# trying to find: power transistor???



## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

i looked on autozones website and it said to look here there bla bla bla.....i called and had them look in a chiltons manual. well i cant seem to find the " power transistor" well im trying to find it to check and see if its bad and if thats the reason why im getting no spark. its a 97 maxima 3.0 distributorless setup.


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

thz for the laugh.....


you cant find it because like you said, its a DIS setup. Therefore there is no ignition module(power transistor).


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

what things have you checked?

if you havent checked anything start by checking the battery and connections.Then check,
-ignition coil wiring/connections(you want them clean and tight)
-relay/fuses

questions.
what cylinders have no spark? 
have you checked the plugs?(they maybe be fouled, if you havent changed them in a while).
what's the battery charge?

we need info on your status...


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

DRUNKHORSE said:


> what things have you checked?
> 
> if you havent checked anything start by checking the battery and connections.Then check,
> -ignition coil wiring/connections(you want them clean and tight)
> ...


 iv already put another battery in it and checked the fuses. its not a dist. setup its a distributorless setup as stated in the original post. it sends power to the coil packs. i read about how to check it to see if its bad but now i need to find it.


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

checked the plugs there fine. all cyl have no spark. no codes either. cant get it to run to read anything.


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

TPIMarow6.6 said:


> iv already put another battery in it and checked the fuses. its not a dist. setup its a distributorless setup as stated in the original post. it sends power to the coil packs. i read about how to check it to see if its bad but now i need to find it.


I know what the ignition module(a.k.a. power transistor) does. What you are not understanding is that, your car does not use one. All DIS(Distributorless Ignition System) setups dont use one. 93 and 94 models had them, 95 and up dont.


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

DRUNKHORSE said:


> I know what the ignition module(a.k.a. power transistor) does. What you are not understanding is that, your car does not use one. All DIS(Distributorless Ignition System) setups dont use one. 93 and 94 models had them, 95 and up dont.


so what is he reason for me not having any spark??? anything specific i can check.......


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

*questions.*
-when did this problem start to occur?
-any repairs done right before this problem?
-Did this problem happen right after you changed the battery?
-Did you check the connections?
-were the ECCS fuses ok? (there are 2, I think)

I hope you have an ohmmeter.

-check if enough power is reaching the coil.
-check the ground aswell.
-check the camshaft sensor.
-check both crankshaft sensors.
-check the MAF sensor.

all the checks stated above take only about 15 mins. If you dont know where the locations are of an individual sensor, you can look it up on the autozone manual online. I have looked up each sensor in the past, so I know you can find all the info on that site.


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

I just read the other thread you made. I didnt even pay attention to the names and then I saw that it was you, hehehe. A no "spark problem" usually comes from the following things.

1-an electrical problem.(consists of opens, fuses, relays, shorts, dirty/bad connections)

2-faulty components. Ignition system on DIS models consists of, 6 coils packs, camshaft sensor, 2 crankshaft sensors, and the ECU, which also gathers info. from other various sensors to determine the correct spark timing. If you recently decided to use a different fuel, it may have caused a "knock" which would retard the timing until you fixed the problem. I dont think thats part of the problem though.

3-spark plugs

4-ECU(You want to leave this one last ALWAYS, unless you have specific information that actually leads to it being faulty.)


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

DRUNKHORSE said:


> I just read the other thread you made. I didnt even pay attention to the names and then I saw that it was you, hehehe. A no "spark problem" usually comes from the following things.
> 
> 1-an electrical problem.(consists of opens, fuses, relays, shorts, dirty/bad connections)
> 
> ...


Well i put the other battery in it...... and now its dead, from sitting. so this makes me come to a conclusion that there is a short somewhere. not where to find it is the problem.


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

i went out and checked to see if the coil's were getting power. so i took a test light and the red wire to one of the coils has power and the black and gray colored wire had ground with the key on.

the spark plugs that are in it are old NGK R's that look like they were sharpened with a pencil sharpener.... they have a small small tip and taper larger. so they probably were in the car for a very long time and it was a work car for a construction company's boss to drive around in so they always left it running. they did a good job of changing the oil but not the plugs.... i dont know if all the plugs could fail at the same time. i highly doubt that but the car seems to need them anyways.


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

TPIMarow6.6 said:


> Well i put the other battery in it...... and now its dead, from sitting. so this makes me come to a conclusion that there is a short somewhere. not where to find it is the problem.


A battery that dies just from sitting is an abvoius cause of a faulty alternator. Get it checked before you do anything else.


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

DRUNKHORSE said:


> A battery that dies just from sitting is an abvoius cause of a faulty alternator. Get it checked before you do anything else.


i dont want to remove it for no reason, you actually think a bad alternator would cause it not to run? only thing i can think of is if it burnt out inside and shorted itself out...... the car doesnt run so its not like i ran the car and used some power accesories to drain the battery...... tell me your thoughts


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

TPIMarow6.6 said:


> i dont want to remove it for no reason, you actually think a bad alternator would cause it not to run?


I know......


removing the "alty" is a 30-45 min job for a person that doesn't know or has never removed one. If I were you I would worry about the battery and its state of charge first. You can't test the electrical system good/ right if the battery isn't giving out enough juice. Autozone tests them for free. I read the other thread...here's the info you requested. you're in luck that im doing some repair of my own right now and I have my car on stands, otherwise I wouldn't do this...








this is the cranshaft (REF)... your looking at it where the wheel is supposed to be at.









this is the cranshaft (POS)

I highly recommend that you get yourself a Haynes manual. It will tell you anything you want/ need to know about any issue you are having.

You can also use the one I supplied to you above(I think you have it already though?), the book shows better pictures.


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

DRUNKHORSE said:


> I know......
> 
> 
> removing the "alty" is a 30-45 min job for a person that doesn't know or has never removed one. If I were you I would worry about the battery and its state of charge first. You can't test the electrical system good/ right if the battery isn't giving out enough juice. Autozone tests them for free. I read the other thread...here's the info you requested. you're in luck that im doing some repair of my own right now and I have my car on stands, otherwise I wouldn't do this...
> ...


 yeah i got under the car the other day and saw the sensors. but i removed some connectors and re connected them moved some wires around near the battery which had tons of corrosion on it.....i went to show someone else what it was doing after.... and it started right up.... i think it might be the plugs..... because i stepped on the gas after i let it run and it stalled and had a hard time starting back up..... turn over and kinda spark and semi start up and finally run and idle good....so ill change the plugs and see whats up.


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

TPIMarow6.6 said:


> yeah i got under the car the other day and saw the sensors. but i removed some connectors and re connected them moved* some wires around near the battery which had tons of corrosion  on it*.....i went to show someone else what it was doing after.... and *it started right up....  * i think it might be the plugs..... because i stepped on the gas after i let it run and it stalled and had a hard time starting back up..... turn over and kinda spark and semi start up and finally run and idle good....so ill change the plugs and see whats up.


Why am i not surprised to hear this....

Didnt I mention something about the connections being CLEAN AND TIGHT? I think I did.


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

it was the plugs, not the connections.......


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

TPIMarow6.6 said:


> it was the plugs, not the connections.......


I thought you said the plugs were fine?  

well, atleast the trouble is done with.


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## TPIMarow6.6 (Sep 24, 2005)

DRUNKHORSE said:


> I thought you said the plugs were fine?
> 
> well, atleast the trouble is done with.


yeah i figured they were alright enough to at least get the car running, and it did, it started with them in it, just wouldnt rev up over 2k without stalling out from too much fuel on the plug.... now it revs up perfectly.


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