once the bumper will be primed that I'll be able to see if everything is perfect then I make correction with the finishing bondo.




Right side, tiger air roughly sanded.


First coat of bondo on right side:

 

Ran into the same issue installing a turbo kit on a 5.5gen and it would had been easier to mod the fog light housing less you just wanted to do something different.

 

The bumper was in bad shape, no crack but lots of scratches. The stock fog cover was dull and full of scratches too. I also wanted to have a bigger opening at the lower valence so more air could get to the I/C. I think it's going to flow well with the Stillen front lips, still few hours of sanding but it's all worth to have something unique. I'm not sure to drive the car this summer, but I prefer to have everything done and enjoy later without having to pull the wrench all the time to fix the kink. The Nissan tech should come next week to help fix the engine. Beside that I have to do the body works & repaint the car, fix all the electronics, weld the second muffler in place, replace the interior carpet, wrap all the plastic bezel with carbon fibre plus whatever I'm forgetting so all in all it look like it's going to take a couple of months to finish everything, I guess I'm now shooting for spring 2012.

Edit: The Nissan tech, Michel spent 2 hours with me checking the car, voltage, injectors, fuel, IACV, etc. We tried to start the engine but it didn't start.
He's going to come back next week with the Consult 2 and will performs some test, he think the ECU might fried saying when the IACV goes wrong many time the ECU also go wrong. He said that the spark is very strong, and grounding is more than adequate all the sensors seem to be good since we dont have code. I'm going to see if I can find a used 2001 ECU for my automatic, if anyone as a good one laying around for a reasonable price, I'm interested so PM me.

 

My tech, came back yesterday with 2 TSB.
TSB: Ref# NTSB01-092 is related to the main harness that could have broken wire and could cause some of the symptom.

TSB: Ref # NTSB01-079 is related to the ignition coils.

I remember that in order to remove the rods from the UIM, I had to lift up the main harness, so it is possible that some wire had broken, I didn't moved the cable that much but who know what happen. Next week Michel is going to bring the consult II and we will perform the continuity test see if there is an open circuit on the main harness.

The ignition coils have never been replaced on my 2k1. Apparently a single coil can trigger the others to malfunction. I found the greydot one at Amazon for 33.08$( left ) and 32.61(right) each so it's no brainer I'm ordering 6 brand new. I'm also going to order a Crank position sensor POS and a camshaft POS. I have already replaced the one underneath the crank pulley so at least I will be sure to have a good signal.

The other thing that Michel felt suspicious was, when we tried to start the engine 2 days ago, the engine did a backfire, it was not the first time it did that. Michel want to check the timing ie: if the cam are set properly, ( I have cam adaptors with the VQ35 cam), so have they been installed properly, could the sprocket have skip a tooth ? I'm going to remove the front valve cover and he's going to verify this, as i wouldn't be able to say without any point of reference.


I think with his knowledge we should be set fairly soon.

 

That is good. The Consult2 is amazing.

And yes, the cam timing can skip a tooth. I have read about it on 2-3 built engines. I believe since the tensioner never got oil and built pressure on the chain, the chain stayed loose and skip a tooth while cranking.

 

If this is the case here, do you think we can do the job without pulling the engine ? Removing the timing chain cover in the engine bay sound like a PITA but I guess it will take less time then pulling the engine right ?

 

Yes you can do it with the engine in the car. Hopefully it is just a wire

 

Yeah hopefully its just a wire, man that would be a bummer if it skipped a tooth.

 

Hope you get the issues resolved. Good luck

 

Meximax has contacted me as he have 6 grey dot coils laying around, he's offered to sell it to me for cheap, I'm just waiting for the details and will get those asap.

I'm at the town house until tomorrow and will work on the car this coming week, the nissan tech should call me monday or tuesday and will take it from there.

 

Sounds good.

 

I bought the 6 grey dot coils from Meximax, 100$ is a very good deal that I couldn't pass on. The next 2 weeks I will have some time to work on the car we might finally start it and fix the coolant leak, maybe a test drive this summer, otherwise that will be for spring 2012.

 

:fingerscrossed:

 

I think you can make it happen

 

Let see if reality has the same plan...

 

Sent you a PM.

 

More pix please

 

Ok we have checked and the timing is fine, I'm now waiting for the ignition coils and the sensors to arrived. My Nissan tech is coming back next week with the Consult II. I think I would put a 2$ on the ECU.

