OKay, so heres the deal. Last night I went out to start the Altima to go to the store. It started off normally, I switched to drive and it all of a sudden wanted to stumble and jerk, i put it in reverse, same thing. I put it in park and it ran normal for about half a minute then it started to stumble again, the RPMs where reving up and and down and after about a minute, it died. So, I turned the key off, check ed a couple of things, fuel filter, fuel rail, plug wires, oil. I had to ad just a little oil though, started it back up and it did the same thing except this time it was rough from the initial start up. I reved the gas up and down for around a minute and it started to run fine. I was able to drive it up to the store and it did fine, like nothing was wrong. I woke up this morning and first thing went to start the car. I started up fine and acted fine in gear. I shut down, went inside, got ready for work and left. About 3 hours later my fiancee called telling me her car was doing the same thing it did last night (the rough idles and stumbling) Even after I had checked it this morning. She said she started driving down the drive way (1/4) mile and it died on her three times. We have had alot of rain since yesterday, so my thoughts were that she flooded the engine in some puddles, but i am not sure. Monday when I drove it. It ran fine, the car sat all day yesterday (Tuesday) until last night when we were getting ready to go to the store (it started raining late monday night i think). Like I said, after reving the gas for a minute it ran fine, even this morning (Wednesday) until she started to go to work. Any ideas or suggestions? Im at a loss, Is it too muchw ater from the rain, a bad camshaft, something between the fuel pump and fuel ignitors (filter, pump ect), vacuum leak, valve cover gasket (we have had a leak for quite sometime). I am not sure. Any advice, tips or know how would be appreciated.
i'm not sure what the setup is on an altima but you might want to check your timing belts and see if all your pulleys spin with the respective belts they're connected to... I know that on a sentra the belt that's used to power the alternator also goes to the a/c compressor... so if the ac ever gets really messed to the point where it doesn't spin freely then it affects the alternator... this is an example of what you might want to look for...
car battery life is typically 6 years... that's something to consider... i would also suggest you take a look at the bettery terminals for any corrosion...
besides the car dying is there anything else wrong with the car?
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no, its just stalling out on the start up. i'll check the belt and see what it does, the battery is still fairly new and no corrosion or build up on the terminals. my next step will be to check the distibutor cap and rotor button. thanks for your hep rivstar
I had the same problem with my 93 Altima, found out the distributor was getting oil into it, had to be replaced. Also had a fuel injector go, won't stall out you car but will run on only 3 cylinders if one is gone bad, here you will only have a rough ride, no stalling. So check both but sounds like the distributor is getting oil into it. Car will start (maybe) but will definitly stall out soon after. Hope that helps.
Well, I went outside this morning (saturday) and started my Altima and she fired right up, I drove her for a little while without any problems. So. I cant really figure it out now. I checed the plugs and wires plugs were in bad shape and wires could use a replacing, but that doesnt really help me seeing as how i haven't change dthem and it is running perfectly now?
Hey WeasleWeb, my friend had a similar problem in his 00 eclipse, it was moisture getting in his coil pack. I dont know if you have one, but I would wait for a sunny day, when the car is behaving and get the coils and wires wet. Make sure the engine is not hot. Careful not to soak the intake, or any sensitive electronics. Wait a bit and see if it replicates the problem. Also, check the fuel pump. Mine started to burn out (in a minivan, not my Nissan) and act sporadic, jerking, bogging, jack rabbiting... It actually would overheat, but as soon as new cool gas was poured in, it would behave. Then as the gas heated up to air temp, the pump would start to suck again. Hope it helps.
I had the exact same problem with my 93, but it was only on cold engine start up, other than that it was fine. Turned out to be the Idle air control valve. Just about every Altima owner told me it was the distributor probably going out due to an oil leak, however after checking the distributor that idea turned out to be crap. Ill run through the list of things I checked.
1. Fuel filter
2. Injectors
3. Fuel pressure regulator
4. Spark plugs
5. Spark plug wires
6. Ignition coil
7. Timing
8. PCV valve
9. All vaccum hoses
10. Compression check
11. After all that wondering mine turned out to be the IACV.
So is yours only on a cold engine start or when it's warmed up or both?
thanks for all the help. i frogot to mention a couple weeks ago that i got it fixed. in my case it turned out to be a bad distrubutor cap/rotor button and on top of that a mouse or something got inside the engine compartment and took a nice bite out of the botton of spark plug cable number 4. so after switching those out and new plugs, it seems to be running fine. i might go and check that idel air control valve though. thanks everyone
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