Thread: 1997 Nissan Pickup Missfire

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I have a 1997 nissan extended cab pickup with about 130000 miles on it and is missing pretty bad. I was driving one day and the engine stopped completely and would not start. I put in new plugs and it ran but had a little miss to it, so i put new wires in and it stilled missed. I then put in a new distributor cap and rotor, but it still misses. I plugged it into a computer reader at Advanced Auto and it said it was missfiring on cylinder 4 and my catalyst was under par. I have had the check engine light on for about three months for the catalytic converter(i don't know if that has anything to do with it). It will still start and run fine, but everyonce in a while when i stress the engine like shifting too soon it will miss really bad and the service engine soon light starts flashing, and then if i let off and downshift like from 5th to 2nd gear it's fine again like a nothings wrong. I can be driving regularly with no problems but then when i stop and let the engine idle it starts missing again. I'm desperate for a solution and hoping someone here can help me out.

Man, I really wish I had a suggestion for you, but these newer cars with computers and fuel injection are so complicated it can be ANYTHING in there that is causing problems.

I just went through the same issue with my daily driver Honda Accord. Every once in a while the check engine light would come on and it would start breaking up badly. If I shut it off and restarted it the car would run fine until the next time it happened...........I never knew if that would be a day or a week. Finally took it to a shop down the road from my shop, because I know NOTHING about the newer cars. He replaced some ISC motor (sensor thingie) and it cost me $ 446.00. On the way home it did the same thing!

I got on line, and some people suggested a new fuel pump relay...........$ 99.00 later I had one, but it did the same thing a few days later. I did a complete tune up and changed the fuel filter (what a B**** of a job THAT is on a Honda) and spent another $ 156.00 on parts. A little while later the check engine light came back on and the problem resurfaced.

Finally, I spoke to a Service Advisor at Honda and he mentioned some Hondas had a recall on the ignition switch, so I went to his parts dept and bought one......... $ 60.00 more. That did the trick. I have now put over 1,000 miles on the car (two long trips to Lauderdale and back in there) and the car runs great. When I tore my old ignition switch apart I found the contacts were worn, evidently at times not sending enough juice to the computer or something.

The reason I am including my story into your thread is that, if I had to do it over I should have gone right to a Honda dealer and let them fix it in the first place. They work on them all day and have the test equipment and experience to fix them properly. I was afraid the tab would be too high by going there, but I ended up spending about $ 760 anyway, so I probably didn't save anything at all.

If no one here has a clear cut suggestion for you I would maybe try to find a Nissan forum..........just type Nissan Forums in Google and I bet there are some. I did that on the Honda and found lots of helpful people there, but unfortunately none had seen my exact problem. The days of us backyard tinkerers trying to fix newer, more complicated cars are over. There are so many sensors and computer related parts that any one of them can be the source of your problem.

Sorry for the long read, but I wanted you to have as much info as possible so you can make a good decision.

Don

The not knowing and trying to solve the problem can run into money. I had a problem on my truck 351 Ford it would not stay running. I posed the question and that had happen to someone with a similar problem, said it was the brain box. $100 or close to it, same thing again. Then I put a new ignition switch on and it was fine. The old cars we knew what it was just by being around them and they were pretty simple. I didn't know anything about fuel injection but I've taken them out and it's not as bad as I thought. I have so many things to replace on the cars we are driving. I bought a special tool to take the clutch and coil off from the air conditioner on a 98 Cavalier. Now my wife has another 99 Cavalier and after filling it with freon the clutch and coil is making the same noise so I’ll have to replace it. I have a water pump to put on the 95 Olds she wants to hold on to plus a master cylinder. If I could put all of that effort into one of the project cars I might see some headway.

I replaced the fuel filter on the 99 Cavalier by the gas tank and I’ll agree it was a job.

Richard

I replaced the fuel filter on the 99 Cavalier by the gas tank and I’ll agree it was a job.

Richard[/QUOTE]


I still have scars, cuts, and bruises on my forearms from changing the Honda filter. They put it in the worst possible spot, down under the master cylinder. Like you, I had to borrow a special crow foot line wrench to break the line loose, and even at that I didn't think it would come loose.

New cars are so hard to work on compared to the older ones.

Don

ok the first step compression test make sure you have good compression on all the cyl. if that is ok start the eng take an ice pick and a jumper wire with alligator clips clip one end to the ice pick and the other end to the eng. slide the ice pick down the plug wire boots and that will ground the spark do that one at a time and listen for rpm drop when you find one that does not drop you probably have a bad injector on that cyl. pull the injector out with the wire hooked to the injector put it in a clear bottle start the eng. for a minute and observe if is flowing fuel if all that checks out you probably have a plugged cat. if you shop around at muffler shops you can have an after market one installed for 80 to 100 bucks and you will need to replace the o2 sensor also if it has never been changed that maybe what caused this prob. the life span of an o2 sensor is 60 to 100k so its over due hope this helps let us know ....ted

ted dehaan,

I think your right with the 02 sensor. My wife's 99 Cavalier was running bad would stall at a stop. When you had it going you could punch it and it would respond but low rpm would die. I changed the fuel filter, put injector cleaner in but the 02 did the trick.

