RichyRich

Alright, first post so bare with me.

I am creating this thread to help anyone with the same potential problem because it took me a week to figure out and a lot of Advil to suppress my constant headache.

I was recently driving on the freeway doing 60mph and the runner just lost all power. It was still running until i pushed the clutch in. I pulled over and tried to start it. It turned over but would not start. I checked all my fuses and relays and they were all fine. I could not fix the problem on the freeway so I towed it home and tore into it. The runner did not throw any engine codes so diagnosing it was a little more difficult. I checked to make sure it was getting fuel which it was. I pulled a plug and checked spark and it was not getting spark. I replaced the coil and it started and ran for two days then it left me stranded with the same problem again. At that point I replaced the coil again and it started and ran for a few minutes and died out. I knew there must be a problem beyond the coil and my original thought was that it might be the igniter (aka ignition control module). I had already replaced the battery and connections, spark plugs, wires, and cap and rotor so I had a real hard time believing these could be the issue. I checked the resistance of the coil and it was good. I then tested the resistance of the wire coming off the coil to the distributor. I compared the resistance of that wire to a few of the other spark plugs wires and it was comparable. I then checked to make sure there was power coming into the igniter and then into the coil which there was 12v. For no apparent reason I unplugged the MAF sensor and tried starting it and it fired up and then died out. I then plugged it back in and it started and ran fine. That told me the MAF sensor was going bad. I replaced it and all my problems were solved. I don't know if it just wore out because of age or if I had a part of it. I recently changed my intake. I had installed a pvc pipe that went directly from the intake to the throttle body which eliminated the intake silencer.



After that was all said and done the runner ran good for 30 minutes and then ran like complete crap. It felt as though it had a really bad misfire. It finally threw a code after I bashed my head on the steering wheel a few times. I pulled the codes with my reader and it threw around 7 codes. I don't remember all of them but a few were (O2 Sensor, Cat, ETR) All pertained to emissions. My original thought was my ECU (electronic control unit) was failing which might have started all of my headaches. I checked my fuses and relays for a third time and it turned out to be a bad EFI fuse. This was wasy checked by switching it with the NO. 2 FAN relay.

I am sorry for the novel but after a week of research and trials, I wanted to put this out there to help anyone in the future. I feel as though I am pretty mechanically inclined but this test really put me on edge haha.

4rnrmaya

RichyRich, I thank you so much for your post as I too have been having issues with my 2gen.4rnr. The battery did not hold charge and now I have put in a bigger battery and so far so good and if anything, I have your post as reference to the next possible solution. Once again, thanks for your input.

piebuss

So happy I found this thread. It saved me a big headache just before summer holidays...

We had just returned home from a beach trip. I had hosed the car down thoroughly, including the engine bay.
I started it to put it in the garage and after a few seconds the engine died.
Did the usual checks. No spark, so I started working my way back.

Did a search, found your thread and decided to switch the AC relay in and it started straight away.

Thanks heaps.