# 94 Altima died without warning.



## TXTracker (Jan 3, 2006)

I was driving home just after midnight New Years day when all of a sudden my engine just died. No sputtering, weird sounds, or anything like that. I threw the car into neutral because I was going about 40 mph and sucessfully restarted the engine. There wasn't any hestitation or anything, it just started right back up. The about a mile or so down the road it died again. This time it didn't start back up. I ended up pushing the car into a parking lot and continued to try and get it started but no dice. The engine turns over just fine but it's not even attempting to catch.

Next morning I have a friend drop me off at the car. I get inside and it starts right up with no hesitation! The engine was running just fine. No sputtering, no weird noises, nothing but normal operation. I let it run for 5 minutes. Of course I was hesitant to drive it because I didn't want to get stuck in an inoppertune place, so I just turned it off. After a minute or so I tried to restart it. NOTHING. Well, the engine turns over just fine but once again there is no attempt to fire. I tried this several times but still nothing.

Later that day I called a tow truck to take it to a garage to be serviced. When the tow truck arrived I decided to start it for kicks. Well, one again it started right up. I then explained to the tow truck driver that I'm not crazy and proceeded to demonstrate. So I shut it off, waited a minute, and then restarted. Once again it started right up and all was normal. I told the truck driver to tow it to the gararge anyway because I didn't trust it.

Today the garage called me to tell me it's the ignition module which is located on the top of the air intake. I told them I'd get a new one and put it in myself if that's all it is. So I went down to Autozone, bought the part, and went to the garage. When I arrived at the garage they offered to connect the part free of charge. A few minutes later I happened to notice a puzzled look on the mechanics face so I went into the bay to find out what was wrong. He said it's not working. I then asked him if it might be the ignition coil? He said it could be. So I ran back to Autozone swapped out the module for the coil. I get back to the garage and we connect the coil. NOTHING! The mechanic said that the guy who originally did the diagnostic won't be in until tomorrow morning so I have to wait.

Anyone have any idea what is going on? Incidently I did take the distributor cap off prior to having the car towed. There was a slight bit of oil on the bottom side around the screw area, but none actually in the distributor cap, or on the outside of the rotor. If it were possibly an oil in the distributor problem wouldn't I have had some warning signs like bad idle, misfires, etc? It's just so weird because the problem is so cut and dry; Runs fine or not at all. Lastly, just to make sure it wasn't a bad fuel pump, I took the gas cap off and noticed that the tank was in fact pressurized. So I'm assuming it's not that based on the pressurized tank and the fact that the car never sputtered or anything like that. Am I wrong?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## gfriedman (Oct 12, 2005)

IF you saw any oil in the distributor that can't be good. There is supposed to be NO oil in the ditributor. The oil seal is further down inside you should have looked further down.


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## KA24Tech (Feb 2, 2004)

I agree it is the old oil in the distributor. Check inside the distributor and below the metal plate under the rotor cover. That is where the crank angle sensor is located and spray it out with electrical contact and parts cleaner.
Replacement of the distributor is suggested and a factory rebuilt part is recommended. http://www.courtesyparts.com/altima/U13_engine-electrical.html


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