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Puzzled and am about to go to Dealer need help

3K views 21 replies 7 participants last post by  fredmag 
#1 ·
So I have been reading the Frontier site and Xterra site for a number of years now. I have had a 2001 Frontier and then had a kid and sold that and got a 2001 Xterra which was great. But then two months ago I got sucked into buying a 2006 Xterra. LOL I knew it would be a love hate thing. And it is. It is an Offroad edition 6sp with a body lift and K & N cold intake on it and Shrockworks rear bumper and tire mount and rocker sliders. I love the power and the ride over the 1st gen but I miss the basics of the 3.3 engine.

So here's my problem. About a week or two ago I noticed the air intake noise seemed to be getting louder and now is really loud and I a losing power. I had it all off and no leaks. Now it is so bad that the truck will barely do 80km/hr I started with the basics and changed the plugs. They have never been done as they were terrible. There is 215,000kms on the Xterra. I also took the whole intake plenum off to make sure that I didn't have any intake leaks. All is good there. The only code I am getting is P0300 Multiple Cylinder Miss fire. I am stumped. So since I changed the plugs and checked all intake stuff I am still getting the P0300 code and the truck still works like crap and seems to be getting worse. It seems to be not too bad when it is cold but as soon as it warms up it gets worse. I really hate to go to the dealer to figure this out. So I am looking for ideas, thoughts, anything. Also no oil in antifreeze and no antifreeze in oil. I am thinking converters but how do I test it without removing them or is it something else? If I unplug the MAF it does the typical won't rev over 2500rpms. Right now I can rev it from idle to about 4500 to 5000 if I rev it slowly. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,
 
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#2 ·
Did you check for clogged/bad injectors? Or the ground straps and other electrical goodies needed for them to work well?
 
#4 ·
Yeah, they can cause a PO300 for example.

>:D


No fuel/insufficient, etc...can cause misfires.
 
#5 ·
Yeah, they can cause a PO300 for example.

>:D


No fuel/insufficient, etc...can cause misfires.
Like TJ said possible causes for code P0300 from the FSM

POSSIBLE CAUSE

Improper spark plug
Insufficient compression
Incorrect fuel pressure
EGR valve
The injector circuit is open or shorted
Injectors
Intake air leak
The ignition secondary circuit is open or shorted
Lack of fuel
Drive plate
Front heated oxygen sensor
Incorrect distributor rotor
 
#6 ·
Id bank on it being a intake or vacuum leak somewhere. Or possibly a bad egr valve. Ive never had a problem with misfiring on any vehicle even with a ton of miles. Hell my x is at 174k now and drive it pretty hard. I had the miss once but it was due to me doing the resonator delete and not sealing the hole up all the way which took me a long time to figure out cause i thought it was my distributor. I would try cleaning the tb and clean the maf with maf cleaner. Also before any of this try unhooking the battery for about 30 seconds and with it unhooked go press your breaks reconnect the cables and see if it does anything.
 
#7 ·
I sprayed all the intake and vaccum lines with carb cleaner a couple of times and didnt get any changes in the idle whatsoever. When I changed the plugs i decided to go the longer route and took the whole intake plenum off to make sure everything was good. Also I resealed everything with silicone gasket maker and tourqued everything to spec. Now egr valve i did blow some dirt out of it but is there an easy method for checking it?

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#10 ·
One thing to add too that i forgot about is that i did get a code p0420 and p0430 with the p0300 when i first started with this. I had cleared the codes and all i get now is a p0300 but now I am realizing that I haven't been able to drive enough to get the cat codes.

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#11 ·
When spraying to look for leaks...the UNDERSIDE of the intake run from the air box back to the engine can get a crack in it, from things like lifting it up to change the air filter, etc....and its hard to see.

You might want to check there specifically.

>:D
 
#13 ·
This Xterra has a full k&n intake on it. Do you mean from the throttle body to the intake manifold?
Hmmm, the oils from the K&N tend to foul the MAF sensor, you can try cleaning it with MAF cleaner.
 
#14 ·
I did use electrical contact cleaner when i had the plugs out. Not sure if that would work the same. I am thinking it should. Wouldnt i get a code if the maf was reading wrong? I did speak to a mechanic/jnstructor friend of mine who mentioned before i tear the cats off to check out the fuel pressure l but you need a special gauge for these. Has anyone been able to check pressure without going to the dealer?

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#18 ·
It doesn't have one. Its a second gen. So i removed my upstream o2 sensor on bank 2 yesterday thinking if it was a clogged converter that it would work a bit better with the hole in the exhaust before the cat. And now i can barely get out of the driveway.

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#22 ·
Heres an update. I put the o2 sensor back in and still the same thing. But finally i got a p0340 pending code. So I thought finally something to go on. I swapped the cam position sensor and still the same. Then I found this. So I am thinking this bad ground may have caused all my problems. There is a TSB for this exact thing. It states it can damage the coil packs. Does anyone know how to test the coil packs? I live in Canada and I dont want to replace them at $111 per just to test it. I did fix the ground and it is still the same. This is the ground from the battery to the engine.



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