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2000 frontier rough idle and miss

5K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  BKfronty718 
#1 ·
My 2000 frontier 3.3 with 116000 miles started having a intermittent miss a few months back. Well it is doing it all the time now. The rpms will fluctuate after about 30 seconds or so and won't go above 1200 rpm. The truck also will buck and jerk really bad. When it started to act up bad last week it wouldn't go over 30 mph. I pulled over and the second cat on the drivers side was glowing red. My mechanic brother in law help me change the cat but it still doing the same thing. Could it be the distributor. I have replaced the plug, wires, and a new cap and rotor. Also have noticed the fuel mileage and power had been really crappy when it started acting up a few months ago. Planning on a timing belt change soon when the weather breaks a little bought it used not sure if it was ever done.
 
#2 ·
Definitely change the timing belt.

Funny you mentioned the distributor. My daughter has had a 1998 Pathfinder 4WD with same engine for 3.5 years now, never had good acceleration or power going up Interstate hills, 2 shops could not figure it out.

Then April 2015 engine died completely, diagnosed as bad coil inside the distributor (tough part to find, shop suggested replacing the distributor, $600), daughter just wanted to sell it, but agreed that way better to at least get it running to sell. I bought a new distributor on-line for $82 shipped (10-year warranty), installed that, adjusted the timing. Guess what - the engine had all the power it was supposed to have !!!

I had noticed that the on-line seller sold a ton of these, and had sold 6 that very day ALREADY !!! So distributor on these is definitely an item that goes bad.

By the way: daughter now loves the Pathfinder, decided to keep it, just took a load of people 6 hours each way last weekend to go snowboarding !!!
 
#5 ·
Knock sensor is the only code that comes on. Talked to a friend at my local parts store told if I got a distributor and it didn't work he would take it back. Just finished putting it on and it fixed the problem. Runs smooth as glass now. Thanks to all for the replies hopefully it keeps working.
 
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