1992 Maxima SE dies randomly
 

I know this topic has been addressed but I can't find a solution to my problem. My car will die randomly while driving at highway speeds or while idling. It has 174,000 miles. Car always fires right up after dying. It has never failed to start right away. Recently I have been using 93 octane gasoline but the fuel doesn't seem to affect the behavior.

It goes through a period about 10 minutes into the drive from cold when it "bucks." That is, wants to die repeatedly in close spaced intervals. If I pump the gas pedal I can keep it running but I don't think that really has much significance. It will still exhibit problems even after driving at highway speeds for a few hours. It just seems to go through a repeatable routine during the first 15 minutes or so.

This car has new fuel injectors, a new fuel pump, a new fuel filter, a new MAF, a new throttle position sensor. Any good ideas what the problem may be?

Thanks!

did you try counting flashes from the ECU for codes?

Yes, there were no fault codes registered. Good suggestions though.

its for sure a SE with VE30DE engine right? if its a VG it almost sounds like a bad distributor but if its for sure a SE you have coilpacks instead

did you check for vacuum leaks?

No distributor, it is an SE with one coil per spark plug. The vacuum lines were replaced a few years ago but there is always the possibility of a leak. I'm wondering if it could be something like the crankshaft sensor. It behaves like an electrical problem, intermittent but repeatable, like there is a temperature variable involved.

forsure its an SE then so no distributor. you could try spraying brake cleaner around the vacuum lines and intake manifold to see if theres a leak. but otherwise yes the crank sensor could be a possibility or maybe the coolant temperature sensor

Clean and inspect all your crank, cam, etc sensors

Same problem as mine. Reason why I took a a 4yr break but now getting back to it.

You can have all new parts installed but if they're not installed correctly then things won't work right anyway....Sounds like you may have a vacuum leak situation!

Thanks, I'll test for vacuum leaks next. I think all the hoses were replaced recently but one never knows.

Good luck with it. My completely overhauled VE stalls on me nearly daily. No rhyme or reason. Almost always happens while actually driving, usually while taking off from a stop but has happened multiple times while cruising at 40-50. Usually starts right back up but yesterday it nearly stranded me multiple times right in the middle of busy intersections and took 6-7 tries to fire back up. Today it drove perfectly fine. Go figure.

I'm wondering if yours is a faulty CPS.

Have a brand new CPS on it. Brand new knock sensor. Brand new coil packs. Brand new knock sensor harness. Brand new injectors. Brand new FPR. Brand new EGR. Brand new TPS. New coolant temp sensor. Other new stuff I'm probably forgetting too

Swapped several different MAFs with no improvement as well

wonder if its worth trying a junkyard ECU?

I went through all that bs as well when my car would randomly stall at a stop or bog down while moving. Swapped so many sensors with same results.

Finally bit the bullet and bought the engine harness from Tri Cities Nissan. Car drives like new now.

Those intermittent issues are always the toughest to diagnose. Another suggestion i'd throw out there is the swirl valve that controls the vacume. I actually had a bad one that would short out causing the car to stall but would also pop the engine control fuze.

If you don't mind me asking jbbons25 what did a new harness set you back? pm me if you like. I've been wanting to price one out and here where i am they're an arm and a leg.

And I've been puttn off that the whole time. Even swapped motors and replaced sensors 3x. Reset valve timing 2x. And the one thing that involves some work (nowhere near as much as I have already contributed) is more than likely my issue for the last 5yrs. Thats ok I just bought one off of Augustusmax

The harness set me back $450 with shipping included. I decided to go with a new harness because I didn't want to take out a harness from the junk yard only to find out that I may have the same problem, and replacing the harness is not easy.

One thing I would suggest is that I would recommend to evacuate the AC and undo the hoses connecting to the evaporator because it would make installation MUCH easier.

Also, the EGI harness I got was for a 90-92 because the 89 harness is no longer available. I had to order an oxygen sensor for it as well because I would get a O2 sensor code after installing the harness with the 89 sensor. One plus about this harness is that they changed the coolant temperature sensor and MAF sensor connectors with the kind that doesn't use a rubber cover that would break down and expose the connectors and cause corrosion. I still kept the 4th/5th gen temperature sensor so I swapped the connector. It also includes both connectors for R-12 and R-134a compressors.

http://imageshack.com/a/img913/9754/6IhPMB.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img908/1140/luXiFp.jpg

Old harness removed.
http://imageshack.com/a/img673/2537/1phwGh.jpg

Hmm

It had never even occurred to me that the main engine harnesses would still be available so I never even looked into it. I've been JY hunting for spare VE harnesses

The VE harness is actually cheaper than the VG stuff, go figure. I'm ordering one now

Welp that was quick. Not even 5 minutes later and they've cancelled my order. VE engine harness discontinued and no longer available.

I had an issue similar to that with my daughter's 92SE. It turned out to be a faulty ignition coil relay that I got lucky and found. Plugged in a new one and good to go. It's a cheap,easy try.

Are you talking about the actual blue colored (or maybe it's green, can't remember) relay that is located in one of the black fuse boxes in the engine bay?

If so, I already tried that and swapped it with a different relay with no change unfortunately.

