I hope someone here can help me out. My wife's Sentra just quit yesterday. I mean like turning off the switch. Luckily she didn't wreck it and got it to the side of the road.
After towing it home. We live out in the country, home was closer than the nearest shop 20 miles away. I do some checking, I am in no way anywhere close to being mechanically inclined! lol After trying to start it, I pull a plug and its dry. Also not getting any spark on the plug wires.
After doing some reading online. It seems there was a recall on the ECM for crankshaft position sensor circuit board problems?!? I call Nissan yesterday and give them the VIN. Today I find out, just my luck, that this car was not covered under that recall. I am inclined to call BS on that. What can happen when that part in the recall goes bad is EXACTLY what happened to out car. But oh well, what can I do.
After doing some more reading. It looks like its the ECM (computer). Well I decide to call the local (to me) Nissan dealership. I talk with very nice mechanic. He tells me that it is probably the distributor and not the computer. He said oil gets past that seal and causes failure, causing no spark. Thus not telling the fuel pump to run. That is my dumb recollection of what he said. He explained it in much better detail.
So now, I am looking at either buying a new computer or a new distributor. With the later being a bit cheaper. Nissan quoted a price of around $650 for the ECM when they are around $395 online? Big difference there!
We bought this car new in 2000. It has always had the sulphur smell at times. Even though Nissan says there is nothing wrong with it. They told me it was the gas I was buying, buy gas somewhere else. That didn't help. Have replaced the throttle body assembly, wheel bearings on the rear rotors. Other than that its been a fairly decent car.
Can anyone give me some words of wisdom? I hate to have this car towed and have them look at it. Money is very tight! Guess that is my only option?!? Any help would be most appreciated!
with these cars it's hard to say for sure, can't say I'm 100% right, but this is my understanding about the recall... (I have the 2002 2.5L SE-R)
the crankshaft sensor recall was a reprogram on the ECM due to an interruption of volts from the CPS to the ECM that would cause a stall (but you should be able to crank it back up right after it cuts out) and all they did was create an exception in the programming that would avoid cutting the car off due to the short interruption.
problem with getting ECM is that nissan will still have to program it (at least on the 2.5L) and I've heard a guy getting the ECM and having nissan program it, but my local nissan said they only program they ones they put in themselves, so be careful how you replace it if you do go that route... http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/b15...-flooding.html
best thing would be to check all your plugs and wires, etc, make sure the battery has proper ground and all. there is a link above my signature pic and in the posts in the link above for the FSM, you can use that to test more before you decide if it's the ECM or not.
Thanks boyrs, I have checked the wires and battery is fairly new. My "understanding" on buying a new ECM for this car. Is that you have to buy one that has the same features as your car. I.E. w/alarm.
I live about an hour from the nearest dealership, which is near Augusta, GA. I can only imagine what just a tow and diagnostics charge will be.
From what I have read, a faulty ECM or distributor will cause these symptoms. And that mechanic told me that in his experience the ECM's don't fail that often. He told me this engine is the one they used in the Infinity G20 before going to the 2.5L engine. He said its a very good engine. For whatever thats worth.
After trying to crank the car. Looking at this and that and trying different things, I ran the battery down yesterday. Frustrated to no end I gave up. Well this afternoon when I got home from work, I put a charger on the battery. Keep in mind this battery is around 1 year old. Just a few minutes ago I go out to the garage to check on it. Now it has been several hours with the charger running. The digital meter is showing 12.6 volts.
So just for the heck of it. I get in the car and turn the key on. Guess what.....I hear the fuel pump kick on, and the usual faint click of something else turning on. I think dang, that's odd, that's what it supposed to do. Guess what....now the damn car cranks up just fine!
So tomorrow I had already planned for a mechanic friend of a friend of a friend to come over with a computer. And see what codes if any can be had to tell what is going on. I still will have him come over and check things out. But I can't help but wonder why it cranks up tonight.
Remember....after it broke down it I could try and crank it and it turned over strong. Surely not a sign of a weak battery......I am stumped. Think I may sleep a little better tonight though. Sorry for the rambling......
That's quite a list of codes indicating all sorts of unrelated failures. I'm not a mechanic, but a failing alternator can cause all sorts of unusual electrical gremlins.
Sooooo.....could a loose ground wire cause these issues? Just so happens tonight after having a few beers. I go out checking around the engine. On the back of the engine there are 2 places that appear to be grounded to something on the engine. Each one has around 5 smaller wires connected to a terminal bolted to the engine. So the upper one is VERY loose. I tightened it up. Engine still cranks goood and all.
So, my father in law is here and he and the wife go riding. She comes back and says that the car appears to have a little more ooommph on take off, more power. She drove it around 30 minutes. And the check engine light never came back on. I had cleared the codes earilier in the day.
Anyways, second day driving the car. And it is running great! No CEL's, issues at all. Battery no tunning down etc. I swear the car has more power now. Weird....
Anyways, second day driving the car. And it is running great! No CEL's, issues at all. Battery no tunning down etc. I swear the car has more power now. Weird....
i dont think to many people get on this sub-forum here. but, i have the same car and had similair problems. mine ended up being a broken wire in the fire and the mass air flow sensor was bad. it cost me bucko bucks to get fixed. i hope your was an easy fix like you said about the ground wires.
keep me posted on this as i like to learn stuff that "might" happen!
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2002 Nissan Sentra SE-R
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