car goes put put
07-21-2005, 02:00 PM
#1
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 43
car goes put put
1997 Nissan Maxima SE 5-speed 116,000 miles
There is a black plastic piece that captures air and it connects to my air intake. It snaps on and off, it's shaped like an S. Well there is a sensor ( I think the Intake Air Temp Sensor )that connects to the back of it. I just found out that the sensor has been disconnected since my mechanic had it last, replacing the starter (about 6 mo ago).
Well all of a sudden I 'm driving and the car sounds like it's misfiring (goes put-put) and runs roughly throughout the rpm range. The codes that were triggered when the SES light came on were the Knock Sensor, the Intake Air Temp Sensor and the Vehicle Speed Sensor.
So I connected the Intake Air Temp Sensor back, reseted the codes and the SES light immediately came back on again. This time all except for the Vehicle Speed Sensor code was came back and the car still goes put-put.
A sales person at Auto Zone told me that what could have happened was that with the Intake Air Temp being disconnected, it could have made the car run rich and burnned out one of your spark plugs.
Is that possible? Can going without the Intake Air Temp sensor connected cause this and or damage the sensor? Will it hurt to continue to drive it?
There is a black plastic piece that captures air and it connects to my air intake. It snaps on and off, it's shaped like an S. Well there is a sensor ( I think the Intake Air Temp Sensor )that connects to the back of it. I just found out that the sensor has been disconnected since my mechanic had it last, replacing the starter (about 6 mo ago).
Well all of a sudden I 'm driving and the car sounds like it's misfiring (goes put-put) and runs roughly throughout the rpm range. The codes that were triggered when the SES light came on were the Knock Sensor, the Intake Air Temp Sensor and the Vehicle Speed Sensor.
So I connected the Intake Air Temp Sensor back, reseted the codes and the SES light immediately came back on again. This time all except for the Vehicle Speed Sensor code was came back and the car still goes put-put.
A sales person at Auto Zone told me that what could have happened was that with the Intake Air Temp being disconnected, it could have made the car run rich and burnned out one of your spark plugs.
Is that possible? Can going without the Intake Air Temp sensor connected cause this and or damage the sensor? Will it hurt to continue to drive it?
07-21-2005, 03:40 PM
#2
how far did you drive? I drove a couple of miles with it disconnected, by accident, and nothing really happened, just the SES light came on. You could always just pull the plugs and check them out yourself, to see if they are bad. And maybe the Air Temp sensor still isn't connected all the way?
07-21-2005, 04:48 PM
#4
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by zander
how far did you drive? I drove a couple of miles with it disconnected, by accident, and nothing really happened, just the SES light came on. You could always just pull the plugs and check them out yourself, to see if they are bad. And maybe the Air Temp sensor still isn't connected all the way?
07-21-2005, 06:05 PM
#6
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,108
Originally Posted by nissan_man
1997 Nissan Maxima SE 5-speed 116,000 miles
There is a black plastic piece that captures air and it connects to my air intake. It snaps on and off, it's shaped like an S. Well there is a sensor ( I think the Intake Air Temp Sensor )that connects to the back of it. I just found out that the sensor has been disconnected since my mechanic had it last, replacing the starter (about 6 mo ago).
Well all of a sudden I 'm driving and the car sounds like it's misfiring (goes put-put) and runs roughly throughout the rpm range. The codes that were triggered when the SES light came on were the Knock Sensor, the Intake Air Temp Sensor and the Vehicle Speed Sensor.
So I connected the Intake Air Temp Sensor back, reseted the codes and the SES light immediately came back on again. This time all except for the Vehicle Speed Sensor code was came back and the car still goes put-put.
A sales person at Auto Zone told me that what could have happened was that with the Intake Air Temp being disconnected, it could have made the car run rich and burnned out one of your spark plugs.
Is that possible? Can going without the Intake Air Temp sensor connected cause this and or damage the sensor? Will it hurt to continue to drive it?
There is a black plastic piece that captures air and it connects to my air intake. It snaps on and off, it's shaped like an S. Well there is a sensor ( I think the Intake Air Temp Sensor )that connects to the back of it. I just found out that the sensor has been disconnected since my mechanic had it last, replacing the starter (about 6 mo ago).
Well all of a sudden I 'm driving and the car sounds like it's misfiring (goes put-put) and runs roughly throughout the rpm range. The codes that were triggered when the SES light came on were the Knock Sensor, the Intake Air Temp Sensor and the Vehicle Speed Sensor.
So I connected the Intake Air Temp Sensor back, reseted the codes and the SES light immediately came back on again. This time all except for the Vehicle Speed Sensor code was came back and the car still goes put-put.
A sales person at Auto Zone told me that what could have happened was that with the Intake Air Temp being disconnected, it could have made the car run rich and burnned out one of your spark plugs.
Is that possible? Can going without the Intake Air Temp sensor connected cause this and or damage the sensor? Will it hurt to continue to drive it?
07-22-2005, 03:41 AM
#9
Supporting Maxima.org Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redmond, WA
Posts: 279
misfire/ put put 
as you so elegantly put it :P can cause damage if you drive it for extensive amounts. Misfire causes misbalance in the engines momentum causing uneven ware on the cylinder and so forth. If you need to get to work and back for the next to day till u fix it it should be fine, but don’t drive like that for weeks. The problem may be totally unrelated to the temp sensor. It may be your coils sparks or even injectors. My first suggestion would be to isolate which cylinder is misfireing. Do this by disconnecting the coils for each piston and seeing which cylinder when disconnected doesn’t cause the car to misfire more then it already does. Once you know which one it is examine the spark plug and coil. If those are working then ur prob is the injector.
You can check if the spark plug or coil is broken by switching the coil or plug with another cylinder and seeing if the misfire problem shifts to that cylinder or stays with the original one.
as you so elegantly put it :P can cause damage if you drive it for extensive amounts. Misfire causes misbalance in the engines momentum causing uneven ware on the cylinder and so forth. If you need to get to work and back for the next to day till u fix it it should be fine, but don’t drive like that for weeks. The problem may be totally unrelated to the temp sensor. It may be your coils sparks or even injectors. My first suggestion would be to isolate which cylinder is misfireing. Do this by disconnecting the coils for each piston and seeing which cylinder when disconnected doesn’t cause the car to misfire more then it already does. Once you know which one it is examine the spark plug and coil. If those are working then ur prob is the injector.You can check if the spark plug or coil is broken by switching the coil or plug with another cylinder and seeing if the misfire problem shifts to that cylinder or stays with the original one.
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