JacqueF

Having a problem with my 97 Pathfinder. It keeps stalling. It starts fine but at any given moment, whether going slow or fast, it will cut out. I changed the fuel filter and the air filter. The ECU is saying Mass Air Flow Sensor. I replaced that with a used one but it's still cutting out. The dealer says to put in a new MAF sensor ($488 for the part, $200 for labor) but I'm having a real problem believing that 2 MAF Sensors are bad. I am NOT saavy with vehicles and am kind of flying by the seat of my pants on this one. Got any ideas on what else to check? Thanks.

lewisnc100

Are you getting a specific error code, P0100? If so and you've gotten the same error with 2 MAFs you need to be looking at the wiring and MAF connector. Sometimes just disconnecting and reconnecting the connector will clean up the connection.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of recommendations on causes for stalling but if you have a specific error code I'd focus on that before you jump into general fixes for stalling.

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1997 Pathfinder XE
Air Lift Air Bags, Warn Hubs

JacqueF

I am getting error code P0100. Thanks for the advice, I'll take a peek at the wiring this weekend. My husband was driving the Pathfinder last night and I was driving behind him and I noticed that every time it stalled a bit of black smoke came from the tail pipe. Could this indicate some kind of fuel injection issue? Is fuel system or fuel injection cleaner a good idea? Thanks again.

lewisnc100

That makes perfect sense, remember the MAF is telling the computer how much air is entering the system so it can determine the correct amount of fuel at any given time. If the MAF is not accurately telling the computer how much air is entering the system the computer will not inject the correct amount of fuel and your air/fuel mixture is off, resulting in your stalling and smoke. Not sure where the handoffs are between the MAF and the O2 sensors when controlling the fuel mixture, but a faulty MAF will be a problem as you described.

__________________
1997 Pathfinder XE
Air Lift Air Bags, Warn Hubs

miterav

is it AT/Manual? also when you say it stalls either when you are driving fast/slow, do you mean it completely 'halts' the engine, or throttles down like coughing and picks up back again?

i face the second one on my 95XE/AT, i cannot pickup speed real fast. i have to rev it up slowly and make it pick the speed up by itself. and out of the blue when you are running smooth @ 65mph, i see that the engine hesitates for brief moments some times (i see the rpm falling down atleast 100 - 200 rpm and then picking up back again). i don't know if there is any smoke behind me though, as i haven't noticed it myself when such a thing happened. :-( i have no clue whats going on, on my truck :-(

JacqueF

Thanks everyone, for your help. The fix was indeed the MAF sensor. When the first one went out, we picked up another at a junk yard and had the misfortune of getting a bad one. We bought another for $85 that was rebuilt and it's now running fine. Thanks again!