2001 Sentra GXE 1.8L No Spark on coil pack 3

taterlvr · May 22nd, 2011, 06:23 PM

2001 Nissan Sentra GXE 1.8L with automatic transmission

Problem: No spark on coil pack 3 OBD-II - P0303
I am also getting P1320 (probably because of the misfire)

Things I have done so far:

1. I changed all spark plugs with new.
2. I swapped coil packs around to verify #3 coil pack is good. (It is)

I checked the voltage with my multimeter on the wires going into the
coil packs. The #3 coil pack is getting the same 14v from the wire harness
as the other #1 #2 #4 coil packs, but no pulse to make a spark.

The car will run and drive, but has a rough idle and is sluggish.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
-taterlvr

Active · May 22nd, 2011, 06:49 PM

did you get this after changing spark plugs? or before ?.. maybe check to see that you dont have a bad plug .. even tho its new they can still be bad..

or the wires might be loose inside the harness

taterlvr · May 22nd, 2011, 07:09 PM

The reason I changed the spark plugs was to try and remedy the problem, so
I had this problem BEFORE and AFTER I changed the plugs.

Thank you for trying to help.

-taterlvr

**rogoman** · May 22nd, 2011, 07:33 PM

Check the harness connectors at the ECU; unplug then replug the connectors.

taterlvr · May 23rd, 2011, 06:46 PM

I disconnected and reconnected the harness at the ECU. This had no affect. I checked for continuity from the connection at the coil pack to the ECU for each of the three wires and they seem fine. I am thinking now that I may have a bad ECU. Does anyone know how to test if the ECU is in fact good or bad or is that only something a Nissan technician can do?

My ECU is 5ZE1WX JA56Q20 B57 xxxx (Do the last four digits matter?)

Thanks,
-taterlvr

**rogoman** · May 24th, 2011, 09:24 AM

It's best to take the ECU to a Nissan dealer tech.

SPEEDO · May 24th, 2011, 11:08 AM

I am sure they will want to test it in the vehicle...

taterlvr · May 24th, 2011, 06:19 PM

I called the dealership and my ECU Nissan part number is 23710-5M107.
The hunt is now on to find a good used one to save the 800.00 dollars that the dealership wants for the part and installation. Just to hook it up to tell me if the ECU is good or bad is 79.00. Whew!
Does anyone have any experience with the places on the internet that rebuild your old ECU?

taterlvr · May 25th, 2011, 06:52 PM

I am thinking that if the crank position sensor is bad, it would affect the spark on all of the cylinders.

Is it possible that if the crank position sensor is bad, it could only affect the spark on only one cylinder?

-taterlvr

taterlvr · May 27th, 2011, 10:50 PM

Well for anyone that's interested, my suspicion was right. It was the ECU. The local dealership installed a new one today. Thanks to everyone that gave me suggestions.