Hello all, I am looking for any assistance the members of this forum can provide.

I have a 2K2 max with about 250K kms (150K miles) on the clock. I am currently on a road trip and about 3 tanks of gas ago, I noticed when I got down to about half a tank, I would push the gas and the car would hesitate before going. The problem progressively got worse as my fuel level dropped until when I was down to about 1/8th of a tank, I could hardly make the car go. It would just cutout every time I pressed the gas. It seemed to idle fine when I stopped and I could even rev the engine, but as soon as I tried to go, it would cutout.

I chugged/limped it to a gas station, filled up, dropped a bottle of injector cleaner in, and it ran fine for the entire next tank of gas right down to the fuel light.

Filled up again, and thus time start to notice it cutting out again periodically shortly after I filled up. Drove about 150kms and the problem was getting worse, so I stopped, turned the car off for 10 mins, and dumped another bottle of injector cleaner in. Car ran fine for the rest of the tank again. I have since filled up one more time and noticed it cutting out periodically again.

I have no idea what this could be and am 2000 miles from home. Any thoughts? My best guess is a fuel pump issue but research here on the org seems to indicate fuel pump issues are rare on these cars. I also don't understand how injector cleaner seems to solve, or at least band-aid the problem. It might be just a coincidence, I am not sure.

Appreciate any help anybody can provide, thanks in advance. I am concerned I am going to get stopped on the side of the road when I start my trek home.

 

Im not experienced with this but it sounds like a converter problem in the transmission. I could be completely wrong though

 

My 2k2 does that with unleaded with 10% ethanol so I've been running regular unleaded or premium and it's been running alot better

 

I should have added that it is a manual 6-speed tranny and I am throwing no codes. Also, the car has seen nothing but premium gas since the day I bought it, so I don't think the suggestions above could be the problem. Thanks for the ideas though.

 

Everyone always says that they only run premium all the time, I call bs but OK.

 

i run premium all the time

 

Me too. Every drop since 2004 has been premium.

My wife, on the other hand, only puts regular in her 00 no matter what I say. I can't really complain since the car is over 300,000 miles and we've never had a fuel related issue or many issues at all. We got it with under 50,000 on it.

 

You are certainly entitled to believe whatever you want but whether I run premium or regular doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't cause the car to sputter, cutout, and chug down the road to the point that I couldn't even get it up to highway speed. Something else more than just octane is a problem here.

 

sounds like what my 01 did when my maf went south. it would idle fine and I could gradually accelerate up to 55 mph but that was it.

 

Pretty much. Maf or cats (if 5.5).

 

Just thought I would let everyone know that my car finally threw a code related to the Camshaft position sensor Bank 2 (P0345). I replaced this with an Autozone Duralast sensor which did NOT fix the problem, but when I used a Nissan OEM sensor the problem disappeared and hasn't been back (stay away from the Duralast sensors).

Hopefully this helps someone out. Do not assume (like I did) that a problem like this will automatically throw a code. As a test, I actually disconnected this sensor completely and the car still ran for quite a while before the CEL came on.

 

My car died while driving 5 different times before finally throwing a Cam sensor code.


Glad you found the issue.