Fellas,

I know this issue has been discussed several times on pretty much every Infiniti and Nissan forum. Nobody really knows why are infinities are so tricky when it comes to Idle Relearn, but everyone has their own theories and they stick to it.

I have recently got both TBs cleaned at my buddy's shop at around 180K. Naturally, G was acting up and was experiencing Idle Hunt (back and forth between 1000 and 2000 RPM without touching the gas pedal). Here is what I did and how I got it fixed:

1. Tried the Paddle Dance like 36 million times - no result. Tried it in different conditions - warm engine, warm transmission, drove it 300kms, cold engine, in garage, outside; you name it, I tried it!

2. Gave up and went to Sunridge Nissan here in Calgary, AB to get them to do the relearn. Nissan, because it was way close to home than Infiniti, and frankly because their hour rate is less than Infiniti. Dropped the vehicle in the morning, received a call in the evening - No Luck! I was pretty frustrated at this point. Luckily Sunridge Nissan didn't charge me anything because they couldn't fix the problem - so thumbs up to you guys

3. Took the car home and tried to do the paddle dance another million times. I mean who was I kidding, ofcourse it wasn't going to work.

4. Next morning, I decided to pay Infiniti Gallery a visit. Waited about an hour before the lead tech at the dealer comes out to tell me that the TB cleaner had flooded the intake assembly, and we need to start taking apart the whole engine to find out whats really going on. I was like . Luckily, I decided not to take their advice and left the dealership to drop my car off at my buddy's shop. So I was back to square 1.

5. He opened the whole assembly, cleaned it good, cleaned all the sensors to make sure that there is no residual TB cleaner left in the Intake assembly. He stumbled upon this one bulletin online where it explains that the ECU will not relearn the idle process until the ECU flash has been done. You can hear the sound of all the light bulbs turning on on our heads.

6. I called Sunridge Nissan to book an appointment for ECU flash - they turned me down saying that they don't have necessary software to do so. So I called Royal Oak Nissan (Biggest mistake of my life ). Those ahoes took my car in and charged me an hour rate just to tell me that I need new TBs ($2300 CAD). I had stupid written all over me. I knew this wasn't it so I decided to talk to their "22 year veteran" Nissan Tech. He told me that he worked long enough in the industry that he knew right away that it's the TBs. According to him, TB cleaner gets into some plastic part in TBs and wrecks the electricals . Paid the dues, took the keys and left Royal Oak Nissan. On my way back home, I decided to pay Infiniti Gallery another visit to see if I can get lucky.

7. I talked to the Service Manager there and explain the only theory that I think is true and what is happening to all of our old Gs. See I cleaned my TBs at 180,000KM!!! So they were obviously very dirty. So when we cleaned it, the amount of air that was going into TBs was outside of the ECUs parameters to do the relearn process. So, the only viable explanation is that when the ECU get a flash, it's parameter changes and it actually relearns the idle air control. Manager looked at me like I was going crazy. So he said what the hell, we'll give it a shot. AND IT WORKED!! Best thing is that they didn't charge me a penny ! This was about a week ago, and my car has been running smoothly since.

I know the Paddle dance worked for many of us. But in my case, I was unlucky! Or maybe I didn't get the timing right, we may never know. But I found the solution and wanted to share with the community.

Drive Safe ya'll

 

Haven't been on here for a while, thanks for the info. So you're saying an ECU reflash is necessary after cleaning the TBs? Wow that kind of sucks that a normal general maintenance procedure requires a visit to the dealership just to make the car run properly again.

Just out of curiosity, was your car running poorly before, did you see a big improvement in MPG or power afterwards?

 

From what I have been reading on the threads, ECU flash is not a requirement in every case. It's different for everyone. Majority of people fixed it by paddle dance, others were not so lucky. Lot of people suggests that the only way to avoid situation like this is to keep cleaning TBs every 20K KM or so.

I was experiencing a slight hiccup in first gear so my tech said get 'em cleaned. So I figure, hey it's just the TBs, how bad can they be. But unfortunately for Infinities, it does get pretty tricky. Now the hesitation is gone, gear changes are much smoother, hard to tell the mileage since it's only been 2 weeks (i think it's improved). Im just glad that it's back to normal lol

 

Good stuff, i think ill go the other route for now -- never clean the TB's

(unless as a last resort)

 

Just to be sure, when you say reflash, you mean an actual reflash of the ECU, not just a reset?

Also, this "hiccup" in first gear. Is it the seemingly common issue at 1000 RPM where the car acts as if the throttles are slammed shut for a second? I've had this before and every now and then the car does it again - so annoying... First time it was fixed by a straight up ECU reflash at the Nissan dealer near my parent's house. They were so much more helpful than the closest Infiniti dealer an hour away.

I cleaned my TB's myself at ~100k, blissfully unaware (at the time) of how sensitive they are, and managed not to encounter any foolishness. I don't recall them being that dirty, anyway. That's probably why.

I suspect they may be getting dirty again and causing the intermittent hiccup. Also seems like my car now accelerates slightly more aggressively after passing ~2500RPM while maintaining the same throttle pressure.

 

I tried reseting the ECU by disconnecting the battery for 48 hours (also with brake paddle pumping) and it was useless. So I am pretty sure the dealer did the flash. There are supposedly 3 versions: A, B and C. Mine was on A, which was likely why ECU wasn't relearning.

I'm not sure if hiccup is a common issue with our cars. When I asked the tech, he just said TB cleaning lol. So i'm guessing it is a common across all cars

I'm glad you didn't go through this dreaded issue...I was very concerned if I would be able to get my car back to normal lol.

 

I was experiencing the same issue after cleaning my throttle bodies for the first time after 85,000miles on my 2007 sedan. The car would not let me relearn the idle, no matter how perfectly I timed it, even using the NDS3 app it didn't work. I took it to my local Nissan dealer and told them to flash my ECU to version C and then perform the idle relearn. It worked! Car drives perfectly now.

 

You're absolutely spot on with the Version C Flash. That's how they fixed mine.