Starts up but stalls after few sec

S

stealthfx35

Member
Location
estonia
Car
INfiniti FX35
Name
oliver
I ran into a strange problem today - this car has been working almost 2 years without any problems.
What I did was that I drove to work in the morning - everyhing was fine as always.
In the evening before leaving I removed the air filter - I had one compressor running and I just thought to give it a clean - just with air (in my workplace - away from my car)
After cleaning I put it back and started driving. Worked fine until - rushhour - had to stop an noticed that motor wants to stall - low rpms - uneven engine speed - switched to neutral and held rpms up with pushing a pedal slightly.
Managed to do that about 10 times until I got to Nissan Service.

My initial idea was that ok - I messed with the air filter - maybe I managed to block it somehow with compressed air and that is the reason why it wants to stall.
Bought a new one. Installed it and ... well nothing - it starts up nicely getting to 1000 rpms - in first second the engine sound is fine and steady - looks ok - but then it stalls.
Starts up without any hesitattion and stalls again - repeated that procedure about 30x - moved the wiring by hand around the air intake - no results.

Time to time I noticed that when it stalled the red key indication was blinking - but not every time. Battery is new and good and the car does not hesitate to start up

OK - that leaded me to conclusion that if it starts up it must be immobiliser that kills the engine.

Is there anything I can do during weekend or do I have to give my keys to the service guys first thing on Monday morning.

(things I did locally - resetted ecu with pedal combinations, took the battery wire off for 10 min, fiddled with every connector on the right side, changed the battery on the remote)

Any ideas?
 
That is odd for sure.
I had similar problem in my previous vehicle where it would stall out when idling. It turned out that the O2 sensor was faulty. The engine wasn't getting enough oxygen for air/fuel mixture. I don't know if that's the case from your description.

Do you happen to have a OBD engine scanner? It may give you more information before the engine stalls out.
 
I just remembered something from reading another thread:

https://www.infinitiscene.com/search/1/?q=22024-Replacing-stock-horns

r3bman said:
Here's what happened to me and may happen to you. Once I reconnect everything, I hit the horn button to test it. Very loud. I fire the car up, and it throws a code! P0101! The car was idling a little rough and at about 1200rpm. I look it up and it is the mass air flow sensor. I figured the MAF was unhappy after I disconnected the rubber air intake and the MAF was exposed to regular air. If you see the MAF in the airbox, don't touch it! There is witchcraft and magic in it. I got my phone and with the paired OBD II scanner, I was able to clear the code using the android app 'Torque'. Instantly the idle smoothed and dropped down to about 800rpm. I have driven ~50 miles since I cleared the code and the 'service engine soon' light has not come back on. I would recommend getting the OBD II bluetooth scanner anyways. About $12 and very handy. Hope this was helpful.
Click to expand...
 
Nope - didnt clean throttlebody or sensor - cleaned air filter in the office and placed it back after (now a new filter is installed)

Got back to the car this morning. Made also a vid of whats happening.

[video]https://youtu.be/NUBURhOmpfQ[/video]

But as a result of taking the tubbing apart (opened up the connection between filterbox and MAF) and putting back together again I managed to fix the car - so I thought - was actually quite happy about it ...for 10 min:)

I started up the car so that the sensor was in the open air without filter and the air intake was also open (took the rubber tube between these two off). So the motor took as much air as it wanted. MAF was electronically still connected but in the open air hanging on wires.
IDLE was smooth and I descided to put things back on while the motor was running.
After everything was back as it was and the motor was still running fine it took it for a test drive.
It works...until about 2500-3000rpms. Then it started sputtering and wanted to stall. If I took a foot of the pedal it went back into stable idle.
After parking the car and trying to restart it agan it failed as before
But as a result of it is that now I have at least the the "Service engine soon" light burning. On Monday I will let mechanics to take a look of the fault codes - at least now thay have something to look at. Before that my car didnt have any complaints to show :)
 
Last edited:
SES light might of came on because of your MAF, or something you disconnected and started the engine..I would clean the maf sensor first before anything else
 
Hi all, I am having the same exact problem. I had to changed the camshaft sensor bank 2 when my cel came on. After stalling on my morning commute after researching i ended buying both camshaft sensors and the crank shaft sensor at the dealer for $387.51 after that smack i decided to put them on my self and save me some money. The job Took me seriously about 3 hours to get done looking for the sensors was the hard part, some youtube video where very helpful.
Anyways i start the car then stalls even at warm starts so i rev it at 2000 to 1500 rpm for 4 to 5 sec to keep it from stalling and then everything works fine. idles good at red light even on traffic with ac on.
Today im going in on the MAF and throttle body cleaning keep u guys posted
 
Thanx,
In my case it a bit different. I cannot rev it up. If I try to increase the rpms even slightly it stalls immiediately.
 
...or there can be a bug in the system :D
in my case there was a fly trapped in the MAF sensor - after finding that out and tapping it out it purrs like a kitten.

(some background story- I made up my mind to go and make my first IAD jump (skydive) on Saturday - on Friday my car died.
OK I have another one. Ill go with that one - no problemo.
Then I woke up on Saturday morning - weather was as perfect as it could be clear sky - 3-4m/s wind
Found out that my little one has got a feaver overnight around 38-39C). Just remembered that when I asked my 4 year old 2 weeks ago would he like to come to see my jump he started crying and sayd NO. Why? Its fun. He said no - I dont want to see you get killed. A week ago he just went to mom and started talking that I dont want daddy to jump - he falls to death...amm ok
I visited the car also on Friday and Saturday early morning hoping to get it back on order. I did the same today because I refused to believe that with my skills and experience on cars I cannot get it to work.
OK ok - I get it - not my time to jump - there are some things that we dont have to understand but they are there

The only thing I missed this weekend was my jump due to these two things.
My little one is feeling ok already and the car is parked in my driveway
 
Last edited:
Glad you found it, and for future reference, just about any time you mess up your MAF, the symptoms will be similar. A car will usually idle fine even with a MAF issue. But once you get on the gas, if the MAF isn't working, it will often stall. And I guess next time you pull the air filter, plug the intake with a rag or something. Although I would have never thought a fly would get in there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top