I was having an issue intermittently where once every few days my 04 6mt would just shut off while I was driving, or try to but I was in gear and it would immediately bump back on. I never got a CEL from any of this, I checked on my scanner every time it did it as well to nothing. I had one occurrence where it wouldn't immediately start back up, it took 30 seconds of trying to crank it for it to come back. Probably about a month from the first time it happened to now.

Last night, drove home from work, just filled the tank. Had no issues at all. Did a few things inside for no more than an hour, went to go start up the car and nothing. It just cranks and cranks and cranks. Its not weak at all. Put a screwdriver in a coil and nothing. I had already ordered new oem cam sensors because I had seen other people saying the shutting off while driving was cam sensors, but they all had CELs. I just was procrastinating putting them in. I put them in anyways, and it changed nothing. I can smell the raw fuel so I know its getting fuel. My battery is tight, I left it disconnected overnight and it changed nothing. I've only driven the car 6 or 7k miles since I've had it but I haven't once had any codes. I'm thinking it could possibly be temperature related because I bought this car in the summer and this only started as it cooled down maybe? It's been consistently around freezing for the past few days at night. I checked all the fuses and there's none popped, yes I checked the panel behind the battery. I'm not sure where to go from here and any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you're getting fuel then it's probably NOT a cam/crank sensor. If the car doesn't have data from any of those sensors you will NOT have fuel or spark.

However it could be an intermittent issue, your tachometer should rise while cranking, if the tach doesn't move it's probably the crank sensor.

Just to rule out other issues I would pull and inspect all the spark plugs.

For the future, to test spark pull a coil pack and it's spark plug, put the plug back in and hold the ground strap of the plug about 1/4" away from the intake plenum or another bare grounded source, obviously wear leather gloves or wrap it a few times with a towel so you have something insulated to hold onto or it's going to bite you. Then have someone else crank while you watch for spark. Using the screwdriver to ground it out is a good way to DAMAGE the coil pack, they have to have a steady and measured release of voltage or the windings in it's little transformer melt. The spark plug gap controls the release of energy.

 

Tach doesn't rise while cranking. I'll throw a crank sensor at it and see.

I put plugs in it no more than 2k miles ago.

And whoops lol. If that becomes a problem I'll buy a new coil. Learn something new about coil on plug every day

 

It'll probably be fine, you would have had to do quite a bit of cranking with it actually transferring energy for it to damage anything.

Since you aren't getting a tach signal, probably no crank sensor, which means probably no spark, thus nothing going through the coil pack. What you were smelling was probably just residual gas from when the engine stalled out.

 

Well, its not the crank sensor either. Grabbed a cheap one from the parts store just to test and it changed nothing. It's definitely getting fuel though, the smell is potent during and right after it cranks. I did the ecu reset as well just in case that did something.


And on a most likely unrelated note: the sensor came out like this and this chunk of metal fell out of the hole... maybe that was my vibration when I would slip the clutch really slow lol

 

Unfortunately it's time to pull the transmission to find out what's broken inside the bellhousing.

As for the no spark, pull your plugs and see if they're wet after cranking. If they ARE wet then it's some kind of ignition side problem and I would look for wiring problems from the coil packs to the ECU, power from the IPDM, etc. ECM switches the GROUND on/off.

 

I'm just going to ignore it until it immobilizes the car, kinda like this did. lol

They are wet so it's definitely getting fuel. I'll find a wiring diagram and chase everything as far as I can.

 

Here a link to the FSM.

https://www.nicoclub.com/infiniti-service-manuals

Check out section EC - Engine Controls, page 665.

I would start by checking fuse 77 in the IPDM

 

Remember kids, always buy oem sensors, and avoid having all of these problems.

 

So it's working again? Bad sensor?

What did you ever find out about the chunk of metal?

 

I would also like to know if this was fixed 😬

 

OEM crank sensor sensor and it started right up, never had the problem again. Never again with parts store garbage.

 

I’m having the same issue but I replaced the crank sensor with several oem ones. I’m getting fuel but no spark. Gauges don’t move and have no engine codes. Any ideas?

 

OEM camshaft sensors. I ended up having to do both of those in addition to the crank sensor on my car, long since sold and totaled by next owner, rip 😓. But the car never had any of these symptoms again.