Hi All,

Most issues over the years I have found answers to keep our 2004 G35 2wd AT sedan running well. My search-fu has come up short with this one.

Gave the car to our son a couple years ago (sentimental value here as its the car he came home from the hospital in after he was born). He's at college a little over an hour away so comes home ever few weekends. He mentioned once that the engine would shake from time to time and feel like it might stall... He knows nothing about cars and can't tell us more than that. I have driven it a few times and done an italian tune up blowing it out on the freeway... always seems to be running great at about 130k miles.

So today I get in it and while the engine is smooth I notice its got the service engine light on and vdc and slip are illuminated. Tried the VDC button many times to no change. Pull the code (P0301) and clear it. Took it for a quick drive to the store... AC is on but blowing hot (never done before) and trans is SLAMMING into gears. But engine was smooth. Hmnnn. Grabbed what I needed in 15 min and started the car for the drive home and.... No VDC or slip lights, engine smooth and AC blows ice cold. Grrrr.

So I check online to find that P0301 is misfire cylinder 1. Pulled the coil on cy l1 and grabbed a replacement at the local Oreileys. No Hitachi in stock and the boy is leaving tomorrow so I take the recommended one (75$ ouch!) swap it in, connect everything back up and start it Smooth for about a minute then starts shaking and revs are dropping. Confirm from the boy this is what it feels like. Start and stop engine a couple times and it never goes back to smooth, revs drop to barely running. Then one time at start the VDC Slip lights come back on and though its running rough and can rev the tach is totally dead. Pulled the new coil put in the old. Start it up smooth as can be. Drove it to Oreilleys to return the new coil, runs perfect. Start it to drive home and its shaking and rough.

Is there some known electrical problem that links things like the AC (I think it was the flap under the hood not opening as the compressor was definitely running) The dash (tach not working) and intermittent misfires and VDC issues?

Have to send him back to school tomorrow (no options for another car)... telling him to drive carefully. Hate to do it but have no options.

Any ideas?

TIA
Jay

 

If the engine is running and the tach isnt showing anything, that usually means a bad crankshaft sensor.

 

Still having random issues. Did replace crank shaft sensor and car ran great for a few weeks then random misfire came back. Took it to local indy nissan tech who said it was running well the whole day. It did give a random canbus failure to his fancy code reader and he cleaned some of the grounds and he said that went away.

Rough running happened the next day and again went away after a restart.

Drove great for a week straight then rough running happened on a restart and gave a (pending) P0301 code again. I pulled the cyl 1 coil and plug. Plug didn't look fantastic so I put in a new NGK irridium plug and swapped the coil to cyl 5 to see if the misfire moves with it. Drove great for 50 miles. Then today I go to drive it for the second or third time of the day and I start it and just after start saw the VDC off lights and the slip lights come on. Turned it off and it wouldn't restart. VDC off and slip lights come on with key but do not go out and it won't start(just cranks) for about 5 tries. Then randomly on the sixth try the lights go out and the car starts right up like nothing happened.

What the hell?

 

OK curiouser and curiouser...

So I have 2 OBDII readers. A cheap old Actron and a new Foxwell 510 Nissan specific one. I keep the Actron in the car in case I want to grab basic codes if something happens... This evening after an uneventful drive I'm sitting in my driveway and plug in the Actron just to see if there are pending codes. As soon as I hit the scan button the VDC off and the Slip lights came on and the tachometer went to zero (but the engine was still running...) I shut it off and when I tried to restart the VDC and Slip lights stayed lit and it would crank and not start. Once I removed the OBDII reader comple3tely and cycled the key all the way off and back on the VDC and Slip lights went off and it started like normal. I realized that when I had the no start issue earlier today the Actron unit WAS plugged in.

Tried with the Foxwell and it can scan OBDII just fine with no lights coming on or affecting starting...

Again I say, what the hell?

Thanks
Jay