Hey guys, I have a 1998 Nissan Altima GXE 4-speed automatic. Now it has 87K miles.

It ran great in the past 3 months during which I have two 1K-mile long trips. However, since late July, I find it harder to accelerate from still and the engineruns a little bit faster than before. When I tried to accelerate from 0 to 30mph, it took me about 30% longer of time than before. And when I got the speed of 40mph and tried to accelerate for higher, it seemed really hard and the engine noisewent up.And the engine speedstayed still at 2000rpm, no change at all until I got a speed of 55mph whilethe engine speed will suddenly went up toaround 2300 rpm. After I accelerated to 65mph and chose cruise control, the engine speed will maintain at around 2300 rpm. And if I then want to get to 70 or 75 mph, it seemed a little bit easier to accelerate. I am really confused by this. It seems that my engine suffers from a loss of power. I supposed that the problem may be due to the spark plugs and valve cover gasket. So I asked the mechanic to replace them days ago. However, the situation remains the same.

Here Iattach the maintenance record since this April when I bought this car. The mechanic once recommended me to change the distributor cap, rotor, and wire set. I am not sure whether it is necessary, especially I doubt whether the wire set needs to be replaced.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you all.


I bought it this April and have done the following maintenance recently:

1. regularly change the oil and filter (twice since this April)
2. change the fuel filter (April)
3. all the coolant changed (April)
4. change 4 spark plugs (several days ago)
5. replace valve cover gasket (severaldays ago)

and yet the mechanic recommend me to do the following stuff (haven't done yet) when I bought this car with 82K miles in April:
1.replace the distributor cap, rotor, wire set
2. change left-front drive AXLE

 

No check engine light ? ..... has he visually inspected the cap/rotor/wires or is he just saying that because of the mileage....... why replace the axle ? ... is it clicking ? dust boot broken? Have you checked the air filter?