Greetings. I come to this board from an unlikely source (hyundaiperformance.com) because I am trying to repair my niece's maxima. The problem is that when you first start the car and begin driving it, it chokes and hesitates. Seems like it's misfiring or not getting proper fuel, but I checked the cables, rotor, cap, changed the spark plugs, (gapped coorectly) cleaned the TB, replaced the MAF and O2 sensors, and replaced the distributor itself (because I thought it was a faulty module or hal effect sensor) It still does this. After about 5-10 minutes of it surging and struggling, it goes away magically and runs very nicely, but if you even turn off the car momentarily it begins the cycle again. Also, if you floor it (I don;'t usually do that as the car's muffler is no longer an integral peice of the exhaust system) it responds properly. However, when the RPM's settle, it begins again, unless like previously stated, it has "warmed up" somehow. The car does have 300,000 kilometers on it, but the engine seems OK. As I am used to carburated points ignition cars, I am unable to continiue guesswork repair on it, and several mechanics have no clue what it is either. I thought it may be a clogged cat, but usually a clogged cat starts out fine and then chokes the car to death. What the hell is wrong with this car?

P.S. It's a 3 liter V6 with a 4spd auto. Many of the power options no longer work as well.

 

What about injectors, or possibly the fuel pump?

I know that injectors are a pretty common problem on these engines.

 

[QUOTE=Jed118] I thought it may be a clogged cat, but usually a clogged cat starts out fine and then chokes the car to death. What the hell is wrong with this car?
QUOTE]

As you were going through the symptoms I had clogged CAT in my mind, and when you said 300K it reinsured my idea of a clogged cat. Then you said you ruled it out. I wouldn't rule it out. I had a sunbird that had a clogged cat and if you hit the pedal it would feel like the car had a pinched fuel line then all of a sudden the car would come to life and drive like a dream.... This identical problem happened in another buddies car, however this was because of some sort of contamination in his gas, we finally figured it out that hte problem would only happen when below 1/4 tank.

Also since this happens when the car is cold only, maybe it could be something to do with temp readings, such as the coolant temp sensor.

Other common things are injectors on these cars... also you said you checked the cap and rotor, sometimes you can't see a crack in a cap, better off changing it if its been a while since the last change.

 

yup those darn injectors will prolly be causin that, im fixin on havin to replce mine.