On my way home yesterday I was cruising down the highway at about 80 and all the sudden I felt a huge drop in power and my tach. went down to less than idle (about 800 rpms). I gave it some gas and the rpms went back up but there wasn't any power so I hit the o/d button to make it downshift and the rpms picked back up and everything seemed ok. I got off the highway and pulled into a gas station to have a look and I didn’t notice anything wrong there so I eased the 2 miles I had left to get home and checked it out more thoroughly and still nothing. There is a small amount of fluid coming from somewhere under the car today but I wont know where its coming from until tonight when I have a chance to lift it up. Anyone have any idea what might have caused this. My first thought was MAF but the car is running fine now. The power drop was so drastic I thought the engine had died completely.

My car is a 2000 automatic with 60k miles.

 

Blubyu2k2 and myself had this happen on our 2k2 auto's. Out of nowhere, the car wouldn't idle high and was as fast as a Geo Metro. I turned the car off, turned it back on and it never happened again. That was over a year ago.

 

Could be a blown MAF also...

 

That sounds like the same thing so that is very good news. Thanks




I thought about the MAF but if that was the case then I wouldnt have been able to get above 2500 rpms right? I have put almost 100 miles on it since then and it is running great.

 

I was able to get above 2500 rpms when it happened, but the car just wouldn't move. Like I posted before, I've never had a problem since.

 

This could be related to the crankshaft position sensor issue. There is a recall. Give this a look: http://maxima.theowensfamily.com/tsb/NTB03-124.pdf

 

That tsb is for 02/03 I have a 2000. Hopefully it will be like Virus said an not come back. Thanks for all your replies on this. it certainly helps ease the mind up a little bit.

 

800 rpm is less than idle?

 

I think that's the idle speed for an auto. The stick idles at about 675 rpm.