Just bought it yesterday for $800 off Craigslist. It has 183,000 miles. The engine runs smooth, but it was about 2.5 quarts low on oil when I went to see it & had kind of a sloppy start condition when the engine was warm where you had to give it a little gas to make it idle after starting it. The SES light was on also. The codes were: P0011. A misfire code on the 5th cylinder. An O2 sensor fault. And an emissions fault. I had the CPS replaced today which seems to have helped some with the sloppiness after starting, but before I even left the shop the code P0011 popped back up and it developed a hard start, it takes roughly 4-5 seconds of turning the key for it to crank up now. The shop is telling me it could be timing related, but I haven't seen many online reports of timing chains failing on these engines. What could this be??? Any help would be appreciated.

 

new engine time

 

Bank 1 IVT solenoid is dirty. #5 coil is probably bad.
Engine is likely toasted from precats and they were tired of dumping oil in it.

If it's decently clean, then it's still a good buy. 5.7 swap time if engine is bad XD

 

Ughhh... It still runs good when it's running though. The low oil level when I bought it probably isn't a good sign, but it still feels strong and seems to have full power. Could the engine really be bad based on the symptoms that I described? I'm not really interested in doing any major work, but the body and interior are in better-than-average shape for the age & mileage, so I figured it was worth throwing a few bucks at it to see if I could get it healthy again.

 

You can drive it and observe oil consumption or pull off the front precat and look at it (the one most likely to fail first).
At those miles, there's a good chance she's eating tons of oil. The starting problem and codes are easily fixable.

The shop clearly knows nothing about nissans. Fix it yourself. It is likely timing related b/c the IVT solenoid isn't working LOL.

 

Replace the cam sensor with a high quality one. Preferably oem to get it to start better. Misfire sounds like your due for plugs and coil packs. Check compression before you start throwing money at the car

 

The engine sounds good. This looks like a fuel issue..At 183k you probably have a sluggish fuel pump. A few months ago I purchased an 03 at Auction with 178k miles. It took forever to start about 10 cranks sometimes 20. I changed the fuel pump and it fired up right away.

 

This

 

The shop said they were going to order an OEM crank sensor, I did ask that specific question. They told me to bring the car back in tmrw to check the wiring to the sensor since it was closing time when they got done, so I'll ask about a compression test when I drop it back off.

 

That code is for a camshaft sensor. Not crank shaft. Ur shop really needs to figure their crap out if they're replacing the wrong sensor

 

How can I tell if the IVT solenoid isn't working? And how can I easily fix the starting problem? Something tells me you're right about the shop not knowing much about the car, despite them being an import-only shop! But I just wanted to get a grasp on what this issue really could be. When I bought it, it started FAST, but sloppy because I had to tap the gas pedal to get it to idle. Now that the cam sensor has been replaced, it takes a solid 4-5 seconds of holding the key for it to start, but it DOES idle on its own without tapping the gas pedal now...

 

I meant cam sensor, my bad.

 

It's not working b/c it's throwing the code.

 

So is the IVT solenoid cleanable since you said it's probably dirty/clogged? Should I point the shop in that direction instead of letting them trace the wiring from the cam sensor like they said they were going to do when I bring the car back? And could the IVT solenoid cause the symptom that I described, with the long cranking time?


Before the cam sensor was replaced it was starting up normally, just wouldn't idle without help, so I'm stumped and afraid to spend more $ until I can get a confident possible solution from somebody here based on my symptoms. I'm not familiar with Nissans or Japanese cars at all... Last car was a high-mileage '07 Chevy Cobalt which was so basic that it probably didn't even have a check engine light option lol.

 

No, don't go back except to get a refund on the cam sensor. It obviously doesn't work if it started fine before.
Yes, it's cleanable. They don't know anything and are using crap parts.

Anyone can change a cam sensor and it's not hard to remove the solenoid and clean it.

 

Ok. And it didn't really start up fine before, it just started up differently. The sensor replacement just seems to have exchanged one problem for another. It started up faster before, but I still had to tap the gas pedal for it to idle on it's own. With the new cam sensor I don't have to tap the gas pedal anymore, but now it has a long cranking time. Does that still mean the cam sensor wasn't needed? The traction control/VSC warning lights came on when the shop finished the job too, not sure if that could have any correlation??

 

how could u start out saying the engine runs smooth? just saying...., good luck w your endeavors!

 

Because it does...

 

Car looks good, at least from the outside. Could probably use a bath.

Post a vid of the issues you're having.

 

yeah man nice car and for a good price too.