Car died on the highway. Need help from Techs

[kool_yaar]

Man so glad to see at least one guy get the right end result unlike suby, i hope everything goes smoothly and youre back in your baby in no time!

[IvoryPearl07G]

question since i am having some issues as well. Any advice is greatly appreciated. luckily i have all of my spare parts incase i am doomed as well.

Did this happen to either uga or suby leading up to the actual breakdown?

It started almost a year ago, an occasional flattening of the exhaust note and loss of power.....I found it to be a possible dirty connection from the plug to the exhaust camshaft timing sensor due to it going away after cleaning the connection. but it is an intermittent occurance that happens every few times i drive it now.

more recently a more severe issue has arose. When going to wide open throttle it will all of a sudden jerk and stop accelerating with the motor still trying to go. The exhaust note is flat, power is lower, shifting takes up to 4 seconds and when it does shift its like its a full pressure wide open shift. the VDC light and SLIP lights illuminate. Following this the check engine light will finally illuminate. CODE 345. exhaust camshaft timing sensor. I have to pull the car over, clear the code and start it up a couple of times before it magically goes back to normal.

i fear i might be #3 with this problem

[InTgr8r]

I would swap the OE parts back & take it in now.
Don't wait for complete failure.
This will give you a record for the ongoing problem.

[IvoryPearl07G]

alright, after a few weeks of off and on testing i have found the issues. the connectors/plugs that go to the intake AND exhaust camshaft position senors are getting loose and loosing the connectivity at the terminals. When the exhaust cam sensor looses the connection, only the exhaust note changes and there is a 10-20% powerloss. When the intake cam sensor looses connection, the car dies. If its an intermittent connection loss, it trips the combination lamp....CEL, VDC, and SLIP.

And, believe it or not, i had found through some research that other HR equipped 350z's are getting the same issue but its not limited to the cam sensors. Throttle bodies, MAF's, and crank sensors have the issue. When i went to the nissan dealer to pick up some new connectors, my buddy parts manager showed me something interesting.

nissan has issued kits of assorted plugs for the newer vehicles and a tool to check specifically for loose plugs and connectivity of the spade terminals. ROFL!

now for the issue of the motor popping earlier in this thread....seems to me like a stress fracture formed in the cam dowel pin with the continuous strain of the cams slapping over to full retard(timing). this resulted in complete failure when the dowel pin in the camshaft/camgear broke. and to think they kept replacing the sensors when it was a freakin plug. it doesnt suprise me at all it happened like this.

back in 2004 I had screws back out of the butterfly valves in my secondary INTAKE manifold runners in my 02 sentra ser specV. two screws went through the motor, pitting the piston and tearing up the spark plug. they wouldnt fix it because of my intake/exhaust. so i bought new screws and fixed it with loctite. ONE YEAR later, a TSB came out telling dealers about the issue and to check them....6months after that, a recall. grrrr....

anyways, i foresee a recall for certain plugs....mainly the intake cam sensor and crank senor plugs since those are really the only ones that kill the car when they fail. that causes a situation in which an accident can occur.


Some notes from my issues:
all cam plugs had a looseness to them. one of the plugs clip broke(exhaust side). one was loose enough that a small touch killed the car everytime(intake side). I found some looseness in my coolant temp plug and intake camshaft solenoid plugs on the timing cover also. I solved the issue completely by cutting off the old plugs and soldering the "new" plugs on. the "new" plugs seem to have a higher strength/heat resistant plastic consistency. part number is 22680-7S000. While narrowing down the issue and trying to find causes for the P0345 CEL code I:cleaned about 8 plugs:filled the distilled water level up in my battery:cleaned my throttle bodies:cleaned my filters:moved ground wires:topped off fluids:drank a bunch of beer :-D

[Triton3.5]

Wow,, thats pretty dang good diagnostic work IP!!! It gives us all something to look at, or check from time to time, if our cars act up as such.... well done!!!