sf170089

Hey guys. First, I am sorry for posting a non-Honda question here. But, this is the only forum I belong to and I do not feel right signing up to a Nissan forum just for 1 question. Hopefully, it is a "universal" question and will apply to Hondas :-).

I have a buddy at work with a 2000 Nissan Quest with ~ 170K miles. When he first starts driving it for the day, he has very low power. No matter how hard he presses the accelerator, the car does not go much over about 30 mph and struggles at that. But, after about 5 miles, all of a sudden, the power kicks back in and he can drive normally.


I am not sure if this is relevant, but his gas mileage has dropped to around 14 mpg.


I told him that I would ask you guys to see if anyone had any suggestions.


If not, it is no problem. Sorry again for the non-Honda post.

ezone

That's not much info to go on.
Does your buddy have any automotive diagnostic abilities, or is this the kind of person whose VCR is still flashing 12:00?

What has been tested/diagnosed/attempted/replaced/shotgunned at this problem thus far?


Got fault codes? If it has codes, by all means start there.
Fuel pressure?
Runs on all 6 cylinders?
Grounds?
3.3L has a timing belt.... all gears are in time?

Two-foot driver? Riding the brake pedal (or a brake light switch problem) can cause the electric throttle to restrict engine power

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

No worries about the non-Honda question. We'll help where we can. I'm just gonna move this thread to a more appropriate sub-forum (off topic > general automotive discussion).

I'll leave a redirect that'll expire in a week (i.e. the link in the 7thgen sub-forum will be seen there for a week, but it'll permanently be in the OT>GAD subforum)

sf170089

Hehe....I have never been to his place, but of anyone I know, I would bet he would be the one with the flashing 12:00. No, he has no diagnostic / mechanical ability.

You are right, that is not much to go on. Sorry for the limited info. I do still have my little OBD2+ABS reader from my check engine issue. So, I will take that in and hook it up for him. It seems incredibly obvious that this is an easy first step. Ugh, I wish it had occurred to me, smh.


Absolutely nothing has been tried, other than stopping me in the hallway to ask if I knew what was wrong (he has been dealing with it for months).
Great idea on the fault codes. Will check today. I will also look up how to check for fuel pressure, cylinders, grounds, and timing. But, I am expecting some, if not all, might be out of my league (especially the timing).

I will definitely check on this too.


Thanks so much for the quick replies (and adjusting post location). Hopefully, I will have some answers by the end of the day.

sf170089

Hey guys. At lunch, I hooked up my little OBD2+ABS tester and received the following. I did not Google any of this yet, so I have no clue what this means. But, here is what the little tester is telling me:

P0744 A/T Servo Valve Solenoid Circuit Malfunction Severity Level: Moderate
•Code P0744 indicates that the Torque Converter Clutch Solenoid electrical circuit was intermittent for a predetermined period of time.
•This condition will prevent the vehicle from running at its optimum efficiency and fuel economy may suffer.
•The torque converter clutch solenoid lowers engine RPM and increases fuel economy for a given speed.

P0325 Knock Sensor (KS) Circuit
Excessively high or low voltage signal is sent from sensor to ECM. NOTE: On some models, this code may only display through the use of a proper scan tool (e.g., Consult-II).

P0744 A/T Servo Valve Solenoid Circuit Malfunction

Engine started, vehicle driven at cruise speed, and the TCM detected an unexpected voltage condition on the Servo Valve solenoid control circuit during the CCM test.


Possible Causes:
• Servo valve solenoid control circuit open or shorted to ground
• Servo valve solenoid control circuit shorted to system power
• Servo valve solenoid is damaged or has failed
• PCM has failed



DTC for which Freeze Frame was Stored P0744
Fuel System 1 Status Open Loop
Fuel System 2 Status Not Supported
Calculated LOAD Value 41.57 %
Engine Coolant Temp 176.00 °F
Short Term Fuel Trim - Bank 1 0.00 %
Long Term Fuel Trim - Bank 1 0.00 %
Intake Manifold Absolute Pressure 10.96 inHg
Engine RPM 4,275.00 rpm
Vehicle Speed Sensor 55.92 mph

ezone

P0325 knock sensor code might be typical for the car line, I remember many many of their cars having the fault but with no outwardly noticeable symptoms.


P0744 is a TCC fault code according to alldata, and their info indicates it can be set if the trans does not achieve 4th gear and lockup, also has a note about setting if the trans can't shift to 4th gear which might mean problems other than TCC could set this TCC code.

Check trans fluid level and condition?

How about erase the codes, then drive the car around for yourself to maybe evaluate for problems and see how it drives, does it really have low power, does it have full power but the trans doesn't upshift, is the trans stuck in 3rd gear so it takes off real slow, things like that?

And see if it resets any fault codes while you drive it, or sets pending codes.