Had a question maybe you can help me out.

I've owned my 2003 Infiniti M45 for almost two years now. It has about 87k miles and I do regular 3000 mile full synthetic Mobil 1 oil changes.

Early last summer I had an issue where if I would sit in 90 plus degree weather with the AC on, the car would overheat (while moving no overheating was occurring). Also a raspy ticking was coming from the water pump area. I checked the thermostat, radiator cap(for proper pressure) and it worked fine.

Later that summer, I made a 1500 mile trip in the M and the problem got worse. I took it to a local mechanic and he said that it was the water pump. I then took it to another mechanic who said that it was something else entirely. We then came to the conclusion that it was the hydrolic fan reservoir that had no fluid in it. So i filled it with Lucas synthetic power steering fluid (it fills very slowly), and the noise went away and the over heating was less apparent. Then I cleaned the space between the radiator and the condenser and no overheating has occurred since then.

Not to long after this, on a usual morning when I went to start the car, it started fine but when I went to press the accelerator, the car wouldn't go past 2-3 mph. I turned the car off then on again and it was fine after that. Later a couple of weeks after that, it started to happen more often till one day I had to turn the car off and on again over 20 times to get it to go back to normal. I took it to a mechanic that was recommended to me and he said that possibly my throttle body was going bad or dirty. So I cleaned it with throttle body cleaner. While cleaning, I moved the throttle flap open and close a few times to clean inside and around in there. It worked fine after that for a good while(although the idle was about 200 rpms higher than normal after the cleaning).

I noticed the check engine light went on and off for a month or so till finally it just stayed on till today.

This past fall, I took it to another mechanic who said that he knew how to fix this throttle body problem. He informed me that the TB was bad so i ordered a new OEM TB from infinitipartsonline.com ($440+).

I had him drop it in. He had some sort of a hand held pc that looked like a fat 13 inch LCD tv. he was able to shut off the injectors individually and view rpm's, temp, and other info while the car was running with this pc hooked up to the OBD port. The device he used had a slot to insert different chip style keys to it. He finished the job and said pay me and take the car and drive it and let me know how she feels.

This was around February of this year and up until recently(two or three weeks ago) I had no problems (except for the check engine light being on). Now, the car starts fine, but the idle is around 1250 to 1300 rpm's all the time and I only have about 30-40% power. Even at full throttle, it takes about 12 to 14 seconds to reach highway speeds. Shifting is erratic, and fuel mileage is horrible(6-7 mpg city). Also, above the 4500+ rpm range, the engine seems to not want to climb anymore. Almost like all the power is coming in at about 2500-3500 rpms. At times if i turn the ignition on and off a few times it will work fine. But 85% of the time its erratic. The VCS/SLIP and service engine soon lights are lit up.

I know for a fact that the mechanic didn't reflash or reprogram the ECU. He did reset the idle control but I don't think he did anything other than that.

How can I go about repairing this with as little money as possible? I'm not cheap, but I am unemployed due to lay off and my money is very limited.

Your help is priceless and i would owe you tons if you could help with any advice.

Thanks in advance.

-Jesse

It would be very helpful to know the code that's causing your "check engine" light to be on. Most of the parts stores like AutoZone will pull a code for you free of charge.

It sounds like your technician who installed the new throttle body knew what he was doing - what you describe sounds like a Nissan Consult - was it a Nissan or Infiniti specialty shop? Did he give you a warranty on the installation? The part should have a 12Month/12K warranty on it, but since you ordered it yourself - the tech. that installed it may not cover the labor on it.

If you're inclined to try to diagnose this yourself, the factory service manual is available at www.nicoclub.com/FSM/

Please get that code and we can go from there...

Heath