97 Altima missing, black smoke, only during peak heat hours of day

BlindJester · Sep 12th, 2006, 04:44 PM

Hi. This is my first post here, hopefully someone can help me

I have a 1997 Altima that I 've had and treated very well over the years.

Over the last month or so it's been acting a little erratic and it seems that my engine is "missing" quite a bit... sometimes to the case where the car will stall out (when braking to a stop after the car has shifted all the way down). My car will start also hesitate switching gears while driving and I will see black smoke coming from the tail pipe.

The weird thing is the time of day that it happens. It only happens during the hottest times of the day (between about 10am and 4pm).

I took it to our mechanic and they couldn't get the car to replicate the problem... it seems the car always acts fine whenever I try to show someone the problem. It's pretty inconsistent and I can't ever really be sure when it's going to act up or not... it just seems to happen most often during the middle of the day on hot humid days. I've never had an issue with it in the morning or at night.

I've been changing the oil, and I even ran about 3 half-tanks of gas + fuel injector cleaner and octane booster (this was after the car started acting up).

I've noticed that my car drips *a lot* of water when the AC is running (I'm assuming condensation). I'm not a car guru by any means... is there a way that this water can make its way into the fuel line?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

LONDONDERRY · Sep 13th, 2006, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlindJester

Hi. This is my first post here, hopefully someone can help me

I have a 1997 Altima that I 've had and treated very well over the years.

Over the last month or so it's been acting a little erratic and it seems that my engine is "missing" quite a bit... sometimes to the case where the car will stall out (when braking to a stop after the car has shifted all the way down). My car will start also hesitate switching gears while driving and I will see black smoke coming from the tail pipe.

The weird thing is the time of day that it happens. It only happens during the hottest times of the day (between about 10am and 4pm).

I took it to our mechanic and they couldn't get the car to replicate the problem... it seems the car always acts fine whenever I try to show someone the problem. It's pretty inconsistent and I can't ever really be sure when it's going to act up or not... it just seems to happen most often during the middle of the day on hot humid days. I've never had an issue with it in the morning or at night.

I've been changing the oil, and I even ran about 3 half-tanks of gas + fuel injector cleaner and octane booster (this was after the car started acting up).

I've noticed that my car drips *a lot* of water when the AC is running (I'm assuming condensation). I'm not a car guru by any means... is there a way that this water can make its way into the fuel line?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi
You are correct about the condensation from the a/c, but its not possible for it to leech into the fuel system. I would suggest checking two things, either by a mechanic or yourself, depending on how car savvey you are. The first one is to remove the distributor cap, rotor and the plastic housing on the distributor yourself and see if oil is present there. If so, then you found your problem. Second is to spray air intake clean around the intake gasket, while the car is running. If the idle perks up or smooths out, you have a gasket leak so replace it. I'm more in adpet to believe the first suggested I offered. I would all so suggest you have the car's engine scanned for any stored codes. Finally, if its been a while tune the car up.

Frank