OT: truck dies on freeway

Ok not a Volvo but this group has lots of knowledgeable people so I'll give
it a shot.



My one-year-old 4 cylinder, manual Nissan Frontier truck just died on the
freeway center lane during a rainy day. It was scary trying to pull over to
the emergency right shoulder in heavy traffic in neutral gear. Engine turns
over but won't start. It finally started after 10 minutes. The dealer is
checking it over in the shop now.



This is my first Nissan and don't know if stalling is a known issue with the
Frontier. Anyone had this problem before and knows what could be wrong?

 

As you say, a group for the truck (or at least a Missan) can shed more light
on it. But in general... if the power drops like you had reached down and
turned off the key, suspect an electrical problem and odds are it will be a
bad switch, connection or an ignition intermittent. If you have a tach, it
will likely drop like a stone.

If the power fades away over a second or so, the fuel is quitting. Usual
suspects are fuel pump relay, fuel cutoff (safety for roll-over accidents)
or debris in the fuel filter. If you have a tach, the tach will probably
drop as the engine slows.

If you have a tach and it does not respond the way the engine does, that is
a valuable clue. Also, if the "check engine" light doesn't come on, suspect
something either before the engine control stuff (like a bad ignition
switch) or something past it (like a bad ignition coil or the fuel
delivery). Sometimes the ECU waits a while to set the light even though
something vital like the crank position sensor has quit, though, so it is
not a hard and fast rule.

I fear the dealer won't find anything and this will try your patience for a
while. I had two months and literally hundreds of stalls on my '84 300ZX
before I found the intermittent connection at the ignition coil. It would
restart and work fine after anywhere from a fraction of a second (just a
hiccup) to ten minutes. Grr!

Mike

 

That's what it did. Thanks for the information.

You're right. Just came back from the dealer but they couldn't found
anything wrong with it.

 

Google brought this interesting forum thread up:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/t309743-damp_weather_missing_stalling_99_frontier.html
In short - one respondent changed the distributor cap and rotor on their '99
and another poster seconded it. Cheap and easy, anyway. It also makes some
sense, as residual heat might have baked some of the moisture out of the
cap.

Mike

 

Is there a Nissan group? They may be more familiar.

Does it have spark? My guess is it's either a fuel or ignition problem,
I'm leaning towards the latter.

 

use the old method of>>

a) fuel
b) spark
c) compression

take it from there....(imho)

good luck...keep us posted on what you
discover....

 

Did the distributor cap get wet?

Moisture can cause the problems you reported.

 

Thanks to both MP and JS. The Nissan newsgroup wasn't musch help. Looks like
I have a pretty bad corossion problem at the + battery terminal connection
and the + copper power cable looks pretty bad too although is was solidly
connected to the battery terminal. I'v took the terminals apart and clean
out all the copper oxide/copper sulfate, removed the battery and wash down
the whole battery compartment area. Mind you the truck is only one year old
and the Nissan dealer said the corrosion problem its not under warranty.
Anyway, I'll check for ignition problems including the above mention cap and
rotor.

 

The trucks failure is under warranty. I suggest you count your times into
the shop for the problem.
If you do not want the truck think lemon law...
If you like it think of writing a certified letter to the nissan zone...

 

I once had a Peugot die similarly, when I drove through a puddle that splashed water onto
the motor, perhaps on the distributor. It started up nicely after a few minutes, when
the engine heat dried the wet spot.