Hey all,

I recently washed my car and after it had dried I started it up and all three of the warning lights came on. The car would not rev past 2200rpms. There is a slight hesitation on startup but it fires up right away. Once the car is warmed up it doesn't idle consistantly. It will be at 1k then drop down to 500 then back up to 1k for while then back down. I checked the codes and got 2 codes. Both of the codes are p0102 which is the MAF. Not sure why i'm getting two of the same code. I've searched and tried cleaning the MAF sensor and the harness. Checked for any damaged or disconnected vacum hoses. left the car battery disconnected overnight. I did the ecu reset manually. I even tried swapping in a friends MAF and resetting the ecu. This actually eliminated the ses light, but the vdc and slip where still on. It still wouldn't let me rev past 2200rpms. Once i did that the ses came back on. We even swap my MAF sensor in his car and his car started up just fine with no engine warning lights. I'm about out of ideas here. Just wanted to check in here to see if anyone had any other ideas before taking it to the dealership. I know they are going to charge me an arm and a leg. I'd appreciate any help and suggestions. Thanks.

 

Did you pressure wash the engine bay or something?
How long has it been since this happened?

 

I did pressure wash the engine bay avoiding the intake. Its been about 5 days now since I washed it. Am I totally screwed now or what? Since its has to be fully dried up by now.

 

Perhaps MAF wiring got wet. If I ever clean my engine bay, it's with a toothbrush and a cup of soapy water for these exact reasons.

 

I'd start by trying to pull codes from the ECU. If there's no codes, then you'll have to go over the engine bay with a fine toothed comb to figure out what's going on. I'd bet that there's either a sensor or connection knocked loose, or some water that hasn't dried up.

I don't know Z's all that well, so I can't give any ideas on where to start looking. Sorry.

 

I had this same problem...there's an additional fuse box behind the battery, you need to remove the battery, battery tray and the plastic trim to get to it. Once you do that take out the 2 rubber drain plugs and clean out any debris that might be in there...if its wet give it a chance to air dry and you should be good to go

 

Sounds like cam positioning sensor issue to me. Very common in the VQs its like an $100 fix, pick up the sensor at courtesy nissan online and diy.

But thats just my guess, i advise getting your obdII scan at advance autos or autozone to double check the code. Also what you're experiencing is the ECU going into limp mode. It's limiting the power of the engine until the sensor gets changed.

 

I got the codes scanned twice and both times got p0102 which is mass air volume low frequency. If it was the cam position sensor wouldn't it throw a different code?

 

This is the kind of knowledge I was referring to when I said I wasn't familiar enough with Z's to tell you where to start looking. Hopefully he's on to something, and this gets your problems solved.

Yeah. and not only that, but it probably wouldn't have started just by washing the engine bay.

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I took out the battery and let the area dry for a couple days and the car started up without and warning lights this time. However it would not idle. It would just die. I cleaned the maf sensor and it idled a little better and was able to reset the idle. Now its back to normal! So relieved and definately learned a lesson about washing the engine bay.

 

Good to hear. Next time, just wipe it down by hand. I've always hand washed my bays, with a garden hose for a rinse. Then again, the only cars I've owned that I cared about the bay being clean all had wire tucks, no a/c, etc. so hand washing was simple

 

This kind of happened to my old altima, did you wash you car with the motor hot or cold?
cause you are supposed to do so, and cover all sensors and electornics with bags.

I remember it took like 3 days of "retatrted" use of the car till it dried up and all the stuff was dry.

GL op