Check engine light

[djmatt79]

First of all I'd like to say hello to everyone... I'm new on this forum. I don't know if I'm posting in the right section but I need some help from all you Nissan fanatics... plus I love my Nissan. Went from VW to NISSAN.

I just recently bought a 96 240sx SE. Everything is stock manual transmission. It has 260,xxx km. About few weeks ago I got a check engine light so i used my cheap generic scan tool to check the code. Didn't get any code so I erased the code. Since then engine light comes on randomly. So i tried checking few other times...

Couple of times I got a Crank position sensor circuit malfunction code and a knock sensor code.

Heres the thing though... I never have trouble starting and the car ran fine.Only problem I notice or felt was... when I tried to gun it... if felt like rpm was climbing but the speed climbed slow. (only in high gears...) so I thought clutch was slipping and I got a new clutch set.

Now I don't know if this is related to the engine code. I also noticed a pattern... everytime i erase the code... i could drive for the longest time and the code would not come back...

but every morning or when i give the car a rest and start up... after about 8 seconds the check engine light would come on...

could anyone help me?

I don't know if its the sensors or i don't know if my little cheap scanner is any good...

Thanks in advance.

[djmatt79]

18 view but no reply...

ANYONE please give me any suggestions...

[jetroy240]

If u got a crank angle sensor code, I would start to inpect the sensor& wiring, it's located at the top of the bellhousing, driver side. Maybe damaged, check the wires & connector.

[djmatt79]

but if the crank position sensor has malfunctioned... wouldn't the car not start? or even stall out while driving?

[Morpheon]

could be ur egr, does it ever idle high?

[jetroy240]

but if the crank position sensor has malfunctioned... wouldn't the car not start? or even stall out while driving?

If the problem is intermittent, it will still set a code. The good news is , u know the code & u know where to start checking. Not necessarily mean sensor is bad, could be the connector, wiring or ecm, any circuit related to crank position sensor. I'll go for a quick fix, try to install a known good sensor & see what happens. Intermittent failure are hard to fix, like what we always says, u can't fix it if it's working.

[djmatt79]

it idles high (1200 rpm at the start) after 3 sec. idles down to 900 rpm again. When the engine is colder... it stays at 1200 rpm longer...

i'm guessing thats normal right?

thanks for the reply Morpheon

[djmatt79]

If the problem is intermittent, it will still set a code. The good news is , u know the code & u know where to start checking. Not necessarily mean sensor is bad, could be the connector, wiring or ecm, any circuit related to crank position sensor. I'll go for a quick fix, try to install a known good sensor & see what happens. Intermittent failure are hard to fix, like what we always says, u can't fix it if it's working.

yeah... think thats a good starting point... since the crank sensor is expensive new... i thought i'd try a used one.. same with the knock sensor...

At work i have a snap on scanner with OBD2 but it won't communicate with my car...

the scanner says... i need to connect my 14 pin nissan-2 connector.. so i have the connector but it not the regular 16pin obd2 style...

i don't know where it connects into my car.

I thought it connects under the hood lever which seems to be the OBD2 but this adapter for nissan looks a little different...

any idea?

I was trying this... because the scanner i was using b4 was a generic cheap scanner and i didn't know if it was giving me the proper codes.

thanks jetroy240