Help 01 Sentra stalls/won't start problem!

[sgetmanenko]

01 sentra 2.0 se. One day hesitating while driving, gave an evap code. Later, won't cold start. AAA comes over, has me turn the engine over, he gets down bangs on the gas tank, the car starts. So, I think it's the fuel pump.

Replaced the pump. $130. Aferwards, same problem. It can stall randomly on a highway, it can stall while idling. Some times it won't cold start. Took to the dealership. They inspected for 2 hours. $170. They say oil in in the distributor cutting the spark. Replaced distributor $220. Replaced the Spark Plugs. $10. Same story... hesitates while running randomly, sometimes stalls. Pretty dangerous when on highway, embarrassing at a stop light.

Here's the most interesting part. Once it stalls, if you keep the ignition key turned on and do nothing but sit there and wait, you eventually hear the fuel pump hum, like it's rebuilding fuel pressure. Then you turn the key, starts every time. When I cold start I always turn the ignition all the way on without cranking, if I hear the fuel pump, it will start, if I don't it won't.

Any thoughts? By the way, since dealership has cleared all the codes, no new codes have come up and it has stalled out a number of times. HELP!!!

[RED_DET]

It's without a doubt a fuel issue, fuel pump more than likely. Seems to be a problem with the electrical aspect though. Have you checked the relay for the fuel pump?

[nametakennow]

Have you had your VIN checked for the ECU foam recall?

Does it stall almost always right after filling up with gas?

[sgetmanenko]

Guys, thanks for checking in. Yea, I am leaning towards electrical fuel pump issue as well. The dealership said they checked all the relays. Do you all know where the fuel pump relay is? I can't find it. Next time it stalls, I will try to see whether there is current in the wires running to the pump while it is refusing to start and before it does...

I've checked for recalls--nothing. And it does not happen right after I fill up. Happens once every 8 miles or so...not like clock work but sort of rounding... Any other thoughts? I'd appreciate it.

Amendment: dealership never checked relays, even though they said they did. for relays read more below.
Modified by sgetmanenko at 7:06 PM 5/6/2008

[sgetmanenko]

Some More info:

So i took off the plastic cover, which hides a few relays, next to the fuse boxes below the dash. Two relays felt warm to the touch. I don't want to say they were hot but pretty dang warm. I took one of them out. Car starts up, power windows don't work. I haven't taken the car out, but I let it idle for 20 minutes or so. Seems to run. I am not saying it's not gonna die any more either. Any thoughts on these relays? Are they supposed to be hot? Especially one that controls power windows while I am not using them...
Modified by sgetmanenko at 1:26 PM 4/23/2008

[sgetmanenko]

Fellas,

What do you think of this:

http://www.marklamond.co.uk/te...y.htm

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq....html

[sgetmanenko]

So does anybody know where this "main relay" is?

[nametakennow]

I haven't heard of anything like this on a Sentra before. Seems plausible.

[sgetmanenko]

It's my wife's car and before we got married it was out of alignment for a long time. From reading those articles, seems like vibration is the big enemy of these relays...

[nametakennow]

Oh, and I can't say I know where it is, but the FSM will tell you better than I could anyway. Grab it from the link in my sig.

[sgetmanenko]

Awesome! Thanks a ton. Will post on results.

[sgetmanenko]

Alright. Thanks to everyone that helped and read. So after figuring out which relays were which, I went ahead and changed around a few of them. More specifically I swapped the fuel pump relay. ALso, I cracked the circuit braker open and cleaned it--had some funky film on it--no idea if that helped or not... However, so far (50 miles) no symptoms of the problem. Before there was no way I could have gone that far without stalling. I will have my fingers crossed for the future. But definitely if you experience intermittent stalls with no other symptoms to help you diagnose--consider the relays!! It's much easier to swap a couple of relays then to order and replace your fuel pump and distributor (which after all you didn't need). Good luck to all.

[sgetmanenko]

By the way to save you some time looking for the fuel pump relay..took me a while to find it. It is not next to all your in-cabin fuse box, although there are relays there, but it is where your left foot would rest on the floor. You will need to lift two plastic covers to get to it. I would have never thought there were relays down there!!! If you have a clutch, it's to the left of your clutch under the plastic on the left side kinda where you fender is. There are two relays there. The blue one is your fuel pump. The brown one is your defroster. From what I read the fuel pump relay on this Sentra, more or less, controls the entire injection system.

[nametakennow]

Great info, nice work!

[sgetmanenko]

Alright. DOn't know what happened but it drove for some time and then started doing the same thing again....So I traced the fuel pump relay. It is behind an ignition relay. So I switch the ignition relay...same story. Stalls randomly, then doesn't start but 5-10 later starts up again, runs like a champ. I try wiggling all sorts of wires while it's idling to see if it's a lose connection somewhere--nothing. Any thoughts? It totally has all the symptoms of something electric heating up and losing conductivity and then cooling and catching it again... When it stalls, it cuts out right away, like the spark is all together out...I was reading on some other site mentioned in the previous post. All the symptoms are identical to this:http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq....html

anybody know if sentras have something like this? meaning Main Relay?