About a year and a half ago my car began to randomly die when I slowed down to a stop. I would turn it on, it would stay on for a sec, then die again. I’d have to turn it on again and give it some gas to keep the rpms up and keep driving. Sucks, 'cause people would think I suck at driving stick, and keep stalling lol. Anyway, it would eventually stop acting up as I kept driving. This would happen maybe once every couple weeks. And just like everyone else’s luck, it would never act up when I brought it to my mechanic either.
But recently, it’s come to a point where it happens 9/10 times I drive it. Same symptoms as above but worse. It takes quite a blip of the gas pedal to get the revs up almost every time I come to a stop or at least leave it in neutral idling. Or from a stop, I’d need to give it some umph on the pedal to start accelerating. I can feel the engine bog as it was definitely NOT a smooth acceleration feeling.
Here’s a vid I took today, of the tach when she was acting up during idle:
Please watch the entire vid to see if you can understand what I’m talking about. I didn’t touch the gas pedal at all throughout the vid. You can see the cam vibrate as the revs drop.
I do notice that when my car acts up like that; and I park it, I smell strong gasoline fumes from the exhaust. My guess is that maybe there’s too much fuel being put into the engine in relation to the air, and somehow and the engine’s being flooded?
The only mods I have are an AEM Short Ram Intake (had since 2006) and Aurora Spark Plug Wires from PDM Racing ( had since early 2008 ). I already cleaned out my throttle body and IACV. Was thinking it might be the MAF and would want to test swap mine with another kouki owner’s on here…but I don’t really know any…ha!
Please let me know your thoughts or suggestions, thanks all!!!
did you check the alternator, for example my car would be fine while i was driving but as soon as i came to a stop it would start to bog and die because the alternator was not chargin the battery,since the alternator charges the battery faster when the revs are up that would explain why you have to rev the car to keep it running…goodluck
Pull the spark plugs, what do they look like? any evidence of an ignition problem will be evident. Also check all your vacuum lines…is it throwing a CEL…also a long shot…but coolant sensor…
i find fuel pump issues ussually feel like the car is running out of gas… you hit the gas and the car slows down considerably.
from the sounds of it the alternator isnt charging properly, like someone said about the revs being too low, plus when your at a stop your brake lights come on adding more drain than the car can take
The CEL isn’t on at the moment and doesn’t come on when it acts up. However, it did a couple times in the last couple months. First time, it came on randomly but went away after i turned the car off and parked it at while at the mall. I went to my mech to get it scanned. He said it showed a random misfire and all is well. The CEL went on again after I cleaned my intake/throttle body/iacv but that was my bad because I forgot to push the MAF wire in all the way until it clicked. So it hasn’t been on since.
Not sure if it’d be the alternator because i got a new battery last october. I have a sound system which some pretty good bass, i’m able to play the radio with the car off so I know the batts def good…still. So I can assume it’s getting ample charge…right?
I have yet to check the plugs, last time I did they didn’t look abnormally ‘worn and torn’. Just a lil brown at the tips…What would be evident for an ignition problem? Anything I can do to test the plug wires, to make sure they’re sending spark?
In regards to vacuum lines, I’m pretty unfamiliar with checking these and what to look for so if someone can let me know basics, I can def take a look.
If the MAF turns out to be dirty, would better to clean, or just to buy a new one? Not sure how long cleaning it out would solve the problem for.
I was afraid someone might bring up the injectors or fuel pressure or fuel rails. When you say ‘check’ what would I need to do (to see if it’s under 15psi)?
I’d assume the fuel pump is working considering it runs well and even pulls hard when she works fine. And even when it dies, it smells like it was running rich. So perhaps it’s getting too much fuel? Or fuel that’s not being ignited?
I think I addressed all the replies. Sorry for being kinda noob with these kinds of things…still learning these details.
PS: Yes it’s a KA with an AEM short ram intake and Aurora 8mm spark plug wires. Motor only has 120K on it and runs smooth and pulls really strong (on her good days). So the potential for it being back to normal is mosdef there.
I have the exact same problem with my car. but to add things to the mix my alt just died so I am hoping that’s all it is. This I don’t feel is an alt problem though cos it will also happen under normal highway driving my car almost died coming back from the bings meet.
When NISSAN guy put my car on the computer everything is perfect just had lower then stock voltage to the MAF. I found that this is a common problem with high millage s13’s. Why no one has figured it out yet is beyond me.
So I changed the coolant temp sensor, no difference. I cleaned the MAF sensor with CRC MAF Sensor cleaner. I noticed some difference…the car was idling a lot better and drove better for a few kms. I parked the car again and drove it a few hours later. It started acting up again when I slowed down to a light. Meaning it died as I slowed down. It then began dying intermittently again. I rev the shiet out of it when it was dying. Almost to redline. The idle got better then I turned it off.
I noticed that my car sprayed a big black spot on the wall behind me. The same kind of black (smoke/liquid/residue) as it did when I cleaned the throttle body and IACV. I’m sure that’s normal, any idea what the problem is. Am I running too rich?
Just wanted to let you guys know that the problem was fixed, incase it might help you in the future.
After cleaning my IACV, throttle body and injectors, changing my spark plugs, changing my filter, cleaning my MAF, etc with no luck, turns out I just needed to change my cap and rotor.
She rides like a dream now and with everything else cleaned/changed, I’m sure it made it that much better.
Thx for the help guys, hopefully someone else will learn from this haha