i was working on my intake and when i put it all back together again, i forgot to plug in the maf. well, i start up the car and of course it idles fine but when i hit the gas, it stalls out. i figure it out and plug in the maf again and get back in for a test drive. all good.

well, now the engine light is on so i disconnected the battery for 8 hours to clear it out. i got in again this morning and there was the light. still on. i'm disconnecting the thing again tonighte, but if it doesn't work, is there another way i can just clear this thing without taking it in to a shop?

 

Serin,

It can take up to 24hrs. with the battery disconnected to clear it.

Check with a local performance shop or your local mechanic. If they have a multipurpose OBD Scan tool they can clear it.

Too bad you don't live closer or I'd fix it.

Good luck!

 

this is all screwed up.
i've disconnecte the battery overnight every night now and in total i've done this 4 times already but the light won't go off. in general i'd think that there was something actually wrong with my car but i'm not sure that i'm disconnecting the battery correctly cuz my radio station presets are not resetting either. normally i'd lose them even if i disconnect the neg terminal for a second or so, but now they're still there in my radio. wtf??

 

Mine did this recently.
The best thing to do.
Go to the dealer and let them reset it for you.

 

I had the exact same problem. But when I took it to nissan and told them about it they wanted to charge me $90 dollars to reset the light! I said **** that!! Anyway I found a thread saying that the light would reset itself after the car had been started so many times. I don't know how many times it takes but it worked! The light is gone. Hope this helps.

 

okay, so tell me if this is a bad idea cuz i've already done it.

the light is increasingly disconcerting and i keep getting off of work too late to make to the dealer. so i just disconnected the battery again right now only this time i removed both the neg and the pos connections to the battery and they're hanging loose in the engine bay away from the battery leads. hopefully that'll do something, at least to the radio so i know i've actually cut the power this time. i'm thinking it's okay cuz i figure you've gotta do this to change the battery anyway right???

if i'm wrong please let me know. it's only been like 20 minutes now.

 

This is the best solution - get yourself OBD scan tool almost free - in the light of dealer charges . Seriously - I've read in alt.autos.nissan.maxima that light goes off after 50 driving cycles if error wouldn't repeat itself. You can try to find fellow Maxima.org member around with OBD scaner. I can be wrong but it seems that ECU stores error codes in EEPROM which can't be erased by disconnecting battery. In case you want to check - the best way to discharge your car's power line is to depress couple times brake pedal while having battery negative wire disconnected and engine stopped, of course. This'll discharge almost everything in the car in a matter of seconds.

 

good info guys. thanks for the info.

 

What is the longest time you've left the negative OR positive terminal off the battery? 8hrs? 12hrs?

It can take up to 24hrs..

If you've left it off for close to 24hrs. at one time and it's still on when you reconnect the battery, you still have a problem that is triggering the MIL. Take it to a dealer or a mechanic for diagnosis.

It's definitely worth investing in a scan tool if your going to play with MODS.

 

the longest i've disconnected the battery was 14 hours. i know that's not the 24 that you're talking about but i've done this before and it hasn't taken that long in the past.
regardless, what was raising a question mark for me wasn't that the engine light wouldn't go off, but because my radio presets were still preset. normally they reset every time i disconnect the battery even if only for a few minutes. that made me think that the circuit was still complete somewhere else.
if the radio had reset and my engine light was still on, i would have an appointment with my dealer by now.

 

When I had the CEL I basically knew what the problem was. There was a leak in my intake. After I fixed that it still appeared even after the battery reset. I bascally took a long trip that weekend, about 300 miles. Halfway there I stopped at the pitstop to grab some grub. When I came out and started the car the CEL was gone. It looks like the ECU learned to adjust to the new changes and fixed itself..

 

hold up...the 5th gens are odb-2? i always thought they were obd-3.
ok, since it's odb-2, the FSM for 1st and 2nd gen Altimas say disconnect the battery for 24hr. Also, engine management is based on the previous 20 startups. That means, everytime your engine goes from dead cold to normal operating temp, that's 1 time. So...that's about 2wks of driving.
Or just visit your local autozone. they have a new program where they'll read your MIL and can reset it too w/a scanner.
Jae