Hello All,
My 94 Maxima GXE Bose stereo is broken. When the car is turned on, the
light for the CD player in the stereo lights up when a cd is inserted,
and the radio will both accept and eject cds and cassettes(all normal
behavior). However, there is no display (where the cd tracks or radio
station is usually shown) and there is no sound from the speakers.
Usually upon inserting a cd the stereo will power up on its own, but
now it doesn't. The cd can be heard spinning in the player, but no
sound is produced. Pushing the track forward and back buttons seems to
have no effect on the spinning sound.

I removed the stereo and opened it up, hoping to find a loose
connection, but everything looked fine. When I reinstalled the stereo,
it worked! But today it didn't. After fiddling with it today, I've
discovered the oddest part of the problem. If the car is turned on
without the radio installed, and the radio is hooked up while the car
is on, the radio will work perfectly, display and all. If the car is
then turned off an restarted, the problem reoccurs and the radio no
longer works. It will only work properly when it is detached from the
car completely and then reattached while the car is on. Shutting the
car off or installing it with the car off will cause it to be
nonfunctional again.

Does anyone know what the problem could possibly be? Ive never heard
of such a bizzare problem. The connections in the back of the radio do
not seem to be loose, and jiggling the connectors while the radio is
working does not affect its performance.

Also, my Maxima has been idling rough lately. This problem is
especially noticeable when the car is started in the cold, and also
when it has been drving and stops at a light. The car sometimes idles
at 700rpm (with accessories and lights off), but sometimes idles lower
(~600rpm) and sometimes fluctuates 50-100rpm while idling. At times,
when the accelerator is pressed from a stop, the car hesitates and
sounds as if it will stall, but then "catches" and begins to drive
normally. The problem occurs in all gears (P, D, R, N. Shifting does
change the idle rpm, but not predictably; sometimes it will sound
better in D than in P, sometimes worse. Gas milage has decreased over
the past year, from about 25 highway/18 city to 16 highway/10 city.
Not good at all! Brought it to a mechanic recently, reportedly a very
good mechanic, and he said he couldn't find anything wrong. No error
codes.

I wish I could describe the problem better, but it is an inconsistent
problem and I haven't been able to figure the conditions that trigger
it. It certainly is worse in cold weather, but doesn't seem to
directly correlate with the cold... some very cold days it idles well,
and some wamer days it idles terribly. The problem comes and goes.
Sometimes the problem gets better and is much less noticeable (but
still present) when the car is warm, but sometimes even after driving
it for many miles it still shakes and idles poorly when stopped. I
sometimes drive it harder and sometimes cruise and drive it softly, but
that seems to have no clear effect on the problem.

Thanks in advance for your help. Ive learned a lot from reading this
group, and I appreciate all the advice I can get! - Joe

P.S. 105000 miles

Also, there is a strong smell of gas when the car starts. Real strong,
enough to make me open the windows in 10 degree weather just to air it
out. Additionally, a fairly strong exhaust smell develops while
driving for over 5 miles, and is definitely stronger when the heater is
on. Thanks again!

The radio.

I had a similar problem in a radio, meaning that it sould turn on then
blip out crackle and do all sorts of stuff. I took it to a car radio
specialist, and they told me that it had a bad power supply. Nothing to
do but throw it out. The way they determined this is to hook it up to a
clean power source and see how well it works out of the car. In the
case of my radio it worked great until they touched it and it would
blip out then crackle then come back. Dead. Yours could be a bad relay
or a sick battery that is lowering the amperage to the radio, but that
is totally a guess. Could be anything, but that's what mine did.

Rough idle. Also could be a lot of stuff, but Ieaning towards frozen or
leaking injector. My '93 SE had that problem crop up at around 100,000
miles, and it was not nearly as old as yours when that happened. Look
at the top of the injectors and see if there is caked up dirt around
the mating surface between the injector and the intake manifold. If
there is then the top seal is shot and maybe the bottom seal as well
which could let gas sort of drip/pour into the intake manifold as it
sees fit. It also gets worse with cold temperature, at least mine was
more pronounced that way.

However, the injectors are not the only possibility. If you are at all
handy, you can try cleaning your throttle plate (that's the butterfly
just after the MAF sensor into the intake manifold). It can get dirty
and cause sticking, but your car really doesn't have enough miles for
that. The other cheap easy thing to do before anything else is to make
sure that you have a good (read new) PCV valve. They're cheap and can
effect idle if they go bad, and some mechanics don't replace them for
some reason. I'm assuming that the fuel filter has been done regularly.


I'm sure that the mechanic you took the car to is very good, but none
of what I just described will throw a trouble code in this car. Check
Engine lights cover alot more trouble these days than the Maxima's did
in 1994. He'll have to attempt to use his brain if he wants to diagnose
the problem. Anyway, without looking at the car, that's the best that I
can do for you. Also remember that your car is old and that any of your
fuel lines could be leaking after 12 years.

Could also be a MAF sensor, but they don't go very often unless abused.
Sorry, that's it for me. Maybe somebody will have something more
obvious, but that's all I can think of. Best of luck.

... strong smell of gas when the car starts. ..
Check hoses for fuel leaks.

Exhaust will stink (CAT) if fuel doesnt burn

No info of your maintenance: plugs, wires, cap, filters, TPS..

Read web pages below

--
Wiikinki
www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/
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Had the exact same problem on mine. The gas smell was a leak where the
rubber gas lines tied in to the fuel rails. A few dollars worth of new
rubber lines and some new clamps solved the problem. The rough idle and
almost stalling when you take off just started happening on mine a month
ago. It would run fine at open throttle, but when I would come to a stop of
have to drive in stop and go traffic, it would idle as if it was going to
stall and buck when I pressed the throttle. After some research on the
Internet I found the most common problem for this mechanical mystery was a
faulty mass air sensor. There was an interesting article on the Internet
that I follow, which walked me through re-soldering the connectors in the
sensor. Since then I haven't had a single problem. For the MAS repair
you'll have to Google the Internet for "Maxima Stalls". Or you could just
replace it. You' eventually come across all the similar problems you have
and the fix. Good luck.




<delsenno (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Common problem for 3rd gens. Both my 90 & 94 smell like gas when it's cold
(<40dF) The injectors are old and they can seep when it's cold. But when the
motor heats up enough, the smell ceases. I haven't had any problems with
this except a wife that complains about the smell and I tell her to wait a
few minutes and it will go away. I don't see it as a fire hazard unless
yours leaks a lot and you can see gasoline puddling on the top area of the
engine.

I replaced both stereos in my Maximas. The Clarion unit in my 90 had so
many pops and crackles that I knew it was toast. The display in the Clarion
unit in my wife's 94 went out so you couldn't tell what station you were on.
So I went out and bought 2 Panasonic CD/MP3 stereos and 2 pairs of speakers
and replaced the whole mess. Not a bad job, just pay attention to the wire
colors in the back as you have to abandon the old rear amp and splice the
speaker wires.

Chris
90 & 94 GXE's

<delsenno (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote