So here is a little info:

Car is always maintained on time...
has 69,xxx mi
1999 SE
Automatic

The car seems to jolt when im fully stopped at a red light. When it jolts once or twice at the stop you can see the rpm move up down very slightly say about 50~100ish rpm. It only likes to do this in the summer. I have never experienced it in the cold... And it happens occasionally... but not evrey time i stop.

However the jolting stops if i put the car in neutral. I think it may be tranny/idle speed related...

@ netutral it runs 1grand
@ drive stopped it runs about 600-700rpm, Ill take a closer look tomorrow..

The idle speeds seem okay to me so i dont think the car is starving of rpms when at a stop... The engine sounds just fine and does not make any strange or weird noises when it jolts. Also the car obviously does not do this in park either.

Suggestions? Is this a major/serious issue? My car has done this for about a year now but only in summer/warm conditions. Seems to me that its slowly doing this more often, but still not enough to completely bother me.

 

Replaced your coils yet?

 

Ah....Well i dont think they have been. Thats not as scary as having a tranny problem. But the car never jolts when im moving or in neutral. But that is a good suggestion.. Do you think that could be the culprit?

 

I had what sounds like the same problem. I changed my plugs from Autolites to NGKs and that solved it. The Autos only had about 20K miles on them, so I don't think they were necessarily worn out. But NGKs are the consensus choice for Maxes, so they may just function better.

 

Hmm... Maybe ill invest in some new spark plugs. I dont think they have ever been changed, maybe once by the original owner. Nissan told me they were good for a long time as long as i used premium. I was kind of skeptical...

 

If you have a '99, and you have the original coils...good luck solving a misfiring problem without replacing them.

 

So am I going to have to replace them all? or just a specific one? I know that coil packs are going to be pricy vs. spark plugs. But im not feeling a loss of power or loss of fuel economy...I got 400+mi per tank. No Check engine light either.

Is there a thread showing how to test the coil packs? I checked the stickes and searched "checking coil packs" with no luck. I just want to figure out how to determine if my coil(s) are shot. Although a search did show that many people experienced rough idle and jerking in drive while at a stop and reverse. I have yet to experience problems in reverse. But im convinced that a coil is dead....

Thanks a bunch so far!

Yeah i found this identical problem:
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...oot-brake.html

 

I'm watching this thread for ideas on my own car.

 

Check them and replace them one by one if you want to, but chances are extremely high that you'll end up replacing them all over the course of owning your car. Avoid headache in the future by replacing these very problem prone '99 coils with different ones.

 

Haha that was my question. How does one check the coils to make sure they are working or broken. I know how to get to them, is it just a visual inspection to see if they are melted or something? What do i look for? Or do i use a multimeter to check resistance? And is there aftermarket coils that I should be using? Or do i just get ones from a 98 or something?

Thanks a bunch so far!

 

A very basic test, of course. There's more to it than that, but it's available around here, somewhere...

 

Now thats what i call help Ill see if i can grab a cheap digital multimeter somewhere and hopefully report a messed up coil.

 

I've been having this same problem for the last year. Changed the plugs, pcv and fuel filter to no avail. Cleaned the MAF, no change. Added fuel system cleaner thinking it was an injector going bad. That helped but didn't eliminate the problem. It's getting worse now, used to only happen occasionally when it was hot, but now happens even when the engine is cold and more often. Also starting to stumble a bit on acceleration, where before it did not. Stumbles at high rpm too. But cruising is peachy which is weird.

I thought it may be transmission related, but I can still feel an ever so slight bump in neutral now tho. Used to only happen in drive, now it happens in reverse as well.

Guess maybe I'll just buy one front and rear coil and start swapping looking for the culprit

 

To add some insight I have a 99. I had a slight variation of the problem originally described in this thread. At a light the car would buck, but the RPM needle would drop slightly and return.

I cleaned the MAF Sensor throttle body, replaced the fuel filter and replaced all 6 coil packs even though they had no code and tested out ok. Maybe replacing all 6 coils was not necessary but the problem has been gone for around 55,000 miles. If I didn't have deep pocket or the illusion of them (credit cards ) I would clean the MAf and throttle body and replace the fuel filter first. If the problem doesn't go away after a couple of weeks I would then consider replacing all 6 coil packs.

 

Well i bought a multimeter and am going to test the coil packs tomorrow. As a precation ill d/c the battery before i remove the coils... I think its fairly bulletproof... Ill make sure to keep the coils in order and what not.

But any other precautions i should be taking before i remove the coils so i dont mess up my car / coils...

 

I have the same problem with a 96 GLE auto. It does the same thing, bucking at stops. I have replaced the spark plugs, PCV valve, fuel filter, cleaned the throttle body and IACV, adjusted the idle speed, and changed the air filter for good measure. No dice.

Any thoughts? Are the coil packs possibly bad on mine too? And can someone explain why it would be the coil packs if it only happens when stopped in Drive or Reverse?

I do notice it gets worse once the car gets warm, BTW.

 

Very slight misfire, only noticeable when you're stopped in gear because of the load on the engine. I've had the same problem myself, didn't suspect the coils because she ran great up top and WOT. Was the coils.

 

I also have this problem. I think it's the ignition coils.

 

Will this issue with the coils being bad throw any codes?

 

Mine does not have the check engine light, but I occasionally get a 0325 Knock from my OBDII gauge.

 

Not necessarily.