To any women watching this, I just changed mine and my car is finally running properly. My old coil was melted on 2 sides. Had I just spent 75 bucks to start with (Australia), I would have saved myself a few thousand dollars fleeced by the auto electrician. Thank you so much Steve. I can't wipe the smile off my face right now. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you doing this video
@@andregunther4200 Hi. It doesn't take very long at all. I was also worried about screws not being difficult. Firstly, I didn't have a problem with the big centre screw, removed that easily with a flathead screwdriver. If yours is tight and you don't have an impact driver, you can either buy one, I think you can get cheap ones, or just try putting your screwdriver in and giving that a few knocks with a hammer (be sure to hold the screwdriver still, if it moves too much, it doesn't usually work), I've done that with scrap metal. Note that I have plenty of spare screwdrivers if I break one. As for the other screws, mine are the socket head screws, yours probably will be too, so you have the option of unscrewing with a screwdriver or using a socket wrench. I had never even used a socket wrench before lol but have now 😅 A few screws had started to lose their thread but the socket fits over it and works a charm. I used the extender bit in my set. From there on, I used the socket for all the screws, much easier. If you don't have a set, you can also buy them quite cheap or see if you can borrow one. I had Steve's video playing while doing it, at each step would pause the video, carefully do that part, then play again and so on. He made the whole process easy
Thanks a lot Steve. You saved me thousands of dollars. Took my 2000 nissan xterra to get checked out, it was about to leave me on the freeway. Was quoted $ 1980 to replace valve cover gaskets and do full tune up and replace distributor cap and rotor, they said oil was getting into cylinders. Had a mechanic do the work for $500 plus $300 on parts. Did not resolve issue. Took car to different auto shop to diagnose it. They said it was faulty distributor cap . Recommended to replace cap and rotor. I did , and did not resolve issue. At this point I had spent $1200. I started looking for a new vehicle. I am not ready to spend $25k -30K on a new vehicle. I figured what have I got to loose by doing what you did on your vehicle. I found the problem . Water had gotten into the distributor cap and ignition coil was corroded and the little flywheel had a big water stain on it, which was causing misfire on cylinder #3, and # 4..Thanks a lot Steve ! You appreciate you!
Thanks and glad the video helped some 👍. Yep, these are pretty reliable motors it seems except for little issues like this where the coil goes bad (or gets corroded from moisture like you mentioned yours did). Seems most repair places won’t take the time to diagnose things correctly any more and just want to throw parts at things. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
Thank you so much Steve for the very informative video. I did a full tune up on my 2004 Nissan Frontier XE 2.4L 4 cylinder engine that has over 111000 miles on it. This process is exactly how you described it. The only difference being the distributor attached to the 2.4L engine is tilted at I an angle. Makes it a little more challenging when reinstalling the distributor components and screws.
Great video Steve. I have an '02 Xterra 3.3 which is the same engine and I had to do a distributor replacement more than once. I never knew you could replace the internals because I've always been told you have to replace the entire thing. Also, you don't have to remove the plug wires when you removing the rotor cap. You can save yourself some time and leave them on since the cap will go back just one way. I leave them plugged in, just place the cap on top of the upper plenum or what not. Just a friendly tip. Great job, sir!
Thanks man and thanks for the tip 👍. Yep, I’m bad for wanting to get everything out of my way when I work on something and sometimes take more steps than needed, lol. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs No worries. I just wanted to save you some time and possible concern with having to deal with plug wires and the order to go back in. You helped me with this video because I learned something about the internals just from watching your video. Thank you, Sir!
Had this exact problem, a misfire when hot- replaced plugs and boots, tested injectors, even sent the computer in for a rework- seemed to make it worse. Replaced distributor and all good to go! From now on I'll check your channel first
Thanks man ! Yep, seems that the coil in the distributor or the complete distributor goes bad on these. I’m still running fine on the coil replacement, but I’d say one day I’ll need to replace out the complete distributor with the spare I bought that was in the video (it’s still waiting on the shelf in the garage when the day comes, lol).
@@StevesDIYs hey Steve really enjoyed ur video I have a 2002 nissan xterra with the same problem ,it runs great first thing in the morning but 10-15 into driving it it starts to stall and might not start up again for a hour or so ,anyway I was looking into this problem and was about to buy the whole distributor and take care of it myself but thanx to ur video I'm gonna save myself a couple bucks .....hopefully lol. Thanx Steve!
@@robertbair99 thanks man ! Hopefully it will just be the coil as well for yours as it’s much easier to change since there no dealing with being sure the timing is right when the complete distributor is changed out. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
Warning, the word "little" was used 227 times in the making of this video! Ha, just messing with you Steve, great job editing the video, using fast forward at the right times makes a world of difference. Its the LITTLE things!
LOL ! Thanks man ! Yep, it’s funny how words get stuck in your head and then you’ll repeat them over and over without even knowing it, lol. In some of the videos on the channel, it was noticed that I say “All Right” bunches of times as I’m intro’ing into the next step on a DIY. One guy said that his friends did a drinking game while watching a series of videos and took a drink each time I said “All Right”. He said they were blasted by the time they finished the video series 🤣🤣🤣. I’ll bet if a drink was taken each time I said “Little” in this one, they would probably never make it to see the coil put back in, lol. Thanks again for the comment…I pinned it to the top of the comment list as it made my day ! All the best ! Steve
Thanks man ! Yep, being hidden inside the distributor seems kind of odd, but I guess it protects it as well and reduces the coil wiring some. I don’t recall ever having a motor with the coil inside there so it took me a minute as well to determine where it was too. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
1999 Nissan Quest and a misfire and I bought on Amazon a new distributor made in China course ran great for about 10 minutes and then misfired again... I found (hope) the problem the "front 02 sensor" had its wires cut and taped together. Not sure why. So I got a MIL and I'm trying to fix the connector and put it back on to see what happens. Why would the wires be cut and taped together?
Hey man, I’ve seen where sometimes folks forget to disconnect the O2 sensor when removing the exhaust for exhaust work and it damages the wires and they tape them. Not sure why someone would intentionally just cut the wires though as most of them disconnect pretty easy at the connectors.
Thanks Steve. I have a '99 Pathfinder throwing a misfire code on cylinder 6. I changed the plugs and wires (the plugs definitely needed changing), but I'm still getting the misfire code and it runs rough when warm. My next trial was going to be cleaning/changing the injector on #6, but getting in there can be a real challenge with that exhaust manifold, so this is a cheap thing to try first. Thanks!
Hello. Thanks 👍. If it’s only misfiring on one specific cylinder, I would say it’s not the coil though as it does the spark for all of the cylinders (mine had a random misfire that bounced around the cylinders). If the injector doesn’t do the trick, it might be an intake gasket leak or something (I’ve had this on other motors). On my Escalade I had a stalling issue that I rigged up a cheap little test method to check spark, fuel pressure, and injector pulse to be sure the computer was controlling everything. Might be something to try as well if you can’t track it down as it helps to be sure there is spark and injection pulses. I’ll grab the link to the other video and reply with it in case you wanted to have a look.