Out of curiosity how did you determine the relay to be faulty? Did you just swap it or did you do an actual multimeter FSM test on it?

Did you ask for only a 92 harness? Try checking for a 93-94.

No I actually ordered a '93 harness

The VE 5 speed has two different part numbers, one for '92 and one for '93-94:

P/N 24011-96E00 for 7/91 through 7/92

And then P/N 24011-7E000 for 7/92 through 2/94

I can't imagine what would be different other than the different A/C compressor plug since they went to R134a in '93 +

I'll try to find out about the earlier 24011-96E00 harness

Okay well I now have confirmation that none of the VE engine harnesses are available. Not the earlier VE harness (24011-96E00), or even the automatic versions (24011-7E005 or 24011-96E05).

That's not bad jbbons. I was quoted about $800 from my local dealership if i remember correctly. Even though it's a 92 vg they still wanted my vin # for whatever reason they vary? Did they also improve on the injector connectors instead of the rubber and metal clips did it have say a connector like the 94's with the plastic push tab?

I would inspect and clean all my grounds...

sounds like a def ignition capacitor stalling or dying once it warms up!

I've never heard of an ignition capacitor. Does the VE have one?

I forgot to mention it above but my car also has a brand new power transistor unit:

https://repairguide.autozone.com/zne...528007608a.gif

power transistor is what I meant....Still sounds like it's collapsing and losing power....I would still test it and check with another junkyard unit just to ensure it's not the culprit...If when you try restarting there's not ignition!!! Can anyone confirm whether or not the ignition is firing when it won't restart? Can anyone confirm the injectors are firing during this restart situation?

Could be power transistor. I checked for vacuum leaks but found none. Yesterday it seemed things were getting worse but today the car behaved better. The only difference I noted is that it was a little more humid today.

I'll try to get a power transistor and see what happens with that.

I can't confirm or test whether or not the ignition is firing or whether the injectors are firing when it won't restart because I'm always in the middle of an intersection or a busy roadway when it happens. Can't exactly jump out and troubleshoot :laugh: besides, it almost always fires right back up so you couldn't really test a no-start situation anyway

I say there's almost zero chance its my power transistor unit. I bought the new one to try to fix this issue. The odds are astronomically low of my stock unit being bad and causing this AND then also the brand new replacement also being bad and causing this.

Hopefully that does work out for Nick though

I've swapped the ignition transistor as well (twice) and still wouldn't solve my stalling issue. I've swapped sensors, few injectors (improved performance but issue persisted) and a used fuel pump (improved performance but issue persisted). I didn't change the ignition resistor/capacitor combo, but I would doubt that would have helped.

But for the variation of VG harnesses, I think there were 4 or 5 variations. 89, 90-92 and 93-94 including MT models from 89-91.

Unfortunately, the injector, egr, power valve and tps connectors are the old rubber boot style. Was hoping to be converted to the improved one used for the maf and temperature sensors.

I haven't swapped out the power transistor yet but do have an interesting observation. I'm curious if anyone has observed this or not. It's probably too good to be true...

I have been using 87 Octane even though the manual says to use premium grade gasoline. The weather has been mild here in Texas. So as an experiment I filled up with the 93 Octane to see if that had any effect on the stalling problem I'm experiencing.

To my surprise, the car did run better. It did not stall while cruising (improvement) but it did stall once or twice stopped at idle (less often). It could be my imagination but the problem seemed to be significantly reduced, maybe this is a clue as to what might be wrong? Has anyone else seen the octane level affect the stalling problem?

Thanks!
-Nick

Well, like I said, too good to be true. After a day of better performance with 93 Octane fuel the car performed poorly, stalling constantly.

I've done more research and now suspect it might be the idle air control valve. Need to find it and clean it to see if that helps. Has anyone solved their stalling issue by cleaning the IACV?

Thanks,
-Nick

UPdate: removing the idle air control valve was a pain since it is buried under the intake. I cleaned it and verified the solenoids (two) were working fine. I reinstalled it but unfortunately, there was no improvement in the random stalling problem. Happy Holidays and other suggestions welcome!

-Nick

If it's stalling when coming to a stop you could also check the egr valve and the sensors that control the vacume for the egr and also the swirl valve which controls the vacume open and close at certain rpm.

Had the Same Problem
 

I had exactly the same symptoms. I thought there was some correlation to colder weather, but as it warmed up this spring, the car would still die. Almost never had a problem once it was up to temperature.


I fixed it by replacing two things: Thermostat (was sticking SHUT) - this alone didn't fix it though. The Throttle Position Sensor.


Yes, I saw you had changed this too, but swap for yet another and calibrate it.


- Jim

I also have this problem
 

My 92 SE with manual transmission has this problem too. I've been change different parts as this forum has discussed. Today, I replaced fuel pump and went to a test drive. Unfortunately, the problem still exists.

I was driving on a highway at 60 mile/hour. The engine suddenly stalled. One thing I noticed is the tachometer dropped to 500 rpm even with my 5th gear still engaged.

Could this be caused by a bad sensor that measures engine speed? What sensor could it be? Could it be a bad ECM?

Any advise is welcomed!