carwilef7

I used that stuff in an '82 Cutlass back in '94, about 150k on it - can't say it hurt anything, but it did seem to help with knocks and ticks. Don't expect any miracles. You can free up gunk and make stuff move better, but no additive will repair mechanical wear and tear. Sometimes it's better to just change the oil and filter every 3k and leave the crud alone - if an old gasket isn't leaking, don't fix it. In a similar vein, don't go to high mileage oil until you see leaks. When you need it, you need it - if you do it early, the benefit is gone when you actually do need it. :02:

Hope it's not the cat - don't think so. Last few days, ever since I found the @#$%$^&* reset screw on the computer, I've been reading it out and resetting it every time the MIL light comes on (same code every time). After each reset, I've kept track of which trip I was on when the light came on again. Something like this: 1st reset - 2nd trip 2nd reset - 2nd trip 3rd reset - 2nd trip 4th reset - 3rd trip 5th reset - 6th trip (!!!) All the trips were about the same for speed and mileage. If that trend continues, it could be that whatever is in there might just need time to cook off.

Exactly. Two cats, two pre sensors, two post sensors. A set for each bank.

It's a decent bet. Dunno if there's any way to successfully clean one. I'll try to pull it this evening and see.

Autozone here is useless - they can read the codes (incorrectly) but they can't clear it. They got sued for clearing them or something. I can read it out and clear it myself with the screw on the ECM. The SES/MIL light will come back on on the 2nd or third drive after that with the same code. Unless it stops acting up or is replaced, it'll probably keep coming back. I think you have to have a number of driving cycles with no probs to pass. Inspection isn't due until next April, so I guess I've got plenty of time to figure it out. Just wanted to see if anybody had any other possible causes before I spent $90 on the sensor.

Not that I'm aware of, but I've only had it since April, so who knows? The flooding to which I alluded had to do with fuel dumping on hot start-up - now apparently fixed. It would get a crazy-high value from the Coolant Temp Sensor, go into "WTF?" mode, and flood out. A new CTS fixed that problem, but this problem may have been a result of that one.

Does anybody know if a downstream O2 sensor (left side, after the converter) could seem to test okay with a voltmeter but just be lazy enough to set a P0156 code (0708 with the screw-turn method)? The FSM code explanation hints at slower response time than expected. Heater resistance, B+ voltage, and running voltage readings seem okay. I wonder if maybe all those flood-start attempts prior to coolant temp sensor replacement might have damaged it. Can't think of any other reason only the left one would do it. Any ideas? No running/idling problems, since it only really measures cat efficiency, but I doubt it will pass VA inspection that way.

I had a bad MAF when I first got mine. It would idle okay for a while and sometimes drop to 400 and stall. Other times it would just fall flat on acceleration then stall. One night it blew gigantic clouds of black smoke and just kept refusing to idle at all. Replaced MAF and a split intake boot at the throttle body - fixed it. 95+ will set a code for MAF - dunno about earlier models.

WAY easier method with less timing involved - turning the screw on the ECU. On my XE, the ECU is located to the right of the steering column. The screw is on the far upper right side of it, presumably to keep people from idly messing with it. Pull the lower dash cover from under the column - two screws, plus one in the kick panel to get to one of the dash cover ones. Remove any wiring connectors so you can get the cover out of the way. Two nuts hold the ECU onto a bracket - remove them and slide the ECU back (toward the front of the truck) and down out of its upper clip. You may have to carefully rotate the ECU to get it so you can see the screw. Mine had a clear plastic label over it, making it impossible to feel with fingers. Make sure you have located the screw with the curved arrow mark near it. Turn the key to "on" but don't start the truck. Using a flat blade screwdriver, rotate the screw fully clockwise and hold it for at least two seconds, then turn it all the way back counter-clockwise - you can now read the codes by counting the flashes from the CEL/SES/MIL light. To clear it, turn the screw fully clockwise again and hold for two seconds, then turn it back. Turn the key to "off". Now start the truck and the CEL/SES/MIL light should be off - unless there's another issue someplace that wasn't fixed before reset. Once you know where the screw is, you can probably use a flat driver bit (for a drill) and reach up there blind without removing the ECU again. To reinstall the ECU, make sure it slides into the clip at the top, re-align the studs with the bracket, and tighten the nuts. Then re-install the lower dash cover and you're done!