Here’s the link to the other video...wasn’t the same problem as a misfire, but checking for spark and injection pulse would be the same. ruclips.net/video/2REDUJzBngg/видео.html .Hopefully you’ll get it tracked down 👍. All the best ! Steve
Hey man ! It’s possible as the one coil fires all of the spark plugs. Usually they start acting up and causing misfires or they work when the engine bay is cooler, but then stops firing when the coil gets hot. If the no spark condition came on suddenly, it might be something with the ignition or anti theft as well possibly.
👍. Unfortunately, I didn’t check the coil winding resistances before swapping it out so I’m not sure…sorry. I should have put a meter on the new one though as that would have been some good info for folks when checking theirs.
Haha Steve, it's too funny because I have a 2000 Xterra with the same engine which mine was stumbling bad after it warmed up and especially under a load. I did the same coil swap repair but it didn't fix my issue...In the process of chasing down the issue, I ended up fixing some other issues and then finally got to the bottom of the real problem which turned out to be the copper bushing on the distributor shaft so I had to put in a new distributor from Rock Auto. You can check my videos I did on replacing the O2's, a fuel injector, and other testing methods I used to get to core of the issue.
Hey man ! Yep, sometimes the complete distributor has to be swapped out if the bushing has gone bad and the shaft is loose. I had actually bought a compete distributor as well just in case, but mine ended up being just the coil inside. The new one is still sitting in the parts shelf waiting for the day the bushing finally goes out lol.
Been working with my 3.3L v6 2000 frontier has a misfire doesn't get enough gas when you push the pedal every shop says it's something different but this might be what's wrong thanks Steve!
Thanks man 👍. Yep, it’s probably worth looking at since it’s not too hard to get to for replacing. I’ve also heard that the bearing that’s on the shaft of the distributor assembly goes bad over time (that’s why I also bought a complete distributor at the time as well as the coil just in case). If it just has a little miss at idle, but then a much bigger miss a higher rpms, it might be that the shaft is moving too much and messing up the encoder’s ability to pick up the rotational position (the little disk with slots in it inside the distributor). The complete distributor I bought is still sitting on the shelf in the garage as mine is still chugging along fine from the coil swap, but I’d say one day I’ll be changing the whole thing out when the bearings finally give out. Hope you get yours sorted out and all the best ! Steve
Ok, I have a 1998 3.3L Nissan Pathfinder. 175,000 miles. Great condition. Stock. My tank gets alarmingly pressurized when driven a couple hundred miles. I don't have any codes. My Nissan gas cap visually inspects clean and good. Does not leak. I even disconnected all hoses on the EVAP system and cracked the gas cap. No codes were made either. How can that be? I drove it dozens of miles to test. To see if the missing stopped or codes would appear. No codes, except random misfire. Every now and then, but the motor is obviously missing mildly to badly all the time. It gets worse for a while when I refuel. For a few dozen miles. When this system started doing this, I started getting a random misfire code at the same time. These may be unrelated. Not sure. I have verified purge valve works, hoses are clear now. One was dirty about 2" clogged at the canister for the purge line. It looked like charcoal dust. All other hoses clear. Any ideas? I was going to remove the plug from the cannister ambient vent valve and see what that did. It should toss a code right? And make the valve open, from my understanding? I don't want the tank to pressurize like that again. It will spew and hiss for about 6 minutes when cap is removed. I've never seen a vehicle do it this badly before. Many thanks in advance!
I have misfire on cylinder 4 did spark plug the Ignition Distributor w/Cap & Rotor and Set of 6 Wire Sets and also had test the pressure too all good nothing fix it hopefully this is it it
Hey ! Could be a bad coil if the complete distributor assembly wasn’t changed 👍. Depending on the mileage, the bottom bushing in the distributor assembly can also go bad and cause it to mis-fire as well if everything checked out with the plugs, compression, and fuel system.
@ 170k miles but just bought it and install it only thing left fuel injectors. Now it says multiple miss fire before the coil changed it said only cylinder 4. Unless the new one came bad
If you have a 20+ year old 3.3 equipped Nissan with the original distributor, it's probably not a safe bet to replace any of the components inside the distributor like the coil or cam sensor. You'd be better off replacing the entire distributor. After 20+ years, the gears and internal bushings on these distributors will be pretty much worn out. If you choose to replace the distributor, I wouldn't buy one of those cheap Chinese parts, as they have horrible reliability. A new Nissan OEM unit is pretty expensive ( over $400) but you can search for a remanufactured Hitachi unit, which is the OEM version. They're around $225.
Hello...thanks for the comment👍. For mine, I actually didn’t pull the OE distributor to see how well it is made so not sure of the quality of the OE bushings, etc... I will say, that for my ‘84 Nissan 720 pickup, it’s still running on the original distributor and has well over 200,000 miles on it (the Odometer stopped working at 219k about 8 years ago, lol). You may be right that the safest thing to do would be to replace the entire distributor module with a new quality one, but just not sure if it is always necessary as mine had no excess movement in the shaft. If replacing the coil hadn’t fixed the problem the next stop would have been to replace the whole distributor, but it was worth a try for the price of the coil to me and ended up fixing the problem 👍. All the best ! Steve
Did the coil fix your problem? I’ve been watching other replace the entire distributor and u kept thinking that’s overkill. I had changed my rotor and cap before so it’s in really good condition. Replacing just the coil is my preference.
hey! i have a 2000 Nissan frontier , the rpm dances it don’t accelerate it runs for 10 ish mins then turns off and won’t start again and i’m thinkin think was the problem… where did you get ur part form ? i can’t seem to find them anywhere …
Hello, sounds like yours might need the complete distributor replaced if that’s what’s causing the rpms to bounce vs. just the coil. Sometimes the shaft or bushings in the distributor wear and it lets the sensor plate touch the sensor. I can’t remember where I got the complete distributor I ended up not using when I just replaced the coil in the video, but I believe it was an aftermarket one from Rock Auto or Parts Geek.
Mike Plantholt , hey...yep did the trick, so far no issues with it since on missing. I did change the plugs as well as they looked pretty bad when I changed the coil.
Hello, Still going strong with the aftermarket coil after a year now 👍. I haven’t had any problems with it misfiring or throwing codes it’s been my son’s daily since the beginning of the year so it’s had quite a few miles on it since the coil change as well.
