rwd5021 Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 While awaiting a response I crawled under and looked around a bit. I realized my muffler finally busted all the way through, would that likely be the cause? Or is that just something ELSE I need to fix? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 They'll run with open headers so no, the muffler's not your culprit. Any codes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwd5021 Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Yes but I'm afraid it might die on the way to or from autozone, so I'm waiting til my girlfriend can follow in the other pathy just incase. I know my 92 ran fine without a muffler, but I thought maybe the fancy computer in the 98 might not like a busted muff. I checked the egr valve and I'm pretty sure that's working. (First I moved the diaphragm manually, second I turned the truck on and felt it move on it's own as I revved the engine) So maybe evap canister? Or something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverton Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Muffler should be much after the rear O2 sensor. So it shouldn't effect how it runs, just sound louder. The nice thing about a 96+ vehicle is that they are OBD2. If this were your 92 we could guess all day and never figure out what's really long, but since it's your 98, go get the codes checked and save yourself all the trouble of guessing. It will tell you EXACTLY what's wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 If you own a OBD2 car, buy an OBD2 reader. Get a cheap one with a warranty, all it needs to do is read the CEL code and be able to clear them. Shouldn't be more than $40 or so and will pay for it's self the first time. The down side of OBD2 is more systems and sensors to fail... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 The down side of OBD2 is more systems and sensors to fail... B And the "now what?" when those systems fail without throwing codes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyeager Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Yes but I'm afraid it might die on the way to or from autozone, so I'm waiting til my girlfriend can follow in the other pathy just incase. I know my 92 ran fine without a muffler, but I thought maybe the fancy computer in the 98 might not like a busted muff. I checked the egr valve and I'm pretty sure that's working. (First I moved the diaphragm manually, second I turned the truck on and felt it move on it's own as I revved the engine) So maybe evap canister? Or something else? good. You have most likely ruled that out then. But it could possibly still get stuck open on occasion, so to completely rule it out, disconnect the electrical plug to it and see if you can recreate the problem. If so, EGR definitely ruled out. It could also be ignition related. Sometimes the coil can be going bad gradually such that it only fails when it's hot or when it's cold. You could also have a bad wire or cap and the spark arcs to ground when the engine compartment gets wet. Was it raining out when you had these problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fixinto Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 try checking your fuel pressure at the rails. Make sure its is upto spec. make sure none of your plug wires are laying against metal where a spark can bleed through if the wire is old or w/e and ground out. other than that. could be a couple of other things. but i would probably start there if it were me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle94 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Distributor have red bearing dust failure? Mine ran all kinds of funny when that happened lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyeager Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Yes but I'm afraid it might die on the way to or from autozone, so I'm waiting til my girlfriend can follow in the other pathy just incase. I know my 92 ran fine without a muffler, but I thought maybe the fancy computer in the 98 might not like a busted muff. I checked the egr valve and I'm pretty sure that's working. (First I moved the diaphragm manually, second I turned the truck on and felt it move on it's own as I revved the engine) So maybe evap canister? Or something else? Any more developments on this mystery failure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerlNinja Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Like everyone has said already, fuel filter. I've had it happen a few times where I've gotten pretty close to running on empty, and it seems that that's the perfect time for it to start sucking up the crud floating in the tank, it tends to gum up the filter after a while, and then it'll just merrily starve the engine of fuel. Luckily (not sure how this applies to other model pathfinders) my fuel filter is located in the engine bay, so popping it off and giving it a good blast of compressed air tends to un-clog the works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwd5021 Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Still a mystery unfortunately.. It's just sitting there waiting. I don't have a job right now, so I can't go buy a code reader or risk having to tow it home if it dies. Kyle94 No red bearing dust. Fixinto I'm pretty sure I don't have the tools to check the fuel pressure. Plug wires look ok as far as I can tell. Jyeager It wasn't the least bit wet outside any of the times this has happened. Im thinking it's like you said, the egr valve works but gets stuck sometimes. So if I unplug it and my pathy runs the same that means the egr valve is not working right. Correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwd5021 Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Pulled the electrical plug to the egr valve and it seems to run fine now. Would it be ok to drive it like that until I can buy a new egr valve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyeager Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Pulled the electrical plug to the egr valve and it seems to run fine now. Would it be ok to drive it like that until I can buy a new egr valve? By unplugging the EGR valve you have disabled the EGR system. Its only purpose is to improve emissions. There is no harm in running around with it disconnected except to the environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwd5021 Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 Thank you very much! I do kinda like the environment so I won't be driving it too much, but good to know I can if necessary. Thanks everybody for the input. I'll post again once I have the codes checked. Hopefully that's the only reason the check engine light's on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwd5021 Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 Ok everybody, time for an update! So I thought she was running ok after unplugging the egr, buuuut it was just one of those weird times when it just happened to work ok.. Everything seemed fine on the way into town to get the codes checked until I was getting off the freeway. I let off the gas and the truck started shaking pretty violently. Got it to autozone and the only codes it showed were cylinder 4 misfire and of course the egr.. I figured I should try changing the spark plugs, no help. Tried a new cap and rotor and then it wouldn't start up at all! At that point I was pretty confused and thought it might be be something fuel related so I popped off the fuel filter line and had my gf turn the key to on. Well, I got sprayed with gas, so that definitely wasn't it. I started getting a little scared thinking maybe the timing belt had broken so.. I hate to say it, but I had to take it to my father in law's mechanic..... I explained everything and he figured out pretty quickly that the distributor itself was causing the problem. The spark was arcing to the outside of the dizzy. It must have finally just given out. I paid $150 for a jy distributor and the mechanic for an hour of labor. Now she starts right up and runs like a champ again. Oh and I was able to return the new cap and got that $35, so altogether not too bad, especially considering what I thought it could be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyeager Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Thanks for the update. It was definitely acting like a misfire situation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwd5021 Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 Ya, hopefully someone in my situation will benefit from reading this next time. Thanks for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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