Hey guys I am having my usual 8 month AE problems with my new car. My new max now suffers from an occasional(becoming more often lately) loss of power, I'm talking a big lose here. The car will just be all bogged out feeling. I had the problem at the track last week and my car ran a 15.58 at 92.36 mph with a 2.58 60'. On my next run I unpluged my batery and tapped the brakes. After doing that I ran a 14.4 with a 2.4 60' @ 99 MPH. So something electrical is to blame here, clearing the ECU fixes the problem temporaraly. The same thing happened when I dynoed my car, my car first peaked at 188 FWHP and my TQ curve was patheticly low. After un-plugging my battery my car did 221 FWHP and my TQ was back?

With this information does anyone have an idea what the problem may be? The 3 things I suspect in order are: o2 sensor, MAFS and then my ECU. When installing my headers I did manage to bang my o2 sensor up a little , it has a small dent in it now, do you think this could be causing the problem(wouldent I get a check engine light though?) What ever is causing the problem it seems to be an off and on kind of thing and has no particular rythem too it, however it seems to come obout more often after a long ride. Hmm..last night on the free way a 2002 V6 altima pulled up behind me quickly so I put my car in 3rd gear waiting for him to make a move. I stayed at 5000 RPM for about 20 seconds waiting for him to try to race me, when I finaly floored it my car went into limp mode and I had to make an emergency stop in the break down lane(very embarasing I might add). I have no clue why this happend either? I hope someone here can help me out other wise I am going to start replacing my suspected parts and if that failes my 2002 maxima days are numbered..


Thanks for any help

 

I should also add that when my car was completly stock (minus AE pedals and a FSTB) I noticed the problem a few times. Then it went away for a few months and now it's a daily thing.

 

If it's happening daily, I wouldn't think it was the ECU. It wouldn't re-map itself incorrectly so quickly if you cleared it. I think I would look at the O2 sensor.

 

But wouldn't he of gotten a CEL if the 02 was bad? It would give him an error like Bank1 02 bad or something like that..

 

You would think, but if it is still operating with parameters it might not. Don't know, I could be talking out of my a$$.

 

i'm betting it's something with your VAIS, other then that an O2 would be my next guess.

 

VAIS means variable intake right? I don't think that's the problem since it runs on vacume and clearing the ecu would not change that. hmm..


Thanks for the advice so far guys, please keep it comming

 

It's probably a Nissan thing, my 240sx and max have the same problem None of the dealers can figure out what is wrong.

Good luck!

 

there is a writeup in autoweek (current one i think) where they were test driving the 2k2.

if i remember correctly they experienced a smiliar power loss and the dealer pointed to the drive by wire.... something to do with smashing the gas too hard.

i remember thinking it sounds like a hidden tsb that needs to be corrected.

 

Ohh great I'm gonna dump the car if thats the case..

 

Hmm.. Intersting idea, I do slam the gas pretty hard but I think I am pretty consitent about doing it. On the dyno that gas pedal was just gently at the floor for all 6 six runs. 3 runs in a row where horrible then I cleared the ECU and the next 3 runs where ok.

Anyhow I've been thinking about getting a pathfinder Throttle body and coverting my car into using a real throttle cable. I hait how much control my car has over me with this stupid fly by throttle crap.

Thanks for the idea

 

Emax-

I don't you can just throw a Pathfinder TB on there and call it a day. Your ECU will throw fits because it gets throttle postion readings from the TB, there are no provisions for the throttle cable, what are you going to do about the cruise control, what about your emissions (the drive-by-wire was brought about mostly for emissions reasons). I'm sure there a ton of other things I'm not thinking of too.

It sounds to me like your car is experiencing a version of the drive-by-wire fuel cut. Also, since you take things on and off your car all the time, you may have misintalled, forgot, or borke something in the process.

I could have SWORN you said you weren't going to do anything to this Maxima because of all you modding problems with your 95 Max and I30 Look at where you are now.


Dave

 

I remember that. If we search we should find those posts too

 

the pathfinder throttle body would be a good idea but i don't think there is a way you could get it to work, it would be insanely difficult. now that people are mentioning it i would say it's something with teh drive by wire thingie, i don't like it either but oh well, there is nothing we can do about it, damn nissan controlling us.

 

To my knowledge my TB is not sending a signal to anything, I believe the only thing happening is when I hit the gas the drive by wire sensor just opens the TB accordingly. I bet my ECM will try to put me in limp mode but it won't have a chance now that Iwill have control of teh TB . It's time I show the SOB who's boss, lol. And for the A/F ratio, it is comming from my MAFS and it just sends a signal according to how open the TB is(IE how much air is coming threw) Then of course the o2 sensors reports back. I bet I will probably get a check engine light with the system removed but that may be all. Anyhow theres only one way to find out who's right The swap should not be a whole ton of money if I go threw a junk yard and use yarn for a throtle wire, jk.

And for the other comment, we allready went over this.. and Nick start searching punk.


BTW I just drove the car about 30 miles and it drove perfectly, I tried what "confused" said about not mashing the pedal to hard. Maybe thats my problem.

 

good luck with the throttle body thing, let me know how it goes.

i don't think has ever happened to me, but now that i think about it i layinto the gas but i never really mash it real hard, i always go smooth to WOT.

 

Ethan, take your car to the Honda dealer and trade it in on a nice shiney new Civic!!


LOL


j/k



I have to agree with Dave. I believe DBW servo does send feedback to the ECU of it's position. It really wouldn't work otherwise. It's virtualy the same digital proportional setup that R/C cars use. I also agree that something you did may have caused your recent grief. Try replacing that O2 sensor like you suggested. And since you know the owner of the dealership why can't you have them plug the consult to your ECU to retrieve the fault codes?

The 70mm Pathfinder TB swap is agenerally bad idea IMHO. I know how you could make it work but the question is do you realy want to go through with something like that? Sure you wouldn't have to attach a TPS since the one you have now runs off the gas pedal. But you would still have to stash the TB servo somewhere so the ECU can talk to it.
The throttle cable wouldn't be that big of a deal since the original firewall cutouts are still on the existing chassis (left over from the 2k0 -2k1 model).

I really think you should make use of your resources at your local dealer. At least talk to your contact person and see how willing they are to work with you. Or you could buy a $2000 Snapon OBD-II scanner or maybe even the Nissan consult-II.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....5&pagenumber=3

page 1 and 2

 

Good find Nick

Heres a nice quote from that post:


Atleast I knew that much, hehe. These days I don't have much else I want to do to the car, maybe a little NOS or something