[BLACK89SENTRA]

Hello everyone,

I have a 1989 GA16I (w/CA emissions), 151,000 mi, that has developed an extremely bad habit of jerking/twitching when going down the road at speed, it doesn't do it under acceleration. Rarely is it hard to start.

Occasionaly it stalls when it idles down at a full stop. The strange thing about this problem is that it only happens when it gets hot outside (above ~70F). I am thinking that it could be some sort of thermal breakdown with the coil? I have replaced plugs, wires, dist cap and rotor, air filter and fuel filter.

The car does not overheat it operates midrange on the temp guage. If I were having this problem with my Fiero I would go directly to the ignition module but according to Haynes this thing doesn't have one (that I can find).

I have checked all the vacumm lines, and electrical connectors, didn't find any problems. When the driving the car and it starts jerking (doesn' happen all the time only when hot out) it is almost as if the car is stalling out and because it is moving it is restarting itself much like a push start.

I don't think it is the cat, had this same problem last year and by the time I got annoyed enough to do something about it the problem subsided because it cooled down. I had an emission test done about 3 months ago and it passed with flying colors.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[dschrier]

My car does the exact same thing. I have a 90 b12 with 140,000 miles. I've changed air filter, fuel filter, distributor cap and rotor, plugs, breather filter, clutch, plug wires. Nothing seems to fix it. I still need to do the pcv valve and o2 sensor. Also, does your car ping with 87 octane? Mine does and I doubt that the timing is advanced. I get no ping with 93 octane though.

 

[BLACK89SENTRA]

I also replaced my 02 sensor, didn't make a difference. I don't ping with 87 octane but I can tell a noticable difference in power if I run 87 instead of 93, and I get terribly stinky exhaust gases.

Like I said in my initial post, I think this has something to do with possible thermal breakdown of the coil or the electronics in the dist. I will probably try a new coil to see. Unless someone has had this same prob and a new dist fixed it I don't want to easter egg it, kinda expensive.

 

[00sentra]

I had the same problem in My 93 ford tempo...I replaced the Pcv valve....and all the same stuff both of you did, but ironically enough the car kicked its last breath in front of the nissan dealership, no joke, now I have my car....good luck on solving the problem.

 

[RiceBox]

BWAHAHAHA you had a Tempo!!! Sorry, had to do it! My sister's boyfriend has one, he calls it the "Tempo of Doom". Or another favourite, "Tempo as in Temporary!!" Yeah I know it's off-topic but I'm a mod Gotta abuse the power sometimes.

 

[sentrastud]

hahahahahahaha, a generation 1 Tempo broke down in front of my house today!!! My neighbor was going out for lunch, pulls out of the driveway and the car ends up spewing black smoke in front of my house. What crap!

Anyway, your problem is quite bizzare. IF youve already done all that stuff maybe it s the air? Air becomes less dense at high temperatures, if your enigne isnt getting enough 02 it will stall. Still I cant see this being to much of a problem...

Ive never experienced pining with 87 octane stuff. But you say the car feels more powerful with the 93 octane stuff. I s it really that big of a difference?

-Nick

 

[BLACK89SENTRA]

I live up a big hill and yes I can definitely notice a difference when using 87 and not 93. When using 93 the car runs up the hill without any problems at all - when I use 87 it just seems as if the car doesn't have any umph when trying to climb the hill.

 

[ryco n12]

Make sure that your TPS is adjusted correctly. My E16S did that and all I had to do is adjust the idle switch (those don't have TPS) and the problem went away. The computer was thinking I was switching between cruise and idle (with very light foot movement) and was shutting off the fuel. The ECMs do that to get better emissions when decellerating.