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01 xterra stalling after warming up

18K views 55 replies 10 participants last post by  Xtre 
#1 ·
Hi all,
I have used this forum over the years to answer many questions with my xterra but I can't find an answer to my current issue so I would appreciate any help.

I have a 2001 xterra SE V6 4x4 Auto transmission with 135,000 miles on it.

Over the past year and a half I have had the xterra stall and die while idling. Each time the problem has seem to go away after sitting for a half hour or so and then I have no issues for a few more months. 4 days ago my xterra stalled while in park after driving a few miles to the dump. After sitting for 15 minutes it fired up and I drove it home. The next morning I started it and it stalled after 10 minutes of idling in the driveway. It now stalls every time I start it and it warms up. I can usually start it again within 5 minutes of it being off and it will run for about 5 minutes before stalling. I am getting no error codes from the ECU currently and it seems even the Knock Sensor error is no longer showing on the ECU. First I cleaned the MAF and the Air Inlet Valve and that did not fix the issue. I changed the MAF sensor, distributor, and fuel filter today with no change.

Plugs and wires were changed about 3 years ago(less than 25k miles)
Timing belt and water pump changed at 110,000


It seems odd that the xterra runs perfectly until it stalls. Any help would be much appreciated.
 
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#27 ·
yes, thats common on 2nd gens but his is a 2001 completely different motor setup, not saying it couldnt be this sensor but less likely on the 00-04s though by now its 17-18 years old and the magnet in the sensor could be weak and not sending the correct signal all the time. usually these will throw a very specific code though and dont cause the cel to flash as he was getting.
My CEL light is not on so who knows. It would not start again today so I had it towed to a shop today. I will update if/when a solution is found.
 
#28 ·
My CEL light is not on so who knows. It would not start again today so I had it towed to a shop today. I will update if/when a solution is found.
how far/long have you drive between the no starts when it would start? it may not have had sufficient time or mileage to throw the code yet. sometimes shops are best bet when you've exhausted everything you know to do. may cost more but should come out fixed. you said you recently had the timing belt changed right? and he distributor looked good? if so it could still eb a distributor issue, they have the cam sensor in them and these go bad occasionally, no way to test except new distributor that i know of. were you getting any dash warning lights such as thew voltage light or oil pressure when it would run?
 
#29 ·
how far/long have you drive between the no starts when it would start? it may not have had sufficient time or mileage to throw the code yet. sometimes shops are best bet when you've exhausted everything you know to do. may cost more but should come out fixed. you said you recently had the timing belt changed right? and he distributor looked good? if so it could still eb a distributor issue, they have the cam sensor in them and these go bad occasionally, no way to test except new distributor that i know of. were you getting any dash warning lights such as thew voltage light or oil pressure when it would run?
I did not drive between the no starts. I would start it and let it idle until it would die. ~10mins.

I replaced the Distibuter, MAF, Coolant Temp Sensor, Fuel Filter and Plugs last week. The mechanics called on Friday and said they were having issues with the fuel pump and it eventually failed. I brought them a new one along with the Fuel Sending Unit and they replaced them. They said after a good test drive the car died while idling and now they cant keep it running. They said they will continue to troubleshoot on monday.

I had the timing belt and water pump changed about (25k miles ago) ~4 years.
 
#30 ·
how far/long have you drive between the no starts when it would start? it may not have had sufficient time or mileage to throw the code yet. sometimes shops are best bet when you've exhausted everything you know to do. may cost more but should come out fixed. you said you recently had the timing belt changed right? and he distributor looked good? if so it could still eb a distributor issue, they have the cam sensor in them and these go bad occasionally, no way to test except new distributor that i know of. were you getting any dash warning lights such as thew voltage light or oil pressure when it would run?
I did not drive between the no starts. I would start it and let it idle until it would die. ~10mins.

