[Quarterwave]

Hi everyone,

My wifes 2003 X-Terra, non-supercharged 6 cylinder has started sputtering, has an occassional erratic idle and seems like it's going to stall when stopped and idling (but hasn't yet).

The check engine light flickered for a second, but went away and there are no error codes being reported.

I had a similar issue with an old XJ Jeep a few years ago and that turned out to be a defective throttle position sensor (TPS), which was a common issue in those vehicles however, after reading up on this topic online, it seems that the ECM relay is the culprit in the Xterra's.

Does that sound accurate? Or is it likely to be something else? The vehicle has high miles @ around 150k.

Having said all that, I bought a new relay and opened the hood to install it in the fuse box, only to find that there is no ECM relay in the main fuse box and it wasn't near the interior fuse panel either.

Can anyone let me know where I can find it?

Thanks!

 

[xtacular]

I have not heard of a bad ECM relay in these rigs. Without codes I would guess it's your distributor. Not the cap/rotor, the dist itself.

 

[reed.8185]

Ecm relay is located in the center console on top of the computer on the floor behind the cigarette lighter port (that general area anyway) easy to find and easy to change. I had to change mine because it cause a no start fault with no fuel or Spark period changed out the relay and it fired right up

 

[Quarterwave]

This one ended up being bad plugs and wires.