99 Maxima Engine Missing?

[BeZerK2112]

I've recently been having a problem I am trying to figure out. When I am in gear and at idle the engine seams like it is missing in one cylinder. Although it is not consistant in any form for me to be able to figure out what it is. If I take it out of drive and put it in N then I cant hear or feel it, nor do I feel it or hear it at all durring acceleration. So it's driving me crazy. I was thinking it could be the gas I am putting in, but no matter where I go I get the same results.

It has a stock ignition system with NKG Irridum Plugs.

Thoughts? Comments? Help!?!

[Nahkapohjola]

Buy a cheap set of plugs and tst.

If its (still) constant one coilpack is possibly dying. Disconnect one by one and try to figure out which one doesnt make your intermittent misfire. (or maybe broken injector/coilpack -harness, disconnecting at idle)

Random misfire could be idle circuit IACV dirty, cracked ctrl hoses. If engine has 100k miles, IACV & throttle is dirty.

[FixUrNissan]

If you are experiencing a misfire. Try to determine witch cyl is misfiring. You can do that by unplugging coils , one by one. Witch ever coil you unplug with no engine change is the likely coil that may be bad. But i have seen where coils intermediately break up and can not be detected on witch coil is bad . In those cases all coils are replace

[BeZerK2112]

The missfire isn't consistan enough to be able to tell by disconnecting one at a time. Today I plan on cleaning the coil packs, throttle body, and checking my spark plugs to see if I can see if one is fouled, determining the bad cyl.

[Nahkapohjola]

Originally Posted by BeZerK2112

...cleaning the coil packs, ...

Coilpacks contain electronics, most probably cleanin doesnt help... If multiple coilpacks faulty (as usual), zooming in is difficult.

Clean IACV also

Bad campos signal may also cause misfire

[BeZerK2112]

The missfire only seams to be at low idle. Could it be possable that my alternator is going out, not producing enough power to fire the coils?

On a side note, would a grounding kit be bennificial in these vehicles?

[99MaxSELTD]

BeZerk2112,

My wife's car ('99 Auto w/approx 118k) has been having this exact same issue lately. Only feel the skip while stopped in gear....doesn't do it in neutral or while accelerating/cruising.

The plugs/fuel filter are not that old. Had local shop clean injectors....cleared it up for a short time, but it's back. We've never replaced any of the coils.

What did you do to resolve your problem?

[BeZerK2112]

What you described is a coil pack. Take it to a shop and have them hook the computer up to it and figure out which cylinder it is. The coils cost about 100 each. you can try to figure out which one it is youself. I've seen bad ones send sparks and ground out to the engine. Take off the plastic part coving the coils and and see if you can see it doing that.

Good luck1

[99MaxSELTD]

Thanks, will start checking the coil packs.

[99MaxSELTD]

Thought I'd post a follow up to this in case anyone else runs into this issue. My local shop checked the other sensors (air flow & temp) which were fine. They advised they could not test the coils. Said it was just trial and error locating the faulty coil.

Since they didn't charge me to check this out, I went ahead and got 2 OEM coils (1 front & 1 rear) and started replacing them in pairs to speed up the elimination process. After replacing the 1st 2 the problem was still there. Put the originals back in and went to the next 2. That solved the problem. Runs smooth as ever. $207 spent.

[BeZerK2112]

I'd figure out which one it was and take the other one back. $100 bucks in anyones pocket would make them happy

[99MaxSELTD]

Originally Posted by BeZerK2112

I'd figure out which one it was and take the other one back. $100 bucks in anyones pocket would make them happy

Nissan dealer is 20 miles away, round trip twice wasn't worth the effort. Further, they would not take a return on an electrical item.