I had an opportunity to see/play with a Consult II OBD2 module on my 2002 Maxima today. I no longer have the annoying blinking Airbag light and my engine now idles faster than 625RPM. It's now at about 675RPM and I'm probably going to raise it to 725RPM. One thing of interest is that the ability to retard and advance the timing. It's built right in. You can simply adjust the parameter up or down. My car's default was at -1 degree and that's where I left it.

I'm not sure if this is a commonly known thing or not. I did a search and I didn't find any reference to it, so I thought I'd mention it to everyone. So, it seems that if you want to retard your timing because of FI, just get your hands on a Consult II and reprogram your Max.

Stereodude

Edit: typo

Can the public purchase these? And would it work on a 4th Gen or is the technology only utilized in newer Maxs?
Thanks,
-Cyrus

I don't know the answer to either of your questions. I met a Nissan engineer on another forum and then in person at some meets. I met up with him at their Technical HQ today after work. He brought the Consult II out to my car, we plugged it in and away we went. I'd guess that this works for any OBD2 Max, but I don't really know. Perhaps if some of you are friendly with someone in the local service department you can use their Consult II and check. Nissan dealerships should have these as it's what they use to clear codes and diagnose the ECU.

Stereodude

Edit: typo

Okay then I can imagine it is very expensive. And how easy was it to plug up to the car?
Thanks,
-Cyrus

Hey I thought you said "without buying anything"???

I didn't buy anything. Your dealer has the tools to let you adjust your spark timing. The trick is to get him to let you use them for free. What I was getting at is that you don't need a new ECU or a fancy box to do it. You can simply reprogram the one you have.

Stereodude

In the 02 there's a connector directly under the steering wheel that the you plug the connector from the Consult II into that that's it. Once it's plugged in you turn the car to run (don't start it) and turn on the Consult II and go from there.

Stereodude

Edit: typo

Does your engineer friend post here? If so, then why don't you get him in here to clear this up a bit. It sounds very very interesting, but since we have so many people in the org it's hard to believe noone else here has come across this before. It may be, as cyrus was getting at, only for the newer max's.

It would be awesome to get the engineer in and chat with us about this. There was a technician on this board a while back and he was awesome. You old timers remember Mr. Daniel B. Martin. His writeups and solutions/exp. to problems and situations are absolutely awesome. He taught a lot people here on the board many things about our cars. Sure would be nice to have someone on the board who is that knowledgeable again. Just my .02.

Unfortunately he does not post here. I met him at a meet from an audio related forum on the web. The Consult II is not his forte. He specializes in something else at Nissan. (Sorry for keeping this so vague, but I'm trying to keep him very anonymous lest Nissan goes on a witch hunt.) I had complained about my flashing airbag light and he offered to help me clear the codes from the ECU.

So yesterday I met up with him. When the unit first configures to the car there are two sections; engine and airbag. We went into the airbag section and cleared the error codes. I asked if it was possible to raise the engine idle from the loafy 625RPM that Nissan programmed into my 2002. We went browsing through the engine section and found the engine idle target. We proceeded to adjust the idle up 50RPM to 675RPM. After setting that we proceeded to look through more of what was under the engine section. I saw spark timing on the display and we went into the page for that. It read out the current setting to be -1 degree and it was adjustable. We changed it to -2 by accident (pressed the wrong button) and then set it back to -1.

There is at least one "value" in there for fuel pressure as well. I'm not sure what can be done there as we did not look at that page. Nothing else stands out in my mind because we were really only looking for the Engine Idle adjustment. Perhaps I'll see if I can meet up with him again next week and I'll bring my digital camera and take pictures of the different screen on the unit and what it can do.

Stereodude

edit: Typo

I think what you have seen is a "Consult" service tool. If you have access to one you can completely reprogram your ECU: spark timing, fuel tables - the works. There are just two problems for the rest of us 1) If we could buy them, they probably cost on the order of $10K, 2) we can't be them.

i saw that thingy bobber.. they were reprogramming my key a couple weeks ago... damnit.. i need to talk to that guy again..

That's what I've been trying to say all along. Your local dealer has one. You only have to get them to let you "play" with it.

It seems to me the car is now trivial to "chip". In fact you don't even have to replace the chip. You can simply reprogram it. I'm still surprised that no one has discovered this before. The 2002 can't be the first year that there's that much control built into the ECU.

Stereodude

I think someone with some knowledge of what they're doing needs to spend some quality time on a Dyno with a Consult II plugged in.

Stereodude

agreed..
and since everyone at the nissan dealship loves my car.. hmmm

Someone please check into this and see if it applies to the 4th gen ecu's too. I would, but the dealer near me doesn't much like the idea of running DPI on my car. They love gauwking at it, just don't understand it I guess, and try and tell me all the bad things and how it's not going to work on the maxima.

Should take a pic tonight at the track to show them how much it DOESN'T work...

Seriously, someone here has to have a connection at Nissan to find out if 4th gens can do this too.

Just so you guys know the CONSULT II is a $2k-3k diagnostic tool that Nissan uses. Man you should have bumped the timing at least 1-3 degrees.

$$$$$$$$ cha ching...... i work at a nissan dealer. i will go talk to the the service advisor to and get him to let me take a look at that consult thiny see if it can be used to reprogram the 4th gen ecu. i belive there wouldn't be a problem with it but then i may be wrong deffinitly will keep you guys posted.

Good work Stereodude!! I am going to my dealer after work and see what I can do. I just called one of the managers (that I know) to try to get some strings pulled. Also, I have been asking them to get me in touch with a Nissan engineer to talk with. He just told me that he's about to have a phone number for Nissans racing division for me to call. If i get in touch with these people I'll be sure to pick their brains thouroughly and share with all of you.

