ok this might be long so i can explain all the details as to what happens so please bear with me...

i was driving tonight to go watch a movie with my friends and i was driving on a local 1 lane each direction road and i was going about 30-40mph, all of a sudden my car dies on me...the rpms dropped, power steering gone, and brakes gone. i have an auto btw..i put it in neutral and used the ebrake to pull over to the curb. i turned the car back on and it was idling at around 1000-1200rpm and holding. i thought maybe a belt flew off because my steering died but the belts were fine and everything else LOOKED fine. my friend tried resetting the ecu but that didnt work. the car won't rev past 2500rpm or else it'll shake and bog then die..also if its in drive and i sit at a light it will stall out too so i had to keep it in neutral while at a light..it will downshift but only if i really want it to..i was only able to go 65mph top on the highway...luckily i made the hour drive home safely.

me and my friend think it could be ecu, fuel pump, clogged cats?, or worse the tranny. i'll be bringing it to the dealership on monday but i was hoping if anyone could lend some insight as to why this happened and if anyone else has had this happen to them

thanks alot...i appreciate it.

 

i think it's the MAF???

 

Yep MAF is dead. You can buy a new 2001 sensor for around $100 then just solder your temp diode from yoru old sensor to the new one. Voila, good as new. If you have 2001, you can just swap it out in about 5 minutes and you're done.

 

MAF- cost is around 50 bux if I remember correctly. No need to solder anything in- I've had 4 go bad and I'm on my 5th one that has been good for almost a year now- 90K miles, and I'm far from stock. If at any time the car won't run at all - had it happen to me, just unplug the connector from the MAF- which is right behind the airbox next to the shock tower. This will put the ECU in LIMP mode and it wont let ya go past 2400RPM or anything more than 20% throttle. U can limp home doing 60MPH, 5spds suck to drive in limp mode.

 

How come you gone through FIVE!!!? MAF already. My MAF has not gone belly up since the day I acquired the car brand new with zero miles. Now with 33k miles and no MAF issues. By the way I like your cartoon Maxima. Where did you get that done? I want a Cartoon drawing of my Maxima.

 

My 1st MAF which lasted 32K miles fried due to my own fault- I did a clutch on my car ( GF was learning how to drive stick on my Max ) and since I work at Honda we do not have MAFs on our cars and forgot to plug that sucker in. Started the car up and it came up with a check engine light. I automatically knew it was the MAF, with the engine runing I plugged it back in and it shorted it out somehow. Now I done same things on other Nissans when diagnosing bad MAFs and such and never had one short out. Maybe it was just a coincidence. 2nd MAF shorted out on me while going to redline in 3rd gear at around 6K RPM- all the sudden engine felt like it was shut off, I eassed off the gas thinking something blew up.... car idled down to 750RPMs and when given more than 20% throttle would just missfire and die out- so I knew it was a MAF, I just limp moded to Nissan the 2nd time now for my under warranty 3rd MAF. 3rd MAF died when I was coming home from my GFs house and I took off from a light on a damp surface and got some wheel hop in 1st gear- automatically MAF went bad- mind U I had a JWT POP on the 1st MAF, and then on Place Racing cold air intake- which I still have till this day. I went over to Nissan one more time and got my 4th MAF under warranty- also cleaned out their shelf of all MAFs, and they told me it was going to be my last MAF cause I'm doing something wrong there yadie yadie yada- well Nissan would be kinda suspicious if they installed MAFs on my car all the time too. My MAF didn't bang all over the place it was super secured down cause I know all bout MAFs and their verrrry sensitive hot wires inside ( I used to work at that same dealer who did all my MAF warranty work as a mechanic ). My 4th MAF died after I installed a Test Pipe from Custom Maxima that repleaced my main cat. After reading how much HP people gain from that mod I went out eagger to see what it would do... I get out of my shop after installing it on the main road, mash the gas in 1st gear and my huge 245-45-17 Azenis didn't even wanna grip the road- this was from a roll... all the sudden 6K RPM with the tires still searching for traction engine dies completly and I have to overcome oncoming traffic somehow... I quickly pull off next to the Porsche dealer, call my work up and have one of my aprentices bring me the OBDII scaner, ofcourse it was the MAF, the engine wouldn't wanna start up. Trip to the local Nissan dealer- 560 dollars not in stock- WHAAAT ? So I grabed a loaner car from my work, rolled out to my old work- Nissan dealer, and they had the whole assembly in stock for 104 bux. They didn't have just the MAF element- 56 dollars cause I cleared their shelf off already. I had them order me up 3 more MAFs in case this one goes bad. Took the assembly, drove back to Westmont, IL- 25 mile drive where I work at and where the car was sitting dead with no MAF. It was already dark, I slapped the MAF on, car fired right up and I been on the same MAF for the last year almost- I sold off one of my spare MAFs to Y2k Max Luv- forum member, and I have one spare one in my glove box, and one spare at home. Thats my MAF story.

 

i was thinking that when i woke up this morning that maybe it could be the MAF and after reading BlackbirdVQ's story of many MAFs i see that, that may be the culprit...now i'm still under warranty so should i just bring it to the dealership and get it done for free or should i just buy one and put it in myself...i just want to go with the method that will take the least amount of time.