Hey Steve great video I know the video is a couple years old but would you happen to have the parts galaxy part # for the distributor? Ive pulled the coil and found metal filings as well as missing ball bearings Thnkz T
Hey man ! I actually still have the distributor in the box in the garage attic as replacing the coil fixed mine so I have never had to change out the whole distributor. Here’s a link to the picture of the part number on the side of the box I put out on my Steve’s DIYs page for you. All the best ! Steve. facebook.com/109400450606405/posts/349552959924485/?d=n
Hey man ! I didn’t look at the rotation direction when I was working on it and my son drives it now so I can’t go look as he is at work. I believe the firing order on these is 1-2-3-4-5-6 so if you look on the connections of the distributor, there should be little numbers by the spark plug wire connections. The rotation would be in the direction of the increasing numbers. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
So I now the frontier share same parts as the Nissan Xterra (2004) but I wonder if the coil could be causing bad timing on the engine because my engine struggles to run and runs rough as well. I already did the work of changing the wire set cables Spark plugs Distributor cap And rotor And still giving the issue of stalling and going off and running rough And my truck does starts and runs
Hey man ! If the coil inside the distributor assembly wasn’t changed, it could be, but it could also be things like leaks on the intake gaskets, not getting enough fuel, or (as some folks have said) possibly worn bushings on the distributor’s shaft that goes down into the motor. I had a similar issue on my Escalade and I made a cheap little test setup to see if I was getting spark, fuel pressure, and also injector pulses to narrow down its issue (for it, it turned out to be a bad purge valve, but I don’t think the Nissans have the same system). Checking for consistent spark using an inline spark tester, checking fuel pressure, and checking injector pulses would be the same though and might narrow down which one is not occurring when is misses or stumbles. Here’s a link to that video: ruclips.net/video/2REDUJzBngg/видео.html . To check the injector pulse, I just used one of those cheap $6.00 battery maintainers that has an led on it so each time the injector pulsed it would flash the light. That way I knew I had spark, the injectors were getting a signal to inject, and I had good fuel pressure. As long as the air/fuel mix is right (no intake air leaks) and as long as there’s cylinder compression, that’s all that’s needed to make any engine fire. Hope this helps 👍. All the best ! Steve
So I'm finally fixing my 2000 Nissan frontier desert runner and I found out it's a spark problem, I recently replaced the timing belt and distributor about 2 years ago, but none of the wires are giving spark to the spark plugs (also all new wires and plugs) so now I'm thinking it's a distributor issue, if your coil pack dies do you just loose all spark? Would it be a good bet to go ahead and replace it?
Hello, yes for these, the single coil fires all of the plugs (similar to the old school mechanical distributor except that it is electronically selecting which plug to fire). If you have a lot of mileage on the motor, it may be a good idea to check to see if the shaft that comes up into the distributor has any play before just changing the coil as they will wear out after higher mileage. Usually it makes a random misfire for s worn shaft though...if no spark at all, I would have a look at the coil for sure as well as the ICM that’s inside the dizzy as well. All the best ! Steve
Hey ! I don’t think it should be loose...if it is the rotor on top just above the thin pickup disk, I think it is supposed to be tight as it is what rotates to tell the coil to fire the different plugs.
@@StevesDIYs yeah i watched ur vid but at the end I didn’t see u like check lol yeah I changed the coil pack now I was able to time it but it would still jump but now it started smoking from the engine bay so I think I’m getting closer lol
Hey man ! I’m not 100% sure, but if I had to try to get the screw out that was stripped, I’d probably carefully drill the head off so I could remove the plastic tube that it’s holding on, then try to grab the remaining part that’s sticking up with some vise grips to back it out once I took the plastic tube off. That’s the only thing I can think of since the screw is down into the plastic tube. Hope this helps and all the best, Steve
Hey man ! I took a look at your video…definitely something is wrong. The po300 is a random misfire code, but sometimes it will throw that code even if it’s only one cylinder having issues. From what I’ve encountered (vehicles in general), that much smoke would either be a blown head gasket, valve guide seals totally gone, broken oil ring on the piston, or possibly even a stuck injector. If the smoke smells kind of sweet and you are loosing coolant I’d say the gasket blew from a coolant passage to the cylinder, if it smells like burning oil and you are loosing oil it could be the gasket blown from an oil passage to the cylinder, stuck or broken oil rings, or the really bad valve seals. If it smells like unburnt gas, I’d say it’s a stuck injector. A compression test on each of the cylinders can give an idea of if the oil rings or valve seals are bad. A leak down test on the coolant system can help determine if the head gasket is blown and letting coolant into the cylinders. Pulling the fuel rails and checking for a leaking injector would be the way to check for that. Hope this helps some and all the best ! Steve
Hey man ! If you are just changing the coil that’s inside of the distributor (not removing the entire distributor from the motor) you would not need to set it to a specific rotation point since you are not disengaging to shaft or rotating the distributor. Just be sure you don’t accidentally flip the encoder disk over when you take it off. All the best ! Steve
Hello, once it warmed up it would start missing on random cylinders...especially at idle. It slowly got worst and worse to the point that it finally threw the random misfire code and I ended up limping home on just a couple cylinders firing. Hope this helps 👍. Steve
Hello. You probably could prior to taking things apart, but with it slowly getting more erratic and really only misfiring after the motor compartment gets hot, I figured it would be hard to check accurately anyway. Since theses motors are pretty simple for the electronics and the misfire was random, I figured the issue was the coil going bad since the one coil goes to all of the cylinders. I’ve had other Nissans do the same with the single coils so I was kind of going off past history some as well. Since it’s pretty easy to do, I figured I’d start there. I did buy a complete distributor (shown in the video) just in case the distributor shaft had play in it from wear and that was the issue, but after opening the distributor it turned out to be ok. It’s still sitting in the box waiting for the day the shaft bearings finally wear out (also a fairly common issue with these it seems). All the best ! Steve
Hello, not 100% sure for the Pathfinder as they were made for many years, but if it has the same motor and distributor as my Frontier in the video, the ignition control module is inside if the distributor as well. It’s the black plastic part that has the groove in it that the encoder disk rotates in (the thin metal disk in the middle I removed in the video). Hope this helps 👍. Steve.
