2012 Infiniti M37x idling rough, not accelerating or barely accelerating, RPMs going crazy, VDC & Service Engine Soon...

[NoTalentLoser]

I have a 2012 M37x that has a little over 60,000 miles on it. When I drove it yesterday, everything was running fine until I had to stop at a red light. After the light turned green, I pressed the gas pedal and the car had literally no acceleration (it didn't rev the engine at all). I had to maneuver the car off to the side of the road. I turned it off and started it again, and after I restarted it it did accelerate, but in a strange way. It was like the gas pedal wasn't as sensitive to being pressed, and it felt like the engine was almost being limited by something. I drove about another half mile and parked.

I got back in the car and started it up about an hour later, and I first let it idle for a few minutes. It seemed to idle kind of roughly, and the RPM gauge needle seemed to be unstable, flittering above/below the 0.5k RPM mark. I drove it around the parking lot for a few minutes, and it seemed like it didn't want to accelerate above 2.5k - 3k RPMs. I managed to drive it a couple miles home, but on the way home, it almost stalled at a red light and had a very hard time accelerating from the light; even though it accelerated slowly, the RPMs seemed to randomly shoot up to 4k-5k. I got behind someone who was driving really slow (~30 mph or less) and it also seemed like the car wanted to stall then.

After I got home, I turned off the car and let it sit for about 25 minutes. When I started the car back up, it still had the same weird acceleration issue, and this time the VDC warning light and Service Engine Soon light both came on. I had barely driven up the road at this point, so I just turned around and went back home. I haven't driven the car since.

Does anyone know what this could be? My powertrain warranty expires in April... hopefully any repairs will be covered under that. Hope that it won't be something serious.

Thanks

[Snake31]

I would schedule an appointment at the dealer since it is still under warranty. While you wait for your appointment date you could check the diagnostic trouble code at autozone or some other parts store for free. Perhaps a bad MAF or MAP sensor or circuit problem?

You say your warranty expires in April but your car is a 2012, I thought the power train was for 72 months/70k miles?

[NoTalentLoser]

Thanks for the suggestion. Hmmm, maybe the warranty doesn't expire until April 2018; for some reason, after I bought the car (used) and had an Infiniti dealership look-up the VIN on their computer system, I thought I remember them saying that the powertrain warranty expired in April of 2017. Maybe I'm confused and they were actually referring to the bumper-to-bumper warranty. If so, then I'll also have the Infiniti dealership check out the climate system, since the air conditioning doesn't seem to be blowing as hard or as much air as it used to blow, and also because the heat (even on 90 deg.) doesn't feel that hot anymore.

I guess taking it to the dealer is my only choice here. Unfortunately, the closest Infiniti dealership is ~2 hours away, so I thought about taking it to the local Nissan dealership first. Of course, I'm not sure if it will even be safe to drive as far as the Nissan dealership, even though it's only 10 minutes away. My only 2 routes to the dealership involve either having to drive 65+ mph on the highway, or taking busy backroads that require making left turns onto busy roads. I'm afraid there's just too much of a risk of the car not accelerating when I press the gas pedal and turn out onto the road/highway.

I will see if I can make it to a parts store like Autozone as well. It's weird... the car was driving just fine the day before yesterday, and all of a sudden it just started having these problems the first time I drove it yesterday.

[reggiebrown40]

From what you're describing it sounds like it might be a crank or camshaft position sensor. At least it was with my car when I first got it. Couldn't rev over 3500RPM, which is by design so that you can't damage the motor. Don't force it to go any higher. Going to Autozone to get a trouble code is ok but you will still need it serviced. Makes sense to just go to the dealer and skip Autozone at this point.

[NoTalentLoser]

From what you're describing it sounds like it might be a crank or camshaft position sensor. At least it was with my car when I first got it. Couldn't rev over 3500RPM, which is by design so that you can't damage the motor. Don't force it to go any higher. Going to Autozone to get a trouble code is ok but you will still need it serviced. Makes sense to just go to the dealer and skip Autozone at this point.

Yeah, I will probably just go straight to the dealer (will have to be a Nissan dealer, for now). Unfortunately, when I was driving the car earlier yesterday, I did push the gas pedal down to try and make the car go faster (this was when the RPMs randomly shot up to 4000-5000). Do you think it's possible I damaged the engine already just from that? Or would it take more high-rev driving to actually cause damage?

[EdBwoy]

Usually, camshaft and crankshaft sensor issues can't get bad enough to damage the engine. The engine will cut fuel at a certain RPM.

On the warranty, 2017 might be the year. Being a 2012, it could have rolled out of the dealership as early as April 2011. I thought Nissan released the next year's models starting May/June, but im not certain. A quick check could be your door jamb for date of assembly.

[NoTalentLoser]

Well, I started the car up yesterday evening with the goal of driving it to the local Nissan dealership to drop it off so the mechanics would be able to check it out tomorrow morning, and after starting up, it started stalling and sputtering and felt like something was throwing or bucking underneath the car (like a loose belt), and then it shut off. It only stayed cranked for about 3 seconds before stalling out. I tried to start it a second time and it did the same thing. Looks like I'll have no choice but to have it towed tomorrow.

