# 96 Altima GXE acting weird



## thetogo (Apr 27, 2006)

Hey, I'm new to this forum, but I'll get straight to the point. I just bought a 96 Altima GXE with about 160K miles on it. It has been acting weird every now and then though. 2 weeks ago, I started it and the RPM was jumping like crazy. Then, when I took off, it wouldn't go, it would shake and the engine sounded almost like it was misfiring or something. It didn't make the usual engine sound, like the one that goes vrrrrrrrrrrrrmmm, but it made a sound kinda like prr prrp prrp prr prr. This happened again about 2 days ago. I don't know what's wrong with it. Also, the idle is pretty low and the RPM kinda jumps around a little bit when it's idling. Any clue what might be causing these problems?

PS: also, when my friend put his hand against the exhaust, it was sucking at his palm a little bit. not a continuous sucking, though.


----------



## metro273 (Sep 16, 2005)

thetogo said:


> Hey, I'm new to this forum, but I'll get straight to the point. I just bought a 96 Altima GXE with about 160K miles on it. It has been acting weird every now and then though. 2 weeks ago, I started it and the RPM was jumping like crazy. Then, when I took off, it wouldn't go, it would shake and the engine sounded almost like it was misfiring or something. It didn't make the usual engine sound, like the one that goes vrrrrrrrrrrrrmmm, but it made a sound kinda like prr prrp prrp prr prr. This happened again about 2 days ago. I don't know what's wrong with it. Also, the idle is pretty low and the RPM kinda jumps around a little bit when it's idling. Any clue what might be causing these problems?
> 
> PS: also, when my friend put his hand against the exhaust, it was sucking at his palm a little bit. not a continuous sucking, though.


Sounds like one of your injectors is going bad.


----------



## guitarsage (Mar 26, 2005)

metro273 said:


> Sounds like one of your injectors is going bad.


x2 Try putting some fuel injector cleaner in it, I was having similar problems and put some Chevron Techron in it and once I about ran out of gas, it was fine.


----------



## dmcgreal (May 7, 2006)

try the injectors or it my be the distributor mine was doing the same thing and it was the distributor


----------



## Asleep (Jan 19, 2003)

actually, it sounds like the mass air flow sensor is going bad. have you run the ecu for codes yet?


----------



## thetogo (Apr 27, 2006)

AsleepAltima said:


> actually, it sounds like the mass air flow sensor is going bad. have you run the ecu for codes yet?


how do you do that? what is that?


----------



## thetogo (Apr 27, 2006)

*It died*

okay, today, my car died. i was going down the road at about 45mph, and it just suddenly turned off. no wierd noise, no wierd movements, it just turned off. i carefully parked on the side of the road and started it back up and tried to take off, but as soon as i stepped on the gas, it turned off. now it wont start up at all. any ideas? my dad says it's the distributer, but i dont know whats wrong with it.


----------



## dmcgreal (May 7, 2006)

its the distributer


----------



## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

Yup your dad and dmcgreal are right. Read this link, 
http://www.nissanforums.com/u13-1993-1997-altima/120266-some-problmes.html

the user ISKAN is having the same problem right now


----------



## thetogo (Apr 27, 2006)

well, i took it to a mechanic today. they said it was the distributer, and also the ignition coil. so, it's gonna be about 600-700 bucks to get all that fixed.


----------

