First drive of the day, or when my car has been sitting for like 5+hrs, with the engine being cold, my car stutters/hesitates when driving normal until the car is partially warmed up, then it stops, totally gone once fully warmed up. When I punch it a little bit, it goes with no hesitation at all. Other than that, the car runs fine, idles perfectly. I've had new NGK spark plugs put in, and had Nissan do a fuel systems cleaning. I wish I could remember if it was doing this when I got the car( it's used ), but I can't. So I don't know if I need a MAF or my car is simply telling me to quite babying it and go.

P.S. - I forgot to mention that it only stutters when accelarating from a stop, not while driving.

 

Welcome to my world. My car does this also, so let me know when you find a fix.

 

mine too!!!

 

Whoaa...sig pic is way too large.

To the OP: I had that too..try cleaning your TB, maybe even a Seafoam treatment.

 

Mine does it too! !! Bogs on first gear ...Other gears are fine. Somebody help!!!

 

Mine still does this and I replaced the MAF meter and cleaned the TB about two weeks ago. I have 80K miles and replaced the plugs and coils around 65K. Seafoam may be my next move.

 

How is the idle on the first start up in the mornings? Does the idle fluctuate up and down? If so im guessing its your TPS. Mine does after the car sits overnight in the cold. After its warmed up, it goes away. I bought a new MAF to see if it would go away but it didnt. So i have to test my TPS out and adjust it.

 

When I start the car up, it fires up to about 1300-1400rpm, then after about 30 seconds, it goes down to maybe 1100rpm, then raises after about 15 seconds to maybe 1200rpm and gradually goes down from there to about 650-700rpm once fully warmed up.

 

Sounds normal...mine does the same, no hesitation/sputtering.

 

My problem was that, when cold, any revs over 2000 would result in chugging and hesistation.

I changed my MAF and it DID go away. MAF is so vulnerable.. I'd replace it as your first step.

 

Check the IACV....I think other orgers have had issues with that. It can exhibit the same symptoms you all are seeing.

 

MAXBLU5- keep in touch with me about this, i wanna see if you figure out the problem. I have yet to figure this out. But the next time the car sits over night. Start it up and stand outside your car near the engine. Do you hear a robot sounding noise while it idles? give it about a min after u start it and u should here it. From your last reply, it sounds like we have the same problem. It kinds sounds like an actuator or something moving up and down adjusting itself. Another way to put it is it sounds like a robot moving.

I think this noise has something to do either with the IACV or the TPS and is dirrectly related to our idling problem. Ive been having this for over a year and didnt worry about it over the summer b/c it idled fine when its warm out. I can also hear it in the exhaust like when the idle goes down i hear "putt putt putt" coming out my mufler. My mom took my car out yesterday and didnt warm it up. She turned the heat on with the A/C on and the car died.

If you could could u try this in the morning? turn the heat on with the A/C and manually turn the fans up. Dont set it on auto. I was also thinking that my Altenator might be bad since it dies when the A/C and heat are on.
Hope i didnt confuse u.

Please get back to me,
kelvin

 

MAXBLU5- keep in touch with me about this, i wanna see if you figure out the problem. I have yet to figure this out. But the next time the car sits over night. Start it up and stand outside your car near the engine. Do you hear a robot sounding noise while it idles? give it about a min after u start it and u should here it. From your last reply, it sounds like we have the same problem. It kinds sounds like an actuator or something moving up and down adjusting itself. Another way to put it is it sounds like a robot moving.

I think this noise has something to do either with the IACV or the TPS and is dirrectly related to our idling problem. Ive been having this for over a year and didnt worry about it over the summer b/c it idled fine when its warm out. I can also hear it in the exhaust like when the idle goes down i hear "putt putt putt" coming out my mufler. My mom took my car out yesterday and didnt warm it up. She turned the heat on with the A/C on and the car died.

If you could could u try this in the morning? turn the heat on with the A/C and manually turn the fans up. Dont set it on auto. I was also thinking that my Altenator might be bad since it dies when the A/C and heat are on.
Hope i didnt confuse u.

Please get back to me,
kelvin

 

I'll give it a try when I get off of work, I work from 6 to 6am for the robot sounding noise. When you say turn the A/C on and the heat on, you just mean having the temperture lever all the way on the right for heat and have the A/C pressed in? I also don't have an auto switch, turning the fans on is done manually anyway for me. What year is your car? I probably don't have the same A/C heat unit that you have so I don't if I will be able to replicate what your doing, I have a 2000.

