04 Maxima with some transmission issues?

[Ilya]

There is a new family that moved to my church from Ukraine who just picked up a used 04 Maxima with 13x,xxx miles (if I remember correctly). For what they paid, I would say it's a decent first car when moving to a new country.

Anyway, my father and the new owner asked me for my help as I've owned two Maxima's (and currently am on my second Infiniti M model) but I'm not sure.

They had it on the lift and put the car into drive and after rolling along for a few minutes the car started to buck (RPM drop) and the wheels would stop, then start again, etc. New owner said when he was driving it back from when they picked it up it seemed to do the same thing, like forcibly breaking the car and then easing up.

The car DOES have codes for P0300 (random misfire), P1271 and P1281...the latter two of which I attributed to AF possibly being off from the misfire? He already changed the front 3 spark plugs (they were BAD) and is probably going to change the back 3...not sure if we need coilpacks yet. But the main question is what is the car doing with the stopping and starting of the wheels rolling on the lift? That's new to me, no car I've ever had on a lift has done that.

Hope he didn't get himself into a pickle with a car that is going to require thousands to get running right (new cats, coilpacks, various sensors, etc.). That would suck.

[Ilya]

No one?