Hi Steve, I have an 2004 Frontier with the 3.3 v6 that i'm trying to track down the cause of a misfire at about 2K RPM while cruising / trying to maintain speed on the highway. No misfire that I can detect at idle or during accelerating, But no check engine light & no codes. When was your 2000 misfiring? on the hwy under load? I've changed plugs, wires, and dist cap with no luck. Just trying to diagnose & i've hit a brick wall. Any insight is appreciated! Thanks,
Shaun Deppe , hey man. Mine started out just misfiring after the engine got hot (not at idle, but under load and while cruising), but then eventually started misfiring even at idle when cold as the coil got weaker and weaker. It eventually got so bad it threw random cyl misfire codes and shut off a couple of injectors (limped home that day, lol). Without any codes it’s a bit hard to tell, but if it will misfire with just the rpms up (not driving it, but only bringing the revs up, you could check it the old fashioned way like I do with an inline spark indicator and grab one of those cheap harbor freight battery tenders and cut the clamps off and solder two needles on it to check if the injectors are firing consistently. On my channel there is a video where I had to check my Escalade this way if you want to look at it to see how I checked for spark and injector signal. The Escalade’s issue turned out to be a bad purge valve (totally not related to a misfire, but the test setup is the same). Or maybe you could use one of your old plug wires in conjunction with the inline spark checker and get it on top of the hood (along with the homemade injector checker), and watch the lights blink as you go down the road. If it is the spark cutting out and you’ve replaced plugs, wires, and cap, my next guess would be something in the dizzy (cam sensor or coil), or maybe the bearing is going out in the dizzy and the shaft is wobbling. The video that shows the injector pulse check and inline spark indicator is called “2008 Escalade (GM 6.2L) stalling at idle Fix”. Maybe this will help....sorry for the long winded reply.
@@StevesDIYs Steve, thanks for the fast reply & all the info. I think you gave me a good map to check a few different possibilities. I am not detecting (sound / feel) any misfire when I bring the revs up while in park. It's only noticeable while on the road. Since the coil is pretty cheap on Amazon i've already ordered and going to see if that solves it. Also this weekend I plan on checking the ohm reading on each injector. I wouldn't think an injector would have trouble only at a certain rpm range, but then again i'm not a mechanic. Ill check out your other videos. I appreciate your insight and will let you know if I figure it out.
G G , hello, at the 8:26 minute mark in the video, I touched the top of it with my finger. It’s the black sensor that sits above the thin disk I took off. I had to loosen the screws holding the cam position sensor in place to remove the disk in the video. Hope this helps 👍
G G , if it’s like the coil, I found it online, but the local parts stores could not even order it (they wanted to sell the whole dizzy only). It definitely would be tons easier just to replace the sensor if you can find it vs. having to pull the whole distributor.
Hello, I was getting a random misfire periodically after the engine was up to temp that slowly got worse. It finally got to the point that several cylinders wouldn’t fire (not isolated to just one cylinder) so I figured the coil must have been getting weak. Hope this helps 👍, Steve
Hello Steve so i have a 2002 Nissan frontier that am not getting no spark when the truck is cold it starts right up but after i drive it for a few min it dies and i have no spark any advice in what it can be i have new distributor spark plug cables changed the cranckshaft sensor in the bottom and still no spark
Hey ! Sounds like you already took care of the most common reasons for no spark so it must be something less common. I haven’t had the issue on mine, but I think another less common issue is with the ECU going bad and causing this. On Nissans, an easy way to do a quick check the ECU is to plug a scanner into the OBDii port when it’s cold and make sure it will communicate with the ECU, then after it warms up and has the issue, plug the scanner in again and see if it will still communicate with the ECU. If not, it might be the ECU is faulting after it warms up. Just a question...when it warms up and then dies and won’t restart, when you crank it for a minute does it start smelling like in burnt fuel from the exhaust? If not, then you are probably loosing both the fuel signal and the spark which points towards a sensor, anti theft, or ECU issue. If you smell gas after cranking, then it narrows it down a bit to just the ignition system. Sorry I couldn’t help much, but maybe this helps a little. Steve
@@StevesDIYs last night i was driving it and before it use to start once it was cold but last night it didn't even do that at all it just turns over but i don't got no spark i took a spark plug cable out with another spark plug connected and that's where I seen that i don't got spark
@@calivillalobos6114 , it does sound like something with the coil or a sensor. I’ve gotten bad replacement parts before from the parts store and had to take them back to swap them (just recently had to take an EGR valve back that was defective for my Escalade that didn’t work out if the box). Since the ignition module and the coil are built into the distributor, it’s difficult to tell if the replacement might be bad unless it’s swapped again unfortunately. Same goes for the crankshaft sensor that it’s really hard to tell if the replacement is bad. If you got them locally, maybe taking them back and swapping is an option, but not sure. Sorry I couldn’t be much help, but maybe you’ll get it sorted out and running again 👍.
Hello, yep, you are correct that the plug wires don’t need to be removed to pop the top on the distributor…I just like to have everything out of my way when working on stuff (as long as it’s easy to remove lol).
Hello, yes it fixed to misfire immediately (I guess I should have put a clip of it starting as confirmation). It’s been about two years since doing the video and the little truck is still doing fine 👍. It’s been a super reliable truck (my youngest son drives it full time now) so it doesn’t get any video air time, but I just replaced the front brakes on it so there will finally be another video for the truck on the channel soon, lol. It’s still running on the coil that was replaced and I still have the backup distributor I showed in the video on the shelf in the garage 👍. All the best ! Steve
To any women watching this, I just changed mine and my car is finally running properly. My old coil was melted on 2 sides. Had I just spent 75 bucks to start with (Australia), I would have saved myself a few thousand dollars fleeced by the auto electrician. Thank you so much Steve. I can't wipe the smile off my face right now. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you doing this video
Same here I've been working on this thing for 4 weeks now
@@lookoutmountaingarockhunte1300 Fantastic!
I'm a woman I'm going to try and do this also how long did it take you and was it hard for you to take the screws out
@@andregunther4200 Hi. It doesn't take very long at all. I was also worried about screws not being difficult. Firstly, I didn't have a problem with the big centre screw, removed that easily with a flathead screwdriver. If yours is tight and you don't have an impact driver, you can either buy one, I think you can get cheap ones, or just try putting your screwdriver in and giving that a few knocks with a hammer (be sure to hold the screwdriver still, if it moves too much, it doesn't usually work), I've done that with scrap metal. Note that I have plenty of spare screwdrivers if I break one. As for the other screws, mine are the socket head screws, yours probably will be too, so you have the option of unscrewing with a screwdriver or using a socket wrench. I had never even used a socket wrench before lol but have now 😅 A few screws had started to lose their thread but the socket fits over it and works a charm. I used the extender bit in my set. From there on, I used the socket for all the screws, much easier. If you don't have a set, you can also buy them quite cheap or see if you can borrow one. I had Steve's video playing while doing it, at each step would pause the video, carefully do that part, then play again and so on. He made the whole process easy
@@andregunther4200 sorry, at the beginning of my reply, I meant 'screws being difficult' to remove
Thanks a lot Steve. You saved me thousands of dollars. Took my 2000 nissan xterra to get checked out, it was about to leave me on the freeway. Was quoted $ 1980 to replace valve cover gaskets and do full tune up and replace distributor cap and rotor, they said oil was getting into cylinders. Had a mechanic do the work for $500 plus $300 on parts. Did not resolve issue. Took car to different auto shop to diagnose it. They said it was faulty distributor cap . Recommended to replace cap and rotor. I did , and did not resolve issue. At this point I had spent $1200. I started looking for a new vehicle. I am not ready to spend $25k -30K on a new vehicle. I figured what have I got to loose by doing what you did on your vehicle. I found the problem . Water had gotten into the distributor cap and ignition coil was corroded and the little flywheel had a big water stain on it, which was causing misfire on cylinder #3, and # 4..Thanks a lot Steve ! You appreciate you!
