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Need Help Trouble shooting 95 Pathfinder


MrFML
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My mother bought a 95 Pathfinder 2wd for $600. 186Kmiles, very clean interior.

The problem is that it will start and run perfect when its cold. After a couple mins it starts running like ass, wont rev, cough cough. all that. Then it dies. and if you immediately try and start it. it act like like it wants to fire but it wont. If you wait 10mins. It will start but runs like crap and if you try and give it gas it bogs and will die.

I have replaced the distributor cap and button, wires, plugs, fuel pump. (dropped tank and cleaned) fuel filter, and blew out the line.

It is getting fuel and it is returning fuel.

Im lost. So please someone point me in the right direction. My thoughts are maybe the injectors are screwed up.. or.. is it a timing issue? What about the one O2 sensor?

 

 

I took the suspected MAF off and put it on my truck and everything worked fine. I wasn't able put my good MAF on the bad truck because the battery is dead and I don't have any jumper cables.

Its not throwing a code..

 

 

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why not put your good battery and your good maf in and test that? then u dont need jumper cables. i would suspect maf... maybe coolant temperature sensor since it's based on temperature. also go around and check all the electrical connections for corrosion and make sure all necessary ground wires are attached and present.

 

definitely run the ECU trouble code procedure and get back to use once it is all checked out.

You can OHM test the injectors (they should test around 12 ohms if you test resistance between the two conductive tabs on the injectors electrical connector) but you can only really test the passenger 3 injectors. If you trace the injector wires back to where they join to the main harness and figure out which wires goes to which injectors, then you can also measure resistance of them like that. just make sure you have the right wires! (and expect for the resistance reading to be slightly higher due to the length of wire attached)

 

positive/negative doesn't matter when testing resistance so it just has to be the 2 wires that go to the injector.

 

also when testing injectors, it's okay if they arent exactly 12. but its not okay if there are different resistances between the injectors. if 1 is 12 ohm, they should all be 12 ohm give or take .5 Ohm

Edited by Nefarious
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Ok, I just went out and swapped My good one for the bad one and nothing changed.

 

Something i noticed this time. It will sit there and idol for maybe 2-3mins. then it starts acting up. but I can give it gas and as long as i keep it above 2000RPMS it will stay running. but if you go under 2K it just skips a beat and studders. but i can give it a little gas and it bogs but slowly picks the rpm back up. I sat there for maybe 5 mins with it above 2K, then I put it in gear and the RPMs dropped and it died.

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Coolant temp sensor could also be messing with you.

x17

I just dealt with this on a buddys Pathy. I had wiggled the wiring, then he warmed it up and as soon as it got warm, it cut out as if the ignition was turned off. After some experimentation, it was the wiring/connector for the coolant temp sensor. We disassembled the connector, resoldered it, cleaned it, reassembled it and it works perfectly. Point is, don't just check the sensor(s), check the wiring/connector as well... ;)

 

B

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x17

I just dealt with this on a buddys Pathy. I had wiggled the wiring, then he warmed it up and as soon as it got warm, it cut out as if the ignition was turned off. After some experimentation, it was the wiring/connector for the coolant temp sensor. We disassembled the connector, resoldered it, cleaned it, reassembled it and it works perfectly. Point is, don't just check the sensor(s), check the wiring/connector as well... ;)

 

B

Right on, I unplugged both the little sensors and it wouldnt even start. But that could have been because it was in its acting up mode. I will go tomorrow and check the sensor. and the connector for both the Temp sensor and MAF.

 

Thanks for the help.

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Have you checked the butterfly in the throttle body? If there is build up on the edges it will not allow enough air to flow thru when idling, when you give it gas and the butterfly opens it gets air and therefore will run. The butterfly when fully closed is designed to let some air through so it can idle. Just a thought.

 

"The problem is that it will start and run perfect when its cold. After a couple mins it starts running like ass, wont rev, cough cough. all that. Then it dies. "

 

This kind of makes sense also to what I just posted because the IACV will provide an air-bypass when the engine is cold for a fast idle warm up, so when the engine is first started cold until it warms up and the air-bypass closes if the butterfly is dirty not enough air passes through causing it to run like crap or not at all.

 

Something to look into I guess.

Edited by ahardb0dy
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

When you first start the pathy, it runs in open loop "off preloaded settings in the ECU" until it warms up to a "certain" temp then it switches to sensors. So if it runs fine off Pre settings. i would say ur fuel injectors are probably ok. I am not sure what would be causing this. But i would start with metering out the sensors with and Ohm / Volt meter. Meter the MAF voltage. You know if you have a smart phone, there is an awesome app called Torque that is free. I ordered a 30 dollar Bluetooth OBDII reader off amazon.com. "that was shipped" and that in conjunction with torque actually displays the maf voltage, the short and long fuel trim. engine load. ect...ect.... its really rather nice. that will help you out quite a bit as far as trouble shooting the sensors because you can watch the voltages changing live. in the meantime. Since this is a used vehicle, there is no telling what was done to it before you got to it. so cover your basics. Spark / Fuel / Sensors. I love troubleshooting problems, i look at it like a puzzle, hmm a mechanical puzzle. But if you have the FSM then it will give you all of the "good" values of what things should ohm as or how much V you should have. Dont forget the "dreaded" knock sensor if you have one "which you probably do" i have a 96. not sure about the 95's. A good reading for the sensor is 470k ohms. "thats right in the center of the Range" so you can use a little math and come up with the High / Low good values. but usually if its bad its really bad so you will be able to tell straight away. Dont forget the Cam position sensor which is built into the distributor, And last but not least the Crank position sensor. It looks like the other fellas mentioned most of the other stuff. And old wires are known to have bad joo joo, "example" one of my front fog lights was working part time, then not at all, upon inspecting the connector one of the "male pins" broke off due to rust and age. "i just cut off the connector and hard wired it with solder heat shrink tubing and tape" works fine now. Sorry i got off subject. GL to you on your repair. Please keep us posted on your progress because i personally am very interested to know If you fix it and what the problem was. Sorry for being so long winded, im just super bored today. ;P

 

 

I hope my endless babble helped you out some

 

Pat

Edited by fixinto
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