Primera Knock (Detonation) Sensor

3 times in the past 4 years my 1992 2.0l single point injection (SR20DI) Primera Estate W10 has refused to start. Returning to the car 4-6 hrs later with a recharged battery the car starts if you floor the accelerator and turn it over for about 10-15secs. A bit rough to begin with (as if only firing on 3 cylinders) then after a minute or so all is good. The second time it happened about 2 years ago I had a full diagnostics and electrical test done, no problem found. When the problem happened 2 days ago, I checked the on board diagnostics (before battery was flat! at least I learned something) which had a code 34 (faulty knock sensor). Car is running ok now with out any repairs.

Can someone please tell me if a faulty knock sensor would stop the car from starting? Do not wish to pay £164 +VAT if the knock sensor is not the starting problem. Is the sensor located behind the starting motor and does the starting motor have to be removed to replace the sensor and what are the connector numbers on the ECCS control unit? Hayes manual not very helpful for this engine type.

Thanks for any help.

Reply to
ChArm
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I have a 99 primera, 2.0s. I have had it now for 18 months now.

Compared to my last car it is a bad starter, it takes 5-10 seconds to start, my mondeo started first turn of the key.

I just thought it was a charactistic of the car as I always get it serviced at a Nissan garage.

The only problem I have had with the car was the 02 sensor, which cost me £150 and the car is still a poor starter.

Reply to
mike

Both my '94 (156000m, sadly an insurance write-off) and '97 (48000m)UK Primeras were/are excellent starters, as were a couple of others I've driven. However I did experience the exact same symptoms you had on my '94 about 3 times in the first 6 months I had the car at 71000m. A battery charge and an hour or so rest always got it going, but the battery wasn't flat when first trying to start, it turned the engine over quite well but may have been a bit slower than normal, not sure. It never happened again in the following 5 years, and all I ever did (of any relevance re starting) to that car in the 85000m after the non-starting was setting the timing (it was 10deg should be 15deg) , fit NGK BKR6EY plugs, change the petrol and air filters.

My suspicions for the early problem, due to the fact that they were common factors of each occurrence, was a battery that was slightly down, the car hadn't been used for a couple of days, combined with a non-Nissan petrol filter. The filter was definitely more restrictive than a genuine one, and perhaps if the battery wasn't fully charged as well, then the petrol pump didn't have the power to get the petrol up to the engine after it had had a couple of days to drain back to the tank. The way the engine fires and runs really rough but just won't get going is just what would happen if the petrol pump couldn't deliver enough pressure. I always used Nissan petrol filters after this, and they cost the same as Halfords anyway. I sympathise though, it's impossible to 100% diagnose an infrequent problem like this.

Reply to
Steve B

No it won't.

Reply to
Steve T

Thanks for the information and advice. From this newsgroup and others it would appear that the fault is unlikely to be the knock sensor, therefore I will leave it be just now. The battery turns the engine fine but you can tell after a couple of seconds that the engine is not firing as normal. Fuel starvation sounds plausible but does not explain why the car starts later on and then the problem does not occur again for some time.

Reply to
ChArm

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