Ok i drove a friend to the airport. About an hour and a half away. Before i went I added some lucus oil additive, and tried to get all the air out off my coolant, and filled that up. I fill up at the gas station, my light was on and i had probably enough gas to get me 3 more feet. I used 87 as I usually do. on the way to the air port i got stopped. I noticed that the engine was idling funny, but the car drove fine on the way there(just a little sluggish). As soon as I start driving back the car starts to jerk. If anyone has had the misfortune of running out of gas it was like that times 10. it would jerk violently for about 15 seconds every other minute. I stopped and let it cool then checked the oil. it was pretty low so i added some. It seemed ok for a while but started acting up again. i tried some octane booster thinking i had gotten some bad gas or something. no help. tried some gumout, nothing. I almost make it back and it gets so bad I nearly bang my head on the stearing wheel. It cut out about two times WHILE driving. This whole time the temp is normal, and there is no smoke. It was almost like getting water in the cap and rotor area, minus the smoke. Im stumped, any clues as to what this could be? The engine ran perfectly as long as i've owned this car, oh yeah , its a 92 se 5sp.

Thanks for the help yins,

O B

 

probably your mass air flow sensor.

 

^ I would think the MAF, too, or maybe one of your coil packs has a bad crack and started to spike. When mine did that, though, it was at wide open throttle. It would buck pretty bad and wouldn't accelerate. If I let off on the throttle until the engine got back down to idle, it would usually be OK.

Maybe there was some water in the gas you got?

There are some other possibilities, like clogged fuel filter, but you will have to check for codes and then if nothing comes up, try to isolate the problem.

 

i 3rd the MAF

 

I would assume it's something you did to the engine in the last day... the two things are the oil additive, and running the tank almost empty.. it's usually not going to be some random piece of the car breaking when you do something like this. call the gas station you filled up at and ask them if any other customers have had problems with their gas on the same day you did. If it's something to do with the gas, likely the station already knows about it.

this happened to a customer of mine a few weeks ago-- the delivery truck at the station pumped deisel into the 87 octane holding tank.. needless to day, Shell was up for some big problems when all the customers started complaining. I called the place and wound up with a number to the corporate office and a claim number to send Shell the bill for repairing the damage.. $400 damage when all I had to do was pump the tank dry, change the filters and plugs, and refill it with 93 octane.

 

Yeah I stopped at the gas station on my way back and asked if anyone else complained, The attendant was not helpful at all. Im going to call again. Cant your compression be ruined if you drive too long with low oil? I think my problem was that i didnt wait long enough for the engine to cool when i checked the oil and got a bad read. I considered a leak in my intake system but when i looked it seemed fine.

Matt could you link me to a write up on how to pull codes.

Thank you I really apreciate your help. Let me know if you think of any other possibilities.

OB

 

Oh yeah i forgot to mention that i changed the brakes about an hour before i left. im sure that has nothing to do with this but u never know. Also im assuming if i have bad gas, additive wouldnt really help would it? How can i test the gas before i dump $30 in the ground?

 

read the stickies at the top of this forum. TONS of information in there, and I'm sure one of them will tell you how to pull the codes (hint.. the Error Codes and TSB information links would be a good place to start)

compression shouldn't be affected if you ran it low on oil.. as long as your oil light didn't come on, you're generally going to be okay. and yeah, you have to check the VE on a cold engine. otherwise it ALWAYS shows low. I made that mistake when I first got the car. I always checked the oil when I filled up.. "hmm, it's a quart low. it was last week too. oh well. add another one anyway". when I finally drowned the engine in its own oil, I poured it out and found out I had TEN qts of oil in there!!! yet it would still show to be a quart low every time I checked it when the engine was warm.

 

The car was running great. Now it's not. What did you do different? Oil. Low fuel.

