[enigmaticsb]

1993 Nissan Sentra SE 1.6L Manual. When reaching 35-40 MPH range there is a light-moderate thud/jerking when the accelerator is tapped to increase speed. It will do it at other speeds but not as noticable. Idle RPM is 1500 when cold and eventually lowers down to 1000-750.
Also, I noticed a strange behavior when the car is in neutral, I lightly press down on the accelerator and hold it steady and the RPMs go up and down in a repeatable pattern until I release my foot from the accelerator.
This all started to happen after a leak was found in a vacuum line, before the leak was fixed the car had very poor acceleration and would often die at an intersection when in idle.
I took the car to a nissan dealer, they told me it was a bad distributor but I would like another opinion since I don't really trust them 100%. My regular mechanic wasn't really sure what it could be off hand. I told the nissan dealer I had replaced the rotor, cap, and plugs with bosch platinum plugs, the kind that you don't have to gap, I didn't replace the wires. I told the dealer that I had also adjusted the rotor by hand and they then told me that in my car I should have never turned the rotor and that could have caused the distributor to go bad.
I have been reading alot about the NGK plugs and plan to get those soon. However in the mean time I would like to know if the distributor could be the culprit. Any ideas on what to check and or replace would be helpful. Could it possibly be cause of the aftermarket rotor or cap, or the type of plugs I am using?

Thanks,
Shane

 

[motentra]

i had the same problem, so u might wanna deal with your catalytic converter...however you wanna do that

 

[Catman]

Welcome! First, would be to change the plugs. Stock NGK's are what I found works well. I used the regular Bosch plugs in my car, and they fouled out right away. I have heard of the Bosch plugs you are using causing misfires and other problems in many cars. For about $8.00 you could replace the plugs and see if that helps. I have not heard of distributors going bad on these cars. It may happen, but the reason they gave seems suspect. Many people adjust/advance there timing to get a little more horsepower without problems (to my knowledge). I have used an aftermarket cap and rotor for the last 100,000 miles without a problem. OEM is best, from what I read, but aftermarket has worked for me. I have had to replace plug wires two times at about 85,000 miles on each set due to shorting out. May be something to keep in mind as you troubleshoot your problem.