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Strange problems you've had with your car that just seemed to fix themselves?

Old Sep 21, 2004 | 10:47 AM
  #1  
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Strange problems you've had with your car that just seemed to fix themselves?

Has anyone else ever had this happen to them? I personally can think of two instances of obvious and glaring problems I've had with my car that seemed to fix themselves and just go away...

First was back last year when I'd test my JWT ECU w/ 7200rpm rev limiter and MEVI. Above about 6900rpm or so I'd get inconsistent acceleration and sputtering, and the noise to go with it. People theorized a sticky injector or valve float. I only had this problem on a few occasions, experienced it once or twice at the track and a few times on the street, it was more evident in higher gears where I was spending more time at that sort of RPM. The problem then went away and I never experienced it again.

Second was yesterday, I hit a very large bump on the freeway and bottomed out twice, and immediately after that I could not give the car any more than about 1/4 throttle or it would sputter and barely accelerate. Something was terribly wrong, After that bump there are literally no exits for about 20 miles, so I kept driving. At partial throttle, below the 1/4 throttle threshold everything was perfectly normal. I tried acceleration in every gear from 1st through 5th gear, and it was the same deal. More than 1/4 throttle would produce excessive sputtering and general nasty sounding acceleration, with an extreme loss of power. Under 1/4 throttle would be perfectly normal. So I kept driving and just as I was coming to an exit and was going to get off and see what I could see, I decided to try flooring it again and it was perfectly normal. So I kept testing it in various gears and at various throttle settings, and it was perfectly fine. It is like the problem never occurred.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 10:59 AM
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Something similar happened to me once when I took off from slight wet-dry pavement transition, and the engine went to about 6100 and stayed there a bit, due to the car gaining traction, then retreated slightly to say about 5700, then I let off, and suddenty a bad knocking sound happened, sputtered and nearly died on my 8 mile trek home numerous times, but then the next day no more knocking sound nor sputtering. . .this was about 2 yrs ago.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 11:10 AM
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Well on my 93 sentra a while back my thermo was stuck open for a week or so, and then it was fine for the next year, working perfectly. Then it eventually stuck open again and I had to finally replace it.

On my 97, since I've owned it in April of this year, the bose has worked the entire time with the exception of a couple of months ago it stopped playing CDs for a week. Just refused. Then one day it started to work again. Yesterday it started refusing again. Damn thing, I guess it wasn't fixed afterall
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 11:39 AM
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the screen on my Bose radio works about 50% of the time. the rest of the time its either fading in and out or its just blank. I'm still waiting for it to fix itself. lol
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 11:52 AM
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Funny you say that about 1 1/2 years ago i had alot of rust in and under my trunk ,so it all got removed all of a sudden when a out of control driver hit me from behind and made my car three foot shorter.
So when i got the car back i noticed the rust was all gone.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 12:48 PM
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I wish my problem would fix itself. Can't seem to figure out why I get a miss every so often when it's hot.

It's prolly a coil pack but I wish I'd throw a code to tell me which one.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 01:17 PM
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Bad misfire problem for a week long period. Went away by itself and never came back
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 01:39 PM
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My drivers door lock would lock with the door lock button. Been like that for 3 1/2 years. Starting working today.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 03:20 PM
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SES light came on about a week ago. Not the MAF, cause I could rev past 3000 rpm. Got home and parked it, was going to get my code reader but got distracted. Went out again a couple hours later...still on. Came home to hook up the code reader. When I started it again.....no SES light.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 03:44 PM
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my rear right brakes were all loud and smelled like burning and i could see tons of dust on the wheel out of the blue, so i brought it to a trusted mechanic the next morning and they said there are signs something definately went wrong but couldn't get the problem to repeat itself and they were fine. said it was a fluke because everything was functioning fine, and the caliper is new so it's not like it was old and failing.

