I just got a call from my little brother who drives a 99 saying that his car just stopped on the road. He tried starting it up a few times and it wouldn't start. I told him to wait a few minutes and try again, and he does and it starts up just fine. Drives all they way to Advanced Auto, to check for codes, only thing that pops up was Knock Sensor wooot wooot, No CEL. Goes inside hands the dude the scanner and starts his car and nothing. Keeps starting it taps the gas and after about 3-4 tries it fires up.

I am a good drive away from him. Any ideas how to fix this. His car is bone stock other than debagding the nissan emblem...

 

Need more symptoms. Is it cranking? Do the dash lights go on?

 

Yea it cranks and the car seems like it starts and then the rpm dips down and stalls and all the dash lights go on.
From a cold start, he said that the rpm dips but it would bounce back up if he tapped the gas a little.

 

Clean the TB for starters.

 

maybe a faulty maf????? But a faulty maf should start the car...just not let you rev past a certain rpm..2500.. Tell him to take out the spark plugs and see if they're good or not (i.e. clean, not oile/gunked up, etc.) Tell him to turn the key to acc, and listen to the back for the fuel pump to make sure its working. If you have to press teh gas to start the car, sometimes (i dunno why) it means that you need a new head gasket.

 

My first go would be ignition switch. I know he's stock but does he have aftermarket alarm/remote starter?

 

Will tell him to do that tomorrow.

I asked him to rev it over the phone and he said he could bring it up to 4k+
I don't think he can handle looking at spark plugs...
Ill check on the FP


No he doesn't.

 

Could be a faulty cam position sensor. I had some starting problems with my car, and the harness for the sensor was all screwed up and causing me issues. It would sometimes randomly stall, RPM's occasionally would dip. The car wouldn't neccessarily throw a code.

S

 

Ok I just got off the phone with him and he said that he cleaned all the way to the TB and only found a little bit of crap around the TB.

Any other ideas why the RPMs would dip and stall out the car?

Sarin I will look into that

 

Just an update: He drove it again and he said the rpms were around 500 at stop lights, hes auto so I don't know why that would happen. Could it be the IACV?

 

Yeah, has he ever cleaned it?

After cleaning it he should adjust it to about 750 rpms at idle

 

check the hoses from the airbox to the maf and then to IACV. If its a 9 year old max, it could have ripped or the fastener loosened up . I had that problem. Also clean the MAF

 

check the battery...I know it sounds simple but a loose connection or dying batt will give you problems

 

I think this is going to be hard for a non-car person to do...haha but maybe I can figure out a way to help him.

Will tell him that

He was saying that his battery light did flash a few times when he would start the car. And he was texting me pictures and I saw purple around his ground on the battery

 

purple....what was he doing drinking grape soda and spill some on the connection? j/k corrosion is usually white...just have him clean his connections

 

what do you want? i got water, purple stuff.... SUNNY D !!!!

agreed corrosion is whitish in color, very curious what the purple is

 

He said that the dealer put something on his battery because it was white before...

 

"purple haze" maybe?

sounds like an electrical prob. "all the dash lights come on" how come all of you missed that? Bad ground, alty fubarred, bad bat conn like some suggested.

 

Ok guys

I just cleaned the IACV and the car pulsates. The RPM around bouncing around and then it stalls in park...

 

Sounds to me like the IACV is bad. Very common on these. Get a new one and slap it on. Theres actually ways to test it with an ohm meter and check resistances between certain pins like between 2 and 1 and 2 and 3, 5 and 4 and 5 and 6 etc. I can't recall off hand but just check em, they should all be around the same amount, if you find one that is way off like 50ohms then for sure its bad. I do a couple of these a month at work.