[dgstowevt]

2002 Xterra XE, 3.3L, 4x4

Last 4 months w/ bad miss-firing & engine running rough... very random, at idle, on highway - esp. ~ 60+mph - car is bucking... very intermittent fine for a while then bad.. worse on hills, used to be able to fight through it driving RPMs up, but worse now...

SES light flashes, I've pulled codes myself and gotten P0303 (cylinder 3 missfire) and P0340 (camshaft position sensor 1)...

Both Nissan & Meineke work on this about a dozen times... meanwhile I'm trashing my Cat Convert and who knows what else...
Doesn't seem any worse when it's hot, cold(er) or wet

Replaced spark plugs, wires, ign cap, rotor... fuel system flush...

Very frustrated... they keep saying bring it in when it's acting up b/c then no answers..

My understanding is one of the cam shafts is VERY hard/laboring to get to, so I can't just change that and see if that's the prob... Distributor seems ok, did a compression test on engine and that was fine...

PLEASE any suggestions would mean the world to me (sorry for long post)

 

[MigzDSM]

Did you ever get this issue figured out? Because im having the same exact problem with a cylinder three misfire

 

[rgallant]

Hi

Hi, mine was a rat chewing through the wire overnight. Very obvious damage threw both cylinder 3 and knock sensor. 3 because the wire was chewed through nice Xmas present.

 

[RATTFINK]

Hi, mine was a rat chewing through the wire overnight. Very obvious damage threw both cylinder 3 and knock sensor. 3 because the wire was chewed through nice Xmas present.

Sorry about that

 

[dejablue]

how far have you looked in side the distributor?

 

[dgstowevt]

Replaced the distributor, did not solve the problem... got rid of the car... sorry.