99 Maxima - Died at stoplight - will not restart

[OwnerCS]

Tuesday night, I took the 99 Maxima 5-speed for a drive when it died at a neighborhood stoplight. It ran good up the street to the light, then while sitting at the light the RPM started dropping and the car died. My sons and I had to push the car a couple of blocks down the street to get it home. We've had it back from the shop for about two weeks after the engine swap. It has been running better and smoother each week since we got it home from the shop.

If I hold the accelerator at WOT, it acts there is some firing though not enough for it to start and run. The car had the following items replaced as part of the engine swap.

1) IACV
2) Fuel Pressure Regulator
3) New NGK Plugs
4) EGR and Temp Sensor Cleaned
5) New O2 Sensors
6) New Knock Sensor and Harness

Testing

Last night I checked fuel pressure and found it to have a high of 35 psi then settles back to 30 after 5 seconds. When I try to start the car, I see the pressure bouncing between 25 and and 30. I can feel the injectors pulse while trying to start the car and I can smell an un-burned fuel smell coming from the exhaust. The car is definitely getting fuel.

Since the car attempts to start and from the noise the starter makes, I don't see a sudden loss of compression. The replacement engine only has 77,000 miles. I can check compression this weekend.

The mysterious dying at idle with failure to restart seems like the behavior that sent it to the shop in November where the original engine was found to have compression issues. Somehow I think there may be a firing issue behind this new problem.

OBD2 Scan - I checked for scan codes and only found a misfire on cylinder 1.

Can anyone give me some ideas for things to check? I'm at a loss on this one since it went from running to dead in less than a minute at a stoplight.

[NutriaforBreakfast]

See if it runs better when the Mass Air Flow sensor is unplugged.
If so , it might be that.
Your story sounds like the typical one many (including me, more than once) have
experienced from that part. Dropping RPM, loss of power, won't reststart etc.

[OwnerCS]

See if it runs better when the Mass Air Flow sensor is unplugged.
If so , it might be that.
Your story sounds like the typical one many (including me, more than once) have
experienced from that part. Dropping RPM, loss of power, won't reststart etc.

Thank you - I'll try that. I have a spare MAF that has been run tested to swap in also.

Since it appears to be flooding while attempting to start, it is beginning to look like all injectors are opening the same time. That may point to a bad ECU.

[angie1987]

how much did the repairs run ya?

[OwnerCS]

how much did the repairs run ya?

Don't know yet.. Still not running.

[turbobink]

Camshaft position sensor.