1992 Nissan Maxima car dies while driving, sometimes when s

Tiny
KIOTE
  • MEMBER
  • 1992 NISSAN MAXIMA
  • 6 CYL
  • FWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 15,100 MILES
Please help! A few months ago my Nissan started "surging" while I was driving. I changed the plugs and also the coil paks. It drove ok for maybe a couple weeks and started doing it again; eventually getting worse and progressing to just dying while I was driving it. Sometimes I would be sitting at an idle and other times I would be driving and it would just die, with no warning. Again I go to the shop; they replaced the throttle position sensor and the ECM (the main brain); needless to say it cost me a fortune that I didn't have. It still isn't running right; rough idle and still dies all the time, I can't even drive it (I barely got it to the shop the first time). I cannot afford another huge mechanics bill and I can't afford a new car. I hope this is something you have ran across before, so you can tell me what it is. Thank you for your time.
Monday, June 16th, 2008 AT 8:50 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
MMPRINCE4000
  • MECHANIC
  • 8,548 POSTS
Is the check engine light on, if so what are the codes?
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Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 AT 12:12 PM
Tiny
KIOTE
  • MEMBER
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No. The check engine light never came on. When I had the diagnostics test ran they said it was the computer that was bad (after they thought it was the throttle position sensor and replaced it). They replaced the ECM and said they drove it and let it sit and idle and it was ok (it didn't die on them). It still didn't seem right when I was driving it home; but, they said it may take the computer a little bit to "re learn" everything. Within a couple days it was back to dying again, rough idle, etc.
Thank you for your reply. :) Hope this info helps.

Tami
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Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 AT 5:55 PM
Tiny
MMPRINCE4000
  • MECHANIC
  • 8,548 POSTS
The ECM will take a few miles to re-learn the proper parameters, but this should happen within a 100 miles or so.

I would suggest that the shop that "fixed" it should hook up a scan tool to measure the parameters of all the sensors, to make sure thay are within limits. They should also measure exhaust backpressure to rule out a clogged CAT.
They should also check fuel pressure and compression and spark to isolate the problem between sensors and mechanical.
I would insist they do this at reduced cost since they have not fixed the problem.
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Thursday, June 19th, 2008 AT 7:50 AM

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