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1996 Altima fuel pressure problem? Forums > > 1996 Altima fuel pressure problem? 1996 Altima fuel pressure problem?
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  #16  
Old 10-11-2012, 06:16 AM
puck puck is offline
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The battery is good, I keep it on a trickle charger to keep it up while I work on the car.

By "codes" I assume you are referring to an under-hood or under-dash plug in scanner of some sort? I thought that the car had to be running in order to get current trouble codes. I guess I will be renting a code scanner later today and see what it says.

PCV? OK, where in the hell IS the damn thing? One would logically expect it to exit the valve cover, but there is only one hose and it connects to the air inlet junction box. There is no valve there, just the hose. I looked at the emissions sticker and it was not shown, then I looked in the drivers manual and could not find anything there either. Am I blind, stupid, or just so used to American iron that I look where I expect it to be and if it is not in that spot, I am lost? In all actuality, the truth is that it is probably equal portions of the first two and just a dab of the last one! lol!

Are there specific codes I should be looking for?

Again, I truly do not wish to appear stupid, but all of my experience has been on pre-WWII American vehicles, so all of this "new" tech loses me rather quickly. Thanks again!
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  #17  
Old 10-11-2012, 06:27 AM
ritter ritter is offline
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Location of PCV valve on 1993/1994/1995/1996/1997 Nissan Altima (KA24DE engine) - YouTube
Donde queda el pcv valvula en el motor - FixYa
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  #18  
Old 10-11-2012, 07:03 AM
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Thanks, I would have never found it myself! I'll check that out as soon as I can get to it.
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  #19  
Old 10-11-2012, 09:16 AM
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Wow! They are not kidding when they say "pretty well hidden"! I have determined that my life would be SO much easier if I could remember simple things. Things like code scanners, to be precise. Hindsight made it blindingly obvious, but I did not remember that until it was mentioned by ritter.

P0340-Camshaft Position Sensor "A" Circuit (Bank 1 or single sensor).

I am guessing that means a new distributor. It would be a good idea to replace the PCV valve as well, I suppose. No sense in taking a chance that it was or contributed to the problem.

Now to do a bit more research, and it is off to find a distributor.
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  #20  
Old 10-11-2012, 09:29 PM
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I doubt that there is anything wrong with the PCV valve. In 16 years with Nissan starting back in '85, I've only seen 2 bad PCV valves on Nissans and they were on heavily sludge engines. I've never seen one fail on a KA-engine and the one on the Altima is a major PITA to replace! Internal seal failure is pretty routine and a lot of it, IMO, is simply because the distributor is "on its side," so to speak.
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  #21  
Old 10-12-2012, 06:33 AM
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Wow! Sound like you know your stuff!
BUT! BUT ,Would you take a chance with a 17-18 years old car ON A $5 part?
We do one step at the time to solve and maintain our cars -The wise one know WHEN!
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  #22  
Old 10-12-2012, 04:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smj999smj View Post
I doubt that there is anything wrong with the PCV valve. In 16 years with Nissan starting back in '85, I've only seen 2 bad PCV valves on Nissans and they were on heavily sludge engines. I've never seen one fail on a KA-engine and the one on the Altima is a major PITA to replace! Internal seal failure is pretty routine and a lot of it, IMO, is simply because the distributor is "on its side," so to speak.
I do not know the history on this vehicle and have not driven it very much since I acquired it. Other than a basic tune-up and oil/filter change, I have not done much with it. Well, until now, anyway! My experience has led me to change the PCV every time I change the air filter, which is about every 15,000 miles. Is there some quality about Nissan PCV valves that do not require replacement this often, or is it just because it is so difficult to do? The part was less than $4.00 and I figured there is no sense in taking chances. Besides, if they don't need replaced often, then I guess it will last the remaining life of the car! I have the new distributor as well, but I am not going to install it until I change the PCV valve, so I will report back then.
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  #23  
Old 10-18-2012, 07:02 AM
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Wow, this is insane! I have never, in roughly 35 years of working on cars, seen anything quite like changing the PCV valve on this Altima. It took both myself and my son-in-law about 5 hours to uninstall and reinstall the valve itself. Then, it is just a matter of replacing the hose and the two clamps, right?

Well, two days later and we still can't get it done. I can't even get the old hose completely off! I have removed the bottom and side plastic body panels, the fuel rail, and a few vacuum and coolant hoses to get a little better access, but there is just no getting to this thing! At least none that I can see. Although I can say with certainty that NOW I understand the earlier reference to being a PITA! If I had to do this again, I would take my chances with the old valve, there is NO doubt about that.

At this point, I am starting to think about removing components to gain access. Perhaps the starter first. I am starting to seriously believe that I will have to remove the intake manifold to get this project completed!

Any further suggestions?
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  #24  
Old 10-19-2012, 06:32 AM
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Finally got it on, after quite a few hours of work. I went with a 7/16 ID hose, instead of the usual 3/8 ID hose, and it fit snugly enough. The 3/8 hose was just NOT going on, and I did not want to take off any more components. Now to put the distributor back in and all of the ancilliary parts back on, and try to fire it up. After it warms up a bit outside, however! I'm somewhat nervous, as I really hope that the problem is fixed now, but that is basically because I am so tired of dealing with this issue. We will see soon enough, I guess!
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  #25  
Old 10-19-2012, 02:24 PM
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Well, it fired right up! I have to replace some antifreeze and tweak the timing just a bit, and I should probably put a fuel filter back in this thing, but it is looking like this particular problem is solved. Now, I am just hoping that this is not the beginning of a cascade of future problems!

