Im fairly new here. I have a 1997 Nissan maxima 5 speed.
currently it has about 220000 miles on it, I would say I bought the car about a year ago. I drove it every other day, and about 7 months ago i was driving and it suddenly died on me.

​​​​while driving the car coming to a stop, the RPMs dropped below 500 and i had to feather the gas pedal to keep the car on, once I reached my destination i parked it and drove my other vehicle. When returning from work i tried starting the car up and the battery was damn near dead and never was able to get the car started after that (crank no start)

So two days ago i replaced the crank shaft sensor, as well as the cam shaft sensor, and with a little premium gas and some cleaning it finally started back up.

With that being said, i am able to drive it, but has air restrictions. Between idle which is about 500, its fine. When I give it gas it bogs down, hesitates and then proceededs to go up in RPMs.

I have checked and changed the MAF, the cam, and crank shaft sensor. Timing has never been adjusted (to my knowledge) the spark plugs do look good,(haven't checked every cylinder)

I've been told the catalytic converter is clogged, I've been told the fuel filter needs changed, i have also checked and looked at the vacuum lines.

If anyone has any insite or information please help.

 

So when I had the same exact issue in my 97 maxima, I changed the air filter on the intake, that seemed to fix it for me

 

You say …

Who told you these things and have you looked into them any further?

 

Myself I would be hooking up a mechanical fuel gauge and taking readings, that's gonna tell you if its a fuel filter or fuel pump issue pretty quick. If you can get an OBDII scanner that does live data that wouldn't hurt either and just see if anything is out of the ordinary like fuel trims. Then I would be chasing down a clogged cat unless someone did tests and said its for sure a clogged cat, issues like this can be a rabbit hole of dozens of parts and guesses.

 

Ill put a new one on there cause it is pretty dirty, i hope it helps me out too, but it seems like its something more

 

One of my buddies came over to help me figure out why it wouldn't start, i got a new battery, put fresh fuel in it and it didn't start. Changed the cam shaft and crank shaft and after a few primes it fired up. But when flooring the gas it seems as if air is restricted from being pushed through the block and it seems to "burp and bog" through the air box. So he said something is clogged and thinks its the CATs

 

Yeah i dont have a scanner that good too tell me that information i wish i did. I dont know how to check the fuel filter or of there is a test o can do to see if its clogged. But i know the pump spews gas out of the lines to the filter
​​when i prime the car with it disconnected.

 

Remember also … there are two (2) crankshaft position sensors.

 

Will that cause the car to bog though and die like its doing?

 

One of our members suspected a clogged cat.
It had symptoms like this.

He did a test. He removed both upstream oxygen sensors from the exhaust manifolds. Then he started the car. It ran much better at idle. The exhaust gases could escape through the oxygen sensor mounting holes. That test confirmed a clogged cat.

 

Hmmm i did change the 02 sensor that was on the cat but not the other one. Once the car is at operating temp i am able to drive it if i keep gas flowing. I drove it i want to say 30 miles round trip. But when stopping i made sure i kept the RPMs up to avoid stalling (5speed). But again when the gas initiated it hesitates or sucks air ( through air box) amd then catches and proceededs to work as it should. At this point i feel like the computer or something is sending the wrong signal. Because i have no check engine lights. I am going to check the coils tomorrow by switching em out. I just dont want to give up yet.

 

Just wanted to thank everyone for the input. It ended up being misfire on cylinder 4, replaced the fuel pump, crank shaft sensor and ignition coil. Runs like a champ 220xxx and going