95 Pathfinder - Idle problem

My 95 SE 4x4 just started exhibiting an idle problem. The truck runs well otherwise. At idle, the RPMs surge up and down and then eventually so low that the truck will sometimes stall. Makes for difficult driving in traffic with a 5 speed.

I have at least one broken exhaust stud that I need to repair. It's been ticking when cold pretty badly for the past 3-4 months. I can smell exhaust under the hood so I know there is a bit of a leak. Would this cause the idle problem? Nothing else has changed except I tried higher octane gas last weekend. The tank is now almost empty. I did not notice much benefit so I'll return to regular gas. Might this be related too?

Today, after doing the pedal dance through traffic, I idled in my garage and played around with wires and connectors. After playing around with the 3 wire connector by what I assume to be the MAF, it started idling fine. I couldn't reproduce the problem. I will try running it later to see if that helped the problem but I still wonder about the other things.

I had planned to fix the exhaust stud problem myself but I'm procrastinating because of the amount of work involved. I wish it was covered by Nissan. Though I have 170000kms now. Does anyone have any useful instructions on how to do this?

Please reply with any useful information. Thanks. Dave

Reply to
DS
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When's the last time you changed your air filter?

Reply to
Leslie

You may be on the right track. My '94 had the same symptoms when the ground wire for the Mass Airflow Sensor went bad.

procrastinating

Reply to
Gilb

I have a K&N which was cleaned and re-oiled this spring. It is still spotless.

Dave

Reply to
DS

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