Here's the story------

My 99 had the misfire at idle for a while that I fixed last week by tossing in used coils from a wrecked 96 that I've got. I then proceeded to take my original coils apart and clean up the contacts. Sure enough I found one that was pretty bad and thought I found the source of the misfire from my coils. Yesterday morning I put my original coils back in the car to see if the misfire was gone. I'd like to use my original coils because they are 3 years newer then the coils from the 96, makes sense right? I started it up after the swap and it seemed to run just fine, no misfire at idle. Great, I then took it to inspection and passed. The car ran great both to and from the inspection station.

Now the problem starts------

At 5:30 I'm headed to the gym and I make a stop at Dunkin Donuts for a coffee. I pull out of the D.D. parking lot onto the highway and jump on the throttle. The car surges, pops slightly throught the throttle body, lacks power big time and the CEL is flashing at my face. I back off the gas and everything smooths out, CEL goes off. From that point on as soon as I go WOT the engine surges, misfires, and the CEL flashes. I got home after lifting and tried to pull codes from the ECU, all I got was 0505.

What do you guys think I should do?
Just toss the coils from the 96 back in?
Clean the coils from the 96 and put them back in?
Go over my coils and see if I see anything wrong?
Wait till she throws a CEL?
Or pull both crank sensors and clean them up, after all they control the ignition.

 

What kind of fluids did you clean it with?

 

A drop of rubbing compound on a Q tip and a blast of electrical cleaner to make sure no compound residue was left. The contacts appear very clean and shiny.

 

Double check it again. Try electronics cleaner from radio shack. Rubbing compound tends to re-appear sometimes esp after it gets wet. (it was raining yesterday)

 

Those those 96 coils back in.

I have had severe misfire issues before and it took 2 days for the CEL to finally come on but right before I was gonna pull the code it went away. ECU just does that sometimes, it is not a perfect system.

And it is most likely only one or two bad coils, so if it makes you feel better find the bad 99 coil pack and replace it with one of the 96 ones

 

Update:

I took the coils out and cleaned them up again. One had some residue on the contact, the other 5 looked fine. Put them back in and went for a test drive. The car still surges around 4K till around 5K. It idles perfectly smooth. I'm going to clean up the coils from the 96 and throw that set back into the car and see what happens.

 

Last and final update:

I cleaned up the coils from the 96 and tossed them back in.

Problem solved, she rev's nice and smooth all the way up over 6 grand once again.


The lesson learned from this is simple.

If you have a 99 and you are having ignition problems, don't bother doing anything to your coils, just replace them.

 

How many miles on the 99? When does a 4th Gen, prior to 99, typically start to experience problems with the coils?

 

The misfire at idle, was it like a pulsating sensation regardless of gear (P/N or D)?

 

yup, my 99 coils went bad too...My scenario was a little bit different from yours though. My car ran strong NA and the problems reared thier ugly heads after I installed the SC. I even tested the coils per the FSM, Chilton, and Haynes. Passed some tests, failed others. Before I dropped in new coils, I did the same tests on the new ones. Guess what? Same numbers as my "bad" coils. So, testing them is useless. My car runs strong now with 6 new coils. For more details and the whole story, read this thread.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=393081

After some research, the part numbers for the 99 coils are the same as the part #'s for 95's, 96's, 97's, and 98's. So, if the coilpacks are the same, what is causing the coilpacks on 99's to go bad?

James

 

The part numbers are indeed the same for all 4th gen coils, but there is a 3 digit code stamped on the coils. My 99's coils have the code 8Z2 stamped in white, the coils I got from the 96 had something like 5V4. I assume it's a batch code. I did replace a completely dead coil about a year ago. Got that one new from Nissan and it's got the code 3X1 stamped on it. I wonder if it's a batch related issue, which means the failing 99's would have the same markings on them. If anybody else has a 99 with failed coils, please take a look at the 3 digit code to see what you've got.