95 Nissan Altima: hesitating when cold

APERUMAL

MEMBER
1995 NISSAN ALTIMA

1995 Nissan Altima, 155000 miles
Hi, I’ve been having this problem over the last few months (winter!). Shortly after starting the car in the morning, it starts to hesitate when I accelerate. The strange thing, to me at least, is that the problem occurs the most when I’m taking a turn (it happens very rarely when I’m driving straight).
The problem goes away after driving for about 10-15 minutes. And then it doesn’t happen again until the next morning. So I figured that the car just needed to warm up properly. However, even with letting the car warm up completely to its usual engine temperature I get this problem.

Is it just an issue of letting the car warm up or is there something that I need to be checking?

From various posts on the forums and other websites, I guessing that I have to be checking the MAF, the spark plugs and then possibly the engine codes. I would greatly appreciate some direction on this problem.

Thanks in advance for any advice. By the way, great site!

2 Replies

BUZZA14

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I have the same problen on my 91 Pathfinder. No pne seems to have an answer including the dealer. Have you found a solution yet? I am going to try replacing my O2 sensor next.

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Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 AT 5:36 PM

APERUMAL

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Here's how things worked out after I posted my question.

I replaced my spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, and ignition rotor.
These definitely made some difference but it didn't fix the problem.

Next I cleaned the MAF, which did have a slight improvement as well.

Here's what completely fixed the problem.
I changed my knock sensor.
The code for this came up even after I had cleared it once. So I got around to changing it about a month ago.

In the last month, I have had absolutely no problems with hesitating on cold mornings. In general my acceleration has also been smoother. The old knock sensor was partial corroded and was probably retarding the timing of the engine for no reason.

Hope this helps.