'95 Altima jerks, stalls

[kazoogirl]

Help please! Yesterday when starting out in first gear, barely moving, my Altima stated jerking/running roughly. The tach was jumping concurrently. I drove it through a parking lot slowly and it resolved. Today the same thing happened again at 40-50 mph, just driving along, it started jerking/lurching. Resolved when I slowed down and downshifted. The second time it happened today, the car actually stalled, but restarted right away. The third time I was slowing in traffic, the car started jerking; I downshifted, and problem resolved. I had a tuneup 2 mos ago and the spark plugs and fuel filter were both replaced and there was no mention of tranny problems. Any guesses...I'm basically a stereotypically-clueless female when it comes to car trouble; so thanks for any advice!

[methodmix]

It sounds like this could be a few things. Does it appear that the engine (tachometer) races when the vehicle is in neutral or only when in gear? How fast can you drive before the problem appears to go away? Is there a check engine light on?

How's your fuel economy? I once had drove my '00 Altima with a completely broken MAF and my symptoms were just as you had described. Car would start fine, but as the RPM's leveled off and I put it in gear the tach would race and the engine would rev without depressing the throttle. Also, if I accelerated to quickly my engine would "kick-back" and my tach would start racing again. So I had to find a happy medium and keep a close eye on my RPMs. I think that 40 mph was about as fast as I could go before my engine started going nuts. Another side effect, fuel economy was terrible and I noticed a build up of carbon on my rear bumper where my exhaust comes out.

The good news is that MAFs are easy to replace (assuming this is your problem) but it's not a cheap part. About $250 brand new. I would suggest first taking your MAF out and inspect it for dirt and debris. The MAF is located between your air filter box and the intake manifold. You can buy a can of electrical contact cleaner (made by CRC; $5 at Autozone) to spray off any debris on the sensor inside the MAF.

Good Luck!

[shab_xp]

Man, this is an oil-in-distributor problem. The oil will foul the optical sensor inside the distributor, and cause misfire.

Take the distributor off. Clean the oil inside the distributor. Pry the old o-ring off the shaft using a screwdriver, and replace it with a new one. When I changed mine, the only way to get the o-ring is from the dealer, and it was not in stock. So I just asked the auto shop to match one. It's 50 cents.

Be aware that you need to make sure not to mess up the ignition timing during the processes. Mark the position of the distributor relative to the engine, and the position of the distributor rotor relative to the distributor. Never turn the crankshaft or ignition key before you put back your distributor.

I also recommend you to change the distributor cap and rotor when you do this.

Good luck.