Questions and Answers

Maxima Has Intermittent Miss Q. Dear Mr. Vincent, Hope you are doing well. My question is regarding the following vehicle: 1997 Nissan Maxima 3.0 liter V-6 Automatic Transmission P/S, A/C, Cruise Control

I bought this car recently, when I bought it it had some engine missing, so my mechanic changed the spark plugs. After that it was fine, no missing. But now after 2,000 miles, I've got this intermittent missing, say after a long drive around 50 miles. If I stop at a traffic light my engine misses for a second then back to normal, then misses again at times.

This missing is not constant but occurs and goes frequently. I've changed my fuel and air filters but to no avail. Can you please help me, or do I have to go to the dealer to get this problem sorted out?

Thanks and regards,
Nasir

A. Not knowing the milage of the car I guess the first thing I should recommend is, if there is more than 60,000 miles on the car, finding out from the previous owner if the timing belt was ever changed. A worn timing belt could cause this condition. If you can not ascertain when or if the timing belt was replaced, I would go ahead and have it done, this way you are sure it was done. If the belt breaks while the engine is running, it will cause severe engine damage.

Lets try something simple here. Since you had your own mechanic replace the plugs, he probably used aftermarket spark plugs. I would recommend replacing the plugs with NGK spark plugs. For some reason I have found Nissan engines to be very fussy about the brand of spark plugs used in them. Many times simply changing to NGK plugs will solve many problems.

Spark Plug	Standard	NGK PFR5G-11
	Hot	NGK PFR4G-11
	Cold	NGK PFR6G-11
Spark Plug Gap		0.039 - 0.043 in

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