Hi all, as title suggests, it seems my Z has developed some sort of throttle issue, or fuel delivery issue or maybe something totally different such as idle switch or something..?

 

Last night driving home from my Mum's after a bank holiday roast, for some reason as I lifted the throttle to change gear, and then applied it again, it was as if the cable had just been removed from the pedal, I could put it to the floor and nothing would happen, I lift wait a couple of seconds and it was back on again, totally random events too, I couldnt distinguish it to any bumps I went over in the road or anything.. I've also noticed that there is lots of petrol smell once I've arrrived at my destination get out of the car, and im pretty sure its used most of a tank in about 200 miles... and 100 of those have been at 60-80 on the motorway..

 

oh and this morning on the way to work, it was fine, this afternoon on my way home its been horrific again.

 

I sat in my driveway when i got home and sat just trying to figure out what it might be.. when i blip the throttle it shudders in like a double "broom BROOOM" ( :D at my explanation there), however when I go up the revs smoothly, no issue, i've noticed a bit more exhaust popping than usual too..

 

Can we pool our minds into one odd shaped mulche and think of all the possible reasons..?

im thinking possible fuel blockage such as little deposits that have managed to get through or something? or possibly something to do with the idle cutting in when its not ment to?

 

I also noticed that my cable from the throttle is pretty loose, but its never caused an issue before??

 

Thanks very much for any help you can give me... its confusing the hell out of me..

 

Cheers

 

Sky

Edited September 1, 201015 yr by Sky89

anyone got any ideas?

 

Cheers

 

Sky

try changing the fuel filter . mine has run much better since . the fuel we use nowadays is shite compared to the stuff these used to run on

ok, sure, could certainly be an issue.

halfords jobby?

and the fuel filter is that cylinder under the bonnet mounted above the passenger side shock i guess?

 

cheers

 

Sky

Not expensive from Nissan

 

Did anything happen to the revs at all?

 

If I was you I would spend an hour or so cleaning all the connectors in the engine bay. A lot of problems are just caused by dirty connections

ok, sure, could certainly be an issue.

halfords jobby?

and the fuel filter is that cylinder under the bonnet mounted above the passenger side shock i guess?

 

cheers

 

Sky

 

get 1 from one of the traders on here . that way you know its meant for the job. only about a tenner

 

when i replaced mine i also replaced a couple of bits of fuel pipe , was the braided stuff but not siutable for fuel injection engines .

 

i picked up on this reading one of jeff tt posts .

 

certainly seems happier running now

i would also check the connection on the temp sensor for the ECU (front of the engine, top water pipe, 2 sensors, one is to the ECU and one is for the dash gauge, it's one of em, can't remember which of the two, but check em both, make sure the connectors are clean and the spade on the top on the sensor isn't loose, if it is, just use a nail or something similar and a hammer to flatten the rivet, you'll know what i mean), causes over fuelling and the hesitation you mentioned, just a thought pal.... well worth unplugging everything you can and checking for green gunk on the connections, especially injectors..... HTH.

Hi All, thanks very much for your help so far, if it stays nice I will get on with cleaning up connections tonight.

However, I DO have braided fuel lines, and one of those sensors i did post a while back to be looking a bit dodgy, thee rubber casing of the connector is all cracked off, i'll try to find the post for the pictures.

 

Would this alone be enough to loose a third of a tank?? 320ish to 203 miles is a drastic change...

 

Not expensive from Nissan

 

Did anything happen to the revs at all?

 

Erm, when It happens I'm normally mid shift or slowing down and with some chavvy up my back side, but next time i'll make a note not to bring up the clutch and actually watch what happens to them, what are you thinking?

