Hi, Today I experienced a problem, I stop by a store for a few minutes and after I turn on my car again I reverse to get out of parking and the when I put it on D, and give it gas it won't respond, it revs up but it takes much longer to gain speed, after getting on the street at higher speed there seems to be no problems.

My Tranny was rebuilt about 18 months ago, I had a clogged injector that got it fixed recently a month ago, New alternator put on Feb 2009, new plugs ditro cap and rotor abour a year ago. No CEL at the moment.

what could it be? Transmission? I haven't done any flush on the tranny fluid, I was thinking it's time to do it, but I don't know if this is related to this problem or not.

 

make a video (pointing at gauges) show tach and speedo... and sort of narrate telling how hard you're pushing the gas.

 

I'll try to do that tomorrow, I don't know if you remember when I had swapped some plugs from the injectors with the inhib sw at the tranny and I was running with 3 cylinders only...

well it felt exactly like that today! completely powerless at take off only I want to check the cables but I'll do that in the morning to inspect and see if I have some connector problems

 

i was the one that figured out your injector problem back then remember? anywho, basically i can tell pretty well (in a video) if the trans is working properly and if it's a power issue or not.

double check that your injector harness didn't unplug itself btw. that would be an easy fix haha.

 

the Motor could just be tired what year is it?????

 

he's already had a JDM VG motor put in within the last year (that's when he was having the injector problem b/c the idiot mechanic swapped some harnesses around like an idiot). and it wouldn't be such a sudden change if the motor were getting worn out.

 

are you reving higher than normal, like the trans cant keep up. did you check you trans fluid. you may have a leak if the trans is the problem. looking forward to the video.

 

Sure I remember caped, since then I respect you more than any mechanic around here, you figured out the problem being thousands of miles away and when I had the problem I called two different "so called mechanics" and they were clueless about it (just as ignorants as the one who swap the plugs) but they were good to charge $20 to come over to just check the car.

Well, I checked the cables and everything seem pretty much nornal, so I start the car and I noticed the Mode switch was blinking, so I remembered the Transmission Control Unit have a self test too.

I did it and found the First and second blinks are long which according to the FSM are the Revolution sensor and Speed sensor respectively.

However I drove the car today about 7-8 miles and the behavior was normal as before, so I'm not sure if I really have something to take care (like the sensors from the test) or this could be a random problem.

One thing for sure is I want to change my Tranny fluid, it's been there for too long and even though still looks pink I don't like the viscosity, when I pull the stick it drips like water and BTW is over filled. Do you have any walkthough for me about how to change the ATF? I would like to avoid paying $99 for that job

I took the video anyways but like I said I felt the car really good, do you guys still want to see the video?

 

yea might as well post the video. i didn't read the whole post cuz i'm about to bed but at least that way the video will be up when i wake up

 

Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvvjzjTRVB4

In the last second of the video I released the gas pedal but all the video I was depressing just about less than half way down, I did not floor it.

 

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/24
scroll down to "Automatic Transmission oil change"

anyhow if the problem comes back try and take another video of it doing it... the trans shifted properly in your video but unless we actually see it when it's having a problem it'll be harder to tell for sure what the problem is.

my main question... when you were having the acceleration problems and you FLOORED the pedal, the the rpm go up to 4-5K or did it stay low like under 2500ish no matter what? Flooring the gas pedal on an a/t should always cause the RPM jump up noticeably (usually above 4000 since the TCU will pick the lowest possible gear that it can be in)

 

When I had this problems couple of days ago I didn't floor it completely but almost, let's say the double amount I used this time when I made the video.

However the RPM needle never went up over 4k it sound reving strong but the needle was like I wasn't giving it gas and the car barely was gaining any speed, when it shift then I felt the car much better picking up speed and more responsive to the gas.

what could you tell me about the codes from the self test??

 

i never did one of those self tests so i don't know too much about it.. but it's important that next time you're having the problem, actually FLOOR it so it will downshift into the lowest gear it can. if it still doesn't go to high RPM then it might mean it's not shifting right. if it does go to a high RPM but still is slow then it's more likely a power issue. it is possible that a speed signal fault can cause the tranny computer to become confused and not shift properly tho, since throttle position & speed are the 2 factors that the TCU uses to decide what gear to be in.

