# 97 Altima stalling out? Any ideas?



## Kaci96 (May 29, 2005)

I have a altima that has about 169,000 miles. Recently it has started to lose power and die. It did it to my husband when he was starting to slow down to make a turn. The car has to be running for a while to get it to stall out. We let it run in our driveway for 45 min before it finally died. When we had a nissan dealer look at it. They said the car was overheating and the distributer was bad. Now the car isn't "overheating" when it dies on us. We took it to autozone yesterday and the attendant said they didn't even have to look at it to tell me it was the ignition coil. When the car dies, it does take a little bit of time for it to start back up. But when it does start up. It runs great *for another 45 min - 1 hr*. 

Does anyone have an ideas?


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## Cooperman (May 18, 2005)

I've been having very similar problems as you can see in http://www.nissanforums.com/showthread.php?t=94731

The problem happened to me almost every day for two weeks. I took it in to Nissan and of course it didn't stall for the two days they had the car. They said that they suspected it is the distributor intermittently failing. It's $700 for them to replace it though and I'm a bit reluctant just to spend that amount of money if it isn't the problem.


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## Kaci96 (May 29, 2005)

Wow! Your car is doing a lot more stuff then mine has. We took off the ignition coil today and took it up to Autozone. They said the coil is fine... so back to square 1 again. GRRRR...

We've tried the fuel filter. Thinking it might be a fuel pump?

Mine doesn't jerk like yours does though. Its almost like it quietly stops accellerating when you press on the gas and just slowly sputters and dies. Not the jerkiness you have been talking about. Im pretty urked that the nissan dealer said it was overheating and the car is showing no signs of that *they also said the fans were bad, but upon further inspection on OUR part... the fuse was blown*. So I dont trust everything they say. Im kind of at a loss for the car. I am trying to sell it and having to take a major cut in the price just to get it off my hands and people still dont want to touch it. I am hoping it is something simple but it might take weeks to figure out just exactly what is wrong. 

Have you had any more luck on your part? Did you have nissan replace the distributer?


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## Cooperman (May 18, 2005)

Nissan have my car again today - I haven't heard from them yet so I'm guessing it still hasn't stalled for them. They want it to stall so they can prove that there is current going into the distributor but nothing coming out... but the catch is, they have to have it stall while it's hooked up to their equipment to diagnose it.

I was thinking fuel pump too at the beginning, but I don't have any other indications that it could be that. And from what I've been reading here, aftermarket distributors are reknown for dying.

I'm thankful my Nissan place seem to be pretty honest about things. They themselves don't want to change the distributor unless they can prove that's actually the problem. They've had my car for 3 days now and have only charged me the standard $140 diagnostics test. They're not charging me $70 an hour labor like some places would!


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

kaci96-
Has anyone scanned the CEL for stored codes? This will determine if the distributor is bad. Altima as notorious for having distribtors going bad. What tends to happen is the o-ring seal from the engine to the distributor goes. Oil passes through and into the dist. fouling up the cam positiion sensor. I suggest you remove the dist. cap and rotor and then the distribot housing and see if there is any oil inside. If there is then take electrical contact clean and spray heavly inside. Replace the oil seal to the engine, you'll have to retime the engine afterwards and then place all the components back on and see if this works. If not then you have to replace the distributor. The cost ranges from $300-700, depending whee you buy it from. Unfortunatly there is no after market part for this, so you have to shop around at nissan parts store.


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## mrnoname (Feb 24, 2005)

after you pull the distributor how do you time it???


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

mrnoname said:


> after you pull the distributor how do you time it???


mrnoname, my fault sorry on the confusion on timing. The distributor, cap and rotor have to be placed back on first and then retime the engine.


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## Vamsi79 (Jun 11, 2005)

Hi! I am a new member to this forum. 
I am facing a similar problem with my 95 nissan altima for several months now. 
I guess the probLem started when I had a minor accident and then the car wouldnt start after that. The problem was diagnosed to be that of a distributor and it was replaced by a local mechanic. He used a distributor bought from auto zone. 

The car now stalls when i drive slow and when i stop at a signal. It drives fine at high speeds. I got it checked by a different mechanic yesterday who told me that it is the problem with the distributor and he found oil leak in it and suggested to use a Nissan distributor instead of the one from autozone. But, it costs over 500 dollars.... I do not wish to spend that much money unless absolutely necessary. Moreover, my car never gave good mileage (~15 miles per gallon only), the reason for which could not be figured out by any mechanic......Uh..too many problems with this car...
I have given my car back to the local mechanic who actually fixed the distributor for me hoping that the warranty should cover it. Waiting on his response. But not sure if i should go for a autozone distributor or for a Nissan one....
Please let me know if you guys have any suggestion! 

