Hey guys,

last new year, I got to my friends party and when i dropped it out of first as i'm coming to a stop in front of his place, the car stalls...

ok... i start it again and it stalls... again, stalls... start it and place my foot on the gas to keep the car running... no problemo, it seems to work ok... until i let my foot off the gas. At which point it stalled again..
while i was reving it it sounded like something was blocking my exhaust... my muffler and cat are new... so it can't be that. my exaust had a lower note to it.

ok whatever, i partied, sobered up, and went out to try my car. it started fine until i got home, then it started hesitating again.

fast-foreward to today... i've had intermittent problems like that since then, but not as bad as friday. it was doing this when the engine was cold, hot, flooring it... highway was a b!tch because it kept hesitating.

what could be hapenning? my gf and friends said that when i moved the car to park it, they saw dark smoke come out my exhaust... not usual grey/white style.. and it smelled funny.

please help!

Thanks VERY much for the feedback!

 

Before I got my 5 speed Maxima, I had an automatic and right before the tranny went it did what your describing. I guess it was causing too much of a load on the engine even in park or neutural because it was screwed up on the inside. I hope its not your tranny.

 

if yoru car is automatic, i had that happen, car stalled and turned off by itself, and somtimes didnt start, what happened was, my filter came off, and car acted weird from it...... make sure your filter is totally connected, and tightened

 

Doah! I thought my profile on the left showed if i had auto or manual... :-)

My car is actually a manual.

I was doing some searches on google, and I was reminded that last year while dirvingin montreal to toronto(~5 hours) when I got to T.O, I was leaking alot of coolant. I was told that my waterpump might have been dead or dying.

Could this be what is causing my problem?

I'm going to bring my car in to the dealership tomorrow to have it fully professionally serviced... do a tune up or something and just make sure everything is running ok...

anyone know how hard it is to replace a water pump on our cars? :-/

Thanks for the quick resposnes guys! :-D

 

Id Say Clean Ur Iac Valve And Throttle Body, Theres Stickies On Both. My Car Did The Same Thing...do It!

 

Two long shot guesses:
If it is bogging down on the highway and not merely stalling, your catalytic converter could be clogged.

You may benefit from a new coolant engine temp. sensor.

 

hey guys

update: when attempting to start my car today i noticed alot of dark smoke... slowly turning to gray/white... like santa claus type hair...

:-/ rpms were a bit wild too but it didn't stall on idle atleast..

 

Not sure about the highway hesitation but if your starting woes happen in winter and are cured by pressing the gas pedal slightly, your throttle body may need cleaning or adjusting. Normally the TB valve is held open slightly to allow idle air entry. It is held open by the throttle plate screw. WHen gunk blocks off the air or the valve lever no longer hits the throttle plate screw, the TB may be totally closed off. I say clean your throttle body and also adjust your base idle (ie. with the throttle plate screw, as needed).

Hesitation on the highway may be a bad KS (poor throttle response and diminished power) so definitely pull codes.

 

multi - I had very, very similar issues to yours. My car would buck on the highway (and usually die) and I would occasionally have to start the car 5-10 times because it would keep dying. '96 automatic, though.

It ended up being a bad MAF sensor. Pricey, but the guy replaced it two weeks ago and I've been driving perfectly fine ever since.

 

spark plugs/coil packs. I had a similar problem, because my engine was misfiring. After a little while the ecu did its best to compensate so the problem wasn't as bad but still noticeable...but when i replaced the spark plugs and a bad coil, it was fine. Stalling on the highway could also be your alternator, however none of the other symptoms sound like alternator related things

 

I was thinking coil packs too but then you would get a SES...

 

when my coil went bad the CEL came on and off periodically. It depended on what rpm i was at and how hot the engine was, but it wasn't consistent. I bought an engine code reader from autozone though and i think it was the best investment i've made yet for my car. It cost me about half what i was quoted by a mechanic to diagnose and fix the problem. Actually it cost about the same as a diagnostic. The fact that they charge you for an hour of labor to plug your car in and wait 5 seconds for a computer to tell them waht's wrong is ludicrous, but now i'm on a tangent.

 

ok small update....

seriously W T F?!?!??!?

I went to the dealership to atleast run the CONSULT and get an idea if it's sensor related or whatnot...

he leveled out my idle... screwed my air intake sensor to the airbox (i had lost the screws) and leveled my map sensor (what is that?) it was hanging down.... no longer clipped...

He did this on thursday, my car has been running great since then... seriously.... wtf? could it have been that simple?!? 65$ later car is running great... interesting...

oh my rear o2 is dead... they were going to charge my between 300 to 700$ cdn to replace it... yeah wtf again... lol