 

I keep reading about the FSM, what exactly is it and where can I download it. I clicked some link that supposedly had it but the link wasn't valid so I can't find it.

 

www.boredmder.com

 

The '94 Maxima would be the best option for an '89 owner I suppose? They don't have any older manuals?

 

94 is the best we got. they never scanned any older ones. some people on here have hard copies of the older manuals (there's a few changes over the years... like wiring, and the existence of the VG-5 from 89-91, etc)

 

Today happened the same thing and I noticed a few things...

* I floored the gas this time and the RPM needle never got over 2.5k
* An easy fix was to pull over and turn off the car, wait 2 minutes turn it on again and the problem was gone.
* a few miles ahead I reach my destination and when I got back to the car turn it on the RPM needle goes up to 1.5k and slowly moved back to 1k RPM (idle), so I got the same problem: no power on acceleration. so I turn off the car wait two minutes and when I turn it on the needle stay on 800-900 RPM and problem was gone.

Any ideas??

BTW I did not have the camera with me to make a video of the problem today

 

next time it does it if you are in a place where you can do so... toss it into Neutral and see if it revs past 2.5k then. if it does, then it would seem like the trans is not shifting properly. if it doesn't, it could be the maf.

 

I read rmdl51 recent post and MAF was first thing the popped into mind. Check your sensor connections for corrosion or just being loose...

 

True. A fried MAF won't allow you to climb over 2,500 rpm.

 

All right! Thank a lot everybody I'll go ahead and clean the MAF I think I keep some MAF cleaner, I'll spray some electronic cleaner over the MAF connector also, hopefully it's not dead or randomly starting to fail.

I was thinking to wait and see if the problem happens again to test the RPM needle on Neutral

 

check your fuel pressure/ fuel flow!

 

Not trying to hijack this thread but since I can't post yet...


I have something similar with my 93 SE 5speed manual, when I accelerate with anything but a feather touch the car really hesitates before it gains speed and it responds normally in the upper rpms. I recently, as in yesterday, changed the knock sensor and harness as well as cleaned the TB and replaced a few vacuum hoses as well as fixed a valve cover gasket that was leaking mucho oil onto my plug. My mechanic brother in law helped but something is still not quite right. I went to buy the haynes manual but the one for my year shows a different body style than my car so I was hesitant to buy it. Any ideas?

Thanks and sorry about the hijack!

 

Haynes Manuals suck, so I recommend to get the FMS (full service manual) for the year of your car, many recommend the 1994 since it's the most updated one, you can try ebay to find one or IIRC someone have the link for the FSM online.

My Problem was solved after cleaning the MAF and changing my air filter or at least I haven't had the problem again at the moment.

However if you had an oil leak over the valve gasket cover I would make sure that was fixed correctly before doing anything else, before this engine I had my car run in 5 cylinders because of a leak for too long and then everybody suggest an engine swap instead fixing my old engine, which I did and even though it caused me a lot of trouble at first (due an ignorant mechanic) right now I'm happy with the performance of the car.

Sorry I'm not a good help on the matter, just sharing my experience.

 

Well i went to the local pick a part and got a new coil pack and that fixed my hesitation. Apparently coil packs don't like to be soaked in oil for prolonged periods of time

Thanks for the help!

 

yea the haynes' manual never did a tear-down of a 3rd gen. their book has a teardown of a 2nd gen (86 i think) and a 4th gen (95).. so all the info about 3rd gens just says "89 model similar" or whatever. nothing actually specific to it.

 

Apparently I was hasty in my response. The new coil pack did indeed seem to fix the issue but yesterday as I was driving I noticed that it was "sputtering" a bit and it got progressively worse as the day went on. Tonight I pulled the plugs and the one that had been filling with oil from the leaking valve cover was, surprisingly, oily. I changed all my plugs with NGK and while improved somewhat it still hesitates some and you can feel it at slightly at idle. I checked my codes and the red light is pulsing 3 times slowly and 4 times quickly, that points to a knock sensor i believe but it has a brand new sensor and harness. Also, after changing my plugs my CEL came on for the first time ever! Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Sorry I couldn't help it... its FSM and its Factory Service Manual not Full Service Manual although its not incorrect considering it does have everything but still