Thanks in advance...
Good luck with ur cars... :newbie:


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

Hi Vamsi79-

The problem with purchasing after market distributors are they are all rebuilt, even the ones from the dealers. So the quality of the distributor depends on who is rebuilding them. I would suggest you go with your mechanica advice and go with a Nissan brand. However, please make sure there is agood warrent on it. You might all so want to see if the o-ring is bad on the distributor, that is causing oil to get pat it and foul up all the electronics. So the problem might not be the distributor, but the 10 cent o-ring.

I skirted around this with my Altima, and bought a after market to save a few dollars, however, I went through to distributors, with in 3 months, before I bought a Nissan one, it has been 3 months and I have not had a problem yet. keep me posted on you solution.

Frank


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## Vamsi79 (Jun 11, 2005)

Thank you Frank for your reply and suggestions.
The mechanic who fixed the distributor for me says that its not the distributor but it is the engine cover that is leaking and spilling oil which goes into the distributor. I had some time ago got the engine cover gaskette replaced and fixed by a mechanic who disagrees with it and says that it is the distributor problem and a leaking engine cover cannot cause oil to get into the distributor, but said he will look at it properly, and I am waiting on his response.
NOw I am confused and not sure whom to beleive. 
Any suggestions...
Thank you once again for your reply.
-Vamsi


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

Vamsi79 said:


> Thank you Frank for your reply and suggestions.
> The mechanic who fixed the distributor for me says that its not the distributor but it is the engine cover that is leaking and spilling oil which goes into the distributor. I had some time ago got the engine cover gaskette replaced and fixed by a mechanic who disagrees with it and says that it is the distributor problem and a leaking engine cover cannot cause oil to get into the distributor, but said he will look at it properly, and I am waiting on his response.
> NOw I am confused and not sure whom to beleive.
> Any suggestions...
> ...


If I understand you correctly, the engine cover is part of the disributor, the problem that tends to happen is the o-ring fails out, which causes oil to get into the distributor electronics, which is an encoder wheel with small slits,and a photooptical sensor. Once this oil gets into this area, it fouls up everything up. So in sense both of yout mechanics are correct but are debating on issues at hand. I suggest you have the mechanica that has your car now, replace the o-ring and spray the electronics down, heavily, with electrical contact cleaner and re-assembly everything, and time the engine out. If that does not work, then you know that the distributor is bad. This is a commom problem with Altima's . Good luck

Frak


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## Vamsi79 (Jun 11, 2005)

LONDONDERRY said:


> If I understand you correctly, the engine cover is part of the disributor, the problem that tends to happen is the o-ring fails out, which causes oil to get into the distributor electronics, which is an encoder wheel with small slits,and a photooptical sensor. Once this oil gets into this area, it fouls up everything up. So in sense both of yout mechanics are correct but are debating on issues at hand. I suggest you have the mechanica that has your car now, replace the o-ring and spray the electronics down, heavily, with electrical contact cleaner and re-assembly everything, and time the engine out. If that does not work, then you know that the distributor is bad. This is a commom problem with Altima's . Good luck
> 
> Frak


Thanks Frank, I will do the same and then update....
-Vamsi


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## Kaci96 (May 29, 2005)

New update on my car. We went and put premium gas in it with a injector cleaner. Now, instead of taking 30-45 mintues for it to stall out. It does it almost within the first 5 mintues. Im starting to think it COULDN'T overheat if it was doing it so quickly. We had it stall out in the middle of the road so we parked it in a parkinglot and left it for about 5 hours. Came back... and voila! it drove home with no problem?? WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH MY CAR???


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## I'm3rd (Dec 24, 2003)

I don't know if this has any relevance to a car with electronic ignition, but I'll mention it anyway for whatever it may be worth. Back in the early bronze age I had an old American car which acted exactly like the problem you're having. After doing almost everything I could think of, a mechanic I talked to told me to replace the coil and see it that solved the problem. Well it did, completely. He said that a coil can develop a slight crack in the insulation on the primary winding, and when the coil heats up the crack can widen out enough to cause a short. Then when it cools down it will start and run good until the coil heats up again. That was 30 years ago and I may not be remembering all that stuff exactly, but that's the general idea anyway.

Of course back then a coil for the old ignition systems cost around $10-15 IIRC, so it wasn't much of a gamble to buy one and see if it worked. I understand that coils for the electronic ignition systems are much more expensive now, so it might be too costly to experiment with. Just a thought.


