# 04 Nissan Frontier - Acceleration Problem



## cricket (Apr 18, 2005)

I bought a 2004 Nissan Frontier XE automatic recently and have noticed that the acceleration is seriously lacking in first gear. I have had the same engine (or a variation there of) in the last 4 Nissans I have owned, including an automatic hardbody XE, and have not noticed the problem before. 

The problem - When starting from a stop, or near stop, the engine bogs for a second or two before smoothly accelerating. I took it back to the dealer for its 1000K service and they found nothing. (I am not fully sure that they actually looked into it, because it was not on the service receipt.)

Any thoughts, ideas? Has anyone experienced this same problem?

Thanks for any help!


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## abmobil (Nov 22, 2004)

My 04 does it to. Seems to be normal. A guy i work with just bought a 04 just like mine and his does it to. As it gets some miles on it it will get better but every once in awile it will still do it. 
I got mine with 8 miles on it an it now has 17k on it but every so often it'll do exactly what you said.
Even though you had the same engine before the newer ecu's seem to play a huge role with how these engines respond. Somne people have said there titans do it to on occasion and its the torque management kicking in.
The titans make tons more power than our 4 cyl frontiers but i think its the same system on the frontier but i dont know why we would need it.
Our trucks are set up to get optimum fuel efficiency so the ecu seems to always be in a lean mode. When i hook my trailer up to my truck with 2 atvs on it, it seems to wake it up despite the extra weight.
These ecus are really sensitive and it does a good job towing especially for a 4 banger. 
Unhook the trailer and it accelerates briskly for the rest of the day until the ecu realizes the load is a lot less and goes back in to the fuel saving mode.
Hope this helps


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## abmobil (Nov 22, 2004)

Just realized that you have the automatic. Mine is the 5 speed but what your truck is doing still sounds normal from my experience with mine.
When mine first did it i thought it could be a throttle position sensor or something related so i had my friend hook his code scanner up and it passed all test.
Should get better with miles.


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## cricket (Apr 18, 2005)

Well at least it is not just me. Now that I think about it you are right, with a load it seems to be better. Last weekend I hauled 2 full sized dirt bikes and a ton of gear (not literal weight  ) and the truck did well even on the big hill passes.

Thanks for the info. Maybe if it really starts to annoy I will look into aftermarket chips, but I generally do not commute with it so I don't see that happening.


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## abmobil (Nov 22, 2004)

How many miles are on yours? I dont think you have anything to worry about since mine and my coworkers and now yours do the same thing but my coworkers only has 8k.


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## cryption (Aug 24, 2004)

it cpould also have to dowith gas

if you switch grades of gas your ECU gets confused. Stick with the same grade of gas ... i just use the regular old 87 and don't have the problem on my XE V-6


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## cricket (Apr 18, 2005)

Mine only has about 3K miles. ( It was the last new '04 on the lot.) I use 87 octane everytime. It's a good truck, just like the 1994 hardbody I had that I drove into the ground back in '02. It had 195,000 miles and was barely maintained for the first few years I had it. ( Young and cheap I was.)


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## abmobil (Nov 22, 2004)

Did your hardbody die or did you just want somthing new? 195k is alot but ive seen hardbodys go many more miles. 
I had a 97 hardbody SE king cab that had 150k on it with the orignal water pump, thermostat, and clutch. Everything was orignal except fluids and tune up stuff.
Would have driven to over 300k if it didnt get totaled last year!


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## cricket (Apr 18, 2005)

abmobil said:


> Did your hardbody die or did you just want somthing new? 195k is alot but ive seen hardbodys go many more miles.
> I had a 97 hardbody SE king cab that had 150k on it with the orignal water pump, thermostat, and clutch. Everything was orignal except fluids and tune up stuff.
> Would have driven to over 300k if it didnt get totaled last year!


No, dieing would be an exaggeration. It had problems overheating that started around 185,000 miles - probably the radiator was cracked. I was ready for a new car, so I used it as an excuse to buy another one ( '02 Xterra). The Xterra was great, but really bad at hauling motorcycles (I have nowhere to store a trailer) so I sold it and bought the Frontier recently. All of the above had the 4 banger (I also had a 240sx a while back) and all were great! Low maintenance and good gas mileage.


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