1999 Nissan Maxima from North America - Comments

1999 Nissan ES with same coil problem as below 150K KMS bought new. I thought we were the only ones with this issue. I replaced all the coils and plugs, check engine is back on, but hesitation fixed. Brought it to Nissan and was told that I must change them all again, They can't tell which one is defective, yeah I'll get right on that! I like the idea to pull the harness on each and check for rough idle, thx will try that. Other than that I will never buy another Nissan. Just went out and spent big $ to buy a new product from another maker.

1999 Maxima SE. At 65,000 miles it began misfiring & check engine light came on. After an $80 diagnostic I was informed the ignition coils needed to be replaced. $750 at an independent auto shop. I did the job myself in just over an hour and replaced the plugs at the same time. $300 for parts which I found on the Internet. The car is at 105,000 miles now and beginning to misfire again. Looks like another set of coils will be needed. My next car won't be Nissan.

WOW I have a 99 nissan maxima I changed the #1 coil myself about 2 months after I bought it back in 2006 then changed #3 a year later. Now my EGR valve has to be changed, but having a hard time finding the right size tool I need to take the line that runs off the exhaust to the bottom on the EGR valve anyone know what size that monster tool is lol!!! I refuse to pay someone to do what I can do myself. I will be trading this car in soon as I get the EGR valve changed and talked with my finance company about trading it in.

OK people, here we go again.

My 1999 Maxima SE started to misfire this summer when the temperature outside was over 90f and in traffic. This car only has 33K, but is 8 years old. It threw a code for the #2 coil; being a mechanic for 35 years and having the ability to read and reset my own codes, I dumped the code out of the computer and waited for it to happen again. It never has turned on the check engine light again, but still misfires on occasion.

The reason the dealers don't want to replace one coil is that this is a heat related problem, and different coils will fail under different temperatures. You can see that the cost of labor to heat each coil thru a full operating temperature range would be prohibitive.

I agree with everyone here that Nissan should make a recall on these coils, because of so many failures with so little mileage in some instances.

I also agree that anyone in this position should attempt to repair this by them self. The process only requires a phillips screwdriver to take out the coils and a torx to take off the front plastic cover. The wires disconnect by pushing in on the little tab on the connector. A full set of OEM coils can be had for under $300 shipping included. Good luck to all involved, and I hope this helps someone.

I have purchased a 1999 Nissan Maxima Se on June 15th 2007 for $6700.00. Since this would be my first car, I thought it would last me, I was wrong. It had 91,032 miles on it and purred like a kitten. Until, the engine light came on and started to sputter, me being a first car buyer I didn't really research the car. I learned my lesson! So I went to Quality Auto in 8/27/07 and seen what was wrong. The guy said Engine Coil #3 went bad it cost me 90 dollars for labor and 118.50 for the part plus whatever tax. So he fixed it and my engine light wouldn't go off so he did the diagnostic test again and charged me 65.00 just to tell me I needed a valve cover gasket. Which I couldn't afford. So I drove it home and the traction and slip light came on, I brought it back he said its fine, but take it back if it starts to run rough. So I drove it like that until December 7th 2007 where the car stalled every time I put it in either reverse or drive. If its in park or neutral it runs fine. My next step is to take it to the dealer and I guess dump some more of my college money into it. If anyone has a similar problem please e-mail me if you have any advice, thank you... vinnyjstang08@aol.com.

I have a 99 Maxima and replaced all the ignition coils myself one-by-one as they went bad. They started going bad around 100k. After the first three went bad I just went ahead and replaced the other three all toegther because the knocking would get so bad going up hills, accelerating, and such. When it got really bad the check engine light would start blinking. Otherwise the car has run relatively well with little other large repairs except a clutch at 170k and CV joints at 175k.

Google it on-line and test the coils manually. Replacing them can be done with a screwdriver and some pliers. There still expensive at about 100/each. plus shipping. If you can do it, you will miss the risks that are inherent of using a mechanic and it costs a ton cheaper.

Holy Cow! so many people facing the same problem. I am addition to this long list. I bought my 99 Maxima in end 2005 at 84000 miles. Had to replace the ignition coils, EGR valve and starter within an year and next 10000 miles. Another year and another 10000 miles, same problem cropped up again. My car started misfiring again. Could anyone suggest me a solution to the misfiring problem? Please help!

I had a 97 (200K miles) and now a 99 (140K) that I had the same problems with -- O2 sensors..