 

Hmmm, I'm experiencing the total opposite, anything under 2000rpm would cause the hesitation, but thats if Im creeping, not really going. When I punch it a bit, it doesn't hesitate going to 2000 to 2500rpm, then switches gears. Like another poster said, it seems to be only an issue with 1st gear when cold, once I get into the other gears it doesn't hesitate.

 

yeh, well i have an Auto climate control in my case. So after it sits over night in teh cold, turn the heat up on blast and then hit the a/c button rite when u start it up. This runs the A/c belt and the car should stutter even more, possibly even die (like in my case)

 

New to the forums here, but I am glad to see something that sounds like i am having as well. this "robot sound" u mention, i think i have it too. Its not grinding, its not high pitched, its like an actuator or some sorta spinning track like sound... too bad none of us can actually post sounds for others to hear. I have had this problem for about 5 months now since i bought my 2000 used, and sort of ignored it. Does your sound happen when u first start the car or when u shut the car down? when I turn the ignition on but not the engine i hear it sometimes too..... now when its 20 degrees out in the morning the engine does 1200rpm then down to like 500rpm, and back up again...while doing this the car would jerk forward and back and engine would shake and would make this "robot" sound as the rpms move back up. Yesterday I stalled cause I didnt warm the car up in the morning...but after riding it and warming up the car everything is fine the whole day.... is this what ur problem is too?

also, whats TPS? i am new to these forums

 

I tried this yesterday after I got off of work, and nothing happened, just ran as it did, stutters a bit. I gave it a little more gas though, but the car didn't cut off or anything, or stall out.

 

TPS is Throttle Positioning Sensor. Its located on your throttle body and is known to go bad. I still have reserach to do on this TPS. But to answer your questions it sounds like you and i have the same problem. My mom drove the car and didnt warm it up and it died on her. She freaked out and put the car back in the driveway and took her car (hahaha).

 

I had this same exact problem and now its fixed!! Upon startup on cold mornings the idle would jump between 800 & 1200 and the engine would shake like crazy. After about ten minutes of driving everthing would be normal untill the next "cold" start.

I changed the plugs, cleaned the TB, replaced the coolant temp sensor, and replaced the IACV. The prob remained. I found the solution by checking the Altima sites. The problem is much more widespread with Altimas.

Did anyone notice that most of the cars affected are 2k's. That was the first year the Max has a plastic intake manifold - it was metal on earlier cars.

The problem is the intake manifold gasket. They are developing small leaks. When the engine is cold - air is seeping in causing a too lean mixture. As the engine warms the gasket expands and properly seals.

At first my mechanic did not think I was right but told me there was an easy way to test. You get two guys to hold three or four lit cigarettes next to where the intake manifold gaskets are. You start the "cold" engine. If you see the smoke being sucked in - then bingo - problem solved.

My gaskets were changed 3 weeks ago. After two months of having the problem everyday the car now starts smooth smooth smooth. My frustration is over!!!

NOTE: I only had the problem with a "cold" engine at idle or "cold" trying to accelerate from a stop - once the car hit a certain speed it was fine even when still cold. After warm up no probs at all. If these are your symptoms I bet its your intake manifold gaskets. If your probs occur at speed then you probably need a MAF.

 

I'm assuming you mean the gasket between the upper intake plenum and the intake manifold? This is a good find. We see a lot of these Gen. 5 cold start/cold stuttering issues that kinda sounded like possibly some kind of vacuum leak going on, but were hard to troubleshoot and find. Keep this in mind for future reference.

 

From what I understand there are 3 intake manifold gaskets. One at the upper intake manifold, one at at the lower intake manifold amd 1 at the plenum.(Please don't quote me on this because I'm not exactly sure of the setup).

When I picked up the car I asked which one he changed. He said - all three - I was fine with that because that's what I would have wanted him to do. I figured if one went the others may follow and I was tired of the problem.

So, unfortunately I can't tell you exactly which of the 3 was allowing the air to be sucked in. But that was definately the problem. The car sits out in the cold every night and is started about 6AM every morning. It starts so strong and idles so smooth now that it makes me smile!!

PS:
And Yes this problem is very difficult to troubleshoot - it has the symptoms of a vacuum leak so you check the v hoses - determine its not a leak and move on - when in fact it is a leak but just not in the hoses!

 

This sounds like the answer to my problem. Right now my symptom is no power at all when I drive it cold for the first half mile or so. It does warm up pretty quick and drives normally after that. I'm wondering if the gasket leak will get worse with time, affecting performance even on a warm engine. Does anyone have any ideas on the replacement gaskets? Is OEM the way to go or are there better ones out there?

