I am confused about this issue i got in my car tonight. I was driving slowly when all of a sudden my car started to shake, like it had a flat tire. I noticed when i came to a stop that the car kept shaking, so that quickly ruled out a flat. If i put the car into neutral, the car stopped shaking but I could hear that the engine was struggling. I just put 87 octane gas in my car the other day b/c the gas prices just went up.
I'm convinced that its a fuel injection issue or I BADLY need a tuneup. I put a fuel enhancer into my gas tank to hopefully clean it a bit overnight. Has anyone else ever noticed this on their maxima? If you did... what was the solution???
thanks in adv.

 

your car struggling is probably the knocking and pinging of the engine due to predetonation. dont use 87, use whatever your premium is. in california, its 91, and elsewhere in other states its like 92 or 93. hope this helps.

 

Your problem is probably much deeper than that, like you said a fuel injection problem, or whatever. It might even be your coil packs going bad. Wait and see if your CEL comes on, and what year Maxima do you have?

 

Regular gas = teh suxor

If you've been using premium for a while, it's bad to switch grades of gas.

 

i felt horrible after using 92....i'm used to my 93...but my max didn't notice...

 

yup always 93, she needs all she can get!

 

Of course its gonna run different. You probably could use new plugs too

 

its a 95 maxima. I use to use 89 or 90 before I put it in the 87 (so it wasnt that big of a jump). Should I even try to drive it to the gas station? I dont think i can even go over 10 mph and Im afraid im gona do engine damage if i drive it like this anywhere. I just left it near a parking lot where it started dying.

 

i use 94 octane

 

Turbo mate - all Maxima's require at a minimum 91 octane gas. Otherwise, you're going to damage your engine. It's not designed to use such low quality octane and as a result the engine ECU and components have to struggle to make it work ~ increasing the wear and tear on your engine.

Suck it up dude. Own a Max - you gotta put the 91 in. No exceptions. Otherwise you'll eventually kill the engine.

 

Try not to use 87 , at the worst use 89 and try to mix in 93 to even it out, when was the last time you changed youre fuel filter? Spark plugs? Cleaned the throttle body? All this adds up. Im betting 80% if it's running real rough it might be a coil pack or spark plugs.

 

i racomand you to change the gas station. is this your first time buying gas from there or what?

 

Its not the fuel. Your car wouldnt shake like that with bad fuel. What it would do is ping and smell like rotten eggs- and maybe not even that because our cars have a knock sensor. So you didnt do anything wrong.

I see you are new here. Is your service engine soon light on? If so, follow the procedure in the FYI to determine which code comes up.

I think you have a bad ignition coil pack. There's a way to test them. Its listed in the Haynes manual. Test them all. I think you have one that is bad.

Change your spark plugs while you are at it. Get NGK Copper or Platinum. Depending on your budget. I use Denso Iridium but they are $11 a plug. I absolutely love them. If you have the cash just get NGK Platinums.

If this doesnt work then remove all the coil packs and plugs. Take a paper towel and stuff a corner into each of the spark plug holes. Dont rip the paper so it goes into your engine.

Crank your engine a little. Now remove each paper towel and see if they all smell like fuel. You will get high but its worth it.

If one of them doesnt smell like fuel. Thats the one where your fuel injector is bad. Change that injector.

That should take care of your problem

 

I used regular all the time in my Maxima when I had it, never had a problem.

 

last year my fuel injectors went. 3 of them. i replaced them all. my car would violently jerk and shake whenver i would accelerate... and my car smelled like fuel. cost me a lot of money, but i fixed it

 

exactly - this is not just a bad fuel problem. Can you go over 2000 rpm's? If not, I believe that would lead to a bad MAF sensor.

 

thanks for your advice guys, this maxima is my daily driver that I dont like pouring too much $$ into (i got a c5 for that ). I use to use 90 octane gas everyday until the gas prices just went up $0.25 the last week, so i thought how bad could the 87 be you know?

The car drives if i force it, but its just shaking the whole time. I took it up to 40mph. And the Service Engine light isnt on.

What ive tried: I put octane booster and a gas treatment/fuel injector cleaner with about 5 gallons of 93 octane gas this morning.
Result: No changes.

I dropped it off at the mechanic to change the plugs/wires tomorrow morning.

Something that the corvette forum guys pointed out to me: the dealer says to use 87 octane or higher on the '05 maxima (not 91) and that "Most likely your knock sensor detecting ping and pulling back the timing."

 

link to the corvette forum post if interestd:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...post1550061296

 

california gas suck @$$, our premium is 91. a few 76 gas stations carry 100 but its costly.

 

FORK !>>> you put it perfectly....if you drive a max suck it up and put the HIGH OCTANE IN..... you got it buddy!