Ignition problem?
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groundhogday1976
- Posts: 346
- Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 2:17 pm
- Car: 2015 Altima 2.5 S
Ignition problem?
This is gonna be kinda long winded, but anyway. My car was sitting for about a week because the heater core went bad. I got it replaced and everything put back in yesterday and went for a drive. All was well until after about 20 miles. The engine started cutting in and out until I finally decided to pull over at which point it died. It wouldn't run below 3K rpm and continued cutting in and out when the engine was under load. My first gut feeling was the ignition coil, but that's gonna cost me almost $150 so I'd rather let an expert help before trusting my gut feeling. After sitting for maybe 20 mins. it started right back up and I drove on home. The plugs had a lot of carbon on them, so I put new ones in. The old plugs and wires are about a year old, BTW. I'm just worried that the plugs weren't actually causing the problem, but were fouled because of something else. Also, it takes a really long time for idle to go down to 750 rpm like it should. It varies between 1.2-1.5k for the first 10-15 mins. On a less important note, my cruise control stopped working. Is there a fuse for it somewhere?
You really need to check all your fuses first before persuing the drivabilty problem since the circuit the cruise is running on may have something to do with the engine control. Also since you just did your heater core you should also make sure you purged all the air out of the cooling system. It may be overheating and the gauge is not registering properly since its in an air pocket.
If you find all your fuses are good and there is no air in your cooling system perform these check cause I really dont think its your ignition system failing. it seems more like a fuel problem. Take a good look at your coolant temp connector. Is it corroded with green crust? Its the 2 wire connector. Also check your AF meter connection,not for the corrosion but harness integrity. if you can get the car idling try wiggling that harness and see if it stumbles. If so check the ground ciruit. With the meter plugged in use a volt meter to measure voltage from the black wire with your red lead on the meter and your black meter lead to the intake manifold should be .02v or less. If not strip some of the ground wires insulation away and soldier on another wire and run it to the ground wires on the intake manifold. This would also leave the original ground wire in tact. The other 2 wires on theairflow meter should be red and white. The white one is your input signal wire to the ecm and the red one is battery voltage. The white wire at idle should be between 1.3v to 1.5v providing the ground wire is below .02v.
If you find all your fuses are good and there is no air in your cooling system perform these check cause I really dont think its your ignition system failing. it seems more like a fuel problem. Take a good look at your coolant temp connector. Is it corroded with green crust? Its the 2 wire connector. Also check your AF meter connection,not for the corrosion but harness integrity. if you can get the car idling try wiggling that harness and see if it stumbles. If so check the ground ciruit. With the meter plugged in use a volt meter to measure voltage from the black wire with your red lead on the meter and your black meter lead to the intake manifold should be .02v or less. If not strip some of the ground wires insulation away and soldier on another wire and run it to the ground wires on the intake manifold. This would also leave the original ground wire in tact. The other 2 wires on theairflow meter should be red and white. The white one is your input signal wire to the ecm and the red one is battery voltage. The white wire at idle should be between 1.3v to 1.5v providing the ground wire is below .02v.
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groundhogday1976
- Posts: 346
- Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 2:17 pm
- Car: 2015 Altima 2.5 S
Well, stupid me, I did forget to purge all the air. That involves just removing the bolt from the burp hole and letting the car run until it stops spitting air, right? I did that and it took a long time to get it to stop burping air, but after that the car still dies after a while and the temp gauge is normal. The coolant temp connector isn't corroded and wiggling the MAF connector doesn't make it stumble while it's running. I haven't found any bad fuses yet, but I'm gonna check again just to make sure. The first step in the diagnostic procedure for "Engine Stalls When Hot" in the FSM said to disconnect and plug the vaccum line from the fuel pressure regulator and see if the stalling goes away. If so the fuel is bad. Do you think that's worth a shot? I did go ahead and try the coil and it didn't help so I took it back and got refunded. I ordered a cap and rotor while I was at it. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it's cheap and I'm due for new ones anyway. I'm goin' out of my mind here. I still have to have the transmission swapped and get some other little things done so I can run my car on the 20th, and now I can't even drive it to the shop to have the swap done. Not to mention I'm starting a new job next week where my car will have to be in top condition.