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but in recent weeks, my 2006 Nissan Altima (around 78,000 miles on it) has started to shudder a bit when I start it up. It also seems to run rougher than it should. When it was taken in (to our regular mechanic...we do trust these guys), they checked it out underneath, but I don't think they ran diagnostics. Any ideas of what could be causing this? (well, other than the obvious one of taking it back in and asking for diagnostics). Thanks so much.
Last edited by NoDoubt1993; 08-15-2012 at 01:04 AM..
has the car received the required routine maintenance items?
is it possible that you've received a contaminated load of fuel that may have obstructed the fuel filter?
is the air filter and intake tract clean?
are there any intake tract vacuum leaks?
are all the emission system components functioning properly?
have you been running any fuel injection system cleaner?
Any one of the above items can cause minor running problems without triggering a check engine light and DTC code.
the list of possibilities for causation of minor running irregularities are numerous; your mechanic may not have run "diagnostics" on this car because there's no "check engine" light on indicating a DTC set by the computer. Nevertheless, bringing up the real-time data stream may indicate a problem with a sensor, such as an oxygen sensor, that is performing marginally but not poorly enough to set a code.
Can you clarify "shudder" ?
What shudders, the whole car, or just the engine ?
Does it clear after a second or so, does it happen only from cold, at a certain temperature ?
If they have run diagnostics and found nothing, then it's possibly a failing spark plug or lead. Could also be a choked catalytic converter.
There are 100 things it could be
If they haven't run a diagnostic test, then they probably should, just to rule it out.
At a rough guess, possibly a temperature sender has failed, and the car is either over or underfuelling at startup, similar to a faulty choke on a carburetted car.
Almost impossible to diagnose without physically inspecting the car
If it has a problem your tech can't diagnose, I suggest finding one who can. You will get nothing but WAG (Wild azz guess') asking that question in a forum... and from the sound of the about answers, that is exactly what you got...........
but in recent weeks, my 2006 Nissan Altima (around 78,000 miles on it) has started to shudder a bit when I start it up. It also seems to run rougher than it should. When it was taken in (to our regular mechanic...we do trust these guys), they checked it out underneath, but I don't think they ran diagnostics. Any ideas of what could be causing this? (well, other than the obvious one of taking it back in and asking for diagnostics). Thanks so much.
Find a different place to buy your fuel. Bad gas can cause all sorts of problems that a mechanic can't find.
I had a '87 Ford Crown Victoria that ran like crap and the garage could not find the problem. Then one day I had to buy gas out of town ( I always kept my cars full with local gas) finding out the Ford ran great on that out of town gas! Over a period of two months I bought gas everywhere BUT the local station and never had another problem with that car!
Thank you all for the input. We've talked to the mechanic again, and will be bringing it in week after next. I will be printing this out to ask him about. I did some research last night and Altimas do have issues with motor mounts. It's a bit of a shudder when you turn over the engine, and then it stops. It's not shaking/vibrating when I'm driving it. They are going to inspect the motor mounts, and take another look underneath (they didn't charge me last time for looking at it, and I do trust these guys). If they don't find anything obvious, they will run diagnostics.
Again, thanks to you all!
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