# 96 Altima, 175k, dying while driving/rough idle. PLEASE HELP!



## vote4dalek (Jan 15, 2014)

Hey guys, thanks for accepting me into the forum. (Although I know no one else did, I had no other clever way of saying "Hey I am new here" soooo anyway)

I bought my daughter her first car for her 17th birthday and chose a 96 Altima that seemed to be in good shape. It was running great for a few months, even though it was run sparingly, and I've been trying to keep and eye on the oil as I was told these cars have a tendency to leak oil. So far, no grease spot under the car, seems OK.

Last week, my wife was driving it home and as she was pulling it into the driveway it just DIED on her. A single chug, and then complete lack of power. It was still in Drive. She thought that maybe she somehow accidentally shut it off, so she started it up, pulled in, and it was fine. Later that night I drove it, and it was fine.

I've driven it a few times since with no major issues other than squeaky belts, and yesterday I even drove it for a few hours stop and go, again no issues, no rough idles, no lack of power, nothing out of the ordinary for such an old car.

TODAY I decided to take it to the Autoparts store, and wouldn't-you-know-it, on the way there, for the FIRST time, it acted up.

After a red light I was attempting to accelerate and turn left and it chugged, I was giving it gas but it felt like it wasn't "catching" and it barely moved along. I turned on the hazards and prepared to pull over, did so, restarted it, and it was fine it restored to full power and seemed to move just fine. So I drove a few seconds more, to another stoplight and stopped. It was fine during the idle, it didn't chug, but as I tried to accelerate and turn left the same thing happened again, only this time it never caught back up, it just completely died, no power steering, nothing. I pulled over and attempted a restart, and it cranked, but nothing. After a few moments of panicking, I removed the keys, waited a minute and tried again; started just fine.

I was able to make it to the Auto Parts store where the guy pulled the codes. He gave me the list of things that was coding, but obviously couldn't pick out which one was causing my issues:

1. Oxygen Sensor, Bank 1, Sensor 1
2. Knock Sensor
3. Crank Shaft Position Sensor (My experience with cars is limited, but I suspect this thing as I've replaced it on two other vehicles)
4. "NISSAN" (The code didn't tell him what it mean, just said NISSAN
5. Gear 1 Incorrect Ratio

Now before I go spend a bunch of money I figured I would ask for some advice to see if anyone has had any of the same issues? I would like to try to replace these in order of "most likely" to "least likely" as the culprit for my problems.

In addition, the Gear 1 Incorrect Ratio scares me, as it seems all of the power failures seem to happen in the first gear. However the car is an automatic.


----------



## mdweiss (Jan 9, 2014)

Hello,

I am fairly inexperienced, but I do have a thread on my 94 Altima just a few below yours that sounds remarkably similar to your problem. Go ahead and read through my post and see if it matches up to some of your experiences. I think it may help.

Does the tachometer flail around when this problem occurs? 

As for the error codes, I am highly suspicious of the crankshaft position sensor.

If your tachometer is flailing during this issue, I suspect it is the crankshaft position sensor or something to do with electrical connections leading between the body of the car and the distributor (which houses the crankshaft position sensor).


----------



## Asleep (Jan 19, 2003)

This sounds like a classic distributor problem. Remove the distributor cap, remove the rotor and look under the plastic cover in there. If there's ANY oil ANYwhere under the distributor cap, you need a new distributor. I'm about 99% sure that the packing in the distributor went bad.


----------



## vote4dalek (Jan 15, 2014)

Asleep said:


> This sounds like a classic distributor problem. Remove the distributor cap, remove the rotor and look under the plastic cover in there. If there's ANY oil ANYwhere under the distributor cap, you need a new distributor. I'm about 99% sure that the packing in the distributor went bad.


OK did some work today:

Pulled the codes, still had the 5:

Oxygen Sensor 1/1
Knock Sensor
CrankShaft
EGR
Gear 1 Incorrect Ratio

After pulling the distributor, it was clean. (The bottom screw was very dirty but NO oil inside) We cleaned it and then put it back together.

We noticed that the 4th sparkplug cover wire thing was loose, and wasn't blocking air or dirt into the spark plug so we tightened it.

