Engine problem on nissan axxess 1995 (canada) ka24e engine

[steph-axxess]

Hi there,

I have a 1995, automatic, Nissan Axxess (I'm in Canada), with 245000 km on it (so about 160000 miles?). Engine is ka24e

I bought the car 6 month ago and it was doing OK.

Since about two month, the engine lacks power and does not start well when cold. Symptoms are:

- I need to use the throttle to start the engine when it is cold (for just a few seconds, but sometimes for a good minute) otherwise it stalls/does not start. (it used to start perfectly when in the canadian winter!)

- The engine has no power at all, going uphill or accelerating. The car would be fine if earth was flat and without any strong wind.

- when going uphill or accelerating more than the minimum, the engine revs up bit by bit instead of revving up continuously. It's like one (small) rev increase by second. Each rev increase would be like 50 or 100 rpm.

- With no or little load, the engine sound OK (to my ears...)

remarks:

- Once warm, it never stalls and I feel quite safe that the car won't let me stranded (I mat be wrong). It never misfires or coughs.

What I've done:

Change spark plugs (NGK), air filter. I also Tried to see the difference with the MAF sensor unplugged. It was much worst, but I did this with a cold engine.

I thought it could be the MAP sensor, but cannot find it on the Axxess (Not sure there is one.

Any help will be appreciated. I am dead broke and know nothing about mechanics. Thanks

Steph

[steph-axxess]

Anyone to help me?

I need to keep this car going, and as it feels bad, I feel bad too!

Thanks

Steph

[180fan]

My first impression is that if it is ok at warm, then it's probably temperature related. If it's temperature related and regards your idle, check your coolant temp sensor. It plays a crucial role in the air/fuel mix that your ecu fiddles around with and can cause quite a few woes although it's fairly cheap.

[steph-axxess]

Thanks!

in fact, I noticed yesterday that my problem seems indeed related with temps. It seems that when the weather is cool (under 70f), the car performs slightly better, but when it gets near 85 or 90+, the power loss gets terrible (up to the point that I would stop the car and make a u-turn in very steep hills...)

I'll try to check that cooling temp sensor. But would that affect only the starting or the driving as well.

Many thanks!

Steph

[steph-axxess]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay. I checked the cts and I found the connectors were really bad (dirty and greenish). Cleaned them as much as I could with a screw driver and noticed it improved the starting a lot. So i bought some electrical connector cleaning spray which I'll use to make them better. It dit not seem to improve the drivability though.

I was suprised they were so dirty, but then I realize I had spilt quite a lot of oil when toping up the engine a few times. So I thought that other connectors in that area may well have been affected too, including the injectors' connectors. Would these cause the symptoms I have if they were dirty? Is it a straightforward thing to unplug and clean (with screw driver/spray)? I do not want to mess anything up (real beginer in mechanics!)

I'll be on hol for a week. I'll keep you posted about my problem when I'm back.

Thanks for your help

Steph

[steph-axxess]

Problem solved.

As things got worse, I finally decided to take it to a mechanic. They found that the cap, rotor and wires needed to be replaced. In fact, they did not believe the car still ran because the rotor was broken! All the mechanics came to see the broken stuff and just would not believe I had been 300 miles away on hol with the car!

So they replaced all that and the car is just fine. (charged me 186 Canadian dollars...)

Thanks for those who looked and helped me. This forum is by far the best I found during this slow up-hill going summer!

Steph