Today on the way to school, as I was merging onto the highway, I gave it some gas while in gear. The car shuddered a little around 5k and it lagged badly but did accelerate forward. I thought my clutch was dying. Anyways, about 10 minutes down the highway my RPMs start to drop. I press the gas but it doesn’t accelerate. I slow from 65 to 50..I tried downshifting into 4th; Still nothing; no feedback from the accelerator pedal. So I move onto the right shoulder safety lane and slow the car down. It shudders and just dies. I tried starting it up. It started, but the rpm’s jumped to about 1k, back to 300, to around 600, then the car just died. It did this repededly. Each time I started the car I tried revving to keep it alive but it didn’t work; The car wouldn’t revv. It just spuddered to those random RPM then died. At first I thought it was my clutch but it doesn’t sound like a clutch problem. Could it be my ignition? Are my spark plugs fouled? I am running the 3.33” pulley w/6:1 disc and 1 step colder plugs. I hit about 65psi at full boost. My idle is around 41psi. I am running the Walbro fuel pump. My car got towed home and I’m at school right now. Can somebody help me?

 

start with ecu and check engine light

 

related to this maybe?

 

MAF???

 

I agree... It sounds like you may be out of gas or the pickup on your Walbro fuel pump came off or (worse yet) got shreaded and screwed the fuel pump.

 

I don't know?? That's why I asked if it was serious or not!!

Nismo2020 The ECU light was already on

I'll try to go diagnose it myself and see if I can pull the code

 

It sounds like a fuel starvation problem, Craig, and the fact that you recently had a fuel related issue certainly suggests you should check your fuel pump or filter first (after pulling codes). Did you happen to see what your fuel pressure was doing during the starting and dying on the side of the road? A car with a very clogged fuel filter or fuel pump on its way out behaves just like yours did.

 

It read 5 short ones and 5 long ones. According to VBXmaxima.com, there is No Failure Recorded/Detected. Does this mean my problem lies in the fuel pump??

 

I just resetted the ECU. The car now starts up. The fuel pressure was at 31psi to begin with, 9 lower then when I was normal. I ran the car down the street but it started shuddering really bad. (you could hear it in the exhaust;put put put put) I BARELY made it back in the driveway. The car died again. The fuel pressure was at 25psi when it died.

 

I toyed with the Throttle body position sensor and when I started it, someone tapped it and it kept it alive. This morning the car ran fine UNTIL it got up to operating temperature (ie 5 grand merging on the highway) So maybe it's that? I'm having it towed to Nissan tommorow and a buddy of mine is going to run a diagnostics on it.

 

let us know

 

any info?

 

He just called. He said the MAF Meter failed and it's going to cost $700 installed!?! He has to special order the part. What the fu<k ? Is this a result of my supercharger, or just a sh!tty OEM part? God that's expensive..

 

Craig, how are we supposed to know? It "could" be the SC maybe if was blowing a bunch of oil onto the maf but I've never heard that happening before. MAFs can go out for lots of reasons. Maybe someone banged it when you were installing the SC. It's obvious that he's charging you full retail pricing but it probably includes the 2-3 days of diagnostics also? He also probably knows you don't know much about engines so he's banking on that also. You could buy an used maf just to see if that fixes the problem. Hell, it might not even be the maf to begin with. Why is it a crappy oem part? You have just bolted on a part(sc) that increase the airflow xxx times and forces this "sh!tty oem part" to handle something it was never originally designed to handle(positive psi pressue).

 

Well good news Jeffrey. First off though, he loves my car and everyone in his club are begging me to join. He wouldn't rip me off and knows I know a thing or 2 about cars. He's one of the few honest guys at Nissan.

The thread I made about the low fuel light coming on and fading away...well heres the thing. John (the nissan guy) told me that the machine (that $4000 peice of equipment) made a mistake...he found out that the fuel pump is always on for some reason. Therefore, my gas gauge has been misreading. When it said I was almost at a half tank, I was really almost out of gas. A fuel starvation problem from the fuel pump itself. In the words of Will Ferrel of the SNL doctor skit, "Thaaank God".

So basically all this hooplah has been started b/c the f'ing fuel pump is always running and starved me for fuel. There's gotta be something else wrong with it that made the RPM's go crazy like they did too. Cars...what wonderous, weird peices of machinery they are.

 

You can get used maf's for like $75, I personally have 2 extras in my basement that both work that I could have sold you, and it is a very easy install.

 

Do you have a faulty stock fuel pump and would require another one?

I have mine I took out of my car when I installed the Walbro you can get that one if it helps...it is in great condition...

 

I don't know...he didn't finish yet and they closed at 6..i'll know tommorow.

Tracy, did you ever get my PM? About the pulley? Please let me know what's up.

 

The $4000 piece of $h!t? indicated what???

How can it be that "the fuel pump was always on" (unless he totally bypassed the factory wiring)? Even so, I don't see how that would affect your fuel level indicator... Fuel is always pumped to the engine and the excess returned to the fuel tank.

Sorry... I can't follow the LOGIC that leads to the replacement of the MAF...
I heard you can just buy the sensor portion rather than the whole "assembly"... it may be cheaper.

I suggest you ask to keep the original "bad" one...

 

dam sorry to hear ...

this really sux... but i agree here..how can i a $4000 dollar mach. and nissan make a mistake?

 

IF you need a fuelpump, you know who to come to..

 

Just got the car back. He said the fuel gauge (on odometer) is broken and stops reading accurely around 1/4th tank. That's why it stopped there and my low fuel light came on. That would be a $300 fix with labor so we decided to keep my current one at least for now. He wants me to call Tom (installer) and ask if he purposely set the fuel pump to always run. But why would he? Extra security?