I am still considering selling the car, as these recent events have somewhat "scared" me away from Nissan, but I have not yet made a final decision. It almost seems as if these vehicles will give you excellent service and high mileage, but there is no gradual lack of performance. When it goes, it goes, and everything (RE: parts, etc.) is SO expensive. Well, when compared to what I am accustomed to paying for parts, anyway!

My son-in-law (who is responsible for me acquiring THIS car) swears by Nissan, and claims that I will regret it if I get rid of this one, as (he claims) it still has a lot of mileage left in it.

What is the book on this model? Are they reliable over the long run, say 200,000 miles or so? What about over that? Do they (in general, and after allowing for regional fluctuations) hold their value well as a trade-in or sale to private party? What are their weak points or points of high or common failure (distributor, timing gear/chains, etc.)?

While this may sound really odd in the world in which we find ourselves, I have only owned one foreign car in my lifetime. I bought it used, and it was a Toyota Corona with the 22R motor. I put over 300,000 on that car, and when I finally got rid of it, she didn't leak any oil, would still break 120 MPH, would start in the most adverse conditions, and still gave good (for the time!) mileage. My son-in-law swears that Nissan is better than Toyota ever thought about being and that I should keep this car.

Any thoughts?
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  #26  
Old 10-20-2012, 10:30 PM
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The U13 Altimas were good cars. The KA24DE engine is, overall, a good, reliable engine. There are a couple of problems that sometimes arise on these engines. Intake manifold gaskets sometimes fail, causing a rough running engine. There have been a lot of oil leaks at the front timing cover on the back side of the engine, due to a fail seal where the oil channels are between the block and the timing cover, which houses the oil pump. There have been some breather cases (the part that the PCV screws into) that have leaked oil through the sealant where it mates with the front cover. Leaking oil pressure switches are fairly common on a lot of Nissans, but a cheap and easy fix. Leaking spark plug tube seals and valve cover gaskets occassionally occur. Some experienced upper timing chain rattle, but removing the upper timing chain guides cures this (Nissan's fix per a TSB). Occassionally I've seen where the oil channel has clogged with sludge to the lower timing chain tensioner and caused a rattling chain. Rear struts leaking used to be fairly common. I know this sounds like a lot, but keep in mind I've worked on an awful lot of U13 and L30 Altimas when I worked for Nissan and a lot of these things have likely been repaired over the years on existing Altimas. For example, in the late 90's I was probably resealing two or three Altima front covers a week for a while. Once they were resealed, they were seldom a problem afterwards. I would give her a chance before being worried to the point of selling her off if she otherwise seems in good shape.
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  #27  
Old 10-23-2012, 12:58 PM
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Thank you, I really appreciate it! I have printed off this post in order to have a list of potential problem areas, and I will keep it handy. I would never be able to remember all of those details without an aid of some sort.

This car is rather typical of a vehicle that is 16 years old, but the interior has no damage other than wear and the paint is a bit faded, but there are no serious issues there either. Other than this current issue, it has not given any problems at all. It could use brakes and tires, but I acquired it knowing this in advance, so I can't really count that. I guess I will wait until at least spring now, before I decide either way.

Now I just hope it makes it until then!
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  #28  
Old 05-28-2013, 01:48 PM
gremlin984 gremlin984 is offline
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I had to laugh reading through Puck's issues <-- some similar frustrations here. One is able to get a new distributor for less if it comes with a core exchange.
I am wondering how the oil got into the distributor in the first place. I'm hoping the answer isn't 'intake manifold leak' as that sounds like something i'll have to gather up some funds to have done by a mechanic.
Also: at one point my power steering blew out somehow and I had to have that fixed. It left the engine very dirty (so I wasn't told it was anything other than the power steering, but everything got gucked up.) For this reason, i'm thinking tho the PCV valve is very possibly still good (per above comment by smj999smj) it is probably gucked up and couldn't hurt to clean it. <-- should I bother?

Last edited by gremlin984; 05-28-2013 at 01:49 PM. Reason: to clarify why i was laughing
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  #29  
Old 05-28-2013, 01:53 PM
gremlin984 gremlin984 is offline
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Despite this issue with the cam shaft sensor, etc.etc, i think that Nissan has a very good car and once these minor repairs are done, am looking forward to another 100,000+ in miles on it. tho i will probably get a newer car sometime in that future, I'll definitely be considering Nissan in my options.
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  #30  
Old 05-29-2013, 04:09 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gremlin984 View Post
I had to laugh reading through Puck's issues <-- some similar frustrations here. One is able to get a new distributor for less if it comes with a core exchange.
I am wondering how the oil got into the distributor in the first place. I'm hoping the answer isn't 'intake manifold leak' as that sounds like something i'll have to gather up some funds to have done by a mechanic.
Also: at one point my power steering blew out somehow and I had to have that fixed. It left the engine very dirty (so I wasn't told it was anything other than the power steering, but everything got gucked up.) For this reason, i'm thinking tho the PCV valve is very possibly still good (per above comment by smj999smj) it is probably gucked up and couldn't hurt to clean it. <-- should I bother?

In all likelihood, the PCV was plugged or clogged up, which increased pressure to the point at which oil was forced through the seals and into the distributor itself. At least, that is all I could come up with. It was insanely difficult to change, and took me (literally) 3 days of fighting and cussing to get it done. It would have been easier in the long run to pull the stupid motor and change it that way, rather than fight it like some contortionist on crack.

This vehicle still continues to run, and runs fairly well, except for brakes, as I mentioned before, but it still gets crappy gas mileage-on the order or 24 MPG-for some reason. I have tried to "super-tune" it, and STILL it gets that MPG!

Tried to sell it this spring, but no takers, so it just sits out there in the driveway.......
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