So a month ago, my '02 died on me on the highway, no sputtering, just completely shut off. While rolling on the highway I was able to put it in neurtral and start it back up after a couple cranks.

Thought it was a fuel filter issue, so I changed that and it ran fine for a day.

Now, when I start it in the morning after sitting all night it starts up like there is nothing wrong. After a 1 hour drive on the highway, I pull into one of my offices to grab something for about 10-15 minutes and when I go back to start it, it takes approximately 10 times to crank over to get it to start.

After that, sometimes it will completely die like the first time, with no sputtering or fluctuation in the RPMS.

If I let it sit over an hour tho, instead of 15 mins, it will start up with no problem.

I just got plugs/wires/coils done last winter, and this is the first time it has ever died on me while driving or had a hard time restarting after 15 mins of sitting in 177k miles.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Fuel pump, fuel injectors?

Thanks

 

I would imagine it's the crank shaft position sensor. Common issue with the vq's.

 

There must be a code you can pull, no?

 

Check the Idle Air Control Valve (IACV). These have a gasket which can wear down and coolant flowing through can damage the (IACV) and your ECU. This is quite common and if you do a search you'll find a number of threads on this.

 

I just had the same problem yesterday and it turned out to be my Idle Air Control Valve.

 

i had the same exact symptoms as the OP, NO CEL lights

thankfully pulled over waited 5 mins, and it started up like nothing happened, drove to restaurant, and drove home like it never happened.
Next day i start it up twice to wash it, but put no drive time on it, and no issues..CEL light

now this morning, I start it up "mind you 32 degress F so it was the first really cold morning this season" and it started horribly. Very choppy and a knocking like noise. i turned it off, and back on, knocking still there barely running a stable idle, and then the idle and knocking gets better as the seconds go on. I carefully check for the knocking.

Can't tell if the knocking is masked by a better running engine or that it went away when it achieved a normal idle. So i just drove it to work, and it performed like it had no issues, accelerated and decelerated fine, one stop had a above average rougher idle, but other than that it drove fine. Mind you no check engine lights, and no recent work done to the car.

What gives? Is this still an Idle Air Control Valve? (IACV)? and would a dirty throttle body do all this? I never cleaned it and currently at 177k

 

I am thinking this is CPS issue. Does this sound right to any one?

Could a CPS fail, and then work again, and cause no CEL / SES lights?

my vin matches the recall for the CPS

IACV dosen't seem to apply to my situation as much any more?

thanks for any help !

 

I am also thinking if CPS is the culprit that could be why I heard the weird knocking this morning at 32 deg f

 

oil viscosity: http://youtu.be/U_AnRyIxDhs maybe?

 

Thanks. I guess that could be the knocking i heard this morning, and maybe it was a coincidence from doing the CPS like shutdown 2 days earlier.

whats interesting is the car has been much colder weather for many many years , what is one day going to change? it was truly the first cold morning under 32 deg but idk, it has been started up as a daily driver through 7 winters with no knocking or symptoms from this morning.

i have it scheduled for the CPS recall / replacement, and am crossing fingers that the shutdown and possible knocking this morning is all related to that.

 

dealer is saying they can't find the

CAMPAIGN I.D.# / NHTSA #:R3022 / 03V-345
recall for the crank position sensor
http://maxima.theowensfamily.com/tsb/NTB03-124.pdf

what should I do? clearly my vin applies and I have no other reasons to not believe that the sensor is what called my sudden shut off while driving.

any thoughts to fight this? I even printed out that entire pdf and left it on the passenger seat ?

 

ok so i talked with nissan north america consumer affairs,

and i tracked down that my VIN had the CPS replaced under the recall, hence why no open recall for the CPS was showing up on my account.

This leads me to a new thread I guess.

Why did my car suddenly shut off with no warning while driving?

could it be that by chance the "replaced" CPS failed, and I could just randomly need a new CPS? again no codes at the current time, before or after this extremely alarming incident

 

Just b/c the work was marked completed doesn't mean it was done. We're talking about stealerships, here. They strive to employ incompetent ****wits.
Also, yeah, maybe it did fail, regardless.

 

i'll have to take the odds of that actually happening and say it was done properly, so that leads to the next question.

if the CPS fails then why didn't it throw any codes or ghost codes? (which the dealer checked for yesterday)

they are 85$ a pop, so I am not sure if it is worth just throwing parts at it.

drove it home from dealer in the snow, no issues, fingers crossed I guess and hoping it was just a fluke

but to be a fluke it was pretty damn alarming having he car shut off w no warnings/signs and loosing powerbrakes/steering on the highway

 

And that's why the good FSM made junk yards.

