About 3 weeks ago my car's radiator blew up and stranded me for a bit. Had the mechanic swap it out, oil change all is good. Tonight while driving on the highway, suddenly the engine felt almost stopped, RPMs jumped to 0 and flashed the VDP off CEL light. Kinda scared me but the car kept going 70 MPH no issue. About another 10 minutes later it did it again, and the idle seemed extremely high (staying in the 1K-1.2K range) even at a red light. Made it to dinner ok, no biggie. After dinner, driving back on the highway same issue happened except this time the stall felt almost 2 seconds and the CEL and VDP off light stayed on but didn't seem to have any idle issues. I was tempted to try restarting my car at a red light but decided to wait till I got into my driveway. Got home and then turned off, then tried to restart - turns over but won't go. I kept trying to start it and give it gas then it came to life for a few then seemed to die. Tried again same issue. I checked under the hood but I don't see anything unplugged or burned as I figure it's a computer issue of sorts. Can anyone help on some suggestions on what's wrong? I have to wait till tomorrow to get a tow to my mechanic, but at least any ideas on what happened.

Before 3 weeks ago minimal issues now at 63K miles and 7.5yrs stuff is going wrong

 

If your CEL is on then you will have a code stored. Have your mechanic scan with an OBD tool to get the code. He should be able to identifiy but if not report back and we'll try to help.

Side note: this happened to me a few weeks back. Slip, VDC lights, high idle, tach would drop to zero on highway, etc. Engine would stall, hard to turn over but would start. It turned out to be failed CAM sensor.

 

Yep finally got it over to the mechanic and it threw that code also (failed CAM sensor), but I already left for work and did a quick google search and sounds like this is a common issue and letting him swap it out although looks to be really easy (assuming I guess the correct side). I have noticed the fuel economy has gotten really bad, but the car driving 80mph was pretty good. I'm hoping this is it on the car for now :-)

 

Good thing you got a fairly quick answer. My cam sensor failed at 67k so around the same mileage, too. Seems to be a common failure on our cars but mechanically, outside of the IPDM (very rare) that failed in my car this is the only issue I have had. The IPDM left me stranded but the CAM sensor failure didn't...although I am well aware it could have.

 

Yep I think it might be worth investing in a OBD-II reader since this repair looks to be pretty quick and easy, hopefully since I know him pretty well will just charge me 1hr labor + parts.

The radiator blowing up a month ago was a bit of a surprise, but also something common I've read and seen from the newer plastic edged models. But overall for 7.5yrs+ of driving still I think I'm underbudget what it would normally have been.

/edit
Just picked up the car, the mechanic determined it was actually the crank position sensor, car's idle now seems back to where it should be and I'm sure my fuel econ will come back a little. I think it's time to invest in a OBD2 reader

 

we used to just reflashed the vdc at nissan sometimes it worked sometimes not

 

if you have and android smartphone you can get a 5 dollar app called torque and a 13 dollar ebay obd2 bluetooth adapter, works better then the 340 dollar one that autozone used http://www.elm327.net/

 

Torque is good but doesn't read all codes all the time like it should unless you're connected to the Internet on your phone consistently during use.

I was reading the OP and though Cam sensor also. The car will usually start with a bad cam sensor though, just take longer.
Crank sensor will kill the car completely and not allow it to start.

Glad you got it sorted out!