 

 

Thanks very much, i'll have a look at fuel filters and lines on the traders bit soon

 

Cheers

 

Sky

I was thinking a dodgy connection on your CAS. I had a problem with cutting out, pointed to the PTU but that didn't solve it. Some advice from Lymon and he told me to try and catch a look at the revs next time it stalled. If the rev counter bounced when it was stalling then it pointed to the CAS. He was right and a clean of the connector sorted it out.

that break in the rubber boot on that plug is common mate, although it might let a little water and dirt in, it's nothing major if the connection underneath is ok, ya can buy some stuff, probably from maplins called 'self amalgemating tape', probably spell wrong, but it's a kind of rubber tape, that sticks to it's self and bonds, water tight and that, wrapping a bit of that round it should be ok for ya, it's flexible and normaly black so shouldn't look out of place either, just wrap it round and squeeze together... found it, don't like maplins personally, but here ya go....

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?menuno=11862

 

cleaning the connectors is a tedious job but WELL worth it, you'll need a tin of contact cleaner, some little tools like pins, nail files, very small screw drivers etc. whatever you find that works really, scrape all the green gunk off and expose as much clean metal as you can, and the female end of plugs it's good to close up the spade connector a tiny bit to ensure a tight connection, hope it cures your problem pal, more than likely will be summet and nowt, but those are the most annoying faults! keep us posted...

Just so everyone knows what i'm on about without you having to search for it

 

 

thanks for the help so far, i'm going to have a good old look for dodgy connections for the next couple of hours!

 

cheers!

 

Sky

just clean them as you go with contact cleaner

Have a look in the FAQ area for 'Curing erratic idle'...Grover has a decent PDF posted of which the first couple of parts is worth doing after you've cleaned connectors!

My back started hurting from all the leaning over the enginebay.. that there is a long nose cone!!

I removed the connectors on all sensors / plugs I could find/reach, didnt really see any issues but gave a bit of a scraping anway, I also tightened up my throttle cable as this was something I had been meaning to do...

If I'm honest, I really dont know what im doing with regards to this situation...

 

I will read that document mate, see if it gives me any neat ideas..

 

What I'm so miffed about to be honest is why the throttle just dissappears when its doing its thing.. is this a protective measure of some sort? because I just dont know enough to even contemplate why this could occur..

 

Thanks very much

 

Sky

check the PCV pipes on the rocker cover front the metal ones look like 90degree metal bent pipe make sure they havent come out and are fouling on the throttle linkage

if you lost spark wouldn't that be the same as no throttle?

 

How often does it happen?

How often does it happen?

Well on the way to work this morning, 4 times, yesterday morning none, yesterday evening twice, it does seem to be under powered thinking about it too.. (though I suppose if its overfueling this would be the case)

Also, on thismorning's trip to work I noticed two things, I firstly noticed, as it was cold, that yes from the exhaust there is a distinct increase in the smell of petrol, as to be expected. However, when I get in the car, there is a second smell, more of a burning smell to me, and theres so much of it in the cabin I actually left the window open for fear of gassing myself or something, then if I open the bonnet, no smell..

This makes me think that something dodgy is happening inbetween tank and engine? maybe?

My second find thismorning, as it did its thing, no accellerator pedal at all, I press the clutch and watched the revs drop from 3k quite sharply to just below 1k and "bounce" back to 1.5k... where it remained... which is not normal idle for me with a warm engine...

 

So what does this mean?

 

if you lost spark wouldn't that be the same as no throttle?

I guess that would! what could I check to deal with this symptom? because it doesnt happen all the time, and never when im stationary... (could this be a key factor that i've overlooked?) so I cant exactly pull out a plug as im driving along, and dont have a rolling road..

 

Thanks

 

Sky

Edited September 3, 201015 yr by Sky89

Well the journey home this afternoon wasnt comfortable, the issue has developed a little, most of my journey home on the A1 was affected by the hesitating issue, at one stage I actually had to pull over on the hard shoulder because the hesitation lasted so long and I was doing 40 before it started to sort itself out.

I managed to get some contact cleaner, micro files and some amalgimating rubber tape, in anticipation for fiddling with the various sensors and connections.

I've now gone and cleaned the CoolentTempSensor, ThrottlePositionSensor and the CrankPositionSensor too and a number of plugs, and the ignition relay... all of which looked to be uncorroded.

Anywhere else I should be looking specifically? is the MAF the only oxygen sensor? that looked fine too yesterday..

