this happened on the way to taking my sister to school.
made a turn then about 5 seconds later she started misfiring.

dropped my sister off then stopped at a gas station looked to see if the wires were loose or injector harness was loose.
nothing.

let her sit for about 30minutes...still misfires.
let her run and the smell from the exhaust is'nt a lean condition smell and the muffler was smoking, not from the tail pipe the muffler itself to me it seemed the cat is overheating.

before for about a couple weeks in the past when you start her up in the morning she would have a radom missfire bad but went away when you press the gas or she a lil warmed up....

please peeps any advice is welcomed
thanks!

 

If there is no obvious plug/cap/ignition wire problem, get a can of MAF sensor cleaner - do that, and then clean the MAF connector and plug too.

 

...u sister, the miss fire?

If injector(s) leak, CAT is ...

Pulling plug wires might give indication which cylinder is amiss

 

stillman did you get any ECU codes or did it come back with a 55?

 

i took my sister to school.
1/2 way there after the turn (i turned normally) this happened.
i checked the maf wire harness it was fine.

i have'nt checked the cap yet, or rotor.
but i checked wires there fine.

but i'll check maf.

update.
looked at the cap had some buildup; cleaned it off.
checked the coil harness...the coil looks oem.
drove it a bit.

same thing....
heres what i did noticed, you might think it's stupid but when i had her running i put my hand over the tail pipe and the idle went up a bit.
but there's a black ring imprint which means i'm running rich.

i'll check the maf when i get to work
but it's deff. running rich becuase when i got back from my test drive you can smell the rich mix.

and i only went around the block.

it's gotta be something simple i mean how can a injector not leak then all of a sudden leak.
i'm not trying to insult you or anything i'm just confused...but i would be surprised if thats the probelm...

 

lol...uh how do you know my name and no i did'nt chck the ecu.
but will do that when i get to work also
thanks peeps

 

i've seen it on a few other posts when people were referencing you and one of the other chi-town guys mentioned your name too and i was like "that's 1992maxse30 right?" and they were like "yea" and i was like "cool" and that's how i know. bam.

 

Your words: " ...the cat is overheating..."
- cracked cap wont do that.

- injector can fail intermittently, this-or-that way... it wont ask permission how
- you cant see casually if there are cracks in the cap... even new ones may have hidden cracks. Lacquer spray helps in trblshoot.
- no way to "see" wires. T_hose carbon soot resistors always resist sparks, theyre designed to. When the carbon soot travels into one end of your hoses, you rely only on migrant birds carryin the electrons to the (semi-dead?) plugs ... Most fiber-soot spark hoses also called wires do fail even before installation, how much more after 15 yrs?
- tailpipe is blk = good, you've got engine burnin gas
- when distr loses ground - yes it will --->misfire

Unless no tuneup, youll keep on theses wonderings
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/12

 

okay i checked the maf: clean the air filter was dirty.
started her without a/f nothing changed.
ran even worse when the maf was disconnected.
checked for codes: gotta 55.

then just risked the chance of getting shocked so removed each plug wire.
number 1 was the culprit.
so bracing the fact the the injector was bad, i delt with it and went to johns after work to help him out with something.
once i made a turn she was fine...no misfiring and the power is even better than before.
my guess is she thought i was gonna have him look at it and she ran fine. lol.
i still have that morning missfire...thats it and dispite the fact she needs plugs, a/f, seafoam cleaning and fuel inj cleaning i got like 315 on a tank.

and cape...that kinda threw me off gaurd thats all.


oh yea and to add...the funny thing outta all this
there was no 1>2 shift delay on the tranny...

 

try messing with your battery connections next time it happens especially ground

 

i did but those are tight.

 

don't run without an air filter! these cars (according to nissan) have issues with no air filter/ poor quality filter.

 

OH NO I WOULD'NT DO SUCH A THING!
it was just for that split second to see if the dirty a/f was the problem.

 

i am having the same problem with my 91 maxima vg. what i sometimes do is pop hood. wiggle the sensor that is hooked to my 02 sensor on the intake untill it starts to bogg down then i put it back in and usually the idle increases and it ill start running fine... is that plus a maf?

 

"the sensor that is hooked to my 02 sensor"...

02 sensor is down on the post-flex part of the ypipe, just under where your shifter is. it measures the amount of 02 in the spent exhaust just before it goes into the catalytic converter.

the MAF is the tube with a flat part on top and a plug that is immediately after your airbox, and has a metal mesh on both the inlet and the outlet. plug is kinda wide and not very tall, and attaches with a metal ring clip. it measures how much air is coming into the engine.

 

well what ever happen made my idle a little higher (was @ 400-500rpms) now around 600rpms and you don't feel nothing.

 

That harness for the MAF sensor seems to work that wires an awful lot with the way the wire moves with engine movement it seem to break the wire strands at the manifold wire harness loom! Mine would change the rpm when I wiggled the wire at idle b4 I removed the engine for rebuild!

 

then you need/ed motor mounts. if the mounts are functioning correctly the motor moves a minimal amount and does not stress the wires.
your car is designed as a system, if a piece of the system fails to do it's job as designed then the likely hood of another seemingly unrelated sub-system failing is increased.

 

You're absolutely correct! When I found this 90 Maxima a few years back it had some bad oil leaks and all the motor mounts were replaced! One of them had no rubber left at all!

 

so the bad mounts caused oil to leak? smacking oilpan on member?

 

then....the engine would have to be sittin in real low or tilted badly for that to happen

 

if there is NO rubber left at all i suppose it's possible it might sit that low.... i haven't ever let the oilpan sit straight on the member tho.