Ok, this started last night. I pulled out of a parking lot and started driving, and in second gear, my car started to jerk violently. it feels like it's loosing power momentarily, and then gaining it back. It was doing it randomly all through the drive on the highway in 4th and 5th, but not in the lower gears(at least I dont feel it then) Today, it seems to have gotten much better, but i still feel that there is something not right. It's doing the same thing but on a lower scale. Now at first I thought it was the clutch, but the rev needle doesn't move when this happens. Now I have another theory, I recently reoiled my dragon filter, and might have put too much oil on it. could it have gotten into my MAF and ruined it? Does that sound like the symptoms. Another thing, the engine light is not on, so there are no codes to check.

 

Check your ECU, even if you dont have a cell, sounda like aa KS problem. Same thign happened to me, i was dirving, and suddenly i started to feel a jerking/hesitation feeling.

 

My car use to do the same thing. It was my MAF. The key symptom i got was when it jerked and hesitiated i put in neutral and gave it gas and my rpm wouldnt pass 2500.

 

MAF sensor, take it out and spray some TB cleaner on the sensor. That will desolve the oil and hopefully bring it back to life.

 

it might be your knock sencor, same thing happend to me

 

A bad KS would not have that bad of an effect, just some loss of power.

 

I had similar drivability issues and it was my MAFS wiring.
If you recently oiled your filter, and that's the only thing
you've changed, then you should start there.

FLO_BOY

 

well, I sprayed my MAf, and nothing changed. Now It when im driving alond, at a steady speed, it feels like i'm momentarily loosing some power, and then right back to normal. I t is barely felt, but I know something it wrong. I'm gonna go change my filter element and see if that helps.

 

ok folks, I just checked my ECU, and pulled up the knock sensor code. So that solves that mystery. Now where is the best place to get a knock sensor. I haven't browsed here for a while...

 

well, I had very similar issues to yours...I experienced the problem
for just over a year, and no one could figure it out...Nissan was
CLUELESS and said "torque convertor, $1600+". OUCH!

Thankfully, when buying a part at my local Infiniti dealer, the
service manager told me that some Maximas/I30s, due to extreme
weather changes (in Toronto, we get COLD winters and HOT summers),
can have wires go bad in the wire loom - EVEN IF THE LOOM HAS NEVER
BEEN OPENED - right where the loom bends near the passenger-side strut
tower. That turned out to be my issue.

SO, with your car running, give your loom a shake in a number of places,
from the MAFS all the way to the firewall on the passenger side. If
you notice your RPMs change, check the wiring in that location...and
don't assume that since it's intact, that the wiring is A-OK.

hope this helps.
FLO_BOY

 

IMHO, I still think you have MAFS issues...only because the KS doesn't
cause what you said was happening...if you have a bad KS, your car will
be sluggish, but, shouldn't hesitate...

In any case, if it IS bad, change it and let us know what happened.

FLO_BOY

 

will do...

how bad is it for the car to be driving around like that? I dont have money right now to buy the sensor.(and I'm not selling my brakes )

Also does it make a difference, that my car was driving pefectly yhe whole time, until that night when I left the club, and started driving, and it immediately started happening, and was doing it all night, pretty hard, but the next morning, it almost went away, and was barely noticeable

 

maybe someone messed with your car at the club

 

I got by for a year...but, you might have a totally different problem.
My biggest issue was my HORRID gas mileage (I once got 11 MPG )

Yeah...my problem was intermittent too...I ended up changing TONS of stuff. If you do a search for some of my posts on "MAFS" you'll see
all the stuff I replaced...

If it is your KS, your OK for a little while -- just remember that
you'll be paying more for gas (more gas consumption with a bad KS)
and your car will feel sluggish.

I still think it's your MAFS though...especially cuz you changed
something on it before the problem started (that is, the oil).

GOOD LUCK!
FLO_BOY

 

the reason i mention the MAF is because that is the only logical conclution i could make, but I reoiled the filter almost a month ago, and no problems till now. So i really hope its just the KS.

Thanks for the help.

 

I had the same thing happen to my 99 MAX SE-L. Fill your car up with gas (all the way) and see if the jerking continues. I had the exact same problem persist whenever I had half full or below tank of gas. The reason was, of course, as it turned out a defect in the part which connects the fuel pump to the tank (the part that starts the sucking of gas...i'm bad with terminology so don't know what it was called). Anyway, after fixing that, the problem went away. The reason it jerked when the tank was less then half full was because it had different pressure then when it was full and the fuel pump is weird...that is, when defective it'll pump right at certain times and others it won't...depending on how much fuel is in your tank. Hope this helps.