Micra K11 Stalling

assuming it is a fuel dejected micra then it will be the standard throttle body fault, which can be cured by a bit of skill with a soldering iron.

the pdf guide is here for instance:

Thanks for your reply Mr Cheerful. That is what I thought until I looked more closely at it. It is a different throttle body. Apparently Nissan changed the design in 2000.

Of course it could still be the throttle body but this fix does not apply. It's just that at over GBP200 for a refurb I do not want to change it on the off chance!

generally a fuel issue will cause a gradual fade out rather than an instant cut, so it sounds possible ignition fault, most likely part then would be the crank sensor, but you say there are no codes. have you been round and disconnected, cleaned and refitted every plug you can find under the bonnet? it may be something as simple as that. when it has died you could get someone to spin it over while you waggle connections, that can sometimes fault find quite well, other wise you need to connect up a fuel pressure gauge and watch that and monitor the spark situation when it dies.

Ta,

Si

Thanks again. When cranking and failing to start there is still a spark. I guess that this rules out the crank (or in this case cam) sensor.

Good point about the connectors. I have checked the connectors to the coil packs (one on each spark plug) and to the injectors. I will check the rest when I can get to the car in daylight.

it has a crank sensor AND a cam sensor.

Make your life easier. There is no need to go through the palaver they mention about removing the air filter. The cover, and solder joints, and perfectly accessible with the air filter in place.

Been there, done that. Twenty minutes.

Ian

Righto, ta.

'Er indoors Micra had some work done before we got it: throttle body removed and 'reconditioned' IIRC. The previous owners were charged nearly £500. I'll have to dig out the receipt and type out exactly what it says!

Si

Ok. With Christmas out of the way I have got back to it.

Cannot find a crank sensor but definitely found the cam sensor.

Just before Christmas I checked the connectors.The only connector which looked at all dodgy was the water temperature sensor but temp gauge was working throughout.

Unplugged the air mass sensor - it looked ok and plugged it back in. Engine started! Only two connectors disturbed were water temp and air mass so unplugged water temp and left it off. Engine still started. Replaced connector. Car has been starting first time each time I checked over the holiday.

Took it for a run this morning and no problems. Mind you it used to be ok most of the time and then give problems at random. I'll use it for short runs for a few weeks and see what happens. Don't want to get stuck too far from home!

So, back to the problem. Looks like it is the throttle body and as the connector was clean and bright I guess it is a similar problem (dry joints) to the old throttle body. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find similar instructions for the new design throttle.

If/when it starts giving problems again perhaps I will strip it down and make my own set of instructions for fixing it.

Not sure why this would not leave any fault codes though.

Anyway, thanks again for your help and hope you had a good Christmas.

Bill

with most sensors if you disconnect them the ecu will assume a safe default value, but a poor connection on the temp sender can give all sorts of grief.

Mrcheerful

I had a similar fault on my (older) K11 and did the recommened fix by resoldering the throttle body pcb. Didn't fix anything though. Now, I am in the habit of scribbling what I do to (any) car on a bit of paper with the intention of transferring to a .doc file later. Of course I then lose the paper and forget what I did. But in this case (!) I have actually tracked down a file with some blurb in it. To cut a long and boring story short, having tried all the connector stuff, I decided to change the petrol filter. That fixed it! I haven't read all your post so maybe you already did this but may help anyway. I have a note here that says "the fuel drained from the old filter was VERY dirty.

If it does fix it for you - would appreciated hearing about it. tht

Thanks for that Dave. It has now been running fine all week. It may have been the temperature sender connection but I am not really convinced because after stalling and stranding me on the A30 the temperature gauge on the dash indicated normal running temperature but it still wouldn't start. The connection was very greasy and the metal was very dull. I scraped it clean and reconnected it. I also disconnected the air mass sensor but it looked ok. Has started first time every time since. Strange thing was that the grease on the connector looked deliberate. All around was clean, only the connection was greased. Maybe Nissan know it is a weak point and tried to stop it corroding??

Anyway, if it plays up again I will try the connection again and if that doesn't work I will change the petrol filter.

Different temperature sender:-)

Of course it is. Makes sense now.

Thanks

Changed the connector and engine seems more responsive now. Looks like it wasn't making contact at all and was running on default value for much of the time. Old connector was grease filled so now I know were the grease came from as well.

Lets see if it fixed it.