hey guys, just a few days ago my car shut off in while at a stop light in Drive. i thought nothing of it and the next day i cleaned the iacv and maf, but last few days the car runs fine while in neutral, but when i shift to drive, and hold the brake for a few seconds, i get a little miss and jerk. So ive ruled out it being engine related. Im going to look into it further tomarrow. but i just thought maybe someone else has had a simular issue. Like i said the car runs fine in neutral. but when i put it in gear and let it run for a sec it sputs, and miss, but it still drives and shifts fine. so its kinda has me thinking. Thanks for any info

 

Check all of the coilpacks. You can test them with a multimeter; I believe the procedure is somewhere in the stickies. Have you changed the plugs recently? Any codes?

 

ur description is kinda weird, what u described isn't sputtering, its misfiring. whats ur idle before u put in drive? if u idle in drive does it sputter? im assuming u have auto tranny right? what are ur idle speeds in park and drive? kinda sounds misfire or ur idle is too low to keep ur car running. need more info to help

 

also you mentioned the brake, does it do it more when your foot is on the brake? If so you might want to check the brake booster.
also when in neutral does it rev up ok?

 

searching for that sticky now, and no no codes just the one for the iacv, but ive cleaned it for few times and its been doing well, i think it might be coil or plug related.

 

well its somewhat wierd, im not exactly sure if it is a misfire or sputter. I put the car in park and it will idel all day long, no miss no nothing. when i shift from park to drive, and hold the brake like im at a stop light, it will idle fine then it misfires quick then recovers fine. I did however clean the iacv , after cleaning it however the car idles higher like 1200 or so, i turned it down and then further adjusted the tb screw. thinking thats what the problem was, it wasnt. Keep in mind however the misfire happened before i touched anything, so me cleaning the iacv and making adjustments didnt cause it. the idle in drive now is about 850 in neutral, and in drive about 700 im assuming.

 

brakes feel fine, in neutral and drive, the car revs fine too, untill you put it in drive, and it drive fine, just at idel like at a stop light, it will sput and recover

 

Here's a link to the post on how to check them. B_Eaze made some good points too. When you feel the sputtering, does the idle dip at all (say, below 500)?
http://forums.maxima.org/2422562-post2.html

On a side note, if you adjusted the TB with the screw, you should also re-calibrate the TPS as it will be off as a result of that adjustment. If you don't already have the link for it, this is the howto. Really easy to do with a multimeter:
http://www.vqpower.com/v2/articles.php?article_id=95

 

thats what I am talking about,foot on the brake at idle -car sputters.
that is a symptom of a broken diaphram in the brake booster.when you apply the brake, you create a huge air leak(vacuum leak) which will cause the car to run like shiot while pressing on the brake peddle.when you are going ,car runs fine.

 

[QUOTE=CRiME;6648602]Here's a link to the post on how to check them. B_Eaze made some good points too. When you feel the sputtering, does the idle dip at all (say, below 500)?
http://forums.maxima.org/2422562-post2.html

On a side note, if you adjusted the TB with the screw, you should also re-calibrate the TPS as it will be off as a result of that adjustment. If you don't already have the link for it, this is the howto. Really easy to do with a multimeter:
http://www.vqpower.com/v2/articles.php?article_id=95[/QUOTE

the mis happens so fast its hard to say, almost instant then back to normal. And i made the adjustment after this started happening, but ill try it aswell.

 

ok guys, today the car idles fine in neutral but when i shift to drive it shuts off...not everytime though. but it just simply cuts off. do we have some kind of powertrain module, or has anyone else seen this..

 

sounds like a O2 sensor

 

are you sure you reassembled the IAC correctly without any leaks?

 

as I am reading this I thought...could this maybe be a torque converter issue?
I know its rare on our cars but it came to mind.

 

well, it happened to me. I had the same issue as you did in the beginning. The car would seem to want to shut off while i was driving and it was weird. So i told my mechanic and he said it was my tranny. I didn't believe him. This was what was wrong. Park fine, Neutral fine, but was i put it in drive, the car would shut off. I would need to let it warm up before i can drive the car. It was wierd. So i changed out maf's, cleaned everything, changed out the TPS, and everything i can think off. After changing everything, it was my trans. MY reverse went a few months later. but man, my mechanic was good. I just told him that my car would shut off when it was cold and drive fine while it was warm. 30 min diagnostics and he was dead on.

 

it doesnt matter if its cold or not, and it doesnt do it all the time, just every now and then, lets say im at a drive through and i put the can in park as i wait, when i shift back to drive to pull forward it shuts right off. i start it back and its fine for the rest of the day . happened twice today. it has never shut off while driving, just as im stopped and in drive position. and i didnt take the iacv completely apart, just cleaned the front face. the car idles fine though. im hoping it isnt a tranny issues, the trans shifts fine, reverse is fine, od works fine, so im somewhat stumped.

