# 96 Altima - no spark - intermintent problem



## stevem5000 (Apr 16, 2003)

I bought a 96 Altima for my daughter in college about 500 miles away from home...

90,000 miles, appears to be in very good condition, runs very smooth...

She drove it to school, and around for a couple more weeks, put about 1000 miles on since I bought it...

Driving down the street, it lost power, then died...it would not start...
She called me on my cell phone, I had her put her cell phone under the hood and had her crank the engine...no sound of firing on the plugs at all...turns over and over and over...

Towed it to garage that the college uses for the kids...

The mechanic started it up, ran great then stalled and stopped...he decided it was the catalytic converter, I disagreed..he did more testing and now it starts up and runs consistantly...doesn;'t stall, getting plenty of spark...

What we don;t know is what caused the engine to die in the first place...

He put the ODB on but no malfunctioning codes show up...Not sure what to do...right now it's running but I have no idea if it will keep running...

I am thinking coil first, then distributer second...

Since this is a mechanic I don;t know and I can't gt to the car to check it myself, I have to rely on a mechanic I never met and doesn't strike me very positively...

Am open for ideas as to the problem...and how to solve it...

I have to get this fixed by Tues am as she needs to drive to Detroit to catch the airplane home for Tday...

maybe someone has had something similiar...

Thanx
Steve


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## Nismo5042 (Nov 18, 2003)

*about the problem*

when it died did it just all up and die or did it sputter and then stall. if it just all up and died it could be your crank sensor. and that would also cause your car not to start back up again. because you crank sensor it what tells your ignition to fire. so if that is bad it won't tell your car to fire. thats just a possibility. but we just got done going over this stuff at school. im going to wyo-tech which is an automotive school. so if you could get me more info on whats going on with it. i could try to diagnos it for you.


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## stevem5000 (Apr 16, 2003)

Thanx for the idea...

I agree...however, the car is running again...and the mechanic did not do anything...!!!

If the crank sensor went bad, it would loose spark to the plugs...but it also would not come back...

From what my daughter tells me, she was going about 25 or so down a residential street close to the college...it started running rough, she thinks it was missing...I don;t know if that's true...then it died...I think this happened in the space of about 1 block...

It would not start...

That';s when she called me and I listened to it crank on my cell phone...I could NOT hear it fireing...

AFTER it was towed to the mechanic, he was able to start it again...ran for a few minutes then died...he took the exhaust off in front of the catalytic converter, it started up and ran for a while...he thought it was the converter building up too much back pressure...

That's bogus...a plugged up converter will let the car idle, although it may be rough, but it will NOT stop the spark from getting to the plugs...it will NOT prevent the car from starting...

He told me he wanted $900 and basically I told him [email protected]#$%...of course, now I don't have him on "my side"...

Next day he called me back and said his diagnosis was wrong as he had it sitting outside and running for about 45 minutes with the exhaust on and it was ideling just fine...

At one point when it was not running he could not get spark to the plugs...

So...the problem remains...it is intermitent...comes and goes...
might be computer related,,,maybe it "hiccuped" a little and now everything is fine...but I have to do something to feel like it is reliable...

So...any additional thoughts are appreciated...

Thanx
Steve


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## Nismo5042 (Nov 18, 2003)

*about the problem*

it still could be the crank sensor because i had a buick that the crank sensor was bad on and it would start right away after i shut it off but if you wait a while it would fire right up. also i dunno if you already told me or not but did you take the plugs out and hook it up to the plug wire and see if there was any spark? also is it a dis system or does it have a distributor?


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## stevem5000 (Apr 16, 2003)

At one point when it was NOT running, the mechanic said he could NOT get spark at the plugs...

But now it's running fine...

I talked to him this afternoon, he ran the computer and OBD and the only code that showed up was the O2 sensor was a little out of whack, but that would not prevent spark from getting to the plugs...it would just run rich...

Everything else is fine...so he says...

The mechanic is going to drive it this weekend and see if it stops again...
We want to get the coil hot, it sits close to the block, and if it stops we will replace the coil on the theory that the heat is expanding the plastic case and causing an open circuit...

I doubt that's the case, but I have heard of it happening...and of the 2 dozen cars or so cars I have owned over the past 40 years, it has never happened to me, and I only remember replacing one coil on all of my cars...

So, we'll see what happens...

Thanx for your input...
Steve


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## shortycircuit (Jan 15, 2010)

*solved?*

Hey guys,

I know this thread was from a long time ago, but worth a shot. I have the same systems for the last year. Replaced the distributor, but it died again one me a couple days ago and I got a check engine light. Wondering if you got a solution to yuor problem posted here?

The light said a camshaft sensor (which I think is in the distributor for my 97 altima) and a knock sensor which i think just went off becase of the other code. 

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

~circuit


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