Yesterday, I tried to quick start my car, (Put it into gear before hitting the WOT, in which I determined it as the lower bound of the temperature gauge) and my car clunked out. My Battery, Brake, and Check engine light all came on. Has anyone had this problem before? It happened to me the last time and I have to replace my MAF.
Man, I'm trying to move into a new place without debt but I can't if this keeps happening.

Thanks Greeny for your (white smoke) response in the other Thread. I'm not sure it's related, or the cause to this problem. I forgot to add that the white smoke moves like hot ice. I don't think it's condensation.

 

What do you mean by "quick start my car, (Put it into gear before hitting the WOT" ??

 

Meaning I put the turn the ignition, and shift the car into D. Without warming it up first. Lower bounds of the WOT (working operating temp, I hope that's what it means) to me means the needle of the temp gauge is no longer resting on the... uh... that "stick", whatever it is called. Thanks for replying.

 

all the lights coming on is typically a consequence of the motor dying. if they came on before the motor died then I would check the alternator and battery

 

wot usually means wide open throttle
and the "stick" may be more understood as a stop but i getchya.

 

Warming the car up is not necessary, it wont hurt anything to hop in and go..

Have you ever changed the timing belt?

since the car is at the shop, there is no sense in us giving you any instructions on how to check for problems..lets see what the shop says..

 

WOT = Wide Open Throttle
Stick = peg

 

peg sounds better than "stop" or "stick"

 

He explained it, quit whoring up the thread dammit!

 

This is the second time this happened, and for the same cause, even though I "quick started" it before, and I though the Nissan dealership have fixed it (it's there now, but thank God for warranty). I've could have sworn that "quick starting" was not recommended. I'll see if I can find it again.

Anyways I ask you guys because for example, last year, I asked another dealership (Woodland Hills Nissan) if they can put the antenna back into the car. Mine just falls out when it extends because the stopper broke, I guess. That dealership said they have to replace the whole thing. I never returned there for them to fix my car again because the information was here, and it is simple.

Before that started to take my car in to a mechanic's shop. They couldn't get my shifter to work right, they keep adjusting the cable, instead of Maxima.org recommendation to change the rotted brushing. Some mechanics.

Anyways, I cannot DIY until I move out. But until then, you all are the best mechanics since you know the Maximas. To bad no one has a SoCal shop. You're the best. Thanks for your input to my problem.

BTW, I changed the timing belt early last year. And I hope my engine's not dying. It's the last thing I need. My car feels fast, and I'm too stubborn to lose it.

 

Dealership called, IACV is bad. It was stuck open. Any idea what caused that?

 

Can get dirty and gummed up and the valve can get stuck open because something is obstructing it's travel path...

That's actually a pretty nice thing to go wrong judging from the rest of your thread.

 

It's a 17 year old car dude, anything is liable to happen at this point.

 

"Quick starting" like you describe is advised against if you want to baby the engine, as opposed to putting a load on it while its still cold. Letting it idle a minute or two before going assures that at least the most essential contact areas are warmed up slightly, and oil has circulated thoroughly.

 

Thanks for letting me know that mikekantor, until I move out, I rather baby the engine.

What I described before leads to the engine shutting off when I put it into gear?

I forgot to mention, when I finally got it going, I did up to 75mph on the freeway with no problems. Maximas are weird, in a good way, in my eyes.

 

The iacv will change(allow more airflow) the air flow rate on an automatic when you put it in any of the drive gears via input signals from the tcu/ecu, hence the dying problem when you put the car in gear, your bad/dirty iacv didn't change air output levels to compensate for the transmission drag down on the engine when you engaged drive, most likely due to it(the iacv) being dirty, not failed.

The iacv no longer is in play once you open the throttle plate(give it gas), hence the reason you didn't have anymore problems once you started going down the road.

Sadly, you probably could have fixed it yourself for cheap. A can of throttle body cleaner, and a new iac gasket would have probably solved your dying issues.

 

yeah, my car stumbled and almost stalled when i started it yesterday, but once i drove it, and once it warmed up, it was fine. Though, pushing the clutch pedal enough to trigger the NSS seemed to fix the idle. I therefore think that the cause for my weird idle was my N/R switch not registering as being in N when it's in N. Because i should be able to start my car in N without pushing the clutch... the way i wired it.. i'll test with a test wire but it should work that way. so as soon as i fix that, it shouldn't do that anymore.