Thanks and glad the video helped some 👍. Yep, these are pretty reliable motors it seems except for little issues like this where the coil goes bad (or gets corroded from moisture like you mentioned yours did). Seems most repair places won’t take the time to diagnose things correctly any more and just want to throw parts at things. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
Thank you so much Steve for the very informative video. I did a full tune up on my 2004 Nissan Frontier XE 2.4L 4 cylinder engine that has over 111000 miles on it. This process is exactly how you described it. The only difference being the distributor attached to the 2.4L engine is tilted at I an angle. Makes it a little more challenging when reinstalling the distributor components and screws.
Thanks and good to know that the 2.4 is very similar the this V6 👍. Glad the video helped some and all the best ! Steve
Great video Steve. I have an '02 Xterra 3.3 which is the same engine and I had to do a distributor replacement more than once. I never knew you could replace the internals because I've always been told you have to replace the entire thing. Also, you don't have to remove the plug wires when you removing the rotor cap. You can save yourself some time and leave them on since the cap will go back just one way. I leave them plugged in, just place the cap on top of the upper plenum or what not. Just a friendly tip. Great job, sir!
Thanks man and thanks for the tip 👍. Yep, I’m bad for wanting to get everything out of my way when I work on something and sometimes take more steps than needed, lol. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs No worries. I just wanted to save you some time and possible concern with having to deal with plug wires and the order to go back in. You helped me with this video because I learned something about the internals just from watching your video. Thank you, Sir!
@@Ty_ThatGuy thanks man ! Glad the video helped some 👍
Thanks for this. I was going to ask is it necessary to remove the plug wires, you answered my question 👍
Had this exact problem, a misfire when hot- replaced plugs and boots, tested injectors, even sent the computer in for a rework- seemed to make it worse. Replaced distributor and all good to go! From now on I'll check your channel first
Thanks man ! Yep, seems that the coil in the distributor or the complete distributor goes bad on these. I’m still running fine on the coil replacement, but I’d say one day I’ll need to replace out the complete distributor with the spare I bought that was in the video (it’s still waiting on the shelf in the garage when the day comes, lol).
@@StevesDIYs hey Steve really enjoyed ur video I have a 2002 nissan xterra with the same problem ,it runs great first thing in the morning but 10-15 into driving it it starts to stall and might not start up again for a hour or so ,anyway I was looking into this problem and was about to buy the whole distributor and take care of it myself but thanx to ur video I'm gonna save myself a couple bucks .....hopefully lol. Thanx Steve!
@@robertbair99 thanks man ! Hopefully it will just be the coil as well for yours as it’s much easier to change since there no dealing with being sure the timing is right when the complete distributor is changed out. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
@@robertbair99 Hi Robert. Did replacing the coil work for you?
Well done video. Great narration...easy to understand, easy to see what's going on.
Thanks man ! Glad the video was helpful 👍. All the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs VERY! THANKS.
Warning, the word "little" was used 227 times in the making of this video! Ha, just messing with you Steve, great job editing the video, using fast forward at the right times makes a world of difference. Its the LITTLE things!
LOL ! Thanks man ! Yep, it’s funny how words get stuck in your head and then you’ll repeat them over and over without even knowing it, lol. In some of the videos on the channel, it was noticed that I say “All Right” bunches of times as I’m intro’ing into the next step on a DIY. One guy said that his friends did a drinking game while watching a series of videos and took a drink each time I said “All Right”. He said they were blasted by the time they finished the video series 🤣🤣🤣. I’ll bet if a drink was taken each time I said “Little” in this one, they would probably never make it to see the coil put back in, lol. Thanks again for the comment…I pinned it to the top of the comment list as it made my day ! All the best ! Steve
I guess it worked? Would have liked to hear it start up.
Hello, yep, still going strong ever since making the video 👍. I should have done a clip of the startup to show the difference it made.
Thanks for your video. I have DTC P0350, and I search the Coil in the engine but dont see nothing. your explication Is very cool.
Thanks man ! Yep, being hidden inside the distributor seems kind of odd, but I guess it protects it as well and reduces the coil wiring some. I don’t recall ever having a motor with the coil inside there so it took me a minute as well to determine where it was too. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve
1999 Nissan Quest and a misfire and I bought on Amazon a new distributor made in China course ran great for about 10 minutes and then misfired again... I found (hope) the problem the "front 02 sensor" had its wires cut and taped together. Not sure why. So I got a MIL and I'm trying to fix the connector and put it back on to see what happens. Why would the wires be cut and taped together?
Hey man, I’ve seen where sometimes folks forget to disconnect the O2 sensor when removing the exhaust for exhaust work and it damages the wires and they tape them. Not sure why someone would intentionally just cut the wires though as most of them disconnect pretty easy at the connectors.
Thanks Steve. I have a '99 Pathfinder throwing a misfire code on cylinder 6. I changed the plugs and wires (the plugs definitely needed changing), but I'm still getting the misfire code and it runs rough when warm. My next trial was going to be cleaning/changing the injector on #6, but getting in there can be a real challenge with that exhaust manifold, so this is a cheap thing to try first. Thanks!
Hello. Thanks 👍. If it’s only misfiring on one specific cylinder, I would say it’s not the coil though as it does the spark for all of the cylinders (mine had a random misfire that bounced around the cylinders). If the injector doesn’t do the trick, it might be an intake gasket leak or something (I’ve had this on other motors). On my Escalade I had a stalling issue that I rigged up a cheap little test method to check spark, fuel pressure, and injector pulse to be sure the computer was controlling everything. Might be something to try as well if you can’t track it down as it helps to be sure there is spark and injection pulses. I’ll grab the link to the other video and reply with it in case you wanted to have a look.
Here’s the link to the other video...wasn’t the same problem as a misfire, but checking for spark and injection pulse would be the same. ruclips.net/video/2REDUJzBngg/видео.html .Hopefully you’ll get it tracked down 👍. All the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs super helpful Steve-thanks!
Wondering if this will help my no spark problem
Hey man ! It’s possible as the one coil fires all of the spark plugs. Usually they start acting up and causing misfires or they work when the engine bay is cooler, but then stops firing when the coil gets hot. If the no spark condition came on suddenly, it might be something with the ignition or anti theft as well possibly.
Nice. Thanks. I need to check this. Do you know what the cool should ohm test for primary and secondary readings?