So.... here's another "could-be". The weather in Harrisburg has been around 60 during the day and falling to the high 30s at night. This is a great time for Mr Condensation to form in the tank. It doesn't happen as often on cars made in the last decade, but it still happens. Any moisture that has gotten in your tank will collect as water when the temp changes. This water attracts other contaminants. So you probably have an original fuel tank with some odd miles on it which has built up junk over the years. You're down to the last drop... the fuel pump sucks it up... it goes to the lines. With a good filter, no problem. With an old, cheap filter you may have problems. Never let your gas get that low. It's not good for the fuel pump, especially. I would start by clearing the lines and changing the fuel filter. Easiest and cheapest diagnosis. Plus, you can justify it as maintenance.

 

I never trusted those shady oil lights. They either come on when they shouldnt or don't when they should. Plus the dip sticks on the VE are not my favorite. i dip check and wipe at least 3 -4 times and take the mean.

I wish I was in harrisburg but alas im in school in alabama. Its still in the high 60's here. at night i would say mid to low 50's, but it has been real moist and rainy lately.
Is there a way to test my gas? it seems like there were times where the gas would get worse, and sometimes it felt like straight water.

What would i feel right before something went wrong in my engine to affect compression. wouldnt the engine be super sluggish and wouldnt the temp go high? the needle never even budged.

ima hit up the stickies real quick. thanx

 

nelledge, no offense, but how many gas tanks have you looked inside lately?

I've opened up four in the last year and not a one has had condensation or junk floating in it. that used to happen twenty years ago when gas storage tanks weren't lined and crap from the ground seeped into the tanks, then was pumped into cars.. now the tanks are lines and pumps themselves have filters on them and the gas is clean before it gets pumped into our tanks.

fuel systems also use pressurized systems and don't suck in air. they are almost always under pressure from the fuel vapors so they won't have to worry about humidity and condensation inside the tank. again, 20 years ago when all they had was a big screw-on cap on the fuel tank, there were issues with that. not anymore.

 

No offense taken. Only speaking from my limited personal experience.
1991 240SX: replaced the gas tank because of a minute leak at the top. Lots of gunk. Not sludge, but some pretty dirty gas. I only buy gas from the top three. No shady stations.
1989 Saab 900: Replaced a bad fuel pump. Reason... fuel screen was clogged with crap.
1993 Maxima SE: Replaced fuel filter for maintenance reasons. Filter had very limited flow. Blew through it and... wa-la! dirt and junk. It had to come from the tank unless the hoses are rotting from the inside.

I'm a shade-tree mechanic with parts guy experience, not a technician. Sorry for the fallible reply.

 

ok the mind boggles some more, i got a 55 code meaning all things are working. HELP!!

OB

 

A bad fuel pump will not throw a code. The old school way of checking the f.p. is to take off your gas cap have somebody turn the ignition to the on position while you put your ear to the opening and listen for the pump. If you do not hear a whirring sound......Yup you guessed it fp time.

 

I just took it for a hard drive. no shakes or jerks. But i get back and when i get out i hear a light psssssssss. like a TINY whole in a tire letting air escape. so i get down and look behind my drivers side rear wheel. and there is a drip. im pretty sure it was gas. i cant see where it is coming from exactly but its no where near the tank, its about 4 inches in front of the rear sway bar on the drivers side? any clues? seems like somehow gas wasnt getting to the engine and pressure was building up forcing it out some other place.

 

fuel pump is working i just checked it. . . so lost. i only had trouble starting it once after it cut off last night but everyother time it started right up.

 

my f.p. died a slow death,the car would die going down the road,i would pull over and try to start it. It would start up again, but a few days later...dead again. Then it just finally died.

 

i wish thats what was happening. i felt like i was on a bucking broncho.

 

i'd suggest you test your coil packs, o2 sensor and maf.
also i'd suggest that you run at least 91 octane in your ve. the compression ratio in ve's is too high for low octane gas. your engine should rightfully be knocking like a bish with 87 octane. even vg's shouldn't be running 87 octane.

 

That does sound like the maf.

