1996 Altima 4 cyl. stalls, Codes displayed!

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Jim Spahr

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Here is a friend story who has a 1996 Nissan Altima 4 cyl. with auto trans he bought used. Below is his problem with MIL codes displayed. Please help if you can....
"I am having a problem with the 1996 Nissan Alima GXE. Every so often it begins to stall. It can happen when I am on the highway or while driving around town. It is more dramatic while in town, to the point that it will completely die. It then takes several tries to get it restarted. The car will run fine for a couple of days, then start acting up. It feels like it is either not getting gas or not firing. When on the highway, you can feel it loose power.

After researching the codes online, I read that that combination of codes could indicate a bad fuel injector. Using the manual, I checked each one along with the wiring to them. They all checked out normal. "

By the way, the codes I am getting are P0325 (Knock sensor), P0335 (Crankshaft position sensor, and P1336 (no definition). Because of the no definition I did the online research and came up with the possible fuel injector problem.

I had Cam drive it, and she said that the engine was strong and thought that there might be a fuel pump problem. That is when we pulled the pump and checked for foreign objects. There was nothing in the tank but gas. The screen was clean and the pump ran good. We tried it several times connecting it directly to the battery.

To date I have given it a full tune-up (distributor cap and rotor, wires, and plugs), replaced air and fuel filters, and replaced the crankshaft position sensor. I have checked for loose connectors, but found them all locked in. At this point I am stumped. Can you shed any light on the problem? Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
P0335 (Crankshaft position sensor.
That is probably the hard code,the other codes could have be a reaction when this one set.
Look into the CPS more,you probably need a new one.
 
EDIT: Disregard the crankshaft position sensor stuff I posted, I just re-read your post and saw that your friend replaced it already.

The knock sensor died in my wife's '99 Altima GXE, at around 74,000 miles, and it was a while before I could take care of it. (It's in a fun place) The car ran normally with the bad knock sensor. Still, your friend should get it fixed, as it can save your engine from damage caused by pre-detonation, but it's not causing the stalling.

My local Nissan dealer wanted an obscene amount of money for a Nissan knock sensor, so I went on eBay and got one for about $40 and paid a mechanic to suffer putting it in.
 
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Both the generic and OEM codes are for the CKPS.

Knowing you have a good CKPS sensor, can you test the CKPS circuit from the ECM harness? I have the diagrams for a '99 Altima -- I don't know if the '96 uses the same ECM pinout. (Dealer may know)

PM me an email address and I'd be happy to send you the diagrams I have for the '99 Altima.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
Oilnerd, is the CKPS in your post the same as the CPS?


In keeping with Nissan abbreviations, CKPS is the crankshaft position sensor, and CMPS is the camshaft position sensor. I was referring to the crankshaft sensor circuit.
 
Oil nerd suggests the Altima owner fill up with premium fuel to eliminate the 'knock' problem, so he can get to the main problem. I say the fuel pump may be working=as his test showed- but not putting out enough pressure so that it fails when it gets hot and over stressed. I know a lot of people on this list have Altima's with the 2.4L four cylinder engine. See if you can help this guy out. It is his main transportation.
 
Were the directions followed properly when installing the crankshaft position sensor? Some have a procedure for getting the spacing right.

after installing were the codes cleared?
 
Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
Oil nerd suggests the Altima owner fill up with premium fuel to eliminate the 'knock' problem, so he can get to the main problem. I say the fuel pump may be working=as his test showed- but not putting out enough pressure so that it fails when it gets hot and over stressed. I know a lot of people on this list have Altima's with the 2.4L four cylinder engine. See if you can help this guy out. It is his main transportation.

If you get hesitation or low fuel pressure at higher RPMs, your fuel filter is likely clogged. See page MA-12 for instructions on replacing the fuel filter.

@Texan4Life: it seems that there are no specific spacing instructions - just install the sensor, torque its bolt to spec, and plug it in. It's probably irrelevant, but my 01 Pathfinder (VQ35DE vs. VQ30DE in 96 Maxima) was just plug and play for both CKPS. I didn't even torque them properly. EDIT: Wait, my experience was with cam sensors. Sorry. But either way, the Maxima's FSM doesn't say anything specific other than install, torque, plug in.
 
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Here is another response from a source who is very familiar with the 4 cyl. imports. ...
These 96 altimas with the distributor set up have a common problem. The seal in the dist will leak oil and contaminate the hall sensor in the distributor. That's why you get cam and crank codes. The crank sensor is outside the distributor, but the cam and another crank sensor are actually inside the distributor. They use the two crank sensors to monitor misfires. So in your case you need to replace the distributor. I have been down this road a dozen times. If it were a newer one, or a sentra, they have their own series of problems. They blow head gaskets and wet the plug, the fuel pump check valves go bad, and the crank and cam sensors go bad all the time. In your case you need to address the whole distributor, not just the usual cap and rotor. I hope this helps.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
Here is another response from a source who is very familiar with the 4 cyl. imports. ...
These 96 altimas with the distributor set up have a common problem. The seal in the dist will leak oil and contaminate the hall sensor in the distributor. That's why you get cam and crank codes. The crank sensor is outside the distributor, but the cam and another crank sensor are actually inside the distributor. They use the two crank sensors to monitor misfires. So in your case you need to replace the distributor. I have been down this road a dozen times. If it were a newer one, or a sentra, they have their own series of problems. They blow head gaskets and wet the plug, the fuel pump check valves go bad, and the crank and cam sensors go bad all the time. In your case you need to address the whole distributor, not just the usual cap and rotor. I hope this helps.


wow I wouldn't have guessed in a million years it was still in the stone age with a distributor.

