Guys,


I drive a 2002 Nissan Altima. I posted some issues here sometimes ago about the car. About a month ago, the car suddenly stopped on the road. It was diagnosed and the mechanic said the camshaft, MAF and O2 sensors are bad.

I changed the camshaft sensor and MAF sensor. The car has been fine since then.

A few days back, I was driving and as I made to negotiate a turn, the power went off, I turned off the ignition and put it on again and it came on. Yesterday, the power went off a couple of times on motion and it came back afterr a hard try.

The mechanic said to me on the phone that it may be becos we didnt change the O2 sensor. I used to think that O2 sensor cant make a car behave that way.

Auto Doctors, please advise,

.

Without seeing the vehicle, its hard to say. But i will narrow the problem to 2 area. The distributor area/component or the or the ignition or fuel pump relay. I had a similar problem with my relay long time ago with another nissan. It will just cut off during driving all of a sudden. I will have to wait for like 5 seconds and then restart it.

What i will do, if i were you is that try and switch around the relays (do one at a time. they are interchangeable) and see if the problem stop. Switch the fuel pump first. Drive for 2 days and see if problem stop. If not switch out the ignition relay etc.

The relay box should be very accessible without much hassle. Another major culprit is the distributor itself. Some of them are know to fail and creat such problem.

I am pretty sure your 02 sensor cannot create the type of problem you are describing. 02 is more for emission issues.

Good luck

^^^^

well like i always say im not an expert but ikeyman will always speak what he knows

kule got the answers to your wahala

1;its likely the ignition brushes in the key has worn out which stall your car if it doesnt work then 2

2;also check the emm fuel cut off relay; there might be bad soldering on it; this is usually associated with hard starting in honda cars as for bad soldering on its main relay cuz oxidation might give in instantly with the weather condition; eg in waking up in cold moring and your car playing hard to start; u feel me


but if u ask me i will rest my case on option one

therefore i can tell u that u have wasted your moeny on repairing wrong issues

this is by no way a sensor issue!!!! gbam

Thanks guys,

Can the issue be discovered thru diagnosis? So that I can have it diagnosed and bring back the codes to you experts here.

^^^^^

to be honest im not a mechanic or expert but commonsense rules

u are driving a car and it stall as it did!!! right

the issues u should be looking at has been highlighted and u best believe it!! it wouldnt cost u checking your ignition brushes which i believe its the wahala

main relay and distributor

as i know not all wahala are reported on the scanner!!

this is a straight foward issue

apart from distributor most of these component are under ur dash so whats the deal

@ikey,

Many thanks, I will have that checked 2moro.

@@@
no wahala
hahha u will be fine

Is it a similar issue that makes the car behave funny in the mornings or when I have packed it for a long time. By funny, I mean:

When I start it in the morning, instead of the RPM going up and then coming down like every normal car, my car starts on a low RPM (almost 0) and then struggles to balance up. Sometimes, it even dies like once or twice b4 picking up.

^^^^ definitely not

but let kule clearify issues on this one

Thanks Kunle, I will try those out and see where I get to,

Check codes again
FYI
http://www.samarins.com/diagnose/checkengine.html

There was a recall for Altimas to reprogram ecm, check if you have a sticker for that.

The recall is for sensors that shows the problems you've been having I thought I metioned it before
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/recalls/results.cfm

Check the MAF part number to make sure you replace with right part
Hitachi p/n W0133-1723137, OR Nissan 22680-AM600, 22680-CA000 (same sensor pins but different harness connector) or the older 22680-8J000

Gentlemen,

My mechanic pulled off some codes this morning:

PO300- RANDOM MISFIRE DETECTED

PO460- FUEL LEVEL SENSOR

POO57- H02S HEATER CONTROL CIRCUIT LOW (BANK2 SENSOR2)

P1572- NOT DEFINED

PO113- INTAKE AIR TEMPERATURE SENSOR HIGH INPUT

It is worthy to note that I changed the MAF and CAMSHAFT sensors about a month ago. Please advise on way forward and I also need to have an idea of how much each of these sensors cost so that he doesnt give me overbloated bill.


Also, please read the history and issues with the car in earlier posts on this same thread and advise if the issues I raised are caused by the failure of the sensors above or different issues altogether.

Kindly advise a brother sirs.

