Hello,
I was driving my 2002 Maxima AT to work today and when I was looking for parking, I was driving slowly, and when I was about to make a complete stop to start backing up, the car shut off!
I tried starting it, and it started, but it hesitated to start.

This never happened before,

-What might this be?


Thank you

When were the spark plugs last replaced?

How about the air filter?

Both Less than 3 months ago, not even near 1,000 miles yet

What's it doing now? Is there a light?

No light, at that moment I just started the car again and parked, and now I'm at work. But since this has never happened before I am wondering why did this happened...?

to vague to really know, especially at the minimal idle you were at while parking. hows your idle? smooth? how are your start ups. you need to think about what other signs or symptoms the car may be giving you.

my car did this to me with no warnings literally while driving 40MPH on the highway and it was CPS (crank position sensors)

If you just had plugs and air filter changed, they could have left something loose or disturbed an old brittle vacuum line that just now let go. Remove the engine cover and check the vacuum lines all around the intake. The whole manifold comes off for plugs and there are a lot of lines there. The vacuum lines are starting to get old on these cars. Look for cracks near the ends of the lines where they connect. A vacuum leak will do what you're describing at idle and start-up without triggering an SES light.

The idle speed is mostly smooth. My startups are normal but at the moment when that happened, the car hesitated a lot.

Thank you, I'll check that again during the weekend.

If there's no vacuum leaks, What else should I look for?

See how it drives and then and let us know. It may throw a code on the way home.

Check the intake between the MAF and throttle body. Make sure the hose clamps are tight and the boot isn't split. Any air coming in between the MAF and TB is a problem .

Check the connector to the MAF. The MAF connector can be a little tricky on some cars. If it didn't fully click into place it could be a problem but would probably throw a code right away. They may have cleaned the MAF during your tune up and been rough with it too. My money is on a vacuum/ intake leak until we have more info though.

Ok, I'll check. Funny thing is that I went through all this a few weeks back looking for something else , https://maxima.org/forums/5th-generation-maxima-2000-2003/682945-why-my-mpg-so-poor.html .

P.S.. I called My mechanic today and he says that this problem should be the fuel pump that's about to die...

Also, I was there present when the mechanic and I did all the tune up a few months ago..

I'm not suggesting that the mechanic did anything wrong. Anytime you take apart something this old, there's a chance of rubber parts failing. A hose can start to split but not fail right away.

It may very well be something else. Given the small amount of information, those are the areas I would check first. They're the most obvious and also the easiest.

I understand, I was just letting you know that I was present and all those parts were fix/replaced.

It's incredible, I started heading home in my car and after about 15 minutes driving I saw the notification that you replied, and as soon as I opened it and started reading it the car shuts down again... WTF?! LOL!

I tried starting it and it hesitated again but this time, the Check Engine light, Slip and TSC light stayed on. Also, when I started driving the idle speed was acting weird and when I accelerated the Rpm went up and down randomly for a while, but at least I made it home.

I got to the parking lot and started accelerating and changing gears and the car was normal again... Confused...

Check your codes (and I mean pending codes, even if the CEL is not on). My guess is that either your MAF or your IACV is failing intermittently, and is about to fail hard.

I will tomorrow afternoon. What is the IACV?

idle air control valve

search iacv or p0505 for more info

So, I just checked my car OBD and I got 2 codes: C1130 and P0340 .

I checked online to see what were they about, any input on how to fix these?

Well, P0340 complains about your camshaft position sensor. Did you check it, clean it, inspect the wiring and connectors? For more info, read the FSM, p. EC-337.

I will try that this weekend, but I would like to know, What happens if I continue using my car with this sensor problem?

if it is the crank postion sensor, it may shut off with no signs warnings or indications and actually while driving on the highway,
it will continue to happen more often

for me it happened once in early novemeber. and then 2 weeks later, and then 3 days later and 1 day later etc. etc.

this was just my case but, if I were you I would switch out the CPSensors and be done with it.

I just bought the bank 1 sensor and I'm planning on installing it this afternoon.

Problem Solved

should have replaced both, but it was 5050 and u got lucky

They told me that at the dealer. Why should I replace both?

because the two cam & the one crank sensor's all subject to fail at anytime on these Maxima's, nissan issued a recall on them

Due to the recall, am I able to get it fix from Nissan dealer for free?

you have to check with your vin, through your local Nissan dealer

Up here in the great white north I wasn't so lucky due to it being an "ongoing investigation" so I had to bite the bullet

I wish i were so lucky. I'm having kind of the same problem but in my case i don't have any code, my car start last sunday to die about 3 to 4 times in a row and every time it started right away, after that no more problems until this morning that did it again in my way to work, when i went home, no problems at all, is like nothing happened before. Any suggestions?

Try checking the other suggestions they gave me above.

it doesn't always necessarily throw a code always, mine didn't throw a code or the TCS/SLIP light combo until 2 weeks later, but since you have an '01 I'd check for the connections & try cleaning the sensor before replacing it b/c they aren't problematic like the 5.5 gen sensors

It was probably done, you need to check your vin with nissan north america, mine was done the month of the recall (mind you this recall is dec 2003 !), and with all that i still had the sensors fail, remember things still can break after 12 years.
I have 2002 but I didnt have any codes at all, even had a stupid dealer check the sensors (not sure how well) and it was very sparatic, 2 weeks daily driving fine, then daily issues eventually more consistent. i would look into teh differences with CPS between 01- 02
This is true, i didn't notice his car was 01 that is diff problem, try searchin on the CPS sesnors more Maximamiami.

It wouldn't be a different problem really, its just some people just had to clean the sensors in their 00-01 Maxima's instead of having to replace it in the 3.5's

Does anybody knows wich one is the most problematic, if i am not mistaking my car has 2 crank sensors, I will go ahead and try to clean them this weekend, let see if nothing happens before. I will update any changes

out of those 3, none of them can be categorized as more problematic, its pretty much split between the 3 sensors. On your VQ30 they aren't a notorious problem like on the VQ35 but the car is now 15 years old so these sensors can go to crap regardless

About the age that's true, when you say the 3 sensors you mean the 2 crank and the camshaft sensor? By the way thanks for the help this thing is driving me nuts and i don't know when is going to happen again

No the cars have 2 cam sensors (one for each bank) & 1 crank sensor
No worries, if you want to try & trigger the condition again try putting on all loads (lights, radio, air con) when the car is fully warned up as I found this made my car stall more when I had bad sensors. Keep us updated if cleaning helps. If you decide to replace the sensors, OEM only.

If cleaning helps, What products and method should be used?

Have anybody done the cleaning on the sensors with positive results? Is it worth the effort? What should I expect? I like to consider also any possible risk when i am doing something

Same here

As to cleaning with results, I've seen some people successful it, unless it was a 3.5 in which they had to replace it. As to how to clean it Google it or YouTube it. I personally have never done it myself.