MY 1996 Altama Will Not Start Need Help ASAP!

A couple of days ago i was driving home from work it was raining i made a left onto the freeway and my car start to lose power but it regaind it soon after that I thought i was bad gas so i exited the freeway and fueld with premium and drove home no problem.Yesterday I started to go to the market it was raining and my car lost power again but this time it would not gain it back,so I coasted I to the market parking lot and I let it sit for a few hours until a tow came.I the tow driver started it up and I idle rough and missing he thought. So I towed it home. So I changed the cap and rotor,sparkplugs and wires it still starts on the first turn of the ignition but still runs rough if i were to push the excellerator the engine will shut of before this i had a major tune up on the car 3 months ago. I've Owend it from 1997 . It's a 2.4 litre twin cam 4 cly. I Tried to do a computer Test But I Get No feed Back From The dash check engine light it was working before this problem came, And The Battery Is Good, Do anyone think it's a bad ECM. I need A Clue I'm on a budget The More i Now the better I feel Wen I have it seviced or I can Fix myself, Thank For A site like this I'll Try all Replies.

Loosing power, dieing and restarting, sounds like your distributor is bad, not the ECM. Do you know if your Altima is an early or late '97? Buy a new distributor on ebay. Early '97 would be like the '96 and late is like '98. Was there oil inside the distributor when you changed the cap? Could the shaking problem be compounded because now two plug wires are out of place? Does the service eng soon light come on when you turn the ignition to the first position? Does the light stay on when the engine starts?

Loosing power, dieing and restarting, sounds like your distributor is bad, not the ECM. Do you know if your Altima is an early or late '97? Buy a new distributor on ebay. Early '97 would be like the '96 and late is like '98. Was there oil inside the distributor when you changed the cap? Could the shaking problem be compounded because now two plug wires are out of place? Does the service eng soon light come on when you turn the ignition to the first position? Does the light stay on when the engine starts?The service engine light does not come on in the first position ,But it Did at the first and second time of this problem but it never stayed on once engine started running normaly. Then I tried the self diag I noticed it did not come on a first key pos. or at all. I'm checking distr. today to see if its OK. Got Any More Clues Much thanks!

[The service engine light does not come on in the first position ,But it Did at the first and second time of this problem but it never stayed on once engine started running normaly. Then I tried the self diag I noticed it did not come on a first key pos. or at all. I'm checking distr. today to see if its OK. Got Any More Clues Much thanks!

So the light was working correctly the first two times, and showed no indication that there is a code stored in the computer. Check the ECM fuse. If you get the light working again and it goes off after a few seconds, there are no codes stored. Is the screw in the ECM turned all the way counterclockwise? The distributor problem would be heat related. That's why the engine started again after the distributor cooled off. The distributor heats up and the engine looses power feeling very much like running out of fuel. The same defective part in the distributor that causes the loss of spark when it gets hot also signals the injectors. Fuel injection and spark get weak and quit at the same time.

The reason the oil in the distributor cause a problem is because the oil blinds the encoder. There is a flat disc in the distributor with a series of holes in it. As it rotates there is a light source and collector that sees these holes and generates a pulse which is sent to the computer which determined the engine speed, which cylinder should be firing and so forth. If you take some electrical parts cleaner and flood the distributor with it, it will work for a while and you will see clearly if this was the problem or not. A new distributor from the dealer is about $400.00. I found that changing the pcv valve may cure the problem.