 

Thanks very much

 

Sky

Maf will cause running problems as it will have trouble going over 3000 revs you said about a smell inside have you checked the ecu area incase water has got to it and is causing shorting problems

Have you done the fuel filter yet?..

I haven't done the fuel filter yet, it looks pretty new to me, but I'll get it done, it cant hurt anything other than possibly my wallet.

I went to a local car parts seller today as i was passing by, just looked to see if they sold new sensors, it could be beneficial to replace them if theyre cheap enough. But they had no items listed for the zx regarding sensors or switches, but said that they could be similar to other nissans, is this the case? (such as the 200sx s13 maybe?)

And on top of that does anyone know part numbers for the ecu temperature sensor, MAF sensor and CAL sensor? I've done a quick google search, but I'm not really getting anything clear.

Has anyone had good dealings with Bennets with regards to zx parts? theres one of those pretty close to me.

 

Thanks very much

 

Sky

I haven't done the fuel filter yet, it looks pretty new to me, but I'll get it done, it cant hurt anything other than possibly my wallet.

I went to a local car parts seller today as i was passing by, just looked to see if they sold new sensors, it could be beneficial to replace them if theyre cheap enough. But they had no items listed for the zx regarding sensors or switches, but said that they could be similar to other nissans, is this the case? (such as the 200sx s13 maybe?)

And on top of that does anyone know part numbers for the ecu temperature sensor, MAF sensor and CAL sensor? I've done a quick google search, but I'm not really getting anything clear.

Has anyone had good dealings with Bennets with regards to zx parts? theres one of those pretty close to me.

 

Thanks very much

 

Sky

 

always start with the cheap things first . fuel filter is about a tenner . the one i replaced on mine looked pretty new but like i said earlier the fuel nowadays is full of crap . since changing mine shes run a lot lot better . up till now its the best bit of maintenance ive done on the old girl

Went to bennets on my way back from work, they dont deal with any of the sensors, but did come up with a fuel filter for £15! which isnt so bad, i'll order one soon.

Does anyone know what Nissan charge for the various sensors for our cars?

or do any of our traders deal with sensors? all the sites which I've bookmarked havent got any sensors, just performance and shiny stuff..

What do people think is an acceptable price for MAF, TPS and CAS, and maybe even Idle switch (or relay?)

 

Thanks very much!

 

Sky

Maf is a few hundred from Nissans, TPS was around £40 and no idea about CAS. Call/PM Mike Feeney for good prices and service ;)

Oh and also, just wanted to put forward my ideas about what could possibly be the issue, I have quite a few issues/questions I need clearing up..

 

I have a feeling that somethng like the idle could possibly be switching over when driving along.. possibly? When it has its hesitation its impossible to do anything throttle wise, when I push the clutch, let the revs settle back into idle and then bring the clutch up again, that little episode is over. That and i've never had an issue at idle, which to me makes me feel more confident its not a fueling issue. (anyone elses opinion??)

When I push the throttle I can can hear a relay click over by my feet, is this the idle switch swapping over? or something like it?

 

What controls the basic idle, as well as fuel in is the TPS (along with a screw in some other device called an IAA?)? The throttle cables turn the throttle bodies which in turn, turn the TPS... which in turn the ECU puts more fuel in... in a very basic understanding... (am I right?)

I also know that the voltage output of the TPS should be 0.45v..ish at minimum value and approx 4v at maximum.

I did test this on my TPS with just ignition on (according to the erratic idle pdf), and got 9.63v minimum, and 12.1v max..(this still has the 3.5v range)..

Should I have turned the engine on? I didnt feel comfortable removing it and fiddling with it while the engine was running, or revving the living hell out of it by not removing it trying obtain the full range of the sensor..

 

Im not really sure what I want from this post.. but hopefully some of you can filter through the very apparent confusion and give me some good tips or answer some of my questions..

 

Thanks very much

 

Sky

Maf is a few hundred from Nissans

 

What! Thats crazy money????

 

Call/PM Mike Feeney for good prices and service

 

I'll PM him about sensors then, what is his online name?? i cant find a mike feeney...

 

Cheers

 

Sky

Edited September 6, 201015 yr by Sky89