I am in need of some help and am hoping I can find it here. I have a 2002 Sentra GXE (105,000 miles) that suddenly stopped (bogged out and died) when I gave it some throttle. The engine restarted but would only rev to 2,500 RPM. If I gave it more throttle it would act like it was running out of fuel.

I am old school- points, dwell meters, etc... It seemed like a fuel pump issue from the symptoms. I pulled the fuel pump and found metal shavings near the fuel pick up and replaced the fuel pump and filter. The car ran the same after the replacement.

Plugged in the code reader and got several codes- MAF,O2, Trans, etc... I cleared the codes and tried to restart the car. It would start but die instantly. I disconnected the battery and grounded the system and the car would now start and run to 2,500 RPM.

Pulled all of the sensor wires off I could find and removed, inspected, and reinstalled with no change. I limped it to a shop (no Nissan dealer within 200 miles!) and handed it to them. He replaced the MAF but no change. Pulled the cat.- no change. Replaced three O2 sensors- no change. Checked fuel flow and fuel pressure- both good, no change.
He called to tell me the compression is 110 in all cylinders and that he is going to check the timing to see if that is the problem.

My issue is that it seems to be something in the electrinics not mechanical. It was sudden and there seems to be a diagnostic mode on the car that lets it run to 2,500 RPM for testing. I can smell unburnt fuel in this mode.

Any simmilar problems or help out there? Any suggestions would be appreciated at this point.

Thanks

 

MAF sensor. had the same problem with mine

 

Moisture in Distributer cap may cause motor to have low RPM top out due to misfireing