I changed plugs back in April to a set of Bosch Double plats that lasted about 2k miles. Switched to Autolites that I pulled after less than 2K, and put the "factory" NGKs back in it. Now, we are at 3K on the NGKs, the car (and my wife) are 500 miles away and she took it to Jiffy Lube to see "whats wrong" because the CEL is illuminated and it is running like crap. (1999 I30) and Cooper in Tulsa told her it would be NEXT Wednesday or Thursday before they could look at it-and that was LAST Friday. Here is the latest...Wife read owners manual, refered her to fuel cap, which was properly installed. She has driven the car about 200 miles with CEL illuminated, and has noticed DRASTIC drop in fuel econ. (Like about 12). It has reportedly 93 octane in it, but source is dubious. She bought fuel in Kansas at the Onawa Indian Reservation and noticed slight drop in performance a couple of weeks ago, and has since added more fuel from Quick Trip and non-major fuel stops twice.Fuel added today (about 1/2 tank) from a Texaco outlet and missing, sputtering, jerking/lerching/coughing/bucking started IMMEDIATELY (not previuosly observed) , and she is afraid to make the car "perform". She said it acts like it is either "off" or has to be run "almost wide open" (which she is afraid to do) and the exhaust smells funny.My suspision is garbage in the tank.Her suspision is "piece of crap car that JUST went out of warranty". Need data, and opinions.I'm taking her the 1991 Honda on Monday, and would appreciate any help, since the "only" dealer in Tulsa has blown her off, and "jippy Lube" took $20 to "read" the codes and told her they could not conclude what was wrong, other than it probably needed, you guessed it...a tune up.HELP!

Ok Your post has left me a bit confused but I think you are reffering to a 99 I30?? I see your car list has a 90 max in it. So I will address both in the event its not a 99 I30. The codes here would be helpful,the numbers any way, but lets take a shot at it.

99 I30: The codes would likely be P1320[ignition signal primary] this usually occurs when the ecm does not see one or more of the coils return a fire signal. If this codes comes up in conjunction with another code PO301-PO306 one of those six codes it will nail it to the cyl(s) that is the source of the problem. the last number in the codes represents the cyl. Replace the one that matches the code and all will be good. If you are not fortunite to get a PO30x code then you can either replace all six coils or erase the code and hope when it does it again the engine catches the missfiring cyl. I suspect with as bad as it was running it will have caught which cyl it was.

90 max: If your code stored was a 51 it means you have an open circuit in one of your injector circuits. This can be caused by one of 2 things either the connector has corrosion in it at the injector and needs to be thoroughly cleaned and have the terminals in the connector tightened a bit to make better conntact . The other problem would be the injector itself has an open circuit internally and would need to be replaced. Unfortunitly OBDI cars did not identify which cyl so you would need to go through and ohm out each injector to find the bad one.

kblast523 wrote: Now, we are at 3K on the NGKs, the car (and my wife) are 500 miles away and she took it to Jiffy Lube to see "whats wrong" because the CEL is illuminated and it is running like crap. (1999 I30) and Cooper in Tulsa told her it would be NEXT Wednesday or Thursday before they could look at it-and that was LAST Friday.

Yes, its the I30, I was not there for the reading, and Jippy Lube couldn't figure it out. She called Riverside Nissan today and they said- "We don't work on Infiniti's, its a completely different car." (That is NOT wht I heard from Woodhouse here in Bellevue.) I may suspect a coil or two, but again, no codes. I am going to Tulsa tomorow night to deliver the Honda Wagon to her, and bring the beast home. Once I get it here, we will probably be able to tell something more about it. The rough running has been an issue when she drives the car (and it is there when I drive the car, but gets better when I 'put some heat' under it. I have inspected the engine harness and have not found a problem, but Reagan Infiniti will be the next to do so.

The Maxima did get its "northern states" corrosion recall done last week a t Woodhouse, and the dealer gave me a "certification inspection" and found:small leak at right halfshaft seal, added dye to confirm,engine oil leak in vicinity of timing belt (suspect cam seals)tensioner noise (timing belt)light metal shavings in power steering fluid (since flushed)"factory exhaust still intact-no need for repair"Brakes 70% front 60% rear.

