Running Like Doo Doo but then Not But now mostly like Doo Doo....grin

[yznheimer]

I have a 2000 Frontier 4x4 3.3 standard transmission. Cracked passenger side manifold. Knock sensor and another saying purge control valve stuck open or closed. I tested the purge control valve (The one in the engine compartment) It does not open when voltage is present. The one at the charcoal canister seems like it is not closing when voltage is present. I say this because I can "Not" blow through the purge control valve nor hear any sign of the coil activating. And on the vent valve on the charcoal canister I "CAN" blow throught it with or with out voltage present. I am not 100% sure there is no leak in the lines prior to the valve though.

My question is Can either of these two valves actually cause this 3.3 to run really bad. I mean really bad.

Just for the heck of it I changed the air filter, fuel filter and spark plugs. I had disconnected the battery during this. Once finished the truck ran great. But after about 30 minutes it began sputtering like it was mis firing / starving for fuel / or clogged exhaust on the cracked side....

Of course I cant find a single part in the junk yard to test this with. Nor does either of my local dealers have either part in stock.

I had these error codes prior to the truck running poorly. Actuakly I should say "As Poorly" It was a little just a little rough prior to the melt down.

Any suggested readings or advice on how to narrow down the actual cause..

Cracked exhaust?Knock Sensor?Purge Control Valve stuck closed?Vent control valve stuck open? or leak in like to canister or leak on canister itself?

The fact that it ran great after changing plugs and filter for a short while seemed to me more related to the battery being disconnected than the replaced parts.....

Thanks in advance.

Brian

Little Rock

[yznheimer]

Well, a little patience and persistance paid off. The codes were all wrong. I finally decided to take a non technical approach. The knock sensor code was neither the timing chain nor the sensor. As a matter of fact the solution was too simple.

I decided the only two thing that would make an engine run bad in most cases is either poor spark or poor fuel delivery. Since the fuel delivery was ruled out due to the flooding smell I was geting I decided it had to be the spark. I removed the distributor and dis-assembled it. And there it was. The top bearing just under the roter bug was worn. Simple as that. The bearings were disentergrating and causing havoc. Not to mention the unstableness of the rotation. A trip to Autozone and 277.00 later everything straightend up in a split second.

I decided to postmy findings because I suspect that a lot of people may be having the same problem.

Knock sensor code cause by distributor, Terrible stuttering and poor idle same. So I suggest anyone reading this with similar complaints of engine stuttering or knock sensor code start with inspecting their distributor bearing. NOTE: You do not need to remove it to check for this. If it is going bad you will see metal flakes inside of distributor in the bottom next to the coil retaining screws. They become magnatized and stick together

CIAO