 

I'm not sure if the prob will get worse but we both know how annoying the problem is. Maybe you can live with it and see if it gets worse. For me - I bought the car for my 17 year old daughter who has just learned to drive so I did not want the performance characteristics changing on her - cold to hot. She can barely handle the car when its normal!!

As for the gaskets - OEM vs aftermarket. I questioned my mechanic about this. I did not want to install the same inferior gaskets. He said it was hard to tell which was better - Nissan may have recognized the prob (there are enough cars with this prob) and quietly redesigned the gaskets /// also the aftermarkets could have been made based on the original specs. Who knows. I used OEM. We'll See...

PS: And before any of you 17-18 year old's show this post to your parents and ask for a Max - My daughter has STRAIGHT A's - Thats why I got her the car. Both her older brother's had their chance but had other priorities - Now they stare with their mouths open!!

 

Thanks for the info. BTW, I bought my 17 year old daughter a 2000 Maxima too. She learned on mine and felt comfortable with it, and she works quite a few hours after school so I got her one with 106K miles. Unfortunately she totaled it about a month ago (not her fault and no injuries, thankfully). Her Max did not have the cold hesitation, but I don't know what type of work was done on it, so it may have been fixed before we bought it, or the gaskets were still OK.

 

First, the car...
2k2 SE Auto, 116K miles

I bought this car with 90k miles and it ran great then. As of this fall, I began getting the rough cold starts, where the car feels like it is rumbling after the cold start and before it gets fully warmed up. Usually, I will leave the house before it is fully warmed up but I get this almost knocking sound at 2k RPM that seems to be coming from the front right part of the engine compartment. It seems to only do it in 1st gear, cometimes second. Once the car is warm....runs great without issue.

But....this morning, I decided to goose it a bit since I was in a hurry. The engine was not quite warm. Right after I let off the gas, I got the SES light come on. I pulled into work and then pulled these codes:

P0011 - IVT Control (Bank 1)
P0021 - IVT Control (Bank 2)

I am going to check the seals on the manifold as mentioned here. I feel like I am working on my old BMW since I have no clue what these codes mean (google no help) and there are 20 things to check.

If it is not the seals on the manifold, I am going to look at the air temp sensor, something going on with the ECU (I have reset it in the past when I pulled the first code about a month ago), cleaning or replacing the MAF sensor, or looking into some knock sensor issue.

Any help or info about the codes would be great. I think I am a rare one that is at the 116K mark for a 2k2. I have other issues but that is for another thread

 

my car does that SAAAAAAME thing.

 

altdad45...... I don't think that your problem is related to intake plenum/manifold seals. That looks like it's more of a Gen. 5 plastic plenum thing. You don't have any thermal stuff happening because you've got an Al alloy plenum. Your problem does involve the Variable Valve Timing system and the associated noise that you are hearing, and the fault codes indicate that. Could be one of a couple of sensors causing it, BUT get thee to a dealer and see if TSB 03060 is applicable and which deals with this issue (the intake valve timing drive sprockets get replaced). They will probably want to cold soak your car overnight. Make sure your oil level is correct before taking it to the dealer. You also mentioned a stuttering problem. TSB 03022 may be applicable to your car as well, which may be the fix for that. (MAF replace and ECM reprogram)

 

I own a 2k Max se with 101k miles. Same cold problem. I changed the MAF sensor. The plugs. All the coils. And had the intake manifold gaskets changed.I still have the same cold problem. It hesitates until it gets up to Temp. What else could it be????? Please help!

 

might as well add in..... me too. Car gives one unexpected hickup and then its gone. Only within the first 5 minutes. I've learned to expect it and live with it. How much are these intake gaskets + labor?

P.S. CAI, improved motor mounts, no other issues.

 

I've had this problem. Changed the MAF and I havent had stuttering or hesitation on cold starts at all since.

 

Well as cold as it is in NY I found this problem doens't exist anymore. I changed my Alt belt. It started with my car dying on me. I ignored squeeling noises from the belt. New belt, plus battery and alternator. But all it really was was the belt from my last tune up. No dying, no dimming lights, no kicks from a cold engine.

 

You had the same morning problem? As in, on cold mornings, the car will hesitate at idle until its warmed up and then everything is smooth? (until the car is cold again that is).

Or what was the problem you had before replacing the MAP

i know its an old thread but maybe more people are having this problem.

I have gotten the intake manifold gasket but havent put it in yet. HOPEFULLY, its only that which is causing the morning hestiation.