I say pay it forward. Drives me crazy when ppl post and post about a problem and never post the fix. Hey, does your XE have the black plastic hub center caps? I'm missing a front one with the hole in the middle and can't find it anywhere. Nissan wants 50 bucks for it!

I think the confusion about that diagram was caused by the "draftsman artifact" of a cut-away in the drawing to reduce the amount of space required to show the part. What appears to be a gap - making it look like two parts - is the cut-away. It's a really one-piece part. Another thing that drives me nuts in manuals is photos that show parts locations. They show close-ups, but provide little reference as to the global location. Example - idle adjustment photo in Haynes shows a phillips screw, a disc thingy that might or might not be the EGR transducer, might or might not be the EGR valve itself, and some vacuum tubing. For the newbie, this would mean searching the entire engine to find the right view - and that view can only be had by taking the engine out or having a neck like a snake. It's like being told to go to Christchurch and look for one black sheep - you know it's on Earth somewhere, and not Jupiter, but you may not know that it's in the Southern Hemisphere in New Zealand. I wish they would add a little window with a large map location pointer like Nat'l Geo does, or go back to line drawings - I could use the work.

It just screws into the upper radiator hose outlet on the engine. Takes a 19mm wrench. Put thread tape on the new one and have it ready to go in before you remove the old one and you'll only lose a tiny bit of coolant.

this will help with the business end: drill a 3/16" hole in the rod, grind a broken 3/16" bit to about 1.25" long, push it thru, center it, and then hammer the big rod flat across the hole to capture it. hint: keep the pin and the handle bends in the same plane, and it will fit nicely under the back seats. The original was apparently straight and had a square-drive end to fit into the tire tool thing, which was the crank. I guess you could buy a gigantically long socket extension and kill 20 bits making the hole for the pin in if you still wanted to do it that way. My design replaces both parts for less than ten bucks - if you had to buy it all. VERY IMPORTANT - lube the freaking chain before you crank the spare back up - the chains tend to rust up and get stuck, then you have to crank three up and five down to get three more up.

I made one outta pretty much nothing since nissan wanted $50 or more for it. It's just a 3/8" in. rod with a couple of bends and a 3/16" pin (actually a broken drill bit ground down) in the end - the spinny rubber and PVC parts are my own addition:

Dunno if this would apply in any way to an '88, but my '97 was doing the same sort of thing until I replaced the Mass Air Flow sensor and a cracked rubber intake boot. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply. I knew it had to be something stupid causing it to dump fuel all at once, but if it had not gone to consistent failure, I'd probably still be stumped. Hopefully, I can save some other people from spending days on end running in circles and pulling their hair out. No worries here, though, since I'm already bald.

Hot start flooding problem - I don't want to jinx it, but I think I found the problem: It had been intermittent for weeks, but the last couple of days it was happening on every start attempt made after a few minutes. Googled for a while and kept running across people saying a bad coolant temperature sensor could cause this - not just Nissans, either, but lots of others too. This is the sensor the ECM uses to figure out engine temp so it can adjust timing, fuel, etc, not the sending unit for the temp gauge. According to the FSM (found at www.pdftown.com), the resistance is supposed to be about 2K ohms at 68F and go lower as the coolant temp increases, for about 200 ohms at 194F. I checked mine cold (80F outside, middle of the day) and got 1.4K - reasonable. Checked it after running to operating temp, shutting off, and waiting 30 minutes, and I got 550 ohms - also reasonable, and the truck started fine. Then, I ran about ten miles and checked the resistance after shutting it off for about 5 minutes. I was INSANELY higher than it should have been - 12 megs! Truck flooded right away on attempted start when it was that high. Waited another 30 minutes or so, leaving the meter hooked up to eliminate any probe contact issues, and it was back down to 500 ohms and the truck started perfectly. Replaced the sensor - $23.99 at Autozone - and have had no issues at all since. That was this afternoon, so only a few hot starts, but I'm hoping that was the fix and will re-post if it turns out to be something else. BTW, the FSM has lots more tech info than Haynes, but it contains few replacement steps - so ya kinda need 'em both. Also, I have a meter that will go into the Meg ohm range - $30 from Sears. I doubt the average $10 meter from Wallyworld would show anything other than an error or overload - or it might give wildly changing values. It pays to invest in good diagnostic tools.