I've seen CPS do this and extremely intermittently. So, it can happen only a couple times and then not do it for months. So

 

Keep an open mind. It could be a CPS issue, but it could also be a bad MAF sensor. In my case, the car would die whenever I shifted into N while coasting to a light (or otherwise). No code. After I replaced my MAF, the car would never stall again.

 

^^ Bad MAF should never cause the car to shut off. You can unplug the maf completely, in fact, and the car should still run in limp mode. That is not a MAF issue.

vq35de has one crank and two camshaft pos sensors, and those are actually more likely your culprit in this case. Look it up, it's more often the cam sensors causing your problem not crank sensor on that engine. The 2 cam sensors are used for majority of reference data vs crank sensor on that motor (whereas a vq30 uses 2 crank sensors, one cam)...

Those sensors very often throw no codes and can cause very, VERY intermittent issues. The experts on here recommend to replace both banks at the same time, and with OEM dealer parts only.

 

Thanks, yea i guess I could get a junkyard CPS, but whats to say that 10-12 year old CPS is any better than my 12 yr old CPS. ?

I have an open mind that a replaced CPS (under recall 11 years ago) could fault after this much time. totally believe it. Just debating weither to take my chances on the rare chances of this fluke happening again or drop the $165 on new OEM.

thanks for the clarification, and it makes me feel like im not going crazy since there are no codes, and yet symptoms lead me to CPS.

165$ plus labor for piece of mind for prevention to "If the engine stops
running while driving, this could result in a crash without warning." is probably worth it i guess.

 

^^ yeah Id say thats worth it lol

But you can also test the sensors by using FSM procedure. And also do visual inspection when you pull em...the magnets often time will be burnt after 100k of use

 

dealership said they tested them (taking that w a few grains of salt), but yea for the piece of mind it seems worth it.

 

could be a crank/camshaft position sensor
my car had the same problem but didn't throw codes until the stalling started occurring more often, I got a code for the bank 1 CPS, but change all the sensors since they all have issues anyways

 

thanks for the reply and feedback on ur situation, i might wait to see if it happens again at least one more time before throwing the parts at it,

 

ok so this morning drove to work 6 - 7 miles. Drove normal. nothing suspicious.

I get to work and put the shifter to park, and in the middle of turning the key to the off position on the ignition the car turns off early and a very rapid clicking and on and off kind of battery deal happens. lights and auto seat and all stop, lights flicker etc.

in other words I turned the car off to the off position and that moment the clicking glitchy crap happens before the car is actually turned off.

so i keep the key in the ignition and turn the car back to ACC position, and get the rapid clicking, turn it off and now remove key from ignition. wait a few seconds, place the key in the ignition and the auto seat moves up as it does normally and didnt get any clicking (rapid electronic on and off deal). Turn it to ACC Lights come on, stereo, and dash shows a reset on mileage etc.I didnt crank it over because I had to go into work as I felt it was ok

Is this the random CPS sensor? has any one else had this rapid electronic clicking????

Also one similarity I did notice with this and the first random shut off was the stereo was on and above average volume (not quite but not max)

Also another note that I forgot to mention on the first random shut off (prolly from CPS fail) is that right before it happened I noticed the brightness of OEM stereo screen flickered seconds before the random shut down. I cannot recall if this stereo screen light flickered seconds before the rapid clicking this am.

 

so got out of work, turn key over and clicking happens again, im like here we go.. try a few times nothing but clikcing or select few dim dash lights.

open door, and finally try one more time get the car to crank over,
idle is ok lights ok, so I say what the heck lets try to get home without idleing or stopping.

get 60% home and end up rolling to a 2mph stop and it shuts off! after the drama of not being able to start and stuck in the middle of a 4 lane road and being in D, (forgot about neutral) I get the thing cranked over again in the middle of traffic, carefully drive home w 4 ways etc. don't try to stop completely etc. and get home.

now with all of this, still no CEL so even more evidence that it has to be CPS and I am ordering the two now. will post updates with what happens

thanks to all and Mateen995 for your input.

 

Clicking when trying to start is a bad solenoid on the starter. That will just get worse. It sounds like you're having two problems at once, now.

 

There are NO air leaks anywhere?