I had a similar experience with my caddy. went kaput 650 miles from home. I had to pull the dizzy and put in a pickup coil. The first time I have ever pulled a distributor. I have new found hatred of them... I was used to working on distributor-less ignition. ICM or new coil pack and your back in action, plug and play.

How did you old geezers get along with distributors?!? lol.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
Oil nerd suggests the Altima owner fill up with premium fuel to eliminate the 'knock' problem, so he can get to the main problem. I say the fuel pump may be working=as his test showed- but not putting out enough pressure so that it fails when it gets hot and over stressed. I know a lot of people on this list have Altima's with the 2.4L four cylinder engine. See if you can help this guy out. It is his main transportation.


Just to clarify, using premium won't make the knock sensor problem go away, it'll just make the engine less likely to knock, since premium fuel is less prone to pre-ignition.

With a bad knock-sensor circuit code present, one would would hope the ECM would be smart enough to use less aggressive timing until the sensor circuit reads good, but only Nissan knows if that's the case, so a reasonable interim precaution is to make knocks less likely to happen.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
Here is another response from a source who is very familiar with the 4 cyl. imports. ...
These 96 altimas with the distributor set up have a common problem. The seal in the dist will leak oil and contaminate the hall sensor in the distributor. That's why you get cam and crank codes. The crank sensor is outside the distributor, but the cam and another crank sensor are actually inside the distributor. They use the two crank sensors to monitor misfires. So in your case you need to replace the distributor. I have been down this road a dozen times. If it were a newer one, or a sentra, they have their own series of problems. They blow head gaskets and wet the plug, the fuel pump check valves go bad, and the crank and cam sensors go bad all the time. In your case you need to address the whole distributor, not just the usual cap and rotor. I hope this helps.


Hey, I am a former owner of a 1996 altima. It was, bar none, the worst car I've owned. Anything and everything electrical failed at some point in time in that car. I actually was towed 4 times in a 3 year period - in 25 plus years of driving, I've been towed twice.

Why I wanted to chime in was something I didn't want to divulge, but the cat has been let out of the bag. The distributor seal WILL fail. It is quite common. My car was doing EXACTLY the same thing. It will fill the distributor w/ oil over time, and 'drown' out current to possibly multiple cylinders. It will come across as mimicing bad injectors, but again, this is a VERY common mid 90's malady of the Altima.
 
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My question is:if this is a common problem with 1996 Altima distributors, why can't I buy a 'distributor rebuild kit' which would include a seal( O ring or Gasket? ) to fix the oil leak problem. When I called Auto Zone and Advance Auto they had a remanuf. dist. for $142.99 or a bushing for 3.99. It was not clear if the bushing was the cause of the oil leak. I would think it would be an O ring or maybe a gasket, not a bushing. Can anyone who has dealt with this problem address this? Is such a kit available from the Nissan dealership?
 
Following my question above about a 'dist. rebuild kit' or an oil leak fix kit, does anyone have access to the TSB list as found on All Data and other locations? Sometimes these TSB's will have a kit or a list of parts needed to fix the TSB problem. Since this dist. with an oil leak is a common problem there should be a TSB on it. Thanks,Jim
 
Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
Following my question above about a 'dist. rebuild kit' or an oil leak fix kit, does anyone have access to the TSB list as found on All Data and other locations? Sometimes these TSB's will have a kit or a list of parts needed to fix the TSB problem. Since this dist. with an oil leak is a common problem there should be a TSB on it. Thanks,Jim


I looked on the TSB list for the '99 Altima (KA24DE)on ALLDATAdiy and didn't find anything, but I suspect that there are far more TSB's issued than those shown on ALLDATAdiy.
 
Jim, sorry for not being on earlier. I am NOT suggesting you do what I had my mechanic do. I was a F/T student at the time (career change), and had to do this on the cheap.

He removed the seal,so in essence, I had a decent oil leak down the side of the distributor, instead of 'filling' the distributor. There are 2 seals between the engine and the distributor. It meant I added an extra qt. between oil changes, but again, I'm not suggesting you do this. I was in a tough situation.....

I'm not aware of any TSBs regarding this situation, but i remember getting on some forum a ways back, and actually finding a sizeable thread regarding this situation -there were more than a few posters w/ this issue.

I wish you luck!
 
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