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## Vamsi79 (Jun 11, 2005)

------The engine valve cover gaskette which was leaking has been fixed now. Since the auto zone distrubutor had a life time warranty, it has been replaced with a new one. The mechanic also doubted that the spark wires may be bad and so he put new wires. (the spark plugs were new-about 4 months old only, so they were not changed).
So now it has been made sure that there is no leak of any kind in to the distributor, and a new distributor has also been put...I could not go with a Nissan one right away due to the price concerns.
BUT....THE PROBLEM STILL EXISTS....UH...THE CAR STILL STOPS AT SLOW SPEEDS....
No clue what to do now...Is the reason for it the Non-Nissan distributor....Or can it be any thing else...I am hesitant to buy the Nissan distributor now , because its around 500$ and who knows if it can fix the problem or not...

----One more thing......a while ago I used to have another problem : Some times, I would not be able to start the car and would have to change the gear from park to reverse or drive and then bring it back to park. and then engine would start. I was told that there is some kind of plug over there which has loose contact or is not good....i did not worry about it much because i knew how to work around the problem and slowly slowly that particular problem went away...
Is there any chance that the problem of the car stalling at slow speeds and the plug problem are related.....?
Just a thought...

-----One more observation I made is that the car tends to stall more often while I am trying to reverse on a slope or when I am taking turn, along with other instances of going slow (like stopping at a light etc....)

I am sorry if all this is too confusing....Is there any expert in this Forum who is willing to discuss this problem with me ....(they can call my ph# 682 225 6558 too...)
ANY SUGGESTIONS....ANY KINDA HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED....Pleasee help..........

THANK YOU..........

VAMSI....


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## Kaci96 (May 29, 2005)

Thank you for the imput on the ignition coil. Unfortunately we had it tested at Autozone and they say the coil is just fine! =(


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## Kaci96 (May 29, 2005)

I've had the valve cover gasket replaced on mine about a year ago *maybe two years?* Anyways... mine is a stick so it doesn't stall out when I change different gears... It stalls sitting in my carport just idling or driving down the freeway at 55mph! I almost had a seller for the car but when we went to go put a tank of gas in it with a fuel injector cleaner... it has started to stall out more often. *Obviously a no go on the sale of the car* I am thinking that Nissan's *the distributer is overheating* explaination is bullcrap! Starting to really look at maybe a fuel pump issue? Is there anyway to check this before changing it out?? I've changed the fuel filter already and its still stalling... so im at a standstill. HELP!!!


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## Vamsi79 (Jun 11, 2005)

Kaci: have you got the distributor changed on your car with the one from Nissan...? 

I took my car to another local mechanic and he says that there could be a leak at the fuel injector (behind the engine), he was saying that the gaskette at the junction of the fuel injector and the engine might have gone bad....He sprayed some thing over the engine and says that he can see the engine sucking the spray at the fuel injector, which means that the gaskette needs to be replaced. Because of which there is not enough pressure inside the engine and it stalls...he says it would be 250$ for it...

But, I dont see any oil leaking over there....other mechanics do not agree with this theory...not sure if he is true....

Kaci, u said that after you used the fuel injector cleaner the car stalls more...may be the fuel injector cleaner eats up the gaskette....the gaskette is made out of some kind of special paper the mechanic was saying...i too used the fuel injector cleaners a lot of times...because I was having poor mileage problem....

Should i beleive this mechanic...Help...

Thank you...


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## Kaci96 (May 29, 2005)

I haven't gotten the distributer replaced yet due to finances so it sits in my driveway at the moment. 

Never thought of a fuel injector gasket... it sounds like a plausable theory. I would like to take my car to the nissan dealer *THE ONE I TRUST* but I doubt it would even make it there. There are two dealers here and the one that I had it towed to in the first place is fishy I think. The other one that I trust has helped me when others said my timing chain was about to blow in the engine *it was a timing chain guide*

anyways... im rambling... if yours ends up being the gasket... let me know!! I am very interested!!


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

All-
The Nissan distributor's are prone to having problems over the life of the car, usually at 100,000 miles is when they develop problems along with the intake manifold gasket. Unfortunatley, Nissan has not recalled these parts. I agree that it is an exspensive part to purchase from a parts dealer. However, if you read through this forum you will see that buying an after market distributor, like the one from AutoZone or somewhere else is just not worth the headaches. I to went down this road mostly because of the cost, after going through 2 distributors in less than two months I purchased a new on from a nissan parts store,aka dealer. Because the ignition can cut out at any time, esp. when driving, this posses a saftey issue. If the cost is a financial burden, then it go on-line and price out a distributor or if there is a junk yard in your area see if you can remove one and use it. 
Frank


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## Vamsi79 (Jun 11, 2005)

Thank you Frank for your suggestions....i will begin with searching in junk yard....
- vamsi


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## bluebird_fan (Jul 2, 2005)

*Check ur IACV...*

if ur car stalls plz check and replace ur "Idle Air Control Valve" I did on my 93 nissan bluebird/altima GXE and its fine now. No stalling.
Dont get the part "IACV" clened. Just replace with a new on
The new one will cost almost 95$.


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