The Nissan Path

Hi Guys and Girls

I've a puzzling issue with my R51. I was driving home a few evenings ago and I stopped to speak to a neighbour for a few minutes with the engine running. We said our goodbyes and, when I pulled away, the car flet very sluggish and, when I put my foot on the gas, it made no difference to the cars speed or revs. So, I thought,,,, AIR FILTER! I had a quick look and, sure enough, it was a tad dirty. I gave it a quick tap and dust, popped it back it and vowed to pick a new one up the next morning. So, next morning arrives, I turn on, all seems fine. I run down the hill here at our urbanisation, a lot of which requires merely steering and, by the time I get to the bottom and ou on to the main road, I cant get the car to accelerate. Its a drive of around 10Km to the local parts supplier and the hills were frightening, but, on the flat,I could get the car slowly accelerating up to 50MPH. But, it took ages.

Anyway, I popped a new filter in and started home and, Perfect! It drove lovely.. However, I stopped at a junction in town at traffic and the same thing happened again. No power. I flicked the ignition on and off, so that the engine didnt really cut out and the car would drive normally again. And, ever since, I've been managing the problem like that, turning the ignition key off and on again and it resets itself. Obviously, this is not a great long term solution and I'm guessing that this will get to a point where it will be harrder and harder to rectify in this manner so any thoughts would be welcome. Anyone else had this issue? I was wondering whether it should be in the "Electrical" section but thought mabe this is a good place to start.
Cheers Ma'Dears

Ian

Well, there are obviously a number of things that can cause this. A failing camshaft position sensor or crank position sensor is a common issue that can cause this. "Usually," but not "always," it will trigger a code, so, I would have your Pathy checked for stored codes first. If there are any, they will help point you in the direction of what the problem could be.

smj999smj wrote:Well, there are obviously a number of things that can cause this. A failing camshaft position sensor or crank position sensor is a common issue that can cause this. "Usually," but not "always," it will trigger a code, so, I would have your Pathy checked for stored codes first. If there are any, they will help point you in the direction of what the problem could be.

Thanks, are either easy to replace. Always like to have a go myself!!
Ian

Well, depends what you mean by "easy." The crank position sensor isn't too bad once you remove the passenger front wheel and the inner fender wheelhouse liner. The cam position sensors are on the back of the cylinder heads held in with a 10MM head bolt. Remove the bolt, keep the sensor plugged into the harness until you get it pulled out and up to the top; this keep the sensor from falling and it's easier to disengage the harness connector. So, pull the sensor straight back (maybe giving it a little twist to help break the seal), pull it up and replace the sensor on the end of the harness connector. Reverse to install. The left bank isn't too bad, but the right bank is a bit of a pain because of the intake plenum being in the way. It's best to stick with genuine Nissan or Hitachi sensors. In a pinch, I got a Standard Motor Parts/Intermotor cam position sensor from Advance Auto Parts and it was made in Japan and I haven't had any problems with it so far, knock on wood!

Hi Guys

An update. I've been putting up with flicking off/on the ignition. We don't live in an area of an great traffic so its not very often we idling. I've driven around 8K Kms since I first noticed the issue.

I've bought a OBD2 reader of ebay. I've only connected it very briefly but I did manage to get one code out, P0089. a quick google has given me that this refers to the Fuel Pressure Regulator which could, given the symptons, be the issue I've been experiencing. Does anyone agree that this could be what is causing the idle issue?

Thanks

salob wrote:Hi Guys

An update. I've been putting up with flicking off/on the ignition. We don't live in an area of an great traffic so its not very often we idling. I've driven around 8K Kms since I first noticed the issue.

I've bought a OBD2 reader of ebay. I've only connected it very briefly but I did manage to get one code out, P0089. a quick google has given me that this refers to the Fuel Pressure Regulator which could, given the symptons, be the issue I've been experiencing. Does anyone agree that this could be what is causing the idle issue?

Thanks

Another update. So, the Fuel pressure regulator was changed but, I'm still experiencing the same lack of power which is again remedied by flicking the igniton off. If anything, with the new regulator installed, its a little quicker to go into limp mode. I've noticed a tiny amount of diesel leaking from the regulator. Would this cause the same symptons to occur? The OBD2 reader is not showing the same code in logged faults but it does appear in Pending faults! Not quite sure what the difference is. Anyway. I could look at the two other sensor now. Changing the Fuel pressure regulator was ok, bit difficult to get to, but not impossible.

You should have mentioned that this was a diesel in your first post. We don't have that in the USA. My earlier advice was based on the VQ40DE engine.