This mostly happens in 3rd gear but i've felt it in 4th as well....between 2,000 and 3,000 rpms the car SOMETIMES starts hesitating when im normally accelarating and i dont kno wtf is wrong....can any 1 please help thank youuu

 

Did you check for codes? And if so, are they?

 

how do u check for codes.....the only thing i found in the stickies was pulling codes when your check engine light was on and mine isnt on .....

 

Still do the procedure, b/c even if the light isn't on, there may be a code stored.

 

This problem comes up often...I dont know how many times I have posted about it, and had people tell me its happening to them.

 

IMO it seems fuel related.

 

There were a few threads on this, but none of them really had any fixes for it, mine does it as well, it happens when going to anything greater than 2nd gear, it happens every so often for like a split second after shifting. I'm beginning to think it is clutch related, maybe slight slippage or something. I thought it was fuel related but I changed my fuel filter a few weeks ago and the stutter improved only slightly. I'm running Iridium plugs, I wonder if that has something to do with it as well....

 

Hi all,

Somewhat similar to this, for the last 3 weeks, I've had problems with slight hesitation and stalling at idle on my 97 Max SE. (I apologize for posting this in the middle of another thread, but I'm not able to post a new thread.)

I have taken my car to two mechanics - the first one (Firestone) said my fuel pressure was bleeding and replaced the fuel pressure regulator. I still have the problem.

Subsequent to that, I took the car to a Nissan-trained mechanic, who also happens to be a friend of mine. He spent two solid hours at my house diagnosing the problem. He double-checked the fuel pressure - at idle, it would stay steady at just over 30 psi, running higher when you open the throttle. He was able to reproduce the stalling, and noticed that whenever it would stall, the fuel pressure stayed steady at just over 30 psi, proving that fuel pressure wasn't the cause of the stall.

Other tidbits:

- engine would never stall at speed, but only as I come to a stop, or accelerate from a stop. At speed, I might feel a lurch or too, as if the engine were losing power briefly.

- I seem to remember noticing this problem soon after filling-up at a Mobil gas station. I have since run through that tank of gas, and have now re-filled with another tank, having used about 1/4 of the new tank.

- Whenever the engine would stall, it would always restart right away, but sometimes I'd have to "gun" the throttle a bit to get it to stay running.

- Check Engine light is NOT lit, but the computer is giving a 0304 code, indicating trouble with the knock sensor. The 2nd mechanic doubted that this would be causing the stall as all the computer should do is retard the throttle and not kill the engine altogether. Does that make sense?

- A couple times, while test driving with the 2nd mechanic, when the engine started to hesitate in the process of stalling, we pushed the (automatic) transmission to Neutral, but the engine still sputtered and stalled. The mechanic seemed to think that this proved the transmission likely wasn't causing the stalling.

- Shortly after noticing this problem, I had a tune-up done, so new platinum spark plugs, new fuel filter, new air filter, and clean throttle body. Also put in a new PCV 2 weeks ago.

- Also just put in a brand new battery about 3 weeks ago.

The second mechanic concluded that there were no problems with the fuel delivery, and no electrical issues as the engined seemed to run perfectly except for the occasional stalls, and after two hours of diagnosing, the best he could come up with was that I probably got bad gas.

Based on that, I put in two bottles of HEET along with my latest fill-up. I've driven with this through this past weekend, and the problem SEEMS to be better, but heading into work this morning, still stalled a couple times during my 26 mile commute.

I was just wondering what the collective wisdom of the forum thinks. Based on the history above, does the diagnosis of bad gas hold up? Are there other things that should be checked? Should I have the knock sensor replaced?

Thanks everyone!

 

Sorry - with all that detail I previously posted, I forgot to mention that my Max has just over 167k miles on it.

 

I found cleaning the IACV solved a lot of my idling and acceleration issues, it's easy to do costs only some Throttle body cleaner but may solve the problem, unless you've got bigger issues such as coil packs etc:

The IACV is # 11 in the diagram below



Remove the plugs and 3 bolts ( 12mm I believe) take out IACV, unscrew the dome shaped object inside held by phillips screws, spray liberally with Throttle Body cleaner, put back together resusing the gasket and you're done. Hope this helps

Your EGR valve/tubes could be clogged, but I don't much about that but there was a previous thread about this.

Haha update, I found the link, good luck:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....5&page=1&pp=30

 

I believe that this problem is clutch related too, i had the same problem in my previous car and it went away when i replaced the clutch, and now my maxima is doing it too. I know this clutch will need replacing before summer is over as well, and i think that will solve it again

 

If it is clutch slippage, it'll get progressively worse

 

Ironically it doesn't do it going from 1st to 2nd, but it does from 2nd to 3rd on up.