 

Thats what happened to me in the beginning. Only did it once in a while. I thought nothing of it. It started getting worse and worse. And more symptons. I thought it was my idle the whole entire time and didn't beleive my mechanic. Cleaned TB, IACV, new filter, put back the stock intake, TPS sensor, cleaned out maf. Changed maf, adjusted the idling. You name it, i did it. But it turned out to be my TC. It prob took about 6-8 months from the first time i noticed the stalling to my tranny completely dieing. Not trying to burst your bubble, but that's what happened to me. Hopefully its not your TC and its something minor. Maybe its your alternator acting funny. who knows.

 

I am by no means an auto tranny guy so maybe someone can chime in on this...
I remember back in the day(haha) there used to be TC lock-out selonoid that would go bad and cause the car to stall when put in drive. the quick fix was to unplug them. Im pretty sure that is all controlled by ic chip now but maybe one of the 4th gen trans gurus can offer some insight if this could apply here.

 

funny thing is now that u mention that, when i unplugged the tps and i heard a buzz or something coming from tranny area for a second or two then it stopped, i kept plugging it in and out, and it would only make the noise when i unplugged the tps... not sure if it is what your talking about. Well tonight i changed the plugs, tips were white... kinda shocking but. put the new ones in and found that one of my coils was simply broken off from its plug boot, i had to reinstall it however to see if it would run and it did. will be getting a new one tomarrow. The coils ohm out at 1.5 consistant across the board so not sure if its coming or going. I regrounded the maf, and after restart i got codes iacv and p0505, i cleared them and drove for about 15 minutes, stopped and let car idle in gear and no sputt now, kinda wierd, the only code that came back was the iacv code. not sure why just yet. i noticed after i cleaned it the other day it idle higher then normal, so i made some adjustments, idls at 750 ish now.

Im still not convinced it the tc, the trans may be worn and it rolls sometimes on steep hills, but i just dont thinks its it, and untill the tranny locks im not pulling it out on a random guess.

 

please please dont pull your tranny on account of some forum diagnosis.sure there is a lot of knowledge here but thats a pretty expensive proposition to be taken over an internet diagnosis. take it to a couple of different shops if it comes to that and see what they say.
chances are its probably going to have to get worse(consistant) to be checked posistive.

 

+1, i'm just saying if all fails, that is something that you might have to look into. Heck, my mechanic told me over and over..and i didn't believe him. I just drove it till it basically died. So if all fails, i would just do that. And if it doesn't fail, well...its not the tranny..-= ) Change out all the parts that you can. I did it before i changed my tranny. It kinda forced me to do a lot of maintenance.

 

Yea, check the coils, also check to see if you gapped your spark plugs. I'm having that problem right now, I just do not have enough money to buy new spark plugs.

 

coils all checked out fine, and plug gap is at .44. This morning i started the car, and i heard this wierd noise, very fait noise though. the dash lights and interior lights were dimming slightly when it would happen, and then go back to normal, im wondering if this is related to my issue, I had the alt checked the other day just because, and at first it tested no charge, i unhooked the batt and it ran fine. the next test tested good, the next two alt test , it tested no charge, im wondering if its to do with that. Possible voltage reg maybe, ill look more into after work today.

 

Man , un hooking our battery is a very dangerous(to your car) way to check your alt.
with that being said....they could be related. First thing is to fix what you know is wrong. If an alt works only sometimes, its bad. but I would make sure of my testing methodes.you know , make sure that the leads have good contact and stuff like that.

 

update: been hearing this wierd noise last few days, when it would happen my dash lights would dim, i traced the noise back to the alt, looking at it while the car is running i can see a arc everytime it happens. im going to replaced tomarrow and go fromt here.

 

I have the same problem... Had a full service and changed glowplus still happening... I also find the car lags in low gears..

 

I suppose glow plugs means spark plugs?

do you have any codes.

is your car automatic or manual transmission.

 

I would consider testing the alternator with one of those cheap cig lighter plug-in units.

 

Some update on this years later...LOL

What I ended up finding with this, back then was that the thermostat Housing was leaking....... Into the alternator. 1 drop at a time, so as the car sat and cooled over night it leaked. Causing and electrical spike in the cars charging system under load... This was somewhat tricky to Identify at first as the housing would only leak when the car was cold. Once it warmed up and things sealed a bit it would stop leaking, not to mention the housing was dripping on the bottom, so somewhat difficult to plainly see. I ended up doing a coolant system pressure test to find this very faint leak finally. Installed a new alt and thermostat, and all has been right for the last few years..

 

Wow, that's an interesting one. I would have never thought of suggesting that. Thank you for following up! Good to see you're still on the forums and I'm glad to see the car is running well now!

 

took you long enough, sheesh..........