Maybe you guys can help me out with this one. Saturday night I drove my 04 6MT sedan about 100 miles with no problems at all. The car has been trouble free for 32,000 miles. Sunday morning, after a couple miles of warm up (it was 15 degrees out) I merged on to the highway with about half throttle in 3rd gear, and the car hesitated, then surged, then hesitated again. This continued for a couple miles, so I pulled over, shut it off, and restarted it. No change, still hesitating. I continued for a while and the problem went away about after 15 or 20 miles into a 160 mile trip. It then sat for 10 hours, and when I restarted it would barley rev, and felt like it was going to stall (though it never did). It let it warm up a couple min, and I was able to drive it to the hotel hesitating and surging all the way. On the way to the hotel I filled it with gas (it was down to a ¼ tank) in case I had a bad batch of gas or water in the tank. While it was filling I checked the connectors on the MAF and throttle body, nothing was loose. I restarted after the fill up, and it has been fine for the last 15 miles since then even on a cold (7 degrees here in Boston this morning) start. So at this point I am thinking this a fuel pump related problem, or something like sediment or water in the tank. Anyone have any ideas? Oh and I have not seen a service engine light come on yet.

 

I had a very similar problem with my old 94 S10. It ran fine at higher revs but wanted to stall at under 2k. The problem would come and go every now and then. The problem was the egr valve being stuck open or close. I fixed it by doing what I did for most problems on that truck - bang on it till it worked right.

 

I think ur on the right track, sounds like something with fuel system.

Do you usually drive until the fuel light comes on before you refuel?

 

When you say hesitation does that mean, you step on gas at lets say 3,000 rpm and when you gas it more, it would just shake and not go any further??? I had that issue on my accord and I thought it was the fuel pump but it turns out to be the oxygen sensor.

 

Possibly a problem with the MAF sensor, it won't always throw a check engine light.
Yes it is possible you had a bad batch of gas as well.
It's also possible it was a Throttle Position Sensor, but that almost always throws the check engine light.

 

I doubt it was the O2 sensor, it is very rare on a Nissan for an O2 sensor to actually cuase the engine to run diferrently, usually just throws the check engine light. Some of the older Nissan's it would, but those were the pre-1994's.

 

Thanks for the input guys. When I say hesitation, here is what happens. Cruising at a constant throttle position, all of a sudden it lost power and the car started to slow down. Opening the throttle made it worse, letting off the throttle completley and getting back on it would make it surge and get moving again for about 30 seconds then it would start slowing down again. I normally fill up between 1/4 and 1/8 of a tank. It feels like it is being starved of fuel when it hesitates, if it were running rich it would be using more gas the normal (it isn't), and the extra emissions would trigger a check engine light. MAF or TPS were my first thoughts until it went away with a fresh tank of gas. Now if it comes back when I burn through 1/4 of this tank, I would lean toward a fuel pump problem. Either way it needs to do it consistantly or the dealer will never find it, so if and when it comes back again I will take it right over there.

I will post again if it comes back, and what the problem really was.

 

I had a similar problem last week, but when my engine surged, it also quit. My Slip, VDC Off, and SES lights came on. Upon restart the engine would not idle, it was hunting and then quit. After a 10 minute wait, the restart provided a smooth idle. 3 blocks later the same symptoms occurred. Roadside assistance picked me and my '05 6MT up and dropped off at the nearest dealer. They replaced the Crankshaft sensor, camshaft position sensor, and intake timing sensor. The service rep mentioned that he had seen some throttle bodies go bad. The Invoice states codes P0335 - P1084.

 

Yes, definitely check the codes. Not all will cause the check engine light to come on but you'd think a problem like this should. It's probably the MAF, TPS, or other sensor not functioning properly, but the CEL codes should give a good clue of where to look. When it happens again, you can get the dealer to install a fuel pressure gauge in-line to watch it while driving and see if that's the problem.