This car had a belt put on it by an independent a year ago (about 20k miles) and as the previous owner stated "it leaked ever since". (It was the first at 95K-are they ever lucky...)

First of all the maxima and the I30 are the SAME car except that cool quartz clock you got in the dash Oh and some trim peices but I could make the exterior and the engine of one or the other the same car as the other in less then an hour. Because of the location of the clock in the dash it would take me approximatly 4 hrs to do the interior. Feel free to share that with your nissan dealer. BTW I am a nissan tech and have been for 9 yrs. I think I might know a little about both cars..lol I worked on 2 I 30's today as a matter of fact.

I cant believe you just got that recall done it came out like 6 or 7 yrs ago. I dont know what die you use in a half shaft but ok. Usually when they leak they are spitting grease every where.They are right on about the cam seals very very common on the older t-belt equipped cars. The leak of oil is probably because of the tension change on the belt now that its properly tensioned oil is probably passing the dried out seal. Not all that uncommon. Thats why we recommend them when ever we do a t-belt. That and a water pump since it located behing the timing cover.

99 Infiniti is same as 4th Gen Max. I almost bought a white/tan 98 with 46k but found a black I30 with "t" airbag (black steering wheel and air bag?) BIG sway bars and 16" wheels, posi and no wing or "t" on the deck for only 2K more, and it only had 36K on it. I just bought the 1990 (3rd gen) Maxima from Fred Haas Toyota in Houston (off the back lot, of course), and spoke with the previous owner before embarking on a 996 mile 13 hour trip. I have only had this car since April, and gleaned all the vital information from the previous owner (who wants HER car back, by the way.) Upon arrival in Nebraska, Nissan honored the recall even though the time has expired. Since the car had lived south of the Red River all its life, they figured it would be good to do it. An independent shop did the water pump when installing the belt, but failed on the seals/idler portion. The car also got a new compressor, drive belts, hoses, brakes, tuned and a right axle because the cv boot was leaking. Now the transmission seal is leaking and Woodhouse Nissan (Bellevue, Ne) installed leak detecting dye (ultraviolte reactive) in the tranny to find "new" leaks. I have also put new KYBs on the front, ball joints and tie rod ends just to tighten it up, as well as Firestone Affinity LH 215HR6015s all the way around. Tires made a BIG difference over the well worn Pirelli P4000's that were on the car (and weather checked). See pictures in the appropriate section...

NISTECH wrote:First of all the maxima and the I30 are the SAME car except that cool quartz clock you got in the dash

I30s and Maximas of that vintage have the same clock. Digital in both cases.

Well here it is folks...Went to Tulsa Sun night (have a non-Infiniti story here, too)...Called Cooper and told them the car was running like cr@p and I would appreciate if they could look at since I was from out of town. (Wife only told them she was having trouble with the car and was wondering if they would look at it). The service person I spoke with said be here by 10 am or I will not get you today. I got there at 920 am...Diagnostics will be $95, and that is before we even fix anything.OKAbout an hour later, found simultaneous fault codes for knock sensor, rear O2 sensor and multi cylinder misfire (all at once- eight start cycles ago. Additional repeat codes since.) Called the wife, asked her to think back when she had "started the car, since leaving Jippy Lube where they told her they couldn't help her and to go to Infiniti (they cleared the codes on Thurdsday.) Left JLube (one start), went to my dads, spent night. Friday morning, went to moms (2 start) stayed all day, left at 5pm (3 start) went to dads again, next morning went to store (4 start) then to moms (5 start). Up next morning (6 start) car running crappy, stopped for gas (7 start) went to Lowes (8 start) went to lunch (9 start) went to dads again (10 start) went to moms again (11 start) car now behaving again. Went to store later Sun (12 start) then spent the night at moms. I got in the car Monday and started it, drove to breakfast (13 start) then to Cooper-one start there for move to shop and BINGO we have a winner...(Someplace between the 6th and 7th start EVERYTHING went haywire (at least twice to show up in memory) and how many times do ALL THOSE THINGS AT ONCE fail? Gary Trent (service advisor) could only glean from the readout the miserable wiring harness had "failed". Otherwise, they could not determine what would cause everything to go out at once, then cure itself. They cleared the codes, started the car and started wigglin' the wirin'. It only took about 10 minuts for the CEL light to come back on, and I didn't even have to ask, Infiniti is fixing it. (1999 I30 service date 4/99 with 49.6K) I think I'm outta warranty (I know so) but DO NOT LOOK GIFTHORSE IN MOUTH. Car should be ready Thursday or Friday and I am back home in Nebraska. I will probably get to go back to Oklahoma to pick it up on the 4th...