Stereodude
Come by the HQ this Saturday morning.

NTCNA will be hosting the Z Club members from Michigan, Chicago, Ontario, New York, Ohio and the Carolinas this Saturday (8/17) from 9-11:30 a.m.

If you're interested, you can view the Z cars in the West Parking lot before they head to the Woodward Dream Cruise later in the day.

I hate to be right all the time...

I knew there had to be someone in here with some connections. Please do keep me posted. I am very interested in this as a possible fix to some high fuel pressure and retard issues (N2O).

What the ...!? Phuong knew about these things and didn't tell us?

he told me...

Connections eh? How much is the software & connection? I can't find it on any of the web pages in there. And would it work on a Max? Phuong?

Was already planning on being there. I somehow also suspect that you work for Nissan NA. Why won't you tell us all the secret of the 04 Max?

Stereodude

I think the Consult II is the OBD2 version the Consult is the OBD1 version. I think that software is a software clone of the OBD1 variety. It's hard to say though.

Stereodude

From what I read on the twinturbo forums, it doesn't look like it's readily available, looks to be $300-500 and I'm skeptical it would work on a Max since it seems to have been written for a ZX ECU. Hrmmmmmmmm. I'd still be inclined to take it to the dealership and get them to retard the ignition timing a little. Roughly how many degrees is a good idea to experiment with under 7-9lbs of boost?

hmmm mit said in the link that some of the settings were temporary. i wonder if it will be temporary as in aftertime it will rest or like when the car is turned of then turned back on again it will reset. would there be any problems if i was to retard my timing back -1 degrees and see if it will stay or not. so instead of the stock -1 degrees it will be -2 degrees what do you guys think.

this is a quote from phuong

"I'm trying to catch up on them (new 300ZX/Maxima/240/Sentra.. any OBDI Nissan vehicle.. product coming out)"

It will work on a max, however it might be the 3rd gens and older cars. The Z32 ECU is basically wired the same as the VE 3rd gen ECU is (minus the TT that is). Looks like you 95+ guys are SOL.

I'm not sure that we're SOL. We only need to make friends with someone who has a Consult II.

Stereodude

I just did. He told me that the one they had doesn't really do all the things you described. Apparently there is more than one version of the Consult II. I have been pushing pretty hard at my local dealer to help me get the information we need and I think im starting to get somewhere. The tech I spoke with races a '02 SE-R and speaks with certain people at Nissan Motorsports. He's going to find out everything he can. The general manager at my dealer now knows I have Nitrous on my car but I was told I have nothing to worry about for warranty as long as the stuff isn't on the car when it arrives for service.

Stereodude; if you get the chance to speak to that guy again please drill him on the specifics of the unit he had. It may require certain software revisions or hardware keys to unlock all that we need.

I might bump in to you then

I sent him an e-mail asking him if it was a special issue, or what was unique about it. I'll see what he says.

I also suspect that Pocketrocket knows a lot more than he's letting onto. I'd wager he works for Nissan in the same building as my "contact". I'm gonna have to go in commando style and find his car in the lot now.

Stereodude

From the CONZULT FAQ:

Q: Can the Conzult be used on other Nissan vehicles ?

A: Some of the features of the current software version might work on other Nissan's, but it's not supported at this time. A ConZult version for the S14,S15, Maxima and Sunny/Pulsar GTI-r will be released early next year (2003)

Stereodude

Looks like I beat you to it ... I thought I saw your car (there's just way too many 2k2 Maximas at the parking lot during the day, I wasn't sure if it was yours until I saw the rims) ... anyway, no sign of anyone around so I left. The Z's were already rolling out then.

I wasn't too thrilled that the Ferrari crashed the Z meet.

Yeah, I saw your car also. I have some pictures of your car and the real pocketrocket behind it (Omni GLHS) . The Ferrari was nice, but she did kinda "crash" the meet. Wish I could afford a Ferrari 360 at 22.

Anyhow, back to the topic of the thread at hand. As far as my contact knows the Consult II he used was standard issue. It had some extra attachment that it mostly limited to Infinity dealers.

There is the extra possibility that because my car is Canadian it technically doesn't have to comply with OBD-2 so some of the parameters are adjustable with otherwise are not on US models. We're looking into it more.

Stereodude

There was an Omni there, darn it ... I didn't see it

If I'm not mistaken, it wasn't until recenlty (~ 2000) that Nissan ECUs were reprogrammable. So for most (or all) the 4th genners, we're probably SOL. The ECU cannot be reprogrammed short of pulling out the old chip and replacing it with flash rom. Then, there's also the issue of reprogramming the flash rom.

Chances are, the 5th gen ECUs are reprogrammable (based on my above statement), I am somewhat surprised though that our Consult-II units can modify the parameters ... maybe you can only see the set parameters (useful for diagnosis) but not modify them?

Or maybe you are actually looking at parameters the ECU is reading, useful for diagnosing problems?

I'm not a powertrain engineer so I don't know specifics ... with the incapacity of dealers and compliance of strict US emission standards, it would be a miracle if these parameters can be modified by any tech with a Consult-II. I dunno.

On my last visit to my local Nissan dealer the technician told me we can buy the Consult II consol he didn't told me were to buy but was positive that the unit is available to the general public. Chek this out: http://store.yahoo.com/rodi/eqobdiicodre.html
Cheers

AA

What's the deal with this? Can 4th genners advance their timing or not? Does this thing that costs $140 do the same thing as the one that's $3000? I know a guy with one of the expensive ones, maybe he'd let me use it, but if 4th gen OBD-II ECU's aren't reprogrammable, there's no point. It sure would be nice to do this, though, as we with '97-'99's could come close to making our own JWT mods cheaply. I'm really surprised no one else has discussed this. Any experts in the house?