# 96 Altima misfires,loses power and RPMS



## 16paws (Sep 25, 2004)

Hi All, 

I bought a 96 Altima a week ago for a second car. Its an automatic with 82K miles. It has had 3 episodes of while driving, the acceleration cuts out, RPM's are rough and going up and down, sputtering, no power, no acceleration. I had to have it towed to the dealer and they diagnosed from the engine computer it was bad plugs and wires which they replaced. Low and behold, I was driving it today, the engine light is on, and it started to stall, sputter and then loose power on the highway. I managed to drive it on the shoulder for about 2 miles then it started to fire properly so that I could get home. Any idea what this could be. I asked for my $$ back since I only purchased it a week ago and they dealer gives me the run around, they want to fix it. Obviously they did not do a very good job. Any suggestions.


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## motorgirl (Oct 20, 2004)

16paws said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I bought a 96 Altima a week ago for a second car. Its an automatic with 82K miles. It has had 3 episodes of while driving, the acceleration cuts out, RPM's are rough and going up and down, sputtering, no power, no acceleration. I had to have it towed to the dealer and they diagnosed from the engine computer it was bad plugs and wires which they replaced. Low and behold, I was driving it today, the engine light is on, and it started to stall, sputter and then loose power on the highway. I managed to drive it on the shoulder for about 2 miles then it started to fire properly so that I could get home. Any idea what this could be. I asked for my $$ back since I only purchased it a week ago and they dealer gives me the run around, they want to fix it. Obviously they did not do a very good job. Any suggestions.


hm...i'm surprised they didn't check the distributor, my boyfriend has a '96 alty and it's got about the same mileage and we had to do a full tuneup to fix pretty much the same problems. so yeah, try replacing the distributor cap and rotor, it's pretty easy and not very expensive. oh, and if the battery light starts coming on and the car starts dying, replace the alternator, we had to do that too


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## SPEEDO (Jun 9, 2003)

word of warning.... buy the Nissan cap & rotor. Most Nissans do not like the aftermarket stuff! Also a common problem is the distributor itself, oil gets up inside it and causes problems.....


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## jserrano (Oct 27, 2004)

Through away those POS Bosch spark plug wires because they are probably popping out of the spark plugs.


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## shivinderaujla (Nov 10, 2007)

*95 nissan altima stalling*

i have a 95 nissan altima which started stalling and the rpm were fluctuating, few days ago. i asked a couple of mechanics and all have mostly done the diagnostics and revealed that a new distributor was needed (crank sensor code and stuff). after changing the distributor for $225 the problem persisted. then they ran the diagnostics again and found out that its the knock sensor. labor for replacing a knock sensor is around $250 and knock sensor itself is $90. all of this is proving pretty costly for me. this is my issue, hopefully it will lead you somewhere. if you have any suggestions, please post.


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## Unbalanced (Oct 4, 2007)

My car starts misfiring if i leave it too long for a service and tune. When I first got it was quite bad, got it serviced and tuned and now, 3 months down the track, i can feel it starting to lightly misfire at time, so time for a service and tune! lol


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## alraqib (Oct 26, 2007)

*16paws*, those symptoms sound to me like your EGR is failing, or you have a vacuum leak somewhere in that system. Do the problems start when the car is warmed up and/or at highway speed?
*
shivinderaujla*, you can get a knock sensor at rockauto.com or Ebay for $60.00, but I doubt that is what is causing the problem. I replaced my KS, which was bad (big crack in it) and it didn't cure the idle problems, it just got rid of the code. It turned out to be intake manifold gasket. Spray some carb cleaner around the intake at cylinder #4 (drivers side), which is usually where it will leak the worst. If your idle smooths out, you've found the problem.

BTW, replacing the KS is a pain, but you can do it. I went from underneath with a 10mm open end wrench. I had to use a make shift extension to break it loose, but once I did I just threaded the bolt out by hand. There is an air tube (IACV) in the way, but you can get the bolt out over it with a little jiggling. 
Putting it back in is a bit harder, because it's a one handed, blind operation. You have to put the bolt thru the KS and slide it into place and feel around until the bolt "finds" the hole, and carefully start the threads. Once you get that far:idhitit:, just snug it back down.
I don't want to make it sound too easy, it took me about 1 hour or so and it's definitely frustrating.


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## x60079 (Aug 20, 2007)

shivinderaujla, the knock sensor is not a part that you want to replace unless you are certain that it is at fault. There is a component check for that item, check for 500 - 620kohms of resistance between the left teminal (A) and ground. If the component checks good, then make sure the ks is secure on the block and check the wiring back to the ecm. If your knock sensor code does not go away and drivability issues persist. I would try filling up with 93 octane gas and unplugging the knock sensor.


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## Sweetmocha (Nov 4, 2014)

alraqib said:


> *16paws*, those symptoms sound to me like your EGR is failing, or you have a vacuum leak somewhere in that system. Do the problems start when the car is warmed up and/or at highway speed?
> *
> shivinderaujla*, you can get a knock sensor at rockauto.com or Ebay for $60.00, but I doubt that is what is causing the problem. I replaced my KS, which was bad (big crack in it) and it didn't cure the idle problems, it just got rid of the code. It turned out to be intake manifold gasket. Spray some carb cleaner around the intake at cylinder #4 (drivers side), which is usually where it will leak the worst. If your idle smooths out, you've found the problem.
> 
> ...


My Daughter has a 95 Altima, runns fine until it warms up, about 20 minutes, then it loosses power and shakes, but only after using it for a few minutes, couple of miles no problem, then she better let it rest till it cools down otherwise forget it, Help!


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