We Cleared the codes and bought and replaced the following:

AIR FILTER (was very dirty)
Cam Shaft Sensor

Afterwards the car started up fine, and drove great for abou 15 minutes. It got a good notch above "C" on the temp gauge, and we decided it was fixed and turned around to go home... when it decided to die.

And die again. We had to push it home.

Now, the only codes we are pulling are:

Knock Sensor
EGR Valve

Anyone got any ideas? I don't think the Knock Sensor would cause the issue here with stalling, but it seems like its having some timing issue.


----------



## worthirt (May 21, 2013)

It could be timing. I have a 94 Sentra. I found that there is a vacuum line on the bottom of the EGR (rubber) that likes to degrade. I ended up replacing mine and cleared that code.


----------



## vote4dalek (Jan 15, 2014)

worthirt said:


> It could be timing. I have a 94 Sentra. I found that there is a vacuum line on the bottom of the EGR (rubber) that likes to degrade. I ended up replacing mine and cleared that code.


Do you have a chart or a photo of this part?


----------



## Coops5478 (Feb 1, 2014)

Check out the things above first, but if you're still not getting anywhere, then I would consider looking at the mass air flow sensor. My 97 pretty much did what yours did - after driving a little while, if I slowed down it would just die. Pulled all the codes - similar to what you had - eventually took it to the Nissan dealer's shop and they thought it was the distributor... got a new distributor and it still did it.

Eventually I read (I'm sure there are posts here on it) that the mass air flow sensor can have issues - there was never code pulled for a problem with it, but I decided to try swap it out for one I found at a salvage yard for $80. I've been driving with that same MAF sensor now for 7 years without a problem.


----------



## vote4dalek (Jan 15, 2014)

Coops5478 said:


> Check out the things above first, but if you're still not getting anywhere, then I would consider looking at the mass air flow sensor. My 97 pretty much did what yours did - after driving a little while, if I slowed down it would just die. Pulled all the codes - similar to what you had - eventually took it to the Nissan dealer's shop and they thought it was the distributor... got a new distributor and it still did it.
> 
> Eventually I read (I'm sure there are posts here on it) that the mass air flow sensor can have issues - there was never code pulled for a problem with it, but I decided to try swap it out for one I found at a salvage yard for $80. I've been driving with that same MAF sensor now for 7 years without a problem.





Coops5478 said:


> Check out the things above first, but if you're still not getting anywhere, then I would consider looking at the mass air flow sensor. My 97 pretty much did what yours did - after driving a little while, if I slowed down it would just die. Pulled all the codes - similar to what you had - eventually took it to the Nissan dealer's shop and they thought it was the distributor... got a new distributor and it still did it.
> 
> Eventually I read (I'm sure there are posts here on it) that the mass air flow sensor can have issues - there was never code pulled for a problem with it, but I decided to try swap it out for one I found at a salvage yard for $80. I've been driving with that same MAF sensor now for 7 years without a problem.


Tahnks for the info, it's still cheaper than the distributor, and I found out the distributor has been replaced on this care before.

We did some work today and ran into ANOTHER issue - Pulling the spark plugs created a fountain of oil in the spark plugs wires, so there is likely a leaky gasket. Hopefully it's just the top valve gasket that I can do and not the head gasket. We still replaced the sparkplugs (no oil seemed to get down into the active part of the plug) and the distributor cap - same issues with starting but not letting it go anywhere.

Tomorrow we will replace the spark plug wires and the gasket.


----------



## vote4dalek (Jan 15, 2014)

Hey guys, so we replaced the sparkplug wires and gasket but it didnt help. I believe it might be the Mass Airflow or the Distributor. Can anyone give me some insight on which would is more likely?

Car can start and IDLE completely fine now. HOWEVER it wont accept any gas without it stalling once it hits the 1kRPM mark. It doesnt die, just wont keep accelerating.

Also it seems to be running more hot than normal, but the fan doesnt kick on until I turn the AC unit on... which tends to freeze up the metal AC hose. 

What a mess, anyone got some insight?

ALSO what does everyone think of this? MUCH cheaper than a regular place, but is it legit?

http://www.discountbodyparts.com/ca...ibutor/1996/ARBN314101.html?dbpcid=productads


----------