Just curious, could a camshaft or crankshaft problem cause the car to stall and turn off after being cranked for only a few seconds?

[Ilya]

Well, I started the car up yesterday evening with the goal of driving it to the local Nissan dealership to drop it off so the mechanics would be able to check it out tomorrow morning, and after starting up, it started stalling and sputtering and felt like something was throwing or bucking underneath the car (like a loose belt), and then it shut off. It only stayed cranked for about 3 seconds before stalling out. I tried to start it a second time and it did the same thing. Looks like I'll have no choice but to have it towed tomorrow.

Just curious, could a camshaft or crankshaft problem cause the car to stall and turn off after being cranked for only a few seconds?

Yes it could. Also could be a bad MAF, etc. Won't know till code is read, etc.

[NoTalentLoser]

Well, I started the car up yesterday evening with the goal of driving it to the local Nissan dealership to drop it off so the mechanics would be able to check it out tomorrow morning, and after starting up, it started stalling and sputtering and felt like something was throwing or bucking underneath the car (like a loose belt), and then it shut off. It only stayed cranked for about 3 seconds before stalling out. I tried to start it a second time and it did the same thing. Looks like I'll have no choice but to have it towed tomorrow.

Just curious, could a camshaft or crankshaft problem cause the car to stall and turn off after being cranked for only a few seconds?

Yes it could. Also could be a bad MAF, etc. Won't know till code is read, etc.

Just curious, do you know how much it usually costs to repair/replace a camshaft, crankshaft, or MAF? The reason I ask is because I'm just trying to figure out if it would be cheaper overall to just pay out of pocket to have the local Nissan dealership do the repair, or if it would be worth it to spend whatever it costs to have it towed ~2 hours away to the nearest Infiniti dealership to have the repair done under warranty coverage.

[armybrat]

I have a 2012 M37x that has a little over 60,000 miles on it. When I drove it yesterday, everything was running fine until I had to stop at a red light. After the light turned green, I pressed the gas pedal and the car had literally no acceleration (it didn't rev the engine at all). I had to maneuver the car off to the side of the road. I turned it off and started it again, and after I restarted it it did accelerate, but in a strange way. It was like the gas pedal wasn't as sensitive to being pressed, and it felt like the engine was almost being limited by something. I drove about another half mile and parked.

I got back in the car and started it up about an hour later, and I first let it idle for a few minutes. It seemed to idle kind of roughly, and the RPM gauge needle seemed to be unstable, flittering above/below the 0.5k RPM mark. I drove it around the parking lot for a few minutes, and it seemed like it didn't want to accelerate above 2.5k - 3k RPMs. I managed to drive it a couple miles home, but on the way home, it almost stalled at a red light and had a very hard time accelerating from the light; even though it accelerated slowly, the RPMs seemed to randomly shoot up to 4k-5k. I got behind someone who was driving really slow (~30 mph or less) and it also seemed like the car wanted to stall then.

After I got home, I turned off the car and let it sit for about 25 minutes. When I started the car back up, it still had the same weird acceleration issue, and this time the VDC warning light and Service Engine Soon light both came on. I had barely driven up the road at this point, so I just turned around and went back home. I haven't driven the car since.

Does anyone know what this could be? My powertrain warranty expires in April... hopefully any repairs will be covered under that. Hope that it won't be something serious.

Thanks

My '12 M56x did the same thing...even took a video of it. I was on the highway when I went to pass...couldn't go past 65mph. Car started shaking and lights flashing. Once I slowed down and slowly accelerated, it would do fine. Drove straight to the dealership. P0024 Exhaust valve timing control code. They replaced the timing chains under the recall (V8 only) Might get them to check it out:

[reggiebrown40]

Well, I started the car up yesterday evening with the goal of driving it to the local Nissan dealership to drop it off so the mechanics would be able to check it out tomorrow morning, and after starting up, it started stalling and sputtering and felt like something was throwing or bucking underneath the car (like a loose belt), and then it shut off. It only stayed cranked for about 3 seconds before stalling out. I tried to start it a second time and it did the same thing. Looks like I'll have no choice but to have it towed tomorrow.

Just curious, could a camshaft or crankshaft problem cause the car to stall and turn off after being cranked for only a few seconds?

Yes it could. Also could be a bad MAF, etc. Won't know till code is read, etc.

With my car it did not stall out. What would happen is once the car was turned off and then back on the problem would go away. That's why when it was happening I had to drive to the dealer to prove that it was happening, because the error was so random.

Sounds like the timing belt to me but like Ilya said we won't know until a code is pulled. The rev limiter that is kicking in happens when there are a wide range of things going on with your car.

[Ilya]

Scan the codes. A MAF is like $300 or so if I had to guess (haven't looked at one for an M, but a new one for my Maxima was about that much a few years ago). A crankshaft or camshaft SENSOR (not the actual shaft, if you damage the actual shaft you might as well get a new motor lol) is probably around $80-100. You're not looking at a huge expense with either of those 3...unless it's something else entirely.

We won't be able to help until we know what the code(s) are.