Thread: Nissan Sentra misses

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I know this is a sore spot with a Nissan, but I do own two
GM cars and a Ford trk, but just happen to own a 2003
Nissan sentra XE. It's been a good car but has been missing.
Parts store said #3 cyl had misfire. I changed the wire and
sparkplug with no change. This car will run perfect at times
and other times it will miss. Head gasket was replaced not long
ago. Can a coil or injector act up like this? Hate to spend big bucks
tracking down a miss in a 10 yr old car. Mileage is 150.000 and
ck engine light on.

could be the coil. I've worked on Fords that throw the same code and its almost always the coil.

At the end of the day mate, it is a Pissan and the only good thing that can happen to a Pissan is to aim a shot gun between it's eyes, headlights, and empty several rounds into it to put you and it out of misery....... Yes I have hated Pissans since the little Nipper designed them years ago.

I'm assuming that it's got individual coil packs for each cylinder, and if so the coil would be the first thing I'd look at. A coil can fire normally, and then break down and throw erratic mis-fires.

Nissan used an antiquated distributor and cam sensor design up into the early 00's and it caused misfires when the cam sensor went out

You kinda threw me when you said you changed the wire ? i guess you meant the coil boot ? Anyway that car uses coil on plug ignition and yes coil is a common failure. Easy way to tell is swap #3 coil with # 2 and see if miss moves with it. Also NGK spark plugs only with Jap cars or it'll give you grief. Also if you suspect injector, same deal just move #3 to # 2 as most 4 cylinders are easy to do that with.

Did a little research and found that it is common for a bad coil to take out the coil driver in the computer. So after swapping the coils and or injectors if miss remains on #3 you'll be looking at a computer swap. I am assuming that compression is good.

Well, I put on another coilpack and problem solved. Does anyone
know how to erase the codes on this type car? Thanks for all your
help.

Just pull the negative battery cable for about an hour.

Originally Posted by rdobbs

Well, I put on another coilpack and problem solved. Does anyone
know how to erase the codes on this type car? Thanks for all your
help.