owais

iTrader: (20)

This problem started after a recent long trip ~3000 miles. The car currently has 184k miles now. The problem occurs after the car is fully warmed up and when I put it into park, the car shuts off. It happens about 90% of the time. If I restart the car, it'll shut off again but after maybe 20-30 seconds. The car has also shut off maybe 2-3 times back to back when I put it into reverse. I avoided it by gassing it immediately after putting it into reverse. It hasn't happened since that one day. The car also shut off twice in drive but only when the car was barely rolling. So what's common is the car shuts off while it's idling or close to idling. There are absolutely no engine or tranny codes that come up. Another thing i noticed is that while it is idling, every 30 seconds or so the RPM dips to 3-400. I think if the dip in RPM is low enough, the car dies. Another issue which we aren't sure if it's related or not, is during hard acceleration, it feels like I hit a brick wall at 4k RPM. What I noticed is, that it accelerates fine in 4th gear, but anytime it downshifts to 3rd, it stops accelerating at 4k RPM. I've checked the IACV and everything looked fine. The butterfly flapper opens up so I don't think that's the cause.

Now yesterday we tried troubleshooting the issue and came up with a few causes:

1. Could be a possible vacuum leak. We sprayed brake cleaner basically all over the engine bay listening for any hissing or if shuts off as a result but couldn't come up with any consistent results.

2. Clogged cat. - Doesn't explain the shut off issue, but under hard acceleration, there isn't enough flow so it prevents acceleration. Under normal acceleration there is enough flow so it's fine.

3. Could be the crankshaft sensor, but again no codes. Not sure about this, was suggested by my cousin.

4. The fourth could be fuel related, if it's the pressure or maybe the filter is just clogged. Not sure.

5. Could be a bad tranny? It does have new fluid but does not always shift smoothly. This doesn't explain the shut off issue, but could be the cause for the 4k RPM issue.

Before we start addressing each possible cause, I wanted to ask here first. So if anyone has any insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

Professor

iTrader: (4)

loose vac hose ? faulty maf ? bad coil (s) ? clogged fuel filter or failing fuel pump ? fuel pump relay weak ? just things i thought of off the top of my head.

copilot1991

I had a similar problem accept mine ran at the normal rmp, unless it tried to die. The funny thing was it was fine when it was warmed up. I discovered that it was suffering a problem with the seals on the intake manifold thanks to the .org and I got lucky. The mechanic that was replacing several seals on my motor including the valve covers had to replace that gasket because he took of the intake manifold to get to the rear covers. Problem went away.

Still had bogging so I cleaned the MAF and it cleared dramatically. Not 10 secs after I pulled back into the AutoZone to tell my dad "lets go." The SES light came on for a IACV problem. The printout had troubleshooting hints on it so now I have to check my vacumn lines, the catalytic converted could be stuffed, or it could actually just be the valve. Thing about those is, they can apparently short the ECM. I hope that if it is the valve, I haven't shorted my ECU!

Good luck!

DIVINCI

GOTTA SAY COILS OR THE REAR CAT. CAT GOT CLOGGED AFTER HEAVY ACCELERATION TOOK UP TO 115MPH(1ST TIME SINCE THE WRECK, BEEN BOUT 4mos)THEN SLOWED TO TAKE OFF RAMP AND LOST POWER IN THE CURVE. AFTER THE TOW. THE SHOP SAID THEY HAD NEVER SAW A CAT THAT MELTED FROM OVER HEATING(WISH I HAD PICS) ALSO LOST 5 COILS AT THE SAME TIME. REPLACED ALL NOW RUNNING SMOOTH.

nalexiou

I had a very similar problem. Turned out to be the IACV. The stealership wanted to charge me $1,000+ for a new one and a new MAF. I had a local guy do the IACV only and it works like a champ. You'll need Nissan to re-learn the idle. I believe that if the IACV sticks open, coolant can cause a short in the IACV and fry the ECU, which is far from cheap. Are you getting any codes?

pchau

Oh man, I had that problem back in winter, my car died on the middle of an intersection. My car's RPM would drop less than 500 and the car would shut off, the problem was fixed with a new MAF. Good luck

owais

iTrader: (20)

Thanks for everyone's input. I dropped the car off at my mechanic as I don't have the time to troubleshoot. I'll update with results.

owais

iTrader: (20)

Turns out if was a severely dirty TB and MAF. Car's running like a champ now. No hesitation or stalling since picking the car back up in approximately 20 miles.

copilot1991

Yeah, I got mine back from a family mechanic. He sourced several codes for me and saved me alot of money. I had three codes, IACV, knock sensor, and Catalytic Converter Inefficiency. My IACV code was from a vacumn leak, he fixed that and it ran great for a little while. Then it came on with the light again, it was that cat. too so now I think the cat. is fried from a combination of a dieing MAF and the previos owners abuse and possibly feeding it low grade fuel. The knock sensor never came back after he cleared the codes.

yoedogg

im having the same problem but when i turn on my ac the car will stay running for a little while longer ... does anyone know why???