Power Loss At Start-Up

DavidB123

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has the same issue? My 2013 Nismo occasionally loses power at start-up. The car starts fine but when I start driving it feels like a 2 cylinder car or like the power is going through a bottleneck when I accelerate. I can floor it in 1st and it doesn't have the beefy throttle as usual and does this in all gears. This is not like another thread I read where the Tach won't go past 3500 rpms. It drives completely normal except that there is a strained acceleration. This has been going on for around a year but previously was once in two months.

It only happens if the car has been off for around 24 hours in my garage. I can duplicate it every weekend and happens 100% if the air conditioner is in the on position prior to starting. The only fix is to either drive for a little, pull over, turn off and re-start around 5-7 times or to stay in one place and restart 5-7 times. I do maintenance every three months at the dealership, and the dealership scratches their head because there is no computer error code. I have never duplicated it at the dealership because I recently figured out how to make it happen. It never happens once on the road or after a day at work. Now that I can duplicate it I plan to go to the dealership but will probably have to leave it for a couple of days for them to see. I thought if maybe someone has had this issue or has any ideas it might save some time.

The only engine modification is that I have Stillen cool air intakes but have had this since the car was new. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Armhunter

this happened to me but I did a stupid *** thing and let the oil get low. I was almost a total of 3 quarts low and the car lagged in 1 st gear.. once I replaced the oil all was good. these cars burn oil like crazy.. at least mine does.. about 1.5 quarts every 3k miles. I will never let that happen again.

Jordo!

Hmm. Only when A/C is engaged? Never when it is off?

Makes me think that either the compressor isn't quite turning smoothly on startup or that the belt is slipping.

Edit: Wait -- also make sure your intakes aren't rubbing against the AC lines. Small leaks and system pressure issues cause all sorts of funky problems with the A/C...

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DavidB123

Actually, I've determined that it does exhibit the problem both with the air on or off. It's just that I can duplicate it if the car is off for a 24 hour period and the air is on at start-up. I recently cleaned the K&N air filter on the cool air induction and all lines to the air conditioner are clear. The car has low mileage and goes to the dealer every 3 months for an oil change. The last time I had it serviced they kept it for the entire day to check this issue and found nothing. They have a guy that only works on Nismo's and GT-R's so I have to believe he is pretty experienced but the issue seems to be getting worse...

SouthArk370Z

Sounds like it could be the ECM losing power causing it to lose tuning data. Just a guess.

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7speed

I just recently had issue that car was sluggish over 3000 rpm. Dealer checked Maf, previous work they did on vvel etc. Ended up being the ECM, they replaced and car has normal power again.

(They said ECM for some reason was reading as an automatic, even though car is manual)

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Jordo!

How is battery voltage?

A battery that is crapping out or has corroded leads might perk up after its run a bit and had the alternator running to bump the voltage up.

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DavidB123

Thanks for your response! I have a scheduled appointment next Friday and have already relayed the ECM info from your post. I'll let you know what happens.

DavidB123

The battery, cables and voltage is all normal. I am bringing all the info from posted responses to the dealership for reference. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Jordo!

No problem -- good luck!

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Armhunter

one more thing.. Make sure the filters onteh Cold Air intake are clean.. I live in Bakersfield so we get a lot of dust in the air and I have to clean my almost every single oil change, or the car wont perform as well. I went to work last week and a dust storm picked up while driving to work. I noticed within a couple days after my car was taking off slow and not as responsive. So I took my filters out and cleaned them.. Problem solved!

DavidB123

Finally got my car to the dealer. This has been an occasional situation so each time I brought to the dealership, they couldn't duplicate. Several days ago, the car acted up and had power loss. I drove straight to the service dept. The mechanic drove with me and said that the car is in fail-safe mode. I told him about the advice from this forum regarding ECM and cool air intake. I cleaned the cool air about a month ago and he said it probably wasn't that.

After 4 days at the shop, they only had theories because they couldn't duplicate the power loss. Nissan warranty people wouldn't authorize any repairs because they said it has after market Stillen Cool Air induction. They wanted the factory stuff put back on before they would authorize any repairs. The dealership was very helpful and agree to take the Stillen off and put all the old stuff back on for diagnostics. This has been really stupid because this has been doing this since before my Stillen installation. The car has only 20,000 miles and I've had it since it was new.

I'll update as soon as there is any info. Thanks everyone for your input!

Crayon

This thread making me paranoid. Sheesh, gonna go check my oil now.

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MrAbiNormal

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life, but David did they ever figure out your problem?

I ask because I have a completely stock 2013 that has this exact issue. The dealer replaced one of the MAF a while back when the check engine light came on and insisted that would cure this issue, but of course it didn't.. I'm at a loss on how to get the dealer to figure this out. They are 2 and a half hours from me and I'm about 3000 miles from being out of warranty...

Anyway, I was hopeful your dealer figured it out with you or you know what I need to ask them to check at least.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

MJB

You live in Mendocino California and the nearest Nissan dealership is 2.5hours away?

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