OC_Nooby, it was nice talking to you yesterday, if you can find me a spare ECU that would be great.

I will take a bunch of pics tomorrow so I can show you some of the new stuff I did.

 

Can do, going to the yard this weekend. Last time I checked there was a 2000-2001 Auto Maxima.

 

Please let me know if you find one.

Thanks, it is much appreciate.

 

Hey guys, here is the latest news.

Yesterday I received the Grey dot coil purchased from Meximax, those came fast and are in very good condition, but I found out those are for VQ35 it was a misunderstanding but no gig deal. I was with Michel the Nissan tech who came by with the consult II consol. The only code that we had is PO505 which is related to the IACV. We took Meximax coil and removed the tube cuz it's not long enough to reach the spark plug, I removed the longer tube on my original coils and put it on the VQ35 coils and believe it or not it fit perfectly but only for the front, cuz the rear one are different on the DEK engine. We proceed to crank the engine but it didn't start, next step Michel suggested that we check the spark on the coil with a spark plug and touch a ground point, what we found out is there was a spark but a yellow one, apparently it should be a kind of blue, the other things we found is the spark was inconsistent over time, firing normally and then skip for few second and then firing again. Now we dont have the P1320 code for the coils so it make sense that the coils are not the problem, so now we are down to the last thing the ECM, the consult II cant diagnose if the ECM is good or not, but it is known that when the IACV goes bad it often short the a part of the ECM circuit and the car wont start. It is impossible to make a 100% diagnostic without having a good spare ECM to test with wich we didn't had. It seem that Kevlo is as usual on the right track when he mentioned that we had a ignition problem, in this case it sound like it's the ECM ( because it's shorted ) that doesn't send the right impulse to the coil. At least we might have made a discovery, the VQ35 coils with the VQ30DEK coil tube fit on the VQ30DEK, just the front one though. Today I'm going to remove the ECM and I'd like to confirm that this is the culprit. Michel told me that at the dealer the way to confirm the ECM is bad is simply by testing with a new ECM, is there a way to test my ECM ? I mean we are almost sure this is the problem but we had no way to test/confirm. I have replaced the 3 sensors cam, crank (2) and now I'm ordering the rear 3 grey dot coil as a preventive maintenance procedure, I have found them for cheap on Amazon.

 

Sadly, there is no ECM test procedure that I know of. Best thing will be to buy a used ECU from here or the junk yards. www.car-part.com should have some in the area.

 

I just check but they don't have one for my Max. I found a company in Michigan that repair the damage ECM cauzed by the bad IACV, they seem to know the problem quite well, they even show how they fix it and have a lifetime warranty, take a look at this: http://www.avproecm.com/nissan.htm

I'm still searching to find a spare one but fixing it might be the fastest way for me to get going.

 

That sounds pretty excellent IMO. Decent price with that warranty.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=max...Year=2001|2000

There are some on there as well.

 

I think you should look at the pulse that the ECU is sending to the coils before deciding that it is bad. To work the coils and other high current peripherals, the signals from the logic part of the ECU have to be amplified.

The IACV in 5th gens go bad because the insulation between the coils of the motor breaks down and it shorts out the IACV amplifier in the ECU. The engine now will not start, even with a new IACV because the amplifier in the ECU is bad and can't regulate the air going to the engine. I don't think that the IACV going bad would harm the amplifier that works the coils.

If you have a friend with an oscilloscope, you should stick a probe on each of the coil signal wires and look at the pulses from the ECU. The FSM shows what the pulses should look like.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...ried-iacv.html

Maybe the chip that gets fried also stores ignition maps? We don't know but I would think it might be somehow related.

 

Thanks for the infos, but I don't have access to an oscilloscope.

My tech just called me and gave me a procedur to verify if the IACV harness is not ground fault, he said I need to hook the voltmeter (ohm setting) and check the 6 connectors on the harness, ( one probe on the wire and the other one on the chassis ) it should read 0 on the VM otherwise he said even if I replace the ECM is will blow as soon as I turn the key. I'm going to remove the ECM, open it and see if the circuit is burned. Once I can see it's burned that will confirm the ECM need to be fixed or replaced. In all eventuality I will have it repair but I also want to buy a spare one. I'll keep you guys posted later today.