stupid cars.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 04:12 PM
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i had a bad 02 sensor for about a year and a half the light would go on and go off every so often finally i reset it once and it never came back again...go figure..
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 04:36 PM
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i went racing one night and my clutch just died on me and i had to let my car air out so the burnt clutch smell would go away. i babied it home and it slipped all the way home. the next morning i went to work and i had to merge onthe highway and i gave it alot of gas and slammed it into 3rd and it grabbed so well i couldnt believe it. since then i've had no problems with it. but im gonna replace it anyway
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 05:16 PM
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Leaking clutch system....was about to start siliconing it and it started to hold again, although I tihnk pedal placemnt had something to do with it.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 05:17 PM
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Originally Posted by liqidvenom
i went racing one night and my clutch just died on me and i had to let my car air out so the burnt clutch smell would go away. i babied it home and it slipped all the way home. the next morning i went to work and i had to merge onthe highway and i gave it alot of gas and slammed it into 3rd and it grabbed so well i couldnt believe it. since then i've had no problems with it. but im gonna replace it anyway
That can happen. You just over heated the clutch. A good cool down period and they can go back to normal with no problems. I burnt mine up real good on slicks at the track a while back and now I can still break the DR's loose on the 1-2 shift on the same clutch.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 05:24 PM
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wen i peel out alot the car goes in safe mode, and sometimes my doors dont lock, i duno little tings i guess
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 05:32 PM
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Few times it wouldn't start.... crank crank and nothing. Actually 3 times in over a year. I beleive it is due to a heatsoaked engine but that doesn't really hold as one time it was after the car was sitting parked for 6 hours.

Weird.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 06:14 PM
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Originally Posted by njmaxseltd
I wish my problem would fix itself. Can't seem to figure out why I get a miss every so often when it's hot.

It's prolly a coil pack but I wish I'd throw a code to tell me which one.
Me too, im waiting for a code aswell. Mine is getting worse and worse, this is the 2nd time for me, and its just gonna get worse. It was misfiring alot today actually. I guess thats what we get for having 99s.
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 07:47 PM
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I used to grind into 3rd gear and I was told the synchro is going, now it shifts fine
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 08:06 PM
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Same thing happend to me nealoc... It would sputter and wouldnt accelerate.. I pulled into a gas station, turned it off and on and it was all gone... Like if the comp went into some freaky safe mode or something..
Old Sep 21, 2004 | 11:54 PM
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Floored my car on the highway and hit about 5500RPMs when it sputtered and wouldnt go any higher. Tried it again with the same result. Problem has yet to reoccur again.
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 07:52 AM
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Originally Posted by Ant96GLE
Floored my car on the highway and hit about 5500RPMs when it sputtered and wouldnt go any higher. Tried it again with the same result. Problem has yet to reoccur again.
Possible MAF problem . . .
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 06:33 PM
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I had the weirdest thing happen to me before I came to China, it was raning, typical Chicago weather, So i turn off my TCS, and start burnin out all over the place, since it was my last day, and it was raining. So then after I turn off the tcs the light stays on and the abs light comes on. There both on at this point and Im freakin out, I just let it sit there and it turns off, I was like what the hell is this crap!!! and then I licked my steering wheel, lol
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 06:34 PM
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You licked your steering wheel.. hmm lol
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 08:01 PM
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Damn, I wish my electical problems would solve themselves. My problems seem to be getting worse, slowly, so I keep hoping they'll start going the other way ands start working. I'm not sure if I can be patient enough though....
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 08:44 PM
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This one is good....

I changed my stock stereo's readout to a blue led instead of white light...

made my cd player stop working?!?!?!? wtf??? so whatever... i stopped playing cd's...

A year later i decide to pop a cd in for the hell of it... hey lookie it starts playing it and hasn't broken since... lol

=======

Had a tv at home did the same thing..... went totally south... nothing worked on it, fuzzy picture would get dark and hum... left it alone for 7 months... tried again and bam it worked great... hasn't broken down since (1 year later...)
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 08:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Ant96GLE
Floored my car on the highway and hit about 5500RPMs when it sputtered and wouldnt go any higher. Tried it again with the same result. Problem has yet to reoccur again.
that hapenned to me once...

turns out i had a busted cat converter and pieces went flying into my muffler... it went away after a while until one day a big piece broke off and flew into my muffler and i couldn't drive the car past 2k rpms...

