01 Maxima misfiring

[G-ZUS]

I have a 2001 Maxima GLE with 170 000KM on it. The SES light (with Slip and traction control lights) has been coming and going for the past 2 weeks with P1320, did some searching on maxima.org and read about the coil problems.

Was about to diagnose the coils (check resistance and voltages as per the FSM) then a P0301 code popped up.

Great, now I know which coil to change out now, right? Wrong. I picked up a coil from the local Nissan dealer in Calgary ($114 - was cheaper than any aftermarket one locally). I installed the new coil and plugged in my OBD2 scanner and reset the light.

Went for a drive and 1 km down the road the SES light starts flashing (never flashed before), I pulled over and scanned it. Those damned codes came up again (P1320 and P0301). I reset the light and drove off, its still shuddering when stopping at red lights so I plugged in my scanner again and I got P1320 and P0140 which were pending codes. Reset those and and scanned 10 minutes later, P1320 is still pending but doesn't seem to be misfiring anymore. What gives? Bad OEM coil out of the box? Another coil following suit?

[sr20s14zenki]

How are your plugs doing? Maybe check/replace them?

also, FYI. When you are diagnosing these things, the cheapest way to do it, without first buying parts, is to swap the coil with another coil, and see if the misfire moves to another cylinder. If it does, you can rule it out as a likely part failure. If it doesnt move, you know its more of an issue.

If your plug is good, and your coilpack is good, youll have to check the wiring to the coilpack, maybe the ground is bad, or its +12v is intermittent due to wire failure. Im not sure if the maxima of that year uses coils with an ignitor built in, or weather its on the harness somewhere. That may be another thing to look at.

hope those ideas helped

[G-ZUS]

Originally posted by sr20s14zenki
How are your plugs doing? Maybe check/replace them?

also, FYI. When you are diagnosing these things, the cheapest way to do it, without first buying parts, is to swap the coil with another coil, and see if the misfire moves to another cylinder. If it does, you can rule it out as a likely part failure. If it doesnt move, you know its more of an issue.

If your plug is good, and your coilpack is good, youll have to check the wiring to the coilpack, maybe the ground is bad, or its +12v is intermittent due to wire failure. Im not sure if the maxima of that year uses coils with an ignitor built in, or weather its on the harness somewhere. That may be another thing to look at.

hope those ideas helped

Good advice, I will check/replace the plugs tomorrow, they are cheap. I did go after the coil because they are very common problems on the Maximas,

[Jsen-DC2]

is your maxima equipped with a maf?, might wanna try cleaning that and also check your throttle plate to see if its dirty. it might help with your shuttering.

[Mike09]

The 1320 dtc is caused by a failed coil pack 100% of the time. Usually worn out spark plugs are the root cause, and 1 or more of your coilpacks will require replacement.
Being you also have cylinder 1 misfire, i'd replace all plugs and the cylinder 1 coil pack. I garrantee that will fix it.
A bad Mass air flow meter on almost any nissan will give p0171 / 0172? fuel system lean and won't rev freely. Won't be your MAF.
Any questions feel free to PM me. I am a licenced Nissan Tech of over 10years. Seen more than my fair share of these.

Mike

[G-ZUS]

Originally posted by Jsen-DC2
is your maxima equipped with a maf?, might wanna try cleaning that and also check your throttle plate to see if its dirty. it might help with your shuttering.

Originally posted by Mike09
The 1320 dtc is caused by a failed coil pack 100% of the time. Usually worn out spark plugs are the root cause, and 1 or more of your coilpacks will require replacement.
Being you also have cylinder 1 misfire, i'd replace all plugs and the cylinder 1 coil pack. I garrantee that will fix it.
A bad Mass air flow meter on almost any nissan will give p0171 / 0172? fuel system lean and won't rev freely. Won't be your MAF.
Any questions feel free to PM me. I am a licenced Nissan Tech of over 10years. Seen more than my fair share of these.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I changed out the coil pack (OEM coil from Nissan) on cylinder 1. 0301 code is gone (for now) but 1320 remains. I will switch out the plugs tomorrow and measure resistance of each coil (does this work) and check the voltage of each one at the ECM (as per the FSM).

Are these cars as picky with plugs as they are with coils? Some guys on the Maxima forums were saying that aftermarket coils will still throw the 1320 code as they operate just barely out of the ecm's required range?

Maybe I got a bad coil out of the box

[natty54]

deff check the plugs out

there is also a tsb that all coils be replaced once a single coil fails

[G-ZUS]

Originally posted by natty54
there is also a tsb that all coils be replaced once a single coil code is shown

fml

[Mike09]

Do plugs and the coil. then clear dtc. if it still comes back on then i would replace the rest of the coils.

[G-ZUS]

Originally posted by Mike09
Do plugs and the coil. then clear dtc. if it still comes back on then i would replace the rest of the coils.

Will do, changed cylinder 1 on friday. Got P0302 today, this is not gonna be cheap

[G-ZUS]

Son of a female dog, changed coil #2 and all 6 spark plugs. All is good, for now.

[sr20s14zenki]