ECm Replacement ?

2002 NISSAN MAXIMA

61,000 MILES • 6 CYL • FWD • AUTOMATIC

UTVOLS4ME

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2 POSTS
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My 2002 Maxima has been a great vehicle but recently I was headed to work and the CEL came on and the engine would not go above 1000rpm's. I put my foot to the floor since I was crossing traffic and I eventually got out of the road. I got the par parked and the engine idled like normal but when I stepped on the pedal, the engine would not rev up at all. I turned the car off for a few minutes and after about 20 tries, I could get the engine to rev up like normal so I could get the car back home. As I was driving, the transmission shifted really hard from 1st to 2nd gear and then the car went back in "safe mode" and I went about 2 miles an hour (with my foot to tle floor) and got the car home. I pulled out my scanner and it listed 18 different OBD II codes. These codes ranged from the TPS sensor all the way up to the MAP sensor and there were a bunch more. I cleared the codes and the car seemed to be okay. I started off to work the next day and wound up having the car towed back to my house. Is this a sign that the main ECU is about ready to go out or could it be another issue? The ECU was replaced by Nissan a couple of years ago due to a missed diagnosis by the dealership and the only problem was a crank position sensor and not the ECU. Any ideas on what would casue the ECU to throw off 18 different codes all at once unless it was getting ready to go out?

Jun 25, 2010 at 11:52 AM

CMDRDATATX

MEMBER
54 POSTS

I have a 2002 and I doubt very much that it is the ECU. The reason you get 18 different codes is that one of your sensor isbad, causing the ECU to go into limp mode, and from there you have a train wreck that the ECU cannot recover from. I'd suggest that you change the sensor pertaining to the FIRST code and see if that would solve your problem. ECU rarely goes bad. My guess is one or more of your sensor is bad. For example, because the 3.5L engine is a V6, it usually has TWO camshaft position sensors, one for each bank. The other possible problem is to check your oil level.Why? Because Maxima uses oil pressure to determine engine timing advance. That happened to me once. My oil was low, and the car would not accelerate and just barely move along.

Jun 25, 2010 at 8:16 PM

UTVOLS4ME

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Greetings and thank you so much for responding to my question! I was hoping that the ECU was not getting ready to go out but I figured that when all of the codes came up that something major was about to happen. I will see if I can get the check engine light to some on again and then will hook my scanner up and see what code comes up first. I hope this is a simple fix but I will get working on it and will see what I can find out. Thank you again for your response and I will reply back to this post on whatever I find out. Thanks again!

Jun 28, 2010 at 5:39 PM

BOSSGRUMBLER

MEMBER
2 POSTS

i drove through a puddle during a rain storm after a few miles my car died had to take it to dealer and they proclaimed that the engine computer needed replacement. If I replace the computer will that fix the problem and will I have to replace any wire harnesses?