| |
Jim Grant's Tech Tips
’96 Nissan Altima, No Go Over 2500
Q:
My ‘96 Nissan Altima won't supply gas when I'm over 2500 RPMS. I have gone round and round with several shops and self-proclaimed mechanics about the root of my problem. Initially it died a couple times, then nothing. I took it to a shop that told me there was oil in my distributor. We cleaned the distributor and replaced the cap. It ran but when I got to 2500 RPMS the engine would buck and sputter. I replaced the fuel filter, the distributor, and the starter in that order after the previous would not solve the problem. I believe it's got to be a sensor because I've downshifted and know that above 2500 RPMS I can have my foot on the gas and nothing happens until the RPMS fall under 2500 then it sputters around that number but if I let it drop to 2000 RPMS it runs fine. Got any Ideas?
Joel
A:
It might be a sensor, but I would suggest checking a switch. The computer in most all of today’s vehicle wants to know what gear you’re driving in. The computer needs this information for a pile of software tweaking stuff that goes on as you’re driving your vehicle. With that thought in mind, what would possibly happen if the computer thought you were in park or neutral? Well, if the vehicle is in park the computer is going to say hey you don’t need that fuel, you’re not going anywhere. By the sounds the computer is intentionally cutting the fuel off. Have a technician plug into the vehicle’s computer and take a look at what Nissan calls the Inhibitor Switch. The Inhibitor Switch is a highbred of the park/neutral safety switch of the old days. If this switch is telling the computer that your in park or neutral and you push the gas pedal to the floor the computer is going to butt-in and cut the fuel supply once the engine reaches a specified RPM. If the computer believes the vehicle is not moving there is a good chance you won’t be moving too fast until the computer sees that the transmission is in gear. Even vehicle’s equipped with standard transmissions tell the computer when they’re in gear. The old put a brick on the gas pedal until the engine blows-up just doesn’t work on most of today’s vehicles.
|
|
