Blue Thunder

New member here, the wife and I have a 95' SE, here lately, the car will just die w/no warning! Mainly we noticed this coming to a stop at a light or going up an incline, every time though it is at a lower rpm. This is followed by a very hard to start car..taking quite a while to get going again.
My guesses are: fuel pump? float in the tank is sticking? I was also thinking possible water in the fuel but have run over 3 tanks of fuel/water treatment and no luck. In the last day or so, it has steadily gotten worse. Stalled twice this morning just running around town and took a few minutes to get it going again...nice having folks honking and cursing you when the car is dead..yikes.
Anybody have a thought before it gets hauled to the shop?
Thanks, Jason

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

There are several things that might be causing this problem. First off you need to see if you are getting any ECU codes, there is a write-up on the 4th gen FAQ on how to do this or if you can get the car to an Autozone they will scan your ECU codes for free.

Seeing as your car is a 95 you might wanna try to clean out the throttle body (TB), clean the Idle Air Control Valve (IACV), replace the fuel filter, and check for any vacuum leaks. I think the IACV is too blame for the low RPM stalling. The IACVs function is too precisely regulate the flow of air when the car is at low rpms (500~1500) and when it clogs or fails the engine idles choppy or stalls at low rpms. Case in point on my 98 I cleaned the IACV with some throttle body cleaner this eliminated a slightly loopy idle (725~775 RPMs) and made it stay constantly at 750 RPMs when idling.

Blue Thunder

OK, there is some coolant temp sensor? This was triggering the computer to think the car was over heating and shutting it down. Changed this out and it is running fine w/no more check engine light or stalling...whew. About 200$ parts and labor at the Nissan dealer.

Odie96

You should have done that yourself!!! It's so easy - I had the same problem about 3 weeks ago. Sensor= $30 approx. Labor= $0 did it myself.
You should get a Chilton's or Hayes...you can save so much money by doing repairs yourself - you should really look into it. It only took about 10 minutes

Blue Thunder

Gotta love hindsite...hehe
I think I will invest in a manual, if I can work on dirtbikes, I should be able to tear into one of these..
Thanks for the info, certainly a wierd situation w/the car. Jason

Odie96

I would've NEVER thought a bad temp sensor could do that UNTIL it actually happened. I was thinking the same things you were...fuel pump, filter and things like that. At least your car's fixed and now you can get a manual and save money in the future (who knows maybe you can use that extra money for some mods).