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89 pathfinder starts for few seconds than dies


Andrew.
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I have an 89 V6 pathfinder with throttle body injection. Here's the story, the car would not start unless i poured gas down the TB and would ran fine an till it ran out of that little bit of gas. so long story short, my injectors were not firing at all. and the problem was one little wire going to the battery was broken off. So after i reconnected the little wire back to the battery it ran fine, so i drove it a short distance to a garage to put everything back so i could drive it home. I changed the fuel filter and oil, and oil filter. And that's all. Than when i went to start it again (after i had put the car all back together to go home) it would start for a few seconds and than die :mellow: but will run if i pump the gas, and will not rev past 3k.

 

My ideas:

Could one of the injectors be clogged?

or be a clogged fuel line?

 

What I don't understand is that it ran totally fine an hour ago! and now it don't :/

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I literally just had this issue or very similar last week

Check what code it's throwing. My guess is 51 fuel injection circuit

You can find out which injector is bad if that's the case, they usually go bad one at a time not all at once.

First I would check the resistance of the injectors because it's easiest, you can do it from the injector harness connector. They shouldn't be below like 1.4 or 1.3 ohms, if one is much lower than that it's bad. The spec for them is 1.5 but sometimes they're a little lower and still okay.

 

Another test if that leads nowhere:

Unplug the injector harness, disconnect just one of the injector leads and try to start, if it still wants to die immediately, plug it back in and unplug the other injector the same way. If it runs and idles nice with one unplugged, that's the bad one.

 

 

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My injector was bad and sometimes it would fire up fine but in limp mode (wouldn't rev past about 3k), and other times it would be starving for fuel and wanting to die unless I bumped the throttle over and over

 

 

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The plug on my TPS is sketchy and acts just like that sometimes. It will start right up and sounds strong for a few seconds and then just dies out. Usually after ive removed the air filter housing and it gets bumped. little wiggle gets it running again. maybe something to look at.

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Okay update! It was the throttle position sensor that caused the the starting and dying problem. How I fixed the problem was I loosened the two screws that hold the TPS on the back of the throttle body (AKA carburetor) and it's almost like a distributor, you turn it and it changes the engines speed. So I adjusted it an till the engine sounded like it was running smooth. And it runs GREAT! But....it won't go past 3k still. I can drive it, but right after the needle passes the 3k mark it starts stalling. I think I have a bad Air Flow Meter ( at least that's what my repair manual calls it ) but it's the large rectangle sensor thing on the drivers side of the TB. Cause when I unplug the Air Flow Meter it doesn't change a thing! With AFM unplugged it runs fine, and won't go pass 3k.

 

So my thoughts either bad AFM or bad AFM wiring. And I tested both my injectors and they work fine.

Edited by Andrew.
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Just because the TPS adjustment made the car sound better doesn't mean the TPS isn't toast. I don't remember if the last one I checked was via voltage or resistence but I think it was resistence. If you but an ohm meter on it the numbers whould go up smoothly, not in blocky chunks. Put a meter on it and see how it responds.

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Just because the TPS adjustment made the car sound better doesn't mean the TPS isn't toast. I don't remember if the last one I checked was via voltage or resistence but I think it was resistence. If you but an ohm meter on it the numbers whould go up smoothly, not in blocky chunks. Put a meter on it and see how it responds.

Okay you think the TPS is probably the reason for the 3k rev limit?

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Okay you think the TPS is probably the reason for the 3k rev limit?

Possible, you said you played with it and things got a little better. All I'm saying is test it to see if it is part of your problem. I hate throwing money and parts at problems without knowing if what I'm replacing is the culprit.

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That's limp mode. Pull the codes from the computer

Okay I turned my ECU on diagnostics mode than started the car, and both the red and green lights were blinking together like */**/***/****/***** and than starts over just counting up to 5.

 

I don't know if that means anything? Or I did something wrong??

 

And the * are the blinks, and the / are the pauses.

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There are 5 diag modes represented by the blinks. When you get to the mode you want, you turn the dial on the left all the way one way and then back the other way to enter that diag mode. I believe mode three is for engine codes.

 

There is a write up somewhere on here for the exact procedure.

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Put the key to ON, flip the switch on the ecu, when it flashes 3 times flip yer switch back to its original position, count the flashes. It'll do red and green flashes for each number. I don't recall if it flashes red or green first, it for example: 5 red flashes then 1 green flash would be 51, then it'll pause and either do the next trouble code or just repeat the same one over and over.

 

 

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I got my coolant temp sensor out without removing all the timing stuff fyi. I slid a socket onto it first, then used a large flat head screwdriver instead of an extension, because the extension won't fit through the space and connect to the socket. But you can get a flathead in there at an angle and with some vice grips on the screw driver you can break the sensor loose.

 

 

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Okay now I'm just waiting for the part to get here. I'll let you guys know if it works or not.

Did you test the old one? The fsm has testing procedures for each check engine code to make sure the sensors bad and it's not another problem.

 

 

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Okay guys just received the mass air flow sensor in the mail. It was the problem cause i changed it and now it can rev past 3k and runs fine!! Thanks all!!!

 

If anyone needs more detailed information on how I got my pathfinder that did not run at all to running! Cause I'm pretty sure I did everything possible to get it running 😂 Please ask! 👍

 

Andrew 89 4x4 2door pathy

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  • 1 month later...

Okay I still have problems ☹️ I get less than 8 miles per gallon........wow my engine is just DUMPING fuel..... DUMPING! I can't believe it! my dads ford excursion with a gas v10 gets better than that! Anyways I've changed... O2, engine temp sensor, coolant temp sensor, cleaned air intake filter. Idk why it's chugging so much fuel!?

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  • 4 weeks later...

you might benefit from adding a ground wire to your MAF sensor connector, or installing the Nissan ground wire available for the same thing. Mine was stalling at stoplights (in a manual transmission vehicle, nonetheless) and after I added a ground wire to the MAF connector the issue disappeared

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