94 Pathfinder - Engine lopes and dies at idle

SilverZero · Aug 13th, 2006, 12:06 PM

I have a 94 Pathfinder, SE 5spd, just under 150k. For a while, after long drives (6 hours or more), the engine would start to lope at idle, revving between 1000 and almost zero RPMs. It would also stutter and have trouble accelerating between 2k and 3k RPMs. Usually it would go away by the next day. But now, it does it all the time.

To help anybody in diagnosing this, it runs fine when it's first started (cold), but once it's warmed up after a few miles, it dies when I put it in neutral. I don't think it's the idle speed itself, because it idles fine at first. Air filter is clean, oil is new, gone through 2-3 tanks of fuel and no change. Any ideas?

**88pathoffroad** · Aug 13th, 2006, 03:57 PM

Check your MAF sensor wiring plug for looseness or hitting the underside of the hood. Clean it if needed.

SilverZero · Jun 10th, 2007, 01:24 PM

This is very old, but I always like to wrap things up for others who might have similar issues. The issue was, in fact, the MAF sensor. All I did was pull it out, make sure it was clean and maybe straighten the sensors a bit with a screwdriver (just prying - not much force at all!), and it never happened again. Drove like a champ ever since.

And now it's sold, and I'm about to buy a 2002 Xterra. Woo!