👍. Unfortunately, I didn’t check the coil winding resistances before swapping it out so I’m not sure…sorry. I should have put a meter on the new one though as that would have been some good info for folks when checking theirs.
Haha Steve, it's too funny because I have a 2000 Xterra with the same engine which mine was stumbling bad after it warmed up and especially under a load. I did the same coil swap repair but it didn't fix my issue...In the process of chasing down the issue, I ended up fixing some other issues and then finally got to the bottom of the real problem which turned out to be the copper bushing on the distributor shaft so I had to put in a new distributor from Rock Auto. You can check my videos I did on replacing the O2's, a fuel injector, and other testing methods I used to get to core of the issue.
Hey man ! Yep, sometimes the complete distributor has to be swapped out if the bushing has gone bad and the shaft is loose. I had actually bought a compete distributor as well just in case, but mine ended up being just the coil inside. The new one is still sitting in the parts shelf waiting for the day the bushing finally goes out lol.
Been working with my 3.3L v6 2000 frontier has a misfire doesn't get enough gas when you push the pedal every shop says it's something different but this might be what's wrong thanks Steve!
Thanks man 👍. Yep, it’s probably worth looking at since it’s not too hard to get to for replacing. I’ve also heard that the bearing that’s on the shaft of the distributor assembly goes bad over time (that’s why I also bought a complete distributor at the time as well as the coil just in case). If it just has a little miss at idle, but then a much bigger miss a higher rpms, it might be that the shaft is moving too much and messing up the encoder’s ability to pick up the rotational position (the little disk with slots in it inside the distributor). The complete distributor I bought is still sitting on the shelf in the garage as mine is still chugging along fine from the coil swap, but I’d say one day I’ll be changing the whole thing out when the bearings finally give out. Hope you get yours sorted out and all the best ! Steve
Ok, I have a 1998 3.3L Nissan Pathfinder. 175,000 miles. Great condition. Stock. My tank gets alarmingly pressurized when driven a couple hundred miles. I don't have any codes. My Nissan gas cap visually inspects clean and good. Does not leak.
I even disconnected all hoses on the EVAP system and cracked the gas cap. No codes were made either. How can that be? I drove it dozens of miles to test. To see if the missing stopped or codes would appear. No codes, except random misfire. Every now and then, but the motor is obviously missing mildly to badly all the time. It gets worse for a while when I refuel. For a few dozen miles.
When this system started doing this, I started getting a random misfire code at the same time. These may be unrelated. Not sure.
I have verified purge valve works, hoses are clear now. One was dirty about 2" clogged at the canister for the purge line. It looked like charcoal dust. All other hoses clear.
Any ideas? I was going to remove the plug from the cannister ambient vent valve and see what that did. It should toss a code right? And make the valve open, from my understanding? I don't want the tank to pressurize like that again. It will spew and hiss for about 6 minutes when cap is removed. I've never seen a vehicle do it this badly before.
Many thanks in advance!
I have misfire on cylinder 4 did spark plug the Ignition Distributor w/Cap & Rotor and Set of 6 Wire Sets and also had test the pressure too all good nothing fix it hopefully this is it it
Hey ! Could be a bad coil if the complete distributor assembly wasn’t changed 👍. Depending on the mileage, the bottom bushing in the distributor assembly can also go bad and cause it to mis-fire as well if everything checked out with the plugs, compression, and fuel system.
@ 170k miles but just bought it and install it only thing left fuel injectors.
Now it says multiple miss fire before the coil changed it said only cylinder 4.
Unless the new one came bad
If you have a 20+ year old 3.3 equipped Nissan with the original distributor, it's probably not a safe bet to replace any of the components inside the distributor like the coil or cam sensor. You'd be better off replacing the entire distributor. After 20+ years, the gears and internal bushings on these distributors will be pretty much worn out. If you choose to replace the distributor, I wouldn't buy one of those cheap Chinese parts, as they have horrible reliability. A new Nissan OEM unit is pretty expensive ( over $400) but you can search for a remanufactured Hitachi unit, which is the OEM version. They're around $225.
Hello...thanks for the comment👍. For mine, I actually didn’t pull the OE distributor to see how well it is made so not sure of the quality of the OE bushings, etc... I will say, that for my ‘84 Nissan 720 pickup, it’s still running on the original distributor and has well over 200,000 miles on it (the Odometer stopped working at 219k about 8 years ago, lol). You may be right that the safest thing to do would be to replace the entire distributor module with a new quality one, but just not sure if it is always necessary as mine had no excess movement in the shaft. If replacing the coil hadn’t fixed the problem the next stop would have been to replace the whole distributor, but it was worth a try for the price of the coil to me and ended up fixing the problem 👍. All the best ! Steve
I found a brand name one on rock auto for $125
Rock auto one just took a dump after about 2 years of use. Might try to find that Hitachi one or worst case have to go back to Rock auto
Did the coil fix your problem? I’ve been watching other replace the entire distributor and u kept thinking that’s overkill. I had changed my rotor and cap before so it’s in really good condition. Replacing just the coil is my preference.
hey! i have a 2000 Nissan frontier , the rpm dances it don’t accelerate it runs for 10 ish mins then turns off and won’t start again and i’m thinkin think was the problem… where did you get ur part form ? i can’t seem to find them anywhere …
Hello, sounds like yours might need the complete distributor replaced if that’s what’s causing the rpms to bounce vs. just the coil. Sometimes the shaft or bushings in the distributor wear and it lets the sensor plate touch the sensor. I can’t remember where I got the complete distributor I ended up not using when I just replaced the coil in the video, but I believe it was an aftermarket one from Rock Auto or Parts Geek.
So did the coil do the trick??? Didn’t see it start. Thx
Mike Plantholt , hey...yep did the trick, so far no issues with it since on missing. I did change the plugs as well as they looked pretty bad when I changed the coil.
Thank you for sharing this video I've got to do this to my Nissan
How is the coil working out? I’m afraid of buy aftermarket parts.
Hello, Still going strong with the aftermarket coil after a year now 👍. I haven’t had any problems with it misfiring or throwing codes it’s been my son’s daily since the beginning of the year so it’s had quite a few miles on it since the coil change as well.
Great video
Thanks 👍. All the best ! Steve
Thanks for this video. My daughter calls my truck lil buddy.
Thanks man 👍. Yep, these are great little trucks for sure. I like that name lil buddy, lol…it fits these trucks really well 😀. All the best ! Steve
Hey Steve great video
I know the video is a couple years old but would you happen to have the parts galaxy part # for the distributor?
Ive pulled the coil and found metal filings as well as missing ball bearings
Thnkz T
Hey man ! I actually still have the distributor in the box in the garage attic as replacing the coil fixed mine so I have never had to change out the whole distributor. Here’s a link to the picture of the part number on the side of the box I put out on my Steve’s DIYs page for you. All the best ! Steve. facebook.com/109400450606405/posts/349552959924485/?d=n
Q
start it up did it fix the problem
I wanna know about the distribution rotation direction on that car or on a nissan vg30 v6..does it rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise..