 

the weird thing is i ran 87 since i had it. treid 93 for a tank, Bush got re-elected so i went back to 87, that was about 2 weeks ago. But i havnt FILLED my tank for about 3 months. usually go to half.

What would explain the drip of gas next to my rear wheel?

 

I highly reccomend you use 93 octane...I don't think that has anything to do with your problem though. The drip might be the filler neck leaking,fuel line leak...only one way to find out,jack it up and start lookin.

 

bah.. the cars are designed to be able to run on 87.. you lose a bit of power, but they still run just fine.

the fuel leaking sounds like the evap/vent hose. there's a 8" long piece of rubber hose between the tank and the hard line running under the car. they have a tendency to crack and leak after xxx years on the road. I had to replace mine about 6 months ago. it's pretty straight forward job, but kind of a pain to do. not much clearance in there to get the hoses off and back on.

 

[QUOTE=Matt93SE]bah.. the cars are designed to be able to run on 87.. you lose a bit of power, but they still run just fine.


You are correct, I have got my timing advanced,he probably does not.I didn't think about it long enough....

 

I replaced the fuel filter, ran out the old gas and got some 93, then I seafoamed the car. still bucking. i checked the ecu again now its saying "33" EGR malfunction. i cleaned the hell out of the EGR, almost two cans of throttle body cleaner. still bucking and giving error 33. what should i do next?

 

this happened to me a couple of months ago

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=328647

 

i have a 5 speed though. and the ECU is throwing me the EGR code. . .

thanx tho, anyone have any ideas?

 

the suction in the hose coming off the top of the EGR seems a little weak...then again im not sure how strong it should be.

 

i think if your having problems for this long just bring it to a good shop and pretend you want to get it fixed there then when they tell you wants wrong say ok thanx and split. if you have to make a fake apointment for the next day or somthing do it but dont show up. shops by me dont charge to look at a car so i hope its the same by you. goodluck later

 

If you heard a hiss from your fuel lines, check your fuel pressure before the filter and after. Easy to do. look at chilton's for the recommended pressure.

 

fuel pressure should be around 36psi at idle and 39psi at WOT.

on the EGR... just pull the vacuum hose off it and stick a screw or nail in the vacuum hose to plug it off. go for a drive and see if it's better.

 

Maybe this is a possibility. I was going through some other threads of people with just about the same problems. I noticed in one of the stickies that someone mentioned that code 33 is for the oxygen sesor and not the EGR for our cars. I know that there is a connector somewhere below the coolant overflow tank for the oxygen sensor. As i mentioned before I had tried to get all the air out of the coolant system and filled the coolant up. Is it possible that the coolant was overflowing onto the connector for the oxygen sensor and shorting it out causing the jerking? The last time i tested it my car would only jerk after about 15 minutes of highway driving, about the time the car would get nice and warm and, I'm assuming, the resevior would begin to get full. Also my CAI goes right behing my headlight which displaced a few things including that tank a little bit, even though ive had my intake for a while. . .this is the first time ive tried to get the air out the coolant since i put the intake in, the same time the car started jerking. Thoughts?

 

your O2 sensor connector isn't anywhere near the coolant reservoir. it's on the rear engine mount.

 

sounds like you're missing a spark in a couple cylinders. check each spark plug and make sure you're getting a spark. actually, before you do this get under the hood at night with the engine running and check for sparks. if it's the fourth of july under there, determine the source. you may need new wires, plugs or ignition coil. check in that seqence. if any cylinder isn't getting a spark, replace the coil but only if the fault ISN'T in the wire or plug.

 

could it just be a bad O2 sensor causing the jerking?

 

Possible, but not very likely.
have you pulled your coilS to check for cracks?

 

No I havnt. If it were one of my coils wouldn't I get a different code? Im getting 33 . . .

 

a bad EGR should not cause jerking, so that may just be a glitch.
you'd be amazed at how many times you check "unrelated" things and that solves the problem.