I have a 1997 Sentra GXE with 108,000 miles and a GA16DE engine that will not start. Before it died it sounded like it had a diesel engine in it and was loosing power when I accelerated. Then one day when I was driving, it just died in the middle of the road and never started again. When I try to start the engine, it turns over but is just not kicking in.
I've been using a Haynes repair manual to try and trouble shoot it. Here's where I'm at: I've replaced the fuel filter, distributor and rotor cap. It has new plugs I put in a few weeks ago and I checked the gap on the plugs and re-gapped them just to be sure.
I've tested all four plugs with a spark plug tester and they are getting good fire. When I changed the fuel filter, gas was shooting out of the fuel filter when I turned on the key so the fuel pump seems to work fine. Also checked the fuel pump fuse and it is good.
As for the timing chain, I pulled off the valve cover and the top timing chain looks fine and is still on the sprockets. I had somebody turn over the engine and the top timing chain moves fine, the valves go up and down and so do the pistons.
Then I checked the ECM for trouble codes and the only code it gave me was a
0707 to check the rear oxygen sensor. (I don't think this is the problem because, Nissan told me a year ago about this problem and they didn't seem to think it was that big a deal.)Finally, I decided to take a shot at adjusting the timing just to see if I could get it to fire. I loosened the distributor turned it counter clockwise toward the front of the engine and it almost fired. I turned it as far as it would go and it came real close to starting. It seems as if I just had another half inch to turn it, it would fire up. But I had it cranked all the way as far as it would go.
What I haven't done yet is test the coil, camshaft position sensor or power transistor. It seems to be getting plenty of fire, so I didn't check these yet.
Is it possible the timing chain(s) could still be the culprit, even though I see the top chain moving and the valves going up and down? Is there an easy way to determine if the chain is faulty without taking the engine apart? Or, even better, is there some other problem and easy fix that I'm just not seeing?
Thanks in advance for all your help.