2002 SE-R jerky/hesitation

Jul 10, 2007 15 Replies

Hi folks,



I bought a used 2002 SE-R few weeks ago. I recently noticed that it drives a bit hesitated/jerky at certain condition.



The hesitation occurs in hot weather with AC on. The hesitation feels like loss of power, only happens in a split of second. When it occurs, I feel like driving automatic transmission car when the auto-trans is doing gear shifting (mine is manual trans though).



If I turn off the AC, everything seems fine. I checked AC system, but found nothing wrong. AC works perfectly fine.



Any suggestions?



Your reply would be appreciated...


-J



Yes, the AC has been cycling frequently (few times in a minute). I heard that this is a feature for gas efficiency. AC blows cold air and the pressure is right. So I don't think this is AC problem. It shouldn't be noticable when AC is cycling. Actually, it drives no jerky even with AC on if the outside temp is cooler, for exmple, in the morning. It only occurs in the hot afternoon when I drive back to home. This is really a tricky problem.

I have a 95 SE-R, the issue is when the compressor engages, (one a minute, up to several times a minute if it's feeling it's age) the engine will feel a drop in power, and then 'perk up' when the compressor disengages...

If it only happens when the AC is used, that's probably the cause and is normal.

The AC compressor puts a load on the engine when it engages. If the engine is unready under a load (e.g. hard acceleration), you will notice this added load as a pronounced drop in power. I have a policy of not turning on the AC unless the car is in fifth gear doing above

50 mph. If I have to slow down, I turn off the AC and keep the blower on. There's enough cold air in the system to last a while until I'm back doing 50mph in fifth gear. It reduces stress on the AC and the engine. Al

Al, you don't live in florida do you? You would burn up.

"William Michael Greene" wrote in news:ztmli.2472$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews6.bellsouth.net:

I live in Florida and have the same problem with mine. It finally got so bad that it was cutting out/stalling at speed even with the A/C off. Then the Tach died and this morning the check engine light came on after a stall. I took it to the dealer at lunchtime and come to find out there are two recalls which might help the problem. One is the Crank position sensor and the other is the ECM. If it's due to these recall issues then I'll find our shortly and I'm told it won't cost me anything.

innews:ztmli.2472$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews6.bellsouth.net:

Thank you all for your kind reply. My SE-R is a used car that I bought few weeks ago. I'm not sure if all recalls have been done to the car or not. If not, does the dealer still cover the cost for those recalls since I'm not the original owner of it?

innews:ztmli.2472$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews6.bellsouth.net:

The recall is for the vehicle, not the owner.

When the owner gets recalled, it cures all his/her vehicles problems instantly. :->

David

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@z28g2000prd.googlegroups.com:

I went in today to check the status. They said that the recall was for the foam blanket that insulates the ECM, but Nissan agreed to replace the ECM (normally $500) for free because it's failure could have been caused by the insulation being defective. Boy was I happy. It won't be done until Tuesday though due waiting for the replacement.

innews: snipped-for-privacy@z28g2000prd.googlegroups.com:

Cool, I'm going to stop by one of the Nissan dealers near by tomorrow and will let you know what happens... Thanks a lot.

Im in the army currently in iraq, i see this alot with the humvee. The AC is taking up the power from the electronic fuel enjector.

Thats my best guess

"Host68" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@localhost.talkaboutautos.com:

I got my 02 SpecV back from the shop yesterday. It was a defective ECM due to heat failure. The new one cured all the probs - it runs great now (no skipping or stuttering even with the AC on). Even the Tach is working correctly again.

Hadley wrote in news:Xns9971C01F88A87ID411@216.196.97.131:

what did that cost you,for the new ECM?

Jim Yanik wrote in news:Xns9974BFAB3A7F1jyanikkuanet@64.209.0.87:

It was FREE. There was a recall on the crank position sensor and the foam blanket which insulates the ECM. The dealer argued to Nissan that the ECM failure was probably caused by the defective insulation, so Nissan agreed to replace the defective ECM gratis. The dealer told me that the ECM is usually Five Hundred bucks to replace. I have 85k miles on my 02 SpecV.

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