I have Y Pipe, B Pipe and Berk full intake. My 2k2 auto lost alot of power near the 65k mark and was pinging pretty bad under even modest acceleration on flat roads. I changed the plugs this weekend and the power return is fantastic, but I'm still having bad pinging problems. Yes I've always used 93 octane. What else could be causing this? Coils? Intake making the car running lean? PCV valve?

 

even if its not your PCV you should still replace it.. if its original and you got 65k miles... its 99% change clogged/stuck.. myne was at 60k

 

add an oil catch can...see if that helps...

how badly is it pinging? if it's pinging to the point where your SES flashes...then its pretty serious...if it's not, then I wouldn't worry too much...I mean vq35s are SUPPOSE to ping from the factory

 

SES light isn't on, but it's pinging pretty bad at times. Enough to be annoying. It's not suttle either. My 1st tank a gas after plug change also yielded me a huge drop in mpg. 3mpg. My work sent me to Active Directory training this week so my normal travel has been different.

 

what is the SES code? does it FLASH or STAYS ON?

 

turn up your radio....lol

I've heard a good share of VQ engines ping. My neighbor just bought an '06 Xterra with the 4.0 VQ V6 and his pings on occasion too. Nothing to worry about unless your SES comes on or flashes.

 

Pinging is never good. It's strange that it's pinging even with such high octane fuel.

 

I've taken such good care of my maxima, I can't believe I overlooked the pcv valve. Even though the plugs ran their life course, they were pretty free of buildup. I clean the throttle body every 10k.

 

Decarbonize the combust camber and piston tops. Cloged fuel injectors leaning out the a/f mixture also doing no good for pinging, and playing a major factor of pinging problem. My car stopped pinging after one year of using V-power exclusively and techron every oil change. V-power is not a marketing hype in my book, it really doing its jobs. my .02

 

While I tend to get better gas mileage with Shell, the car pings it's worst with Shell. I use BG44K every 15-20k. I wouldn't think carbon would be a problem in my case.

 

What a pain in the butt! First off, the only Nissan dealership in the area with a PCV valve in stock charged me $15. I drove through DC rush hour, back out into rush hour to Sterling Nissan, and then back home again in rush hour. DC traffic sucks. When I went to change it, I found I didn't have a 23mm socket. Sears, Lowes and Home Depot don't sell 23mm sockets. I finally found one at Pep boys in 1/2 inch, but I only have a 3/8 socket extention and as luck would have it, everyone was out of 1/2 inch extentions. So I had to purchase a 3/8 to 1/2 inch converter. This took 2 hours. Then I find how easy it came out and I only had to hand tighten the new one. In summary, I wasted 2 hours of my day running around finding tools that I spent $15 for that I used literally 15 seconds. Then I forgot to plug the blue and green plugs back in and started the car without them plugged in. The car chocked like hell before starting and then ran like hell. Once I realised what I did, I turned it off and then plugged them back in. The car appears to be running fine. Do any of you thing this caused any damage? What are those plugs for?

Lastly, the old PCV Valve was indeed clogged. The inner piece wasn't shaking.

 

haha I had to go thru the hard way as well...when I looked at my PCV valve I thought it was a 21mm...I only had a 21mm short so I ran to autozone to buy a 21mm deep...then it barely stuck out...so I was like 22mm fosho! ran back and bought and exchanged it for a 22mm...and it still didn't work...until FINALLY i found out it was a 23mm...

and those two plugs near the PCV are fuel related I believe....I remember I unplugged them and it stalled out...I highly doubt u did any damage to your maxie....just clear the codes becuz the ECU prob detected a DTC while you had those connectors unplugged...

and yeah, if your PCV valve doesn't rattle when u shake it...then it's bad...mine was still in good condition when I checked it...

why didn't you give daveB a call? he coulda sourced you one real quick...and ships directly to your house without you running around

 

I wanted to get it done this weekend. Normally I call DaveB for everything.