Had to get both pieces replaced :-/
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 08:55 PM
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Originally Posted by njmaxseltd
I wish my problem would fix itself. Can't seem to figure out why I get a miss every so often when it's hot.

It's prolly a coil pack but I wish I'd throw a code to tell me which one.
mine too!!!!
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 09:52 PM
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Originally Posted by NmexMAX
Possible MAF problem . . .
my car went into "safe" mode twice out of no where but that was the last time I ever had it....
Old Sep 22, 2004 | 10:34 PM
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one thing i want to see the max fix themselves is the paint chips and this dent on my fender this **** soxs fan left on my damn car when i was stupid enough to park on the streets of fenway park.......
Old Sep 23, 2004 | 08:21 AM
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Also, my climate control lights go out sometimes, happened twice, but seemd to fix themselves. . .maybe.........but only time will tell. . . Maybe our cars are haunted. .
Old Sep 23, 2004 | 12:15 PM
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Originally Posted by Maxima99SEbose
mine too!!!!
I love our '99 coil packs, so much fun hoooray!

On another note, for some reason my car pulled really hard in heavy acceleration earlier today, but sometime it seems to lag a whole lot. Maybe its the coilpacks? Could the misfires make it run sluggish through acceleration?

Im gonna start replacing coilpacks soon here, ill find out.
Old Sep 23, 2004 | 12:26 PM
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Originally Posted by BlueC
I love our '99 coil packs, so much fun hoooray!

On another note, for some reason my car pulled really hard in heavy acceleration earlier today, but sometime it seems to lag a whole lot. Maybe its the coilpacks? Could the misfires make it run sluggish through acceleration?

Im gonna start replacing coilpacks soon here, ill find out.
keep me updated... im having the same thing with the lagging.. i've been suspecting the coil packs...
Old Sep 23, 2004 | 12:43 PM
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my damn alarm light finally stopped blinking
Old Sep 24, 2004 | 07:35 AM
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ignition light stop'd working evey once and a will it will pop back on <~confused
Old Sep 24, 2004 | 11:16 AM
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After my supercharger install the car would randomly misfire for no apparent reason. Could start it up, be sitting at a traffic light, or driving and it would just get super choppy then either stop while on the road or stay that way till I turned it off. Found out after awhile that it seemed to be only cylinder one misfiring and in doing so it was gettin no spark. Replaced the coil, still no difference. Finally reset the computer and its been fine ever since.
Old Sep 24, 2004 | 11:34 AM
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[crosses fingers]
2 days ago my SE began to miss. Traced it to (most likely) a stopped fuel injector. Dumped some Gumout Concentrated Fuel Injector Cleaner with some premium in it. The next day as I went out to go pick up some used injectors I scored, and when I started the car it ran smooth as silk. Not missed once since.
[/crosses fingers still]
Old Sep 24, 2004 | 11:58 AM
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My power windows stopped working along with the doorlocks and alarm twice all within 2 months last summer, hasnt happened since. even though both times I had to pop the hood and bang a little on the fuse box that holds the power window 40w fuse?????
Old Sep 24, 2004 | 12:22 PM
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it seems like about every six months from when i first replaced my axles that my driverside one keeps snapping in half.
Old Sep 24, 2004 | 12:30 PM
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Originally Posted by JetBlackMax83
ignition light stop'd working evey once and a will it will pop back on <~confused
DAMN do u have a HI RES of that pic in your sig?? email it to me maseo77us@yahoo.com
Old Sep 27, 2004 | 01:37 PM
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I had been having the same issues for the past couple of years when the temp changes dramatically. However, the past two weeks were hell for me, the whenever I accelerated, either went on or started flashing. I didnt have the time to run the codes, so I went to the dealer(you know what happened here) and my pockets feel very very light now. But, my car runs smooth as when i first got it. It was bad coil in cylinder 3.

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