I have a problem with my daughter's 1987 Nissan Sentra. A very nice car she
recently purchased as a first car.
The problem is that when it has run for a while and things are at normal
operating temperature it will simply stop running. No warning, just no
engine. The first time this happened was in the DEQ test station while the
test was being done. By the time I got there the car started immediately
and ran good. I took it out to "blow it out" for the test and things went
well until about a mile from the test station when the engine just stopped
running again. No miss. No warning. Just stopped running. I thought I
saw an elevated temperature at that moment, but being busy trying to find a
way to get off the road safely before the car stopped rolling was the most
important thing at that moment. I could not see a high temp reading after I
turned the key off and back on again, so I am not sure.
Because it started from cold, and after I arrived at the DEQ test station I
assumed it was a thermal issue when it quit and checked what I could find
for excessive heat. About the only things I could find were the coil and
the transistor beside it. Both pieces were cool. The dizzy body is
aluminum and was just as hot as the valve cover it is mounted on. The dizzy
is a rebuilt unit that does not look like it has been on the car for a long
time. We waited about 30 minutes to see if the car would start and then
walked back to the test station to get my car. When we got back to the
Stanza it started up again and we drove it home without any problem.
The engine was replaced at some point by the PO and there is a sensor light
on the dash that has been on ever since the engine was changed. I am trying
to get in contact with the PO to try to learn more about where the engine
came from and what year it might be. Is there a way to recover engine codes
to tell me why the sensor light is on?
I am not familiar with these cars yet, but it appears that there are
carbureted and fuel injected models. This one has a carburetor.
Tom
69 2000 - Mr. Hyde
Portland
http://www.datsun2000.com
http://www.nowroc.org
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