 

I hope you know the 2002 have a recall for the crank sensors, it's a free repair if You go to any dealer to correct it,

Btw I believe that's your issues, regardless of that go and get it done

 

When I had CPS failure at highway speeds, there was a "surge" in the power delivery & then as I slowed down to a stop it stalled.
Didn't have any of the other issues you had though... Might have to agree with the suggestion above about having 2 problems at once.
I would suggest to stop driving the car & get the sensors fixed ASAP cause it just gets worse
If you have to drive it somewhere avoid putting loads (i.e. air con, lights, stereo) seemed to not stall or it was just coincidental

 

How's your fuel economy? A maf can make it shut off at idle. It won't cut out instantly, but rpms will drop then it'll bloop out.

 

My fuel economy went down with a bad CPS, the engine had poor performance all around

 

replaced alternator november last year with reman OEM (they dont make new anymore) directly from nissan, and replaced battery around that time also
as mentioned above sensors were replaced at time of recall in dec 2003 (talked to nissan north america to confirm my vin had it applied)
I remember I was coasting for about an 1/8th of a mile (anticipating redlight traffic) when my first shut off happened and I must say all of those loads were on also (defrost, heat, heated seats, stereo loud etc) and in hindsight the only sign of shutting off was the light on the stereo flickering right before it shut off. Don't recall any loss of engine power except for 2nd incident with last nights trip home but could be blurred with nerves of driving home w 4 ways and no stopping etc.
Fuel economy will be checked, but IIRC I haven't seen anything abnormal or significant to flag it, will check now tho (not sure if winter gas will be a factor though as I usually loose 2 mpg on winter fuel) I can imagine what a MAF would do, and if I had to guess it feels this isnt quite that, its not that kind of "chocking" at idle, start ups have been fine no sputtering or blooping out other than this glitchyness yesterday. I will clean maf with maf cleaner asap. as I routinely have every couple years. (no maf problems to date currently at 172K miles and 98k miles of ownership) knock on wood.
Good to know, thanks for explaining ur experiences with ur CPS. it really helps

so hours after getting home from the 2nd incident last night , the car when turned ACC went on fine acted normal (rolled car forward in N a little for GF parallel Parking)

I am ordering the three Crank and Cam Sesnsors (CPS) and am going to drive it a half mile to a shop. I will have them test the starter/alternator for any signs of failing but I would say unlikely after 1 year and I have a grounding kit.

Thanks all, info is greatly appreciated more than you can imagine. I will update as progress is made.

 

bought napa sensors (unknowingly thought it would be nissan oem ones) and then there was a discrepency on the VQ35DE having two crank sensors. and I thought i had the right one but didn't. So I only had the two cam sensors replaced yesterday and the car is driving fine for now.

Mind you the car sat since friday, and tuesday night before i dropped off at shop the car barely started, got the clicking crap on the ACC position , lights would turn on but car had alot of trouble starting and had a rough start/idle on the 1/2 mile drive to the shop I had to power brake to be sure it didn't turn off as I wasnt taking any chances. When the shop moved it they said they had no issues starting it so I have no idea.

As of now the problem is fixed as far as I can tell will update w more drive time.

For others the 1 Crankshaft that is associated with this common fault is located near the bottom of the engine near the tranny oil pan.

I plan on getting this, if and only if my problems continue to occur though, as I am taking the advice of D.Stillwell and betting on it being the actual cam position sensors and not the 1 crankshaft position sensor

this is the one i mistakenly bought the sensor has a 90 degree to it as the correct one is more straight

 

If you still have an original crank sensor still on it I would probably have it changed anyways, sooner or later its gonna crap out & losing power brakes & steering is quite scary especially in winter driving

 

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I have an 02 Nissan Maxima SE. I've had it for about 6 years now, and I bought it used. I'm having alot of the same issues that you are mentioning. I need help too! LOL.
When I drive my car, sometimes when I'm at low rpm and accelerate, it chokes and starts sputtering. The engine light will blink a few times, and then go off. The last time this happened to me, my car shut off on the freeway in the middle of rush hour traffic. My brakes locked too, and I had to ebrake..and fast. Turned car off, and started back up after waiting a quick 2 seconds. Drove home fine after. Changed camshaft position sensor (the straight one) and car was fine. That was over a year ago.
Within the past month, I changed both camshaft position sensors and all spark plugs. I haven't changed my crankshaft sensors yet, but it looks like that could be the answer to the problem I'm having.
I ordered a new fuel filter and when it arrives, I'm having it changed. Not sure what else it could be?
Also, where do I find recall info for my car/VIN?

 

^^ Good to hear, hope that works out and problem dont come back.

 

go to SafeCar.gov & it will pop up.