Hey man ! I didn’t look at the rotation direction when I was working on it and my son drives it now so I can’t go look as he is at work. I believe the firing order on these is 1-2-3-4-5-6 so if you look on the connections of the distributor, there should be little numbers by the spark plug wire connections. The rotation would be in the direction of the increasing numbers. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
So I now the frontier share same parts as the Nissan Xterra (2004) but I wonder if the coil could be causing bad timing on the engine because my engine struggles to run and runs rough as well. I already did the work of changing the wire set cables
Spark plugs
Distributor cap
And rotor
And still giving the issue of stalling and going off and running rough
And my truck does starts and runs
Hey man ! If the coil inside the distributor assembly wasn’t changed, it could be, but it could also be things like leaks on the intake gaskets, not getting enough fuel, or (as some folks have said) possibly worn bushings on the distributor’s shaft that goes down into the motor. I had a similar issue on my Escalade and I made a cheap little test setup to see if I was getting spark, fuel pressure, and also injector pulses to narrow down its issue (for it, it turned out to be a bad purge valve, but I don’t think the Nissans have the same system). Checking for consistent spark using an inline spark tester, checking fuel pressure, and checking injector pulses would be the same though and might narrow down which one is not occurring when is misses or stumbles. Here’s a link to that video: ruclips.net/video/2REDUJzBngg/видео.html . To check the injector pulse, I just used one of those cheap $6.00 battery maintainers that has an led on it so each time the injector pulsed it would flash the light. That way I knew I had spark, the injectors were getting a signal to inject, and I had good fuel pressure. As long as the air/fuel mix is right (no intake air leaks) and as long as there’s cylinder compression, that’s all that’s needed to make any engine fire. Hope this helps 👍. All the best ! Steve
What happens when the coil is dead
Hello, if the coil is totally dead, the spark plugs won’t spark at all and all the motor will do is crank crank crank.
So I'm finally fixing my 2000 Nissan frontier desert runner and I found out it's a spark problem, I recently replaced the timing belt and distributor about 2 years ago, but none of the wires are giving spark to the spark plugs (also all new wires and plugs) so now I'm thinking it's a distributor issue, if your coil pack dies do you just loose all spark? Would it be a good bet to go ahead and replace it?
Hello, yes for these, the single coil fires all of the plugs (similar to the old school mechanical distributor except that it is electronically selecting which plug to fire). If you have a lot of mileage on the motor, it may be a good idea to check to see if the shaft that comes up into the distributor has any play before just changing the coil as they will wear out after higher mileage. Usually it makes a random misfire for s worn shaft though...if no spark at all, I would have a look at the coil for sure as well as the ICM that’s inside the dizzy as well. All the best ! Steve
The peace were you put the screw from an angle mines is loose is it suppose to be loose ?
Hey ! I don’t think it should be loose...if it is the rotor on top just above the thin pickup disk, I think it is supposed to be tight as it is what rotates to tell the coil to fire the different plugs.
@@StevesDIYs yeah i watched ur vid but at the end I didn’t see u like check lol yeah I changed the coil pack now I was able to time it but it would still jump but now it started smoking from the engine bay so I think I’m getting closer lol
@@MyRcGoSlow 👍. Hopefully you will get it figured out soon…sounds like you are making progress 👍. All the best ! Steve
How to get the screw out if you mess the head up . Please let me know very soon
Hey man ! I’m not 100% sure, but if I had to try to get the screw out that was stripped, I’d probably carefully drill the head off so I could remove the plastic tube that it’s holding on, then try to grab the remaining part that’s sticking up with some vise grips to back it out once I took the plastic tube off. That’s the only thing I can think of since the screw is down into the plastic tube. Hope this helps and all the best, Steve
I have a p0300 code and my truck is throughout a lot of white smoke through exhaust I got a vid on my channel can you help me out bro
Hey man ! I took a look at your video…definitely something is wrong. The po300 is a random misfire code, but sometimes it will throw that code even if it’s only one cylinder having issues. From what I’ve encountered (vehicles in general), that much smoke would either be a blown head gasket, valve guide seals totally gone, broken oil ring on the piston, or possibly even a stuck injector. If the smoke smells kind of sweet and you are loosing coolant I’d say the gasket blew from a coolant passage to the cylinder, if it smells like burning oil and you are loosing oil it could be the gasket blown from an oil passage to the cylinder, stuck or broken oil rings, or the really bad valve seals. If it smells like unburnt gas, I’d say it’s a stuck injector.
A compression test on each of the cylinders can give an idea of if the oil rings or valve seals are bad. A leak down test on the coolant system can help determine if the head gasket is blown and letting coolant into the cylinders. Pulling the fuel rails and checking for a leaking injector would be the way to check for that. Hope this helps some and all the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs thanks appreciate it
@@MyRcGoSlow , no problem…hope you get it sorted out 👍.
Ok ik its not in the video but i need the bolt that hold the entire thing down anyone know what size it is ?
When you do the coil do you have to set the engine to dead top center?
Hey man ! If you are just changing the coil that’s inside of the distributor (not removing the entire distributor from the motor) you would not need to set it to a specific rotation point since you are not disengaging to shaft or rotating the distributor. Just be sure you don’t accidentally flip the encoder disk over when you take it off. All the best ! Steve
What was tbe truck doing after it warmed up did it lag while driving and want to turn off?
Hello, once it warmed up it would start missing on random cylinders...especially at idle. It slowly got worst and worse to the point that it finally threw the random misfire code and I ended up limping home on just a couple cylinders firing. Hope this helps 👍. Steve
Couldn’t you just ohm the coil so you wouldn’t have to spend the time and money trying a new one?
Hello. You probably could prior to taking things apart, but with it slowly getting more erratic and really only misfiring after the motor compartment gets hot, I figured it would be hard to check accurately anyway. Since theses motors are pretty simple for the electronics and the misfire was random, I figured the issue was the coil going bad since the one coil goes to all of the cylinders. I’ve had other Nissans do the same with the single coils so I was kind of going off past history some as well. Since it’s pretty easy to do, I figured I’d start there. I did buy a complete distributor (shown in the video) just in case the distributor shaft had play in it from wear and that was the issue, but after opening the distributor it turned out to be ok. It’s still sitting in the box waiting for the day the shaft bearings finally wear out (also a fairly common issue with these it seems). All the best ! Steve
We're is the ignition control module on the Nissan Pathfinder ?
Charlie
Hello, not 100% sure for the Pathfinder as they were made for many years, but if it has the same motor and distributor as my Frontier in the video, the ignition control module is inside if the distributor as well. It’s the black plastic part that has the groove in it that the encoder disk rotates in (the thin metal disk in the middle I removed in the video). Hope this helps 👍. Steve.