Still trying to figure out why my '97 R50 wants to flood on startup after running for a while and being shut off for 5-10 minutes. A few days ago, I decided to eliminate things systematically, starting with the ignition. Had already replaced the rotor and plugs, so went ahead and did the cap and wires. No problems for 4 solid days - Monday thru Thursday. Then, Friday was a total mess! Flooding again. Had good spark, so I figured I'd clean all the grounds and connectors I could find. In the course of doing this, I managed to not quite get the TPS connector to click in, SES light came on, found it and replugged it, reset the ECM. Then, I drove about 3 miles to the store, shut it off, restarted fine 5 minutes later. Went 200 ft to the stoplight and the SES light came on. Got home and tried to clear the ECM, figuring that it had finally set codes for all the stuff I disconnected, and wanting a clear slate before i went to Autozone to get it read out. I have not been able to clear it out since, and it's pointless to get it read out unless the problem at hand is the only one - having possibly set others for having bad connections or whatever. All connections are tight now - trust me, I went OCD on it! And then, outta the blue, the idle speed sometimes wants to climb to 1300 in Park for no apparent reason, but stayed at the normal 750-800 in D or R, and the EGR back pressure transducer was going nuts and clicking at 1300. Shut it off and tried to restart, but it flooded again. I then tested every damn component of the EGR system while i was waiting for the fuel to clear and found nothing wrong. I thing the EGR F-up was a symptom, not the cause. After that 1 hour diagnostic episode, it started fine at 5 min intervals, 5 times in a row, with no high idle. But the sixth time, it idled high and then flooded again after 5 min.of being shut off. Not sure the two are related, because it has since flooded without high idle. Tomorrow, I'm going to get a fuel pressure gauge and make sure the pump and regulator are ok, and the injectors aren't leaking. but it seems like something is making all the injectors dump a bunch of fuel at once. Could a wonky IAC valve or coolant temp sensor cause this? Any ideas at all? It runs perfectly on the road and the only problems are at startup after running and being shut off for a few minutes. Thanks!

Because the coil is buried inside the distributor and not available separately - as far as I know.

Today, I decided to hedge my bets and check the spark every time I went to start the truck. Par for the course, the bloody thing never refused to start, but there was one time when it took a few more cranks than normal and I couldn't see much in the way of arc from screwdriver to ground. Since the spark, when it's there, is yellow and not too energetic, and given the intermittent nature of the problem, I'm thinking it's probably the coil being weak and an occasional module F-up. It has also, a cpl nights ago, started then died immediately - then repeated. That's classic bad coil behaviour, if you ask me. Looks like a distributor replacement is in order. Quick, somebody save me from myself! and $300.

I agree - I think it's the coil. Haynes manual says the 3.3L distributor has to be replaced as a unit. Any way around this?

I Posted about an intermittent flooding problem a few days ago. Here's an update: From sitting for a couple of hours, I went to the store a mile away, left the truck running for about 3 minutes, then rolled down the street to the carwash and shut it off. Washed the truck (4 min., maybe), and it flooded when I turned the key. Waited ten for it to clear out and drove back home. Waited about 4 minutes and it started up perfectly - no gas smell. Went out an hour later, had a beer with friends, hung out for an hour. Started fine, drove home (6 miles - it was in the normal temp range). Waited 15 minutes and tried to start and it flooded again. Waited another 10 min to clear it., then for the hell of it I pulled a plug wire and stuck a screwdriver in the end with the shaft near the manifold in order to check spark while cranking. Truck started right up on 5 cylinders, but there was a yellow arc instead of the blue I expected. Shut it off, re-installed the plug wire, restarted and let it run a cpl minutes and shut it off. Waited 5 minutes and it started fine. And again five minutes later, and yet again, five minutes after that. Seems to me that either something causes all the injectors to dump a @#$%load of fuel at one random key turn, or there's a glitch in the ignition system that allows ok-to-mediocre spark sometimes, and none at others. Any ideas?

That makes sense. Have an oil change due in a couple hundred miles, so I'll look for that.

Rotor is brand new. Cap and wires appear to be recent and resistance on all is within proper ranges.

Thanks! I'm just finishing up a tank of midgrade 89 with a bottle of super-duper Gumout that's supposed to take care of water, gunk, fairies and everything else. I went for a month or so with maybe one incident running 87, so I'm gonna fill up with that today or tomorrow and see if it goes away. Will let you know. Dunno why I used midgrade last time - unless it was just force of habit from running it in my previous car.