1999 nissan pathfinder wont start

[grizzlyman43]

I have a 99 pathfinder, that ran and ran up until a month ago, when it started running rough, and it was acting like it was only running on a couple of cylinders, and i couldn't go over 35 mph in it... it would die at the red light, and i would re start ti, but have to rev the engine to keep it running and throw it into gear to get it started rolling without dying... i thought i could be bad gas, but i filled the tank with some known good gas, and it didn't help.,... then it got to where it would hardly run at all, and i couldn't get it to do more than about 15mph.... i went to church, after driving it there, and when i came out, ( about 1 1/2 hours later) i felt something funny in the floorboards... i got out, looked down there, and the floor mat had a hole burnt through t... i lifted the floor mat, and found the carpet underneath to be simple just ash.... this is right over the left catalyc converter ... i have asked a couple of shops what they would charge to replace the converters on this vehicle, but they all say, oh no, you dont need a converter, you need to pay me large amounts of money to run an extensive diagnostic on your vehicle which may or may not give me an idea what's wrong with it !!! i've had this kind of thing happen to a 84 cavalier ( chevy) i had before, and it also wouldn't do more than about 25 mph,, until i changed the convertor, and it ran like new after that... the truck tries to start, it fires, but never quite catches, and just keeps turning over... but it will fire a few times in each attempt... i have gotten permission to surrender the vehicle to the state as a polluting vehicle, but they require i drive it in to the junk yard under it's own power to qualify for the fee they will pay for it... i don't want to pay hundreds of dollars to fix this, because i intend to use the money from it to get another vehicle... has anyone out there had this experience, and what did you do to fix it ? i just need the truck to go about another 50 miles, tops.... not even that much really.... any suggestions would surely be appreciated... thanks...

[elwesso]

You could remove the o2 sensors and see if that causes it to start. That would confirm the cats are bad.

[grizzlyman43]

where would i find those located on the vehicle ?

[Mark Sheriff]

here are the locations :


the other two are under the hood near the header and before the cats.

[blkqx4]

Please check your distributor i had a similar problem it was the distributor. Also dont buy ebay distributors make sure u get a good one