# Rough Idle Problem!!!



## roughidle (Jul 18, 2006)

Hello, I own a 93 Nissan Altima GXE. I've had it for about 6 years. It's always seemed to have a slight rough idle, but over the past year it's become gradually worse and I'm afraid it's going to stall soon... A while back it became worse and I had the injectors replaced. Recently, I've cleaned out the dist cap and rotor. No oil in there. Changed the spark plugs, fuel filter and also replaced the O2 sensor. I've replaced as many vacuum hoses as possible. the symptoms are of course, the roughidle. It seems to get better when the air conditioning is on but almost stalls if i put it in reverse... I'm kinda ruling out the fuel pump, becuase im thinking it wouldnt ride smooth if it was that, it drives very nicely, but idles way rough. The computer said the o2 sensor needed to be replaced, did that, and no more trouble codes now. i found a minor gas leak coming from under the car where the tank is, not sure where the hose is connected to, but if its a hose, im thinking it wouldnt cause the idle to be that rough. im going to check the maf, sense i've been hearing that might be the problem, but i'm not high on that choice. im thinking it could be the throttle body or the iacv among others. any help would be greatly appreciated!!!


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## Darktide (Jul 29, 2004)

spray carb clean around the valve cover as it sounds like you do actually have a vacuum leak coming from there. It makes sense that the AC would make it better because when the AC kicks on the car idles higher so it'll override the issue. As for the reverse problem, the car will idle lower in reverse since it is such a low gear and it takes a lot to move the car making the engine more prone to those types of issues. 

Good luck

Darktide


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## roughidle (Jul 18, 2006)

*Cured?*

Yes, you were right. There was a leak, it was the intake manifold gasket. I need my car for work like most people so I took it to a nissan dealer and they diagnosed it correctly. Although... i ddin't get it done there. they quoted me 700 bucks for the job. I went to sun devil auto and got it done for 360. crazy man. but, it seems about 95 percent fixed. it has a extremely minor rough idle now. its almost not noticable. but its still there. i dont think its that hard to install a gasket. but i'm starting to think it might be something else as well. the only thing i can think of is the iacv, or maybe something else slowly going.


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

Since your having the intake gasket replaced, not an easy job as you mentioned, you might as well have the PVC valve replaced and the IACv cleaned out and inspected.


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