@@StevesDIYs not sure,had a missfire so had to change was burn in one
@@StevesDIYs all I know is that ur engine is the same as yours, all the eay
ICM = ignition coil. ??? I'm wrong ??
Hi Steve, I have an 2004 Frontier with the 3.3 v6 that i'm trying to track down the cause of a misfire at about 2K RPM while cruising / trying to maintain speed on the highway. No misfire that I can detect at idle or during accelerating, But no check engine light & no codes. When was your 2000 misfiring? on the hwy under load? I've changed plugs, wires, and dist cap with no luck. Just trying to diagnose & i've hit a brick wall. Any insight is appreciated! Thanks,
Shaun Deppe , hey man. Mine started out just misfiring after the engine got hot (not at idle, but under load and while cruising), but then eventually started misfiring even at idle when cold as the coil got weaker and weaker. It eventually got so bad it threw random cyl misfire codes and shut off a couple of injectors (limped home that day, lol). Without any codes it’s a bit hard to tell, but if it will misfire with just the rpms up (not driving it, but only bringing the revs up, you could check it the old fashioned way like I do with an inline spark indicator and grab one of those cheap harbor freight battery tenders and cut the clamps off and solder two needles on it to check if the injectors are firing consistently. On my channel there is a video where I had to check my Escalade this way if you want to look at it to see how I checked for spark and injector signal. The Escalade’s issue turned out to be a bad purge valve (totally not related to a misfire, but the test setup is the same). Or maybe you could use one of your old plug wires in conjunction with the inline spark checker and get it on top of the hood (along with the homemade injector checker), and watch the lights blink as you go down the road. If it is the spark cutting out and you’ve replaced plugs, wires, and cap, my next guess would be something in the dizzy (cam sensor or coil), or maybe the bearing is going out in the dizzy and the shaft is wobbling. The video that shows the injector pulse check and inline spark indicator is called “2008 Escalade (GM 6.2L) stalling at idle Fix”. Maybe this will help....sorry for the long winded reply.
@@StevesDIYs Steve, thanks for the fast reply & all the info. I think you gave me a good map to check a few different possibilities. I am not detecting (sound / feel) any misfire when I bring the revs up while in park. It's only noticeable while on the road. Since the coil is pretty cheap on Amazon i've already ordered and going to see if that solves it. Also this weekend I plan on checking the ohm reading on each injector. I wouldn't think an injector would have trouble only at a certain rpm range, but then again i'm not a mechanic. Ill check out your other videos. I appreciate your insight and will let you know if I figure it out.
@@shaundeppe4878 did you figure it out?
Do you know how a Bohemian counts to four.?
Deez one day one
Nem too our yondr
Do you know which part inside the distributor is the camshaft position sensor? I have a P0340 to fix unfortunately
G G , hello, at the 8:26 minute mark in the video, I touched the top of it with my finger. It’s the black sensor that sits above the thin disk I took off. I had to loosen the screws holding the cam position sensor in place to remove the disk in the video. Hope this helps 👍
@@StevesDIYs it really does help a lot, thank you!! I hope I'll be able to find just that part then
G G , if it’s like the coil, I found it online, but the local parts stores could not even order it (they wanted to sell the whole dizzy only). It definitely would be tons easier just to replace the sensor if you can find it vs. having to pull the whole distributor.
What was symptom before this
Hello, I was getting a random misfire periodically after the engine was up to temp that slowly got worse. It finally got to the point that several cylinders wouldn’t fire (not isolated to just one cylinder) so I figured the coil must have been getting weak. Hope this helps 👍, Steve
Hello Steve so i have a 2002 Nissan frontier that am not getting no spark when the truck is cold it starts right up but after i drive it for a few min it dies and i have no spark any advice in what it can be i have new distributor spark plug cables changed the cranckshaft sensor in the bottom and still no spark
Hey ! Sounds like you already took care of the most common reasons for no spark so it must be something less common. I haven’t had the issue on mine, but I think another less common issue is with the ECU going bad and causing this. On Nissans, an easy way to do a quick check the ECU is to plug a scanner into the OBDii port when it’s cold and make sure it will communicate with the ECU, then after it warms up and has the issue, plug the scanner in again and see if it will still communicate with the ECU. If not, it might be the ECU is faulting after it warms up. Just a question...when it warms up and then dies and won’t restart, when you crank it for a minute does it start smelling like in burnt fuel from the exhaust? If not, then you are probably loosing both the fuel signal and the spark which points towards a sensor, anti theft, or ECU issue. If you smell gas after cranking, then it narrows it down a bit to just the ignition system. Sorry I couldn’t help much, but maybe this helps a little. Steve
@@StevesDIYs yes i check the fuel after it started doing it and am getting good fuel but no spark at all
@@StevesDIYs last night i was driving it and before it use to start once it was cold but last night it didn't even do that at all it just turns over but i don't got no spark i took a spark plug cable out with another spark plug connected and that's where I seen that i don't got spark
@@calivillalobos6114 , it does sound like something with the coil or a sensor. I’ve gotten bad replacement parts before from the parts store and had to take them back to swap them (just recently had to take an EGR valve back that was defective for my Escalade that didn’t work out if the box). Since the ignition module and the coil are built into the distributor, it’s difficult to tell if the replacement might be bad unless it’s swapped again unfortunately. Same goes for the crankshaft sensor that it’s really hard to tell if the replacement is bad. If you got them locally, maybe taking them back and swapping is an option, but not sure. Sorry I couldn’t be much help, but maybe you’ll get it sorted out and running again 👍.
@@StevesDIYs thank you so much i changed the whole distributor new and i got it running last night thank you for the help
What part number is the ignition coil?
Thomas Arellano , hello, the part number varies from where you buy it from since it is aftermarket, but from am-auto parts it is AM-2416546935
swear yuh missed returnin lil washer under that disc thing
Hopefully not, lol ! It’s still running on this coil though so it must have been ok
No reason to remove the plug wires
Hello, yep, you are correct that the plug wires don’t need to be removed to pop the top on the distributor…I just like to have everything out of my way when working on stuff (as long as it’s easy to remove lol).
I suspect it didn’t work considering you didn’t start it
Hello, yes it fixed to misfire immediately (I guess I should have put a clip of it starting as confirmation). It’s been about two years since doing the video and the little truck is still doing fine 👍. It’s been a super reliable truck (my youngest son drives it full time now) so it doesn’t get any video air time, but I just replaced the front brakes on it so there will finally be another video for the truck on the channel soon, lol. It’s still running on the coil that was replaced and I still have the backup distributor I showed in the video on the shelf in the garage 👍. All the best ! Steve
needs brake fluid....😉🤡
😅
Great video
Thanks 👍. All the best ! Steve