you are just barely out of your 5 yr warrenty. So its possible they are doing a goodwill on it. Meaning they are filling a request for nissan to pay for it due to the low miles and it only being 2 months out of warrenty. I kinda feel you have more then the wiring issue. There is a TSB for the rear O2's on your car and the knock sensors on nissans are known to be a problem. Also coils tend to be a problem on them. I sincerely hope they got it and I am not trying to rain on your parade so to speak. At least ask them to complete all the SRT's(Self Readiness Tests) before they release it to you. This will make the car perform the tests it does that generate the codes. If all tests go to complete it will reassure you the systems are not in a failing state. After they make sure all the tests have run they need to see if any 1 trip codes trigger as 1 trip codes do not illuminate the CEL.

I will make certain they run the test and double check everything. These guys seemed to know a bit about the car, and even admitted to having replaced a bunch of coils, and several harnesses. O2 sensors did not raise any flags until I started talking about other people using non-premium, then having a knocker fail, and blowing out an O2 sensor...(lean condition and lots of spark knock.)

Flew to Tulsa Sunday.Picked up the car Monday morning at Jackie Cooper Imports (Nissan/Infiniti Volvo Porche, washed and all). They had driven the car over 75 miles testing it. The service advisor told me that when he called me last Friday to tell meit was ready. There were no warning lights illuminated when I left, or after driving it around town. I filled her up at 1030 yesterday morning with 15.4 gallons of 93 octane Shell/Texaco at 31st and Memorial and headed toward KC on 169. Six hours and four minutes later, I was pulling out of the Shell station with 14.6 gallons of 92 octane added at Platteview Rd. and US75, just three miles from home. Still no lights, and this thing is running like a champ. That is 27.8 MPG and average speed of 67+ mph. Nissan fixed this car for nothing, zero-nada. They provided the parts and 10 hours diagnostics/installation. (It went out of warranty in April-timewise, only 49,790 miles when repaired.) The service folks at Jackie Cooper told me they had done several I30's and Maximas Nissan with the same problems that had not covered because of mileage/condition of car, appearance of accident damage etc...but mine was different. (Man, my elbows are tired from all that waxing!) Underhood clean, oil obviously changed (Nissan filter-they noticed!) even the sunshade in the floor (not shoved under the seat). It all counts when something "catastophic" occurs, and that is what they called the wiring harness failure, since at $105/hr and over $700 for parts would have come real close to $2000 to fix.I state for the record (as I have done on other forums) take care of your car, and it will take care of you. The service advisor went to bat for me, and it paid off. I believe he went to bat with Nissan (as he indicated he did) because of the appearance and obvious care I had given my car, and pride of ownership. And it is fixed, ran better than it has in months, and maybe all those plugs really weren't plugs after all....Just a little white wire and three codes...

I am worried that my CEL might be a wiring harness or ECU problem...

What kind of codes? There is a notorious "white wire" that strays from the rest of the harnes (still wrapped nside the shething) that seems to be problematic. The service dept took mine apart and confirmed after the replacements.Mine was intermittent enough is seemed to indicate bad plugs, then would "clear up" for no apparent reason. Infiniti of North Houston never got the fortune of having my car in their shop, but from early May to late June it ran flawlessly. Then it started acting up again-on a road trip of course-right after fueling. The new harness is routed differently between the right strut tower and the engine...it makes a much more linear transition from one side to the other. Additional information: the stumble at idle that prompted me to change the plugs in teh first place is also gone. It only happened about every 15-20 seconds, kind of like when the plug wires go out on a GM product...its cured too.

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