nneuhof

Hello,

BEGIN HISTORY
---------------------------
First I will give a brief history of the car. I have a 1989 Nissan Sentra automatic that was driven very little by my mom between 1990-1998 (barely 25K miles on it). It then sat in my driveway for 6 years until mid 2004 when I found myself needing a car. I was surprised it even started (needing to be jumped of course). After replacing the battery it actually ran pretty good. Regularly changed the oil and replaced the front brake pads twice a year myself. I had the rear drum brakes done in the fall of 2004. I replaced the spark plugs twice. Once as regular maintenance and once as a possible solution to a loss of power problem. I also replaced the spark plug wires in the fall of 2005 which fixed the aforementioned loss of power problem. Also replaced the air and fuel filters once at some point too.

Started noticing some things at the beginning of this year. I should also mention that I had a situation where I was exiting the freeway and was accelerating and the gas pedal got STUCK! Fortunately there was no traffic in front of me and the traffic light at the upcoming intersection was green. I had to go left or right and went left (all the while holding my foot down on the brakes). I managed to get the car off to the side of the road and without thinking just killed the ignition. I should have put it in neutral but it was one of those knee-jerk reaction situations. When I did this I heard a loud "pop" from somewhere but I just figured it was from the engine stopping suddenly while revving high like that. It started back up and seemed to be OK.

So about 3 months later the first thing I noticed was the check engine light would periodically come on, stay light and then go off or sometimes would even stay lit in between car trips. There was no regular rhythm to it. I checked the ECU and it was reporting error code 23 which means with the idle switch/throttle body sensor. After following the service manual procedures for testing it (continuity testing between 2 of the 3 contact points) I replaced it and thought the problem was solved until it started coming on again a week later and resumed it's inconsistency.

In April my transmission somehow started leaking and died a horrible death with the gears having physically been bound together. I had a shop do a whole new transmission which cost me more than I am ready to disclose but the option was still cheaper than buying a decent used car so I opted for it. Keep in mind at this point the car had just over 61,000 miles on it.

END HISTORY
---------------------

So that brings us to sunday when I was pulling into a parking lot and all of a sudden the car just kills. I try to restart it and it cranks but doesn't turnover. This was in a very inconvenient spot because going into the lot was up an incline. Fortunately it was an office complex so the only traffic going through was to the adjacent McDonalds. I had my friend come by and use his car to push me up and into the parking lot. There was plenty of gas in the car and when it died it wasn't a sputter or anything just abruptly killed.

I checked the basics, looked for any broken belts, etc. Then started looking at the distributor cap. Took off the cover and immediately noticed the center wire which runs to the ignition coil was not secured tight as it kinda fell out. I reconnected it and tried starting and no good. Checked all spark plug wire connections to each plug and they seemed tight. I then used a spark plug wire tester (the kind that lights up) and tested each wire for spark while cranking the engine and got spark on all 4.

I wanted to see if there was a prob with the fuel pump/system. I checked the fuse panel and looked at the fuel pump fuse and it was fine. I then checked to make sure I heard the pump come on while switching the key and it did. At this point it was getting late in the day and I work a 12 hour overnight shift from 7pm-7am (3-4 days a week) so I really didn't have much more time to mess with it. It was about 30 miles from my house so I had it towed to the local firestone and filled out a dropoff envelope with what the problem is.

I heard from them on Monday and they said they worked for 3 hours and couldn't figure it out. They said there isn't any reason why the car shouldn't be starting and wanted to look at it more but they couldn't until wednesday. I heard from them wednesday after they worked on it for another 4 hours and they basically said they need to refer me to another shop to troubleshoot this because they don't have a "scope/analyzer" to be able to diagnose this. They classified it as a "fuel management" problem and alluded that maybe somewhere/somehow fuel isn't making it to the chamber where the combustion needs to take place.

So I'm trying to figure out what else it could possibly be. I don't think they went too in-depth in troubleshooting the fuel system as well as the amount of electricity going through the wires. Could it be that there is spark but not a "good" spark? I am thinking about going and replacing the distributor cap and rotor (even though it shows no signs of cracks, etc) and possibly the spark plugs and wires. Mainly in the hopes it's something stupid like that. I just did the wires and plugs 8 months ago so I doubt it would be them.

What else could I check for? In addition to the stuff I just mentioned I should probably test fuel system pressure as well. I have a timing light, vacuum gauge, fuel pressure and compression testers as well as multimeter. Just trying to cover as many bases as I can (and hopefully fix it) before I have it towed to a place that can actually tell me what's wrong. I've read the forums here and found people with similar issues and for the most part it's been something small like a distributor cap screw or weird connection or something like that. The frustrating part is the fact that it just died out of nowhere and fully cranks as well. Maybe I should try bringing a few gallons of gas and putting them in since it says the tank is 1/4 full. Maybe the fuel sensor is off. But then again, if it was no fuel then I would have felt the car sputtering as it went out (ran outta gas a few times so I know what it feels like lol).

Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions.

-Nick

bob89sentra

OPPs How did I miss this one?
Ok first off have you checked the trouble codes on the computer?
If the MAF went bad it could die like that and not re start, also like you mentioned if the screw from the dist came out you would be getting spark, but at the wrong time. It is also possible the CAS has gone haywire and is telling it to fire at the wrong time.
Another thought... does the oil light turn off after cranking for a few seconds or does it stay on? If the plug came off the oil sender the car would not start up, just crank and crank.

There are some more possabilities, but I would check the above mentioned ones first.
Bob

__________________
89 Sentra owner 9 years 205,000 miles and counting!

nneuhof

Yeah, I was kinda shocked that nobody responded to this post. I figured I covered all the bases and gave as much info and background as possible.

I had the car towed to another place that specializes in diagnostic and driveability troubleshooting and they found that the timing chain tensioner had broken and the chain had skipped 2 marks ahead and eventually got so outta whack thats why the car wont start. They are replacing it and I should have the car back in a couple days.

I didnt think to check something like timing/cam shaft considering the car just wouldn't start and killed. Was thinkin more along the lines of fuel delivery issue. I never woulda found it. Just glad it wasnt something wacky like not enough spark plug voltage (although that would been a cheaper fix). Other than that the car checks out superbly they said, compression all tested at like 210-220. Engine is in great shape for a car that old.

Thanks for your input.

-N

bob89sentra

Glad to hear they found the problem. Sorry to hear it will be so expensive, theese engines do like to have their timing chains redone every 50-100k miles. If it starts to rattle again you know its time to replace it again.

__________________
89 Sentra owner 9 years 205,000 miles and counting!