i own a 2001 nissan maxima se with a 5-speed manual transmission. i love this car, but over the nine years i've owned it, i've had to deal with intermittent P0420/P0430 and P0135/P0138 ECM codes. these codes are all related to the emissions control system.
some background:
all 2001 and 2002 maximas adhere to california emissions standards (colloquially "cali-spec"). other year maxima models are available as cali-spec or fed-spec, depending upon where you live. i don't live in california, yet i have a vehicle that's on par with california emissions requirements.
so why is this a problem? we can all agree that reducing emissions is a good thing. when it works.
enter the bureaucracy.
emissions testing stations in rutherford county will immediately fail your emissions test if your check engine light is on. it's the very first thing they do. if the engine is throwing a code, any code, they stamp your sheet with a big fat FAIL stamp and kick you out the door. they skip the actual emissions test (you know, the part where they determine the amount of crap you're expelling into the atmosphere) and point you toward the door, ignoring the very real possibility that your vehicle may be entirely within the legal requirements for emissions.
vehicle emissions control systems are very complex and, at least in the maxima, quite finicky. i've already had my catalytic converter replaced under federal 8/80 (8 year or 80,000 miles) emissions warranty for this very same issue. unfortunately, my car now has 184,000 miles on it and is well out of warranty. i won't have the stealership do it out of warranty, as i may as well just buy a new car for the amount they will charge me.
so, off to mine the maxima.org forums for the wealth of information that fellow maxima owners, DIY mechanics, and nissan technicians have volunteered. i've come to a stark realization about the absurdity of it all after reading a well-articulated post by John, an insightful forum-goer:
Kidding aside, the real problem is that the manufacturers are using the increased complexity of computer control systems (really not all that complicated - except, maybe, to Toyota) to hide the whole thing from the end-users (their customers) and make their products proprietary after-warranty cash-cows in their parts, repair and maintenance businesses. When they get dumbed-down legislators to endorse and enforce that proprietary regime on car-owners, as they have in Cali (with its "only OEM or state-approved after-market cats" and precious few of the latter), then all of a sudden, all cars out of warranty become extremely expensive to own and license. (Pity the Beamer drivers with dual exhausts and 4 cats - about $3600 in parts alone for cat replacement - and that on the basis of idiot-lights owned and controlled by BMW instead of actual pollutants passed).
As the whole enterprise is supposedly aimed at reducing pollution and environmental degradation, it's ironic that such laws will greatly increase the turnover-rate of car ownership which is far more environmentally destructive than buying quality and being allowed to drive it to the grave. Oh well.
oh well, indeed. i think my next vehicle will be manufactured sometime before 1975. ;)