Richard

To make things more complex i replaced the fuel filter and swapped the plug and injector from cylinder 4 to different cylinders to see if the missfire would move. Then i had a guy scan and clear the codes and now the service engine soon light wont come on for anything but a bad catalytic. Another weird thing it will only missfire if a mash the gas. If i ease in it seems to be fine. I set the cruise and cruised for a while and increased the speed one mph or one click at a time. Then i hit the increase speed button 5 times, i started to speed up but then started missfiring again. I canceled the cruise eased into the gas and everything was fine again.

I would still try the 02 sensor first even if that's not the problem it soon would be with the miles you indicated. Even if it were the catalytic converter you would need the 02 sensor sooner or later.

I have a 95 olds with 257,000 mile same Cat, I don’t think they go out as much as the dealers want you to believe. I could be wrong but all my years I have never replaced one.

You may even check the fuel pump more the likely it's in the tank.

Richard

the cat is plugged the o2 sensor has to be able to change from rich to lean vary rapidly so the computer can meter the proper fuel mixture this change is called cross counts the older the o2 gets the slower it can respond so you end up with a rich mixture that the cat cant burn the cat is an after burner with the rich mixture there is not enough oxygen left over in the combustion cycle for the cat to get up to temp and burn it off so it coats the catalyst in the converter and it can no longer work and plug's up ad to that this car was driven a long time with the check eng. light on any time that light is on that takes the computer out of the loop and the eng. runs on preset values witch are dead rich and retarded timing that is called limp in mode when that greatly adds to the problem hence the terms open loop (no computer control its running on the prom ) and closed loop when (the computer is controlling the eng.) this is why it is SO important to service your car SOON after that light comes on my best assessment is the cat is dead......ted

I'm gonna try to get my exhaust redone this week. I'll you guys posted.

ted,

I never really knew all of that, I was just going from changing parts in the past like the process of elimination and from what friends working in the shops or parts stores would suggest. The way you described the working of the O2 sensor, I would take your advice and go with the catalytic converter.

The check engine light came on in the 99 Cavalier and when the O2 sensor was change by my friend it went out. He put his tester on and the O2 had a low reading.

I had a 85 Thunderbird it was about 3 years old we starting having trouble with it. I took it to a Ford garage and they put a fuel gate on it $250 or $300 I can't remember. I just left the parking lot of the Ford garage and the car did the same thing-missing running bad. I took the car back they did another check and said you need a fuel pump over $400 I was upset! They said they could only do what the test code calls for. When I can ovoid going to the garage I try parts changing or someone's idea like you are giving here. That's a good idea about getting a converter from another car, maybe a car that was wrecked with lower miles should be ok, never thought about that.

Thanks for posting the information it is always appreciated.

Richard

So i got my pickup back from the local TMA on friday after getting a ne catalytic converter, new muffler, and a new exhaust manifold for $661.44, or something like that. The old exhaust manifold looked like it was twisted. The crack went almost all of the way around and had several cracks coming off of the main one. After seeing such a severe problem i hoped that my pickup would now run fine, but it still runs like shit on idle. The rpms jump from about 600 to 900 and the engine nearly dies sometimes. When i turn on the air conditioning it worsens the idle even more. It sounds like a V8 with big cam, you know kinda lopey. So after a couple of days of sulking i got a hair up my ass to figure it out, and today when i take a look at the engine i notice that a hose that is supposed to be hooked to the back of the exhaust manifold is not. I'm thinking it's the EGR tube but i'm not sure, it runs over to a diaphram thing on the other side of the engine behind the carb. Now i don't know if they tried to hook that up or not, but theres a shitty looking piece of hose on there that looks like garden hose and the idiots couldn't even cut it good. There are also two hose clamps that a lose but in position. I'm going to hook it up appropriately and see it fixes the problem. What do you guys think, will it fix it? I'm also going to start a new thread so we can bitch about the quality of work we hire out anymore.

Originally Posted by ford2custom

ted dehaan,

I think your right with the 02 sensor. My wife's 99 Cavalier was running bad would stall at a stop. When you had it going you could punch it and it would respond but low rpm would die. I changed the fuel filter, put injector cleaner in but the 02 did the trick.

Richard

Yeah, did the same thing, replaced the oxygen sensor and the air filter as well. The guys at the shop didn't do a good job ha. Good luck.

I was just wondering.....why dont ppl take their cars to reputable repair shops when they have driveablity issues or no start problems? Instead of throwing a bunch of parts at it ...hoping to fix it...It amazes me when I read threads like this. Usuually the excuse is lack of funds. Well you have proven that you have the funds..and they were spent in the wrong place.

Please explain this....