Engine light and sputtering -- I noticed the car is soo picky about its gas. I have to buy the highest grade at Mobil or Chevron, or the engine light comes on until I use the tank and then a few miles past --- then lately with the ethanol added in -- my car is even having fits with the gas from Chevron!

I was told it is high performance and very picky -- I have not replaced any of the O2's or the coils or any of that as recommended -- I put STP in the gas tank and watch the gas... and the problem passes... It is a big problem and I think I may have to pass on the Nissan Murano I was planning on for next time.

I have a 1999 Maxima GLE, 85,000 miles. Bought it in September and it ran perfectly. When the weather started to get cold, car would rev and then stall out when I started it. Also stalls out when idling at a stop light. The problem is only intermittent; sometimes it runs perfectly fine, although it seems to be more frequent lately. I have to keep it in neutral when stopped, and it stalls even when the car is warmed up.

Another thing that I've noticed with the car; I have to really gas it to go faster. Before I barely had to tap the accelerator, but now it seems like it doesn't have as much power when I try to rapidly accelerate. It seems like the car is losing power.

Had the crankshaft sensor and another sensor replaced, because the mechanic thought it might be the problem. Took it to a Nissan dealership and the diagnostic test didn't reveal anything wrong.

Based on what I've read I'm thinking it may be the TPS or MAF... I don't know a lot about cars though. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

I have a '99 maxima se with 140k miles and was just informed that the #3 coil needs replacing. It was suggested that I replace all six coils which would run me $1100.00 at the dealership. Is it OK just to replace one coil at a time or should I suck it up and replace all 6?

Hi, I have a 1999 maxima that had a check engine light on, so I used my own odbii scanner, which give me p1320 code, which is engine misfire. I erased it until it returned with another code that indicated coil#5, which later yielded another engine misfire, so D.I.Y everybody and replace all the coils yourselves with non Nissan coils. Good luck.

Same problem with my 99 maxima having 127000 miles. Check engine light came on. Independent shop replaced 1 ignition coil. Engine is smooth now, but check engine light is back on. According to machanic, Nissan recommends to replace all the Iginition coils. Is it true?

I just replaced all six coils with aftermarket OEM coils purchased for $240. Also replaced all six plugs while I was there. Still have rough idle and driving after replacement. Only thing I didn't do was take the negative battery cable off and reset everything. I will try that tonight. It's a 1999 Maxima. Wife's car, and she said it's doing the same thing it did last time and the dealership replaced one for ~$200 about two months ago. I thought I'd save some money and do it myself, so I hope resetting the computer will get everything back to normal. I'm curious now if it's EGR valve or injectors, or if someone thinks resetting the battery/computer will remove the problem...

You guys are fantastic! I have a 2000 Maxima that was running rough. Brought it into an independent garage and they replaced one spark plug because computer code indicated a random mis-firing. Rough engine symptom returned while returning home that night and CHECK ENGINE SOON light was flashing. Note that I had replaced ALL 6 spark plugs a month earlier.

After reading this discussion board, I determined what the ignition coil looks like. Luckily I also have a 2001 Maxima, same color... I like Maximas. I'm an engineer so I thought why not borrow some ingition coils from the 2001 Maxima??? Moved the front three ignition coils to the 2000 car and you won't believe it. The car purrs like a cat now!!! I am so psyched!!!

All it takes is an Allen wrench, a socket wrench and about 2 minutes per coil. You guys are great. You saved me about $900. I'm going to buy only one coil and swap out one at a time on the 2001 Maxima to determine which coil is actually bad.

This has made me realize how much the car dealerships rip you off. Unbelieveable.

Thank you so much!!!

I recently ordered one coil on-line from Qickparts. The price was good, $42, the part looked like the original, but I was unable to plug the connector in. It went in, but would not snap. Then I went to Autozone to buy their Durabrand coil. The part they cary is coming from the same manufacturer as the Quickparts' and I had the same issue with pluging the connector in. Ended up ordering another coil from Amazon. The price was $70 and it went in fine. The coil was made by the same Japanese company who made the original Nissan coil also. Don't know if that is good or bad, but it works now fine. The brand name for this coil is Standard Motor Products.

I have been having this misfiring problem for more than 2 years. Wanted to make sure that it is a coil issue before I replacea coil. Unfortunately most of the time the "Service Engine" light does not come on. Seems like the on-board computer is not quick enough to pick it up if the misfiring happens occasionally. Some other times the misfiring disappeared for weeks and I hoped the the problem solved itself.