11th Jan 2007, 23:48

I own a 2000 Nissan Maxima GXE with about 68,000 miles. The car has performed very well until recently. The car would run very rough when cold and almost stall out for the first few minutes. When warm the car seemed to run well unless you punched it, then the engine would rev with very little power. I replaced the spark plugs and tested all the coils with no change in performance. My Nissan dealer determined that the air flow meter was damaged by my use of an after-market reusable foam air filter. I thought the filter fit properly, but it left a small gap when installed. The dirt ruined the $488 air flow sensor and the new sensor required that the computer be "re-flashed" to the tune of about $100. Oh, yeah, they also charged me $100 for a computer diagnostic. For those keeping track the total bill was about $850. After this was fixed the car ran beautifully for about 1000 miles. I am now getting the infamous P1320 code and I'm wondering if one of my coils is defective after reading many other comments on coils. The spark plugs and coils are easy to change in about an hour. The parts are just so expensive.

29th Jan 2007, 20:13

Maxima SE 2000, same problem code P1320, I am afraid that if I replace all 6 coils the problem will continue or will show up again. Any news regarding the petition? Has anyone found cheap coils? where?

28th Feb 2007, 21:35

FYI. Am reading all the issues related to the 2000 Maxima's. Found this link that might help some of us out there:

http://autorepair.about.com/library/a/1i/bl039i.htm

It states that there is a TSB out on this issue. I would suggest having your dealer look it up and perform the repair procedure.

3rd Mar 2007, 14:55

I have a 99 maxima and have just had the same issue come up.

The first thing I wonder is why you people go to the dealership in the first place? If you are under warranty then you definately would, but otherwise they will just rape you in repair costs.

They wanted to charge me $900 for this repair. I went to a private shop and it was a 3rd of the cost.

I understand that it is not too difficult to do your self either. Haven't done that yet.

3rd Mar 2007, 21:32

Yeah, I test drove a 2000 Maxima SE tonight with 93,000 miles on it and the dealer told me that it is a bit hesitant in the higher gears. The lower gears were great and zippy like I expected them to be, but the higher gears seemed like they were struggling a bit.

He said that his mechanics just needed to clean and replace the fuel filter and do an oil change, but now I'm wanting a code read-out before I agree to buy this car. I think that's perfectly reasonable. If it is the coils and he refuses to replace them, I'm walking out of the lot.

Man, I thought Nissans were supposed to last forever? They need a recall on this crap asap.

16th Mar 2007, 11:21

I bought my 2000 Maxima SE when it was brand new. I have noticed steady decline in MPG to about 18-20 (City & Highway combine) now with my car @ 120k miles. When it was new I got about 25 MPG. Other than that my car is running smooth and quiet. Is there anything I can do to improve my MPG?

3rd Apr 2007, 22:09

I have a 2000 Maxima GLE and have the check engine light, tcs off and slip light on. Is there a recall on this yet. I just changed one ignition coil, but I still have the problem.

7th May 2007, 09:10

I bought my 2000 Maxima brand new and have experienced the infamous P1320 code a few times over the years. The first couple of times I had a non-Nissan shop replace one at the cost of about $175.00 each time. Now the same problem popped up. I checked on eBay and found a site in Florida that shipped me all six coils for $240.00 priority mail/pp included. I found that I can do the whole repair in about an hour and 15 minutes, including changing the spark plugs. That's much lower than the quotes I've been seeing on this site.

There's just a couple of things to keep in mind: 1) the front three are simple and are located under the plastic cover maked "Cam" which is held on with four hex screws, 2) the back ones are much difficult as they are in between the exhaust manifold and tough to work with for someone with large fingers. Make sure you have deep sockets and extensions to reach the plugs if you are changing them, too (use platinum and don't adjust the gap), 3) Be careful with the back ones when you remove the screws holding the coils in place as it is easy to drop them into difficult-to-get-to places.

Finally, the codes can be reset at Auto Zone for free.

My total cost to replace all 6 coil packs and platinum plugs (Bosch number 4) was about $285.00 wiht all taxes and shipping. Beats the heck out of the dealer ripoff prices!

11th Jun 2007, 11:45

I bought my '00 GLE in March of '00. It only just has past 55,000 miles and yet I have replaced coils and have had to adjust the O2 sensor. My engine is now starting to sputter and I am thinking they are going to hammer me for another expensive repair. For a 7 year old car with no miles, it is a great station and weekend car. It looks great (even after a couple of major accidents) that were fixed, but I am not going to continue to sink thousands into this ride when I can lease a newer/cheaper car. Nissan has some of the best looking cars and trucks out there, but I am hesitant to go back.

20th Jun 2007, 10:44

I too have had to replace an ignition coil for my 2000 Nissan Maxima SE. First, let me say that I am not a licensed mechanic, however, I do feel like I am handy around a vehicle. The way I determined which coil was bad, without having to replace all six of them, was to remove each coil one by one while the car was idling. Once I removed the first coil, I would noticed a significant loss in idling power. If that was the case, I new that was a good coil and I put it back on. I kept proceeding until I pulled off the bad coil and there was no power loss in the idling engine. This told me that the engine was running just as good with or without that particular coil, thus telling me which one was the bad one.

I currently have a check engine light on that telling me that my O2 sensors are bad. I have been having a significant loss in power, it is shifting hard between 1st and 2nd gear, and feels like it stalls out at around 3000 rpms in 3rd gear then catches itself. Would this be an O2 sensor problem???