Micra loses power steering and cuts out at low revs??

30-6shooter

Howdy people!, i`d appreciate some pointers here.

My sisters 1.0L Micra has recently been cutting out on her. It happens when going slow, or slowing down, say like coming up to traffic lights. It seems to lose power, the power steering seems to go,, and the engine actually cuts off. She said some lights come up on the dash before cutting off, but shes not exactly sure which ones. It has happened about 3/4 times in the past 3weeks i think. Is this an ECU issue or what would cause this.

Its a `99 car with 70000miles on it. Apart from this, it has ran well with no problems.

Has anyone any ideas what could be doing it? And could this be brought to any mechanic or would she be better bringing it into a main Nissan Stealer.

Victor

"Go to mechanic"!

Merrion

Our pre-97 micra occaisionally suffers power loss because the petrol tank breather hose doesn't work. If you release the cap do you get a psssht noise?

AMurphy

Carb or EFI?.

causal

In what sequence do 'things go'?

If the engine cuts out then her Power Steering gets no power - but of real concern is that her POWER BRAKES will go too :eek:
Initially the brakes feel ok, but then it's like pushing your foot against a brick wall.

I presume it's not poor clutch control on your sisters part

causal

ibanez

Even at idle speed the power steering pump should be up to the job of turning the wheels with little resistance.Check the idle speed control valve and make sure all of the breather hoses are unblocked.

highdef

Yeah, I'd check the idle speed control valve too. I had a problem with my Citroen Xantia cutting out coming up to lights, going round corners - any time really that I would be in neutral or with foot to the clutch with no throttle applied. Turned out to be a faulty idle stepper motor. I'd imagine this is similar, if not the same as an idle speed control valve.

GoneShootin

ntl Technical wrote:

Turned out to be a faulty idle stepper motor.

Hade same issue with a 93 Astra. Also look out for a faulty petrol sensor, making the car think theres no petrol o_0

causal

ibanez wrote:

Even at idle speed the power steering pump should be up to the job of turning the wheels with little resistance.

But is the engine cutting out before or after the power steering goes?

Maybe you can test it by starting the car, let it idle, and draw the max load you can:
- use as much electrics as possible (air/con, demister, heater fan, lights)
- turn the wheels (mind ur rubber though)
- dab the brakes
the revs should increase to produce the extra power required for all the above.
Idle speed on a micra is about 800 rpm, but note what it is when you startup the car and see if it rises, or does it remain constant, or cut-out.
If it doesn't rise then as the lads said it points towards the idle control valve.

In any even I'd get it looked at by a mechanic.

causal

ibanez

Also check the power steering fluid level the pump could be recirculating a small amount of fluid around leading to an air pocket in the steering rack making the steering heavy.

AMurphy

Maybe, but how would that account for the engine cutting out?. The engine will run quiet happily with no or too much PS fluid in the res.

Assuming this is EFI, the quickest, easiest things to deal with are a dirty throttle body and/or Auto Idle and/or EGR valve, if it has one.

Ratchet

30-6shooter wrote:

Howdy people!, i`d appreciate some pointers here.

My sisters 1.0L Micra has recently been cutting out on her. It happens when going slow, or slowing down, say like coming up to traffic lights. It seems to lose power, the power steering seems to go,, and the engine actually cuts off. She said some lights come up on the dash before cutting off, but shes not exactly sure which ones. It has happened about 3/4 times in the past 3weeks i think. Is this an ECU issue or what would cause this.

Its a `99 car with 70000miles on it. Apart from this, it has ran well with no problems.

Has anyone any ideas what could be doing it? And could this be brought to any mechanic or would she be better bringing it into a main Nissan Stealer.

Air mass meter which is build to throttle body. Know problem wiht the micra.

Pricey

Cyclonium

Yep id go with ^^^^. Exactly what mine is doing for the last 10,000 miles or so.
1993 with 83000, only had 54 when i bought it :eek: . Finally being fixed. Sooner the better as the timing belt just went on my crx :mad: Only ordered one yesterday from honda. God I do have the best of luck.

30-6shooter

Thanks for the replies lads, ill let ye know how it goes.

Hey Cyclonium,
how much did it cost you to get the Micra fixed, and did you get a nissan dealer to fix it?

Ratchet

30-6shooter wrote:

Thanks for the replies lads, ill let ye know how it goes.

Hey Cyclonium,
how much did it cost you to get the Micra fixed, and did you get a nissan dealer to fix it?

i think the price from the dealer was something like 360 for the part only.

you can get reconditioned one for less or one from scrap for say 100-120.

i did fit the part in 30 min and car was like new.

sometimes you can just clean them but not always

padraigcarroll

the power steering going is only a symptom of the car cutting out, ignore it.
generally on these when the air mass meter goes the car will begin hunting at tickover, ie revving high dropping low, revving up high and so on.


get some carb cleaner and clean the throttle body.
also, if you can get access to a nissan consult, reset the idle rpm (u need the consult so that it stops the engine control unit compensating for incorrect rpm and allows u to manually set the correct rpm at idle
if i remember correctly on that year micra its 750 rpm or so, the screw is on the driver side of the throttle body.

Ratchet

padraigcarroll wrote:

the power steering going is only a symptom of the car cutting out, ...............

MAF will be able to drop the rpm to unusable figure and cause power steering pump to loose pressure for moment.

there is fe thing which may also go like IAC or ECT sensor but generally MAF sensor gives problems on this cars.

Yeah, best will be to bring the car to good workshop or dealer to pin down the problem unless like me you want to do it yourself:)

The idle screw is on the same side as MAF sensor(do not adjust at the throttle stopper screw which is on opposite side)

The check erase ECU you

Warm up the engine
Switch engine off

-Reset computer by switching ignition on then bridging data link connector -terminals which are IGN and CHK(at the fuse board). Wait 2 sec
-Disconnect the cables (engine check light will flash)
-Bridge them again(wait 2sec)
-Disconnect the cable


to check sensor follow this:
-switch ignition on check the voltage on cable 1 and earth (MAf connector on driver side and counting from the front of the car)
-Start engine
-Allow to idle
-Check voltage on cable 1 and earth

Ignition on should be0.5V
Engine idle should be1.1-1.3V

you an also read error codes from the ECU if you want

Stephenm

30-6shooter wrote:

Howdy people!, i`d appreciate some pointers here.

My sisters 1.0L Micra has recently been cutting out on her. It happens when going slow, or slowing down, say like coming up to traffic lights. It seems to lose power, the power steering seems to go,, and the engine actually cuts off. She said some lights come up on the dash before cutting off, but shes not exactly sure which ones. It has happened about 3/4 times in the past 3weeks i think. Is this an ECU issue or what would cause this.

Its a `99 car with 70000miles on it. Apart from this, it has ran well with no problems.

Has anyone any ideas what could be doing it? And could this be brought to any mechanic or would she be better bringing it into a main Nissan Stealer.

It's probably a bit late for you now but in case someone else has the same problem this worked for me:

I have a 1l '94 micra 80,000miles. For the last year it had been cutting out at traffic lights and it got worse to the stage where it was cutting out every few minutes (especially under accelleration). The problem was the Throttle Body. Expensive to replace. I found the solution on this website:#http://www.micra.com.au/technical-ar...ring-guide.php
took 30mins to do (and I'm not used to fixing anything on a car) and the car is now perfect, I'm getting much better fuel economy now too. Thought I'd post it here as apparently it's a common problem.


Anyone know the rap/song "Micra" by a Dublin group "The Spoilers"?