 

^^^^^^^^
lol.. what?

 

Dang it Greeny!!! Why didn't you tell me that before. I'm going to make you EverGreeny. (My favorite green, a dark green)

Thanks, I'll be sure to do that next time, how often should I use the throttle body cleaner?

 

Sorry I'm Autotragic. But what? NSS?

 

????? Most of the manuals I've ever worked on had some switch activated by the clutch pedal. Press the pedal all the way down and you get to start your car. Let the carpet bunch up underneath your clutch pedal and you won't be able to get the starter to spin. It has nothing to do with whether the car is in a gear or not.

Automatics have a switch somewhere on the transmission linkage to detect park and neutral (plus another for brake depression). Though I tend to steer away from driving or working on automatic vehicles.

 

you shouldn't have to clean the iac but every once in a long while...years...

 

Don't worry guys. I know the wiring layout for everything you just mentioned. Automatics have the inhibitor switch, which has 2 separate circuits within it: a PN, and a PRND2L. the PN is what allows the car to start, when in park or neutral. The other sends signals to the TCU. The "brake switch" to get out of park is actually the same circuit as the brake lights.. so if your brakelight fuse burns out, then you can't shift without pushing the emergency release. I'd know.. it happened to me in my AutoTragic days (had a shorted bulb sending 25A at a 15A fuse). As for the manual... it essentially functions in the same way as the PN switch. Therefore, when you push the clutch until the pedal arm contacts the switch, it's the same as being in "park". Hence the reason i hard-wired my clutch switch into my car's original PN circuit (Brown wire from the black relay above the SMJ.. green/black from the pin near the center of the plug from the first white/yellow harness behind the astray... extend the wires a little bit, and plug i into the clutch switch)

now if I could get my hands on a 89-91FSM foldout page i could verify this, but from what i have gathered in my 1994 FSM, that brown wire also goes to pin 44 on the ECU... which means that that circuit somehow affects what the engine computer thinks should be happening. Which may affect idle when the switch is in or out. My a/c belt is off.. when the a/c was set to on, pedal out, the idle was 900... push the pedal, goes up to 1300. I admit, however, that the increase in rpm could be from releasing the load of spinning the input shaft and pre-meshed gears... rather than an electrical signal to the ECU changing the idle. I'll test it again by pushing the switch with my finger instead, and seeing how it behaves this time. Point is.. I need for my N/R switch to work so that the ECU will accept that it's in N when it's in N.

 

kk i'll do the translation for my just-woke-up thought patterns fumbling around with words:

yeah, my car stumbled and almost stalled when i started it yesterday, but once i drove it, and once it warmed up, it was fine.
already makes sense

Though, pushing the clutch pedal enough to trigger the NSS seemed to fix the idle.
"when i fully depressed the clutch, my idle stabilized, and i believe the reason is because I activated the clutch-start circuit, which is linked to the ECU also"

I therefore think that the cause for my weird idle was my N/R switch not registering as being in N when it's in N.
already makes sense

Because i should be able to start my car in N without pushing the clutch... the way i wired it.. i'll test with a test wire but it should work that way.
"The way I did my 5spd swap re-wire, I should be able to start the car in Neutral without pushing the clutch. I will test my wiring with a test wire to make sure I wired it right, and that the N/R switch is in fact faulty, which I think it is, because my back-up lights don't work either."

so as soon as i fix that, it shouldn't do that anymore.
"so as soon as I fix the switch, my car shouldn't do the weird-idle thing anymore."

 

Ahhh, the missing peice of the puzzle. Maybe I missd it earlier.

 

Well I wired it so the N portion of the N/R switch and the clutch start switch are in parallel... it's just that the N/R switch isn't working properly.. so my car doesn't respond properly to being in N.

 

Well, I got my car back. And I may need a new IACV/Air regulator. They cleaned the old one, but I cannot get a new one, because there is any new ones by their suppliers. So I'll post in the WTB section for a new one. In the meantime. I'll clean it once a month with the thottle body cleaner. Now, how to do that?

Remember, I'm a newbie.

 

You have a VG right? If so the IAC is here:

In case you didn't know...

There are four bolts:


You need to buy gaskets before you begin, take it off via the bolts, spray the inside with throttle body cleaner and wipe it down if needed (usually they shouldn't be that dirty) then reinstall with gaskets.

Might as well do your throttle body while you're there...

 

Thanks Pearl93VE. This will be helpful