I have a 1997 Nissan Altima that started acting up about 2 months ago out
of the blue. Here is what happened, while driving it would just start to
run very rough and eventually stop. When I would come to a stop light it
would not even idle so I had to keep one foot on the gas and one on the
break. I had a mechanic look at it and he said I needed to replace the
EGR valve along with new plugs, plug wires, distributor and fuel filter.
So after they did that it was a little better, but it still does the same
thing periodically. About 3 weeks ago it got to the point when it would
do it, if I was at a stop light I would place my foot on the gas and one
on the break and when the black smoke would spew out of the exhaust it
would run just fine, trust me the black smoke had a very distict odor to
it also. Any clue as to what this could be? Could it be the other EGR
valve or another type of sensor? I thought maybe the black smoke was
possible coming from carbon build up that it was just releasing, but it is
still having the same problems. HELP!!!

"bfled" <brad_fledderman (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

I would maybe change your valve cover gasket, I have a 95 altima and it was
leaking oil down into the spark plugs and wires fouling them both out. Only
costs 30 bucks for the gaskets and takes an hour to change.

I am having the same problem. I've changed everything that has to do with
the ignition system, but still having the problem. Have you figured out
what was wrong with yours?

More info...

I have been having the same exact problem with my 94 altima se. One day
while driving down the highway, it just lost all power so I pulled over
and then it would not go over about 2500 to 3000 RPM. It has around the
same mileage as yours. I have changed EVERYTHING! I changed the dist cap
and rotor, wires and plugs to begin and then the ECM. Then I checked
every
electrical link, fuse, relay, and resistor on the car. I also checked the
computer and it did not seem to be malfunctioning nor did it have any
error codes. It still is not working and it has been about three months (
I got soo mad I left it sitting for about a montha and a half :-). I'm
ready to get it back on the road again, but can't seem to figure out the
problem. I may try changing the O2 sensor next and then the distributor.
I
found this post from a guy in Hawaii on another site which stated that a
seal blew on his distributor and caused similar problems
(http://www.2carpros.com/makes/nissan/altima.htm).
I checked mine and
noticed oil in mine as well and the seal was all stretched out and worn,
so I may buy a new distributor, but they are like 200 bucks.

Have you figured what the problem with yours was yet??

I finally replaced the distributor last week, and it runs flawlessly now.
There seems to be an issue with the seals on the distributors that allows
oil to get into the distributor. There is a disk in there with really
small holes and a magnetic reader which must read through the holes as it
spins. When the oil gets on it, it causes it to do that weird loss of
power thing.

I am having the exact same problem with my 1996 Altima. When I come to a
stop the car will idle down real low and eventually cut off. It will start
right back up once I put the car in neutral. It is also starting to idle
low and cut off when I am still driving. The first time it happened the
car would not restart so I had a full tune-up done, and it worked fine for
about two weeks, then the problem came back.

I just saw the posting that said that the distributor needs replacing.

2 questions still though:

1. Did you replace it with a Nissan factory purchased distributor vs. a
part store bought one.

2. I am also having a problem with the steering wheel shaking real bad.
Can this be caused by the faulty distibutor, or is this a seperate issue?

When you replaced your distributor, did you need to do anything with the
timing on the car?

The optical distributor that is mentioned gets oil on it when the shaft
seal fails. When you replace it with a rebuilt one. I bought mine from
Nissan since I did not want to screw around with aftermarket, and it
worked great. Yes, you will have to run a timing light on it if you
want to get it exact. I just noted where the old one was in relation to
the two bolts that hold it down and where the rotor was and inserted it
the same way. It was close enough to fire and then I went out and power
timed it. That is, I drove the car at operating temperature and
listened for spark knock. If there was no knock I advanced the timing
and locked it down and drove it again; bumping the timing up, advanced,
a few degrees each time until the car knocked. You can hear the
clatter. Once it clattered I retarded the timing a couple of degrees
and ran it around town with the airconditioning on in stop and go and on
the freeway. Once I was sure it would not knock I tightened up the
bolts on the distributor and it was good to go. You get a couple of
extra degrees of timing out of the car and more horsepower. But, if you
are running super unleaded most of the time and then get a lesser grade
of gas the engine will knock. So, set the timing for what you are going
to run all of the time.

Tiffany4uonly wrote:

Thanks so much for the information.