I replaced the Distibuter, MAF, Coolant Temp Sensor, Fuel Filter and Plugs last week. The mechanics called on Friday and said they were having issues with the fuel pump and it eventually failed. I brought them a new one along with the Fuel Sending Unit and they replaced them. They said after a good test drive the car died while idling and now they cant keep it running. They said they will continue to troubleshoot on monday.

I had the timing belt and water pump changed about (25k miles ago) ~4 years.
very odd, you are running out of things to change that leads me to think it maybe the ecu beginning to fail....
 
#31 ·
very odd, you are running out of things to change that leads me to think it maybe the ecu beginning to fail....
So the problem was the Fuel Sending Unit and the Fuel Pump. The issue they encountered after was the new MAF sensor I put in the car while throwing parts at is was bad. They put my old stock MAF in and the car runs like new. Thank you for all of your help and I hope this thread helps someone else.
 
#36 ·
What is the engine speed when idling in Park/Neutral, both when cold and when warmed up? You could have a warm-idle adjustment that's off a bit.
 
#38 ·
Do you know if that falls within specs or is it too low?
 
#48 ·
Ok I replaced one of the temp sensors, the one with the two prong connection, not the spanner one.
Today the car is now doing new things.. when driving around and after warming up. I will suddenly loose power randomly. RPMs will drop from 2500 to 1500 just driving around. It goes into limp mode. The pedal goes soft and the car limps along until I shift it into neutral, rev back up to 2500, and then shift it into drive.
Temp is reading 187 on the OBDII while idling.
I’m really at a loss y’all.
 
#55 ·
Ok I replaced one of the temp sensors, the one with the two prong connection, not the spanner one.
Today the car is now doing new things.. when driving around and after warming up. I will suddenly loose power randomly. RPMs will drop from 2500 to 1500 just driving around. It goes into limp mode. The pedal goes soft and the car limps along until I shift it into neutral, rev back up to 2500, and then shift it into drive.
Temp is reading 187 on the OBDII while idling.
I’m really at a loss y’all.
You replaced one of the two temp sensors and say the problem is not solved. I'm curious as to why you have lost the scent and not continued with the 2nd sensor if the original problem is seemingly related to temperature. Did you test the resistance of your temp sensors and compare to those numbers provided by "metoo"?
 
#49 ·
I have a 180* t-stat and mine runs around 190-194, both at idle and on the highway, so 187 is fine.

What trouble codes are present?

What do you mean by "the pedal goes soft"? The throttle is a physical cable, not DBW, so if the feeling of the pedal changes, that would be odd.

When you say "it goes into limp mode", is that just a figure of speech you're using to describe it, or do you get a message saying something like "Engine Power Reduced"?

When was the last time you checked or changed the trans fluid?
 
#50 · (Edited)
No codes are present.
Limp mode as in I’ll be driving at 2500 rpm’s and suddenly the RPMs dip to 1500 and the gas pedal feels less stiff. I have to push the gas pedal in more to keep up the speed. It’s almost like something just goes out.

I’ve drained and filled the transmission about a year ago. Checked transmission fluid a few weeks ago and it was clean and filled. The transmission never has shifted hard aside from 1st into 2nd at times. Very rare though.

Edit:
Just now as I waited for it to warm up. I have my scanner plugged in and the car starts to kind of choke at 183° I see that fuelsys1 and fuelsys2 both flash “ol-fault”. Then they go back to “CL” and the xterra goes back to idling smoother.
 
#51 ·
Hmmm, those letters "OL" are not good. On my DVOM it means "no value" or "outside of limits". It probably means similar on the OBD readout.

You might have found the source of the issue, or possibly one of multiple things causing it. Take care of one, then keep watching for improvement or some other issue.
 
#53 ·
OL on that means offline.

About the same as the DVOM, but different at the same time.
 
#54 ·
I was under the impression that OL means Open Loop. And that something is telling the system to run more rich/lean. Based on some of the threads that were linked above I could have clogged cats or bad O2 sensors. No codes for O2 sensors so I’m not sure if they are the culprit.
 
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