Went to my service dealer today to have my timing adv +2 degress. We are on sort of friendly terms so he said no problems but I cannot do it via the Consult tool. "I'll prove it to you"

So he plugs it in pulls up the info.

Current Timing 14-16 degress as per service manual.

Now he tries to bump it up and will not allow it. It will only allow him to bump it down.

So he shows me, dropped it to 11*. Now he says watch, give it 10sec and we will re-read the data. After 10sec we re-read the data and back to 15*. It does not store it and has no option to write to the ecu.

What he did mention though is that to actually change the rom it may have to be done like when they do the renaults. (they are a nissan and renault service centre and the consult tool that they use is configured for both makes)

What they do is plug a laptop into the consult-II and then the consult-II plugs into the car. The consult-II unit is used as the medium between the laptop "with the rom update" and the car.

Does anyone have any ideas or can remember how their car was done?

He stresses that the consult tool is only used for diagnosis and cannot write an info. (without uploaded ECM info into it first)

 

That’s what I understand as well. There are a couple people here who say they have theirs permanent, including the son of a dealership owner. (If my memory serves me correct) I have yet to see a posting on how this is done through consult. I do have the printouts for the advancement of timing through consult and it says non-permanent, for diagnostic purposes only. Maybe someone will post it now.

 

This is a pretty common mod among Maxima owners. I know more then one has gone back after some time and the advance was still there and verified with a timing light. I've seen print outs of the before/after advance from the Consult on a 2K2, which has a similar ECU.

Also, the "wall" seems to be 2-3degrees, however the FSM says 15+/-5degrees. My *theory* is that the Idle Air Volume Learning procedure must be performed once you advance to 17-18degrees inorder to go all the way to 20degrees, however no one has access to a Consult to verify this. My reasoning is that the advance is causing an increase in idle speed and the ECU uses timing advance/retard to control idle speed, so the two are "fighting". The IAVL procedure will establish new base parameters for the increased advance, which can then be modified further upto 20degrees. Just a theory though and some people in hotter climates have complained they get slight pinging with just 2-3degrees on hot days under heavy load. However, thats typically from an area such as AZ and Cali that use 91-craptane.