bad ignition coils 2000 maxima

[house025]

My check engine light on my 2000 maxima is on and after taking it to the dealer they said that my ignition coils are bad. I can't believe that all of the coils are bad. Is my dealership just looking to make some extra $$$ on me or is it possible that all six coils went bad at the same time??

Thanks for any input

[bk2kmax]

I highly doubt all the coils are bad at the same time. If I were you I'd go to Autozone and have them run a diagnostic test on your engine. It is a free service.

Just tell them your check engine light is on and you want them to find out what is causing it, they will give you a read out of the codes and you will have to get some of them interpreted by Nissan's manual to find out exactly what they are.

I wouldn't necessarily take it straight from Nissan though without a second opinion, it's kinda like going to the doctor and finding out you got cancer.

Are you gonna just rollover and except the first prognosis?

[hungtdao]

There are some websites if you search via search engine. They have instruction of how to trouble shoot by reading code. After you identify which cylinder having a bad coil, just change that coil. I hate when it happened to my car, dealer wanted me to replace all six coils which will cost over $700. After I found the problem with my cylinder #2 's ignition coil, I just changed that one. Now I already put another 15k miles without any more misfire problem.

[Genachka]

Hey,
I have a 2000 nissan maxima gxe.
Recently the check engine light has been lighting up once a week. My local mechanic uses an OBD-II reader to check the code that it shows. The mechanic says its a problem with the coils. But for some reason, the computer does not show which coil is giving the misfire. The code is P1320 (i think)IGN Signal-Primary. I found a seller selling updated coils for a 2k maxima for 200. He is a dealer. Should I replace all 6?

Also, I noticed a lot of shaking in the car and jumping of the RPM's. Sometimes when the car is not completly warmed up and this causes back and forth shaking when idleing in Drive like on a read light.

In the past 2 days, it actually turned off right away after I started it. Could this all be the coils.

BTW I already changed all of the spark plugs to NGK Irodium plugs which cost me 10 bucks a peice.

THe old plugs were destroyed. The person that owned the car before me did not take care of it.

Thanks

[Genachka]

Does anyone know any solutions?

[habenero2002]

Genachka you are right about not being able to tell which one it is. in rare cases you will get a miss fire code for the bad coil but most of the time it won't happen that way. Nissan has a service bulliten that we replace all the coils when it was under warranty.

[hungtdao]

Signal Primary P1320 is about the coil problem. Your shaking engine tells you that it probably has misfire. Usually, the minor or initial misfire problem happens at a high speed. Since your case happens at idle, it might be serious. This website will tell you how to read flash code manually http://www.vbxmaxima.8m.com/ecu.html
Hope that you the flash code will tell you which cylinder having a bad coild rather than changing all of them. Changing a ignition coil is no big deal if you have long sockets. Yeah, dealer told me the same. They wanted to change all six coils that would cost over $700. After I found out myself, I changed only one. It has been last for another 20k mile. This really made me feeling bad about Nissan in general. I doubt it might have done it in purpose to dig monies from car owner.