Old, Old Man and an Earthquake.

SkunkWorks · Nov 4th, 2007, 02:10 AM

I've got a 94 GXE with 150k on it.

Lately, intermittenly, upon ignition, it would cough and sputter its way to life. Once started, the RPMs bounce up and down from 500-1000 and the entire car shakes. I gave it a bit of gas and there would be shaking with the RPMs increasing with up and down jerks mixed with no reaction, even with a constantly depressed foot. If I throw it into gear, the car has absolutely no power.

But, once it warms up or I try my might to get the RPMs past 3000 and start revving like I'm 16 and driving a "souped up" Ford Taurus, it's fine.

Anyone know what's going on here? I dumped some STP water remover/injector cleaner into the fuel and that did nothing.

jserrano · Nov 4th, 2007, 04:15 PM

If you are certain that the ignition side is fine then it is probably either a bad MAF or clogged catalytic converter.

SkunkWorks · Nov 4th, 2007, 05:54 PM

What are some possible ways to test/find out who's the culprit and how to go about fixing it?

Altima SSS · Nov 4th, 2007, 10:07 PM

I would check the coolant temperature sensor too. There are two coolant temp sensors ... one for the ECU input and one for the temp gauge on the dashboard.

The one for the ECU could be flakey and giving the ECU a bad signal when the engine is cold, but when the engine does get warm the signal is closer to what it should be to run smoothly.

SkunkWorks · Nov 15th, 2007, 01:13 AM

Thanks for the help.

Replaced the distributor and it's good to go once again.

NissanTxUser · Nov 15th, 2007, 11:39 AM

Did you replace the full distributor or just the cover and rotor? What made you go for that? Oil inside?