[size=13pt]Kunle are u an internet mechanic?[/size]

i think i will have to defer some of these issues to Siena. Some of them don pass me.

na wao! na so this nissan altima dey worry person? 

very flashy shape but underneath its something else!

I thought the O2 sensors were for emmissions

platinumnk:

I thought the O2 sensors were for emmissions

You're dead right, Plat, they are.

Back to the original query. Of all the items listed, only the CPS (camshaft position sensor) will stop the car from running. The CPS is only used upon start-up, for the injectors and coil packs to trigger in the right order, on the Altima, it's 1-3-4-2. Once the engine's running, the ECU has a base map to keep the engine running. The CPS failure will not stop the engine whilst it's running, it will certainly prevent it from firing, once it's switched off though.

The codes your mechanic pulled later in your post, will not prevent the car from running, or cause it to stall. The lambda sender will cause your emission control system to run open loop, with a base map. This will make your engine thirstier, and a bit sluggish at low to part throttle. Lambda has no control at high RPM, as it switches off, and runs open loop at this point. So, that's ruled out.

A faulty IAT (intake air temperature) sensor will cause an over rich mixture, so engine will be sluggish, and reluctant to rev, but it will start as normal, and not stall.

Random misfire will be caused by an over rich fuel mixture at low RPM, so can be safely ignored for now.

P1572 refers to your brake pedal switch. This is not just a regular brake lamp switch, it's also linked to the ECU, and fuel shut-off under certain conditions. It's possible your switch is faulty, or the connections / power feeding it are being interrupted periodically.

You mentioned the power went off a couple of times. Do you mean the car stalled, or the dash went completely dead? Another area to check would be your ignition switch itself, and / or earth connections under the steering column. Let's know how you get on.

@OP
I think the best thing is for the poster to have the O2 sensor changed. Its easier when one has a clean diagnosis, then see whats next.

Siena:

You're dead right, Plat, they are.

Yay!
Dang Sienna you're so smart about cars

Onwan:

@OP
I think the best thing is for the poster to have the O2 sensor changed. Its easier when one has a clean diagnosis, then see whats next.

Na, let him focus on whats making the car stop, he will fix the sensor for the engine light to go back on.

@Platinumnk
As long its a solution.

platinumnk:

Na, let him focus on whats making the car stop, he will fix the sensor for the engine light to go back on.  

Plat, is someone tutoring you there?   Because again, you're correct.

@Siena
Are you saying even with a clean diagnosis he can still have those issues? because I know those things can start from a simple P0141 to a lot of them if not sorted in time.

Thanks all,

@siena,

when the car stops in motion, the engine goes off but the battery indicator,engine oil indicator and other indicators show on the dash board and the AC continues to run. If I start it again, it starts and goes off. Sometimes, the RPM indicators is struglling to move up but it keeps coming down and eventually stalls again, After a while and some firing, it stays ok and moves on, When it finally picks, it may drive 5mins without any issues,

Its so sick, i feel like dumping the car.

From the thread, it seems the advise is not to change the sensors right away because the sensors are not the issues causing the car to stall in motion.

From Siena's post, i should check:

The ignition switch
Earth connection under the steering column
The brake lamp switch, its connections and the power feeding the switch

Another item that's ignition related (and doesn't always show up on a scan) is the crank[/b]shaft position sensor. Unlike the [b]cam[/b]shaft position sensor, this will always interrupt the ignition if it goes haywire. If it's very intermittent, the ECU may not flag it, and store it as a trouble code. Some OBD readers will not show it as a stored trouble code, but may show it as a [b]pending trouble code.

Onwan:

@Siena
Are you saying even with a clean diagnosis he can still have those issues? because I know those things can start from a simple P0141 to a lot of them if not sorted in time.

Onwan, not all trouble codes are flagged, and stored by the ECU. It all depends on how sporadic they are.

@siena,

are u saying i should change the crankshaft position sensor?

Nissan/Infiniti is prone to sensor issues. Mine at a time started with P0141 - even got that from my own tool before taking it to a shop. They had them erased and on ignition it came right up - the guy told me to drive off and ignore the lights and after 3 weeks they were 7 of those sensor codes and banks highlighted. I had them all changed and finally SES light hasn't come up ever since.

Like I said, its easier when you sort it now and change the sensors highlighted as a precaution to avoid things getting worse. Its just my experience with Nissan/Infiniti

@onwan,

What model do you use?