Hey ya'll it's Isaac back at it with another blog. This is something that I never thought that I'd write about but luckily I was able to resolve this issue relatively easily and now I'm sharing it with you guys.
On Monday I was driving to the college I'll be attending in the fall, which is only about 40 minutes away on 55 mph 4 lane highways and some back roads :satisfied: , to take care of a few things before school started. Anyway I was about halfway there and the infamous yellow light came on that no one ever wants to see, the check engine light!!
So of course I pulled over and popped my hood to check everything out, all seemed to be good, so I continued on my way. The rest of the drive went smoothly with absolutely no issues.
The next morning I went by my local Advance Auto Parts store and had them scan my vheicle for free. The scan came back with 3 codes for an oxygen sensor that is located before the catalytic converter, which is about a $70 part. The kind employee that scanned my car suggested that I purchase a can of Sea-Foam which was only $7. He said that it's designed to clean everything out and could be a cheap solution to my possibly expensive issue.
Yesterday morning I went to the gas station to fill up. I added the Sea-Foam in and filled my tank up with 93 octain fuel to hopefully give it an extra boost. I then took a day trip to the mall, about 30 minuets from where I live, this gave the fuel and Sea-Foam some time to do its thing! I went into the mall and when I came out and started my car the check engine light was gone!!
I was ecstatic when I noticed this and was glad that I was able to resolve this issue for $7 instead of $70.
SO TOP TIP OF THE DAY: If your check engine light comes on bring it to an auto parts store you trust that will scan your car for free. This could save you tons of money especially if the employee can share their knowledge and offer a cheap solution to your possibly big problem.
Thanks for reading all of this and I hope that it can help if your check engine light should ever come on in the future.
Here is a bonus picture of Ruby that I edited and thought looked pretty cool.
Comments (24)
I love it when CEL go away after a fix. It sucks that 91 is always needed. I use 89 octane and hope I don't have to run 91 all the time in any vehicle that I own.
I noticed in your post you said that you put 93 octane in the car for extra boost. In case you didn't know (I'm sorry if you did) but Maximas need to run efficiently. Especially the VQ30DE which is the engine you have in that car. Same engine as mine with minor performance upgrades. Anyway if you don't at least with everyone I know with that engine and from my own experiences over time you WILL foul spark plugs, ignition coils, burn out O2 sensors, etc. I try to always put in 91 octane and that keeps my car going with better gas mileage then on 87 as well.
Reply to: vette1999
No problem if you ever want a laugh at figuring out the hard way I have posts of me diagnosing misfires etc on my page. Lol
Its not all maximas that need just the ones with vq series engines i have a 93 maxima with the vg30e and it doesnt require
Yes older Maxima's do not need but in his case, this car does have a VQ30DE.
btw, I really recommend you buy your own scanner and research the codes yourself. more often than not people at autoparts stores are not mechanics, just trying to make a sale
Reply to: AwesomeComet
I guess I'm old school. I prefer the simple old wired ones
Reply to: vette1999
that's all good, I just don't trust mechanics in most cases
Reply to: EJ
U have to be careful with those Bluetooth scanners they can mess with ur vehicles computer system if u have any viruses on ur phone
Beautiful picture! Yeah, sea foam is the bomb
Thanks! And yeah it works wonders!!
Reply to: vette1999
I got 3 codes in my mom's 2002 Pathfinder, but all at the same time with no issues! 🤔
-Those are P0100 "MAF", P0144 High Circuit O2 Sensor [Bank 1, Sensor 3], and P0325 "Knock Sensor Circuit Malfunction"...
What do you think & what was your exact code(s)?
I just put the sea foam down my throttle body with the truck running. Makes a whole lot of smoke but that's it cleaning
I've heard of some people doing that but I just put it in my fuel tank before I filled up and it worked just as good.