Hello! I am new to my350z, so please excuse me if I misuse or ask some strange questions/describe things horribly. But recently, I purchased a AT 2004 350z. She came with problems, and sought out the fix those. However, I am having issues with the main problem.

The problem: She starts fine, but will die after a few seconds in park. If I put her in reverse, she dies within a few seconds. If I put her in drive and drive around lightly, she won't die, but her RPM is incredibly low(especially during idle, in which it will hang around 600 for a few seconds, then drop to 400 and almost stall- I can hear the engine struggling to stay alive, and so I will pump the accelerator a bit and she will be ok). Another strange thing that happens is that when she is about to die, all of the maintenance lights in the dashboard turn on, and my fans will blow at max... I am struggling to find the root of the problem. I know that the previous owner did not take care of her for the 2 years he had her, and that the battery's positive terminal would disconnect every morning and he would have to connect it to start the car.

I have already cleaned the MAF sensor and deep cleaned the throttle body and air intake + changed out the air filter. I noticed that when I changed out the filter, the case was not properly fitted, as a piece had broken off, therefore letting in massive amounts of air without going through the filter. The result of this was an incredible amount of gunk inside the throttle body, which I cleaned.

I am thinking that I may need to buy a new MAF sensor(considering that tons of unfiltered air was going through it), or replace the camshaft position sensors + the crankshaft position sensor. However, I don't want to replace things that do not need replacing... I fear that I will spend too much money replacing things that worked fine. I thought that cleaning the throttle body would help, but it didn't really at all(even after performing the ECU reset and the relearn procedures).

Has anyone had any similar experience as me and figured it out on their own?

Thank you in advance to anyone who replies!

EDIT: I am honestly considering just getting a mobile mechanic to come check out and diagnose the car, just so that I won't be replacing things that I don't need replaced and to help me get to the root of the problem. I already checked the fuel pump too and its functioning fine from what I can tell(from what YouTube taught me). My dad is saying it may be the spark plugs, but I'm not sure that bad spark plugs are the main cause of a starting but then stalling engine...

 

Did you ever figure it out? I’m in the same boat. I ended up purchasing and replacing the MAF and TB and it still is in limp

 

The Z and every car sold in the US after 1996 have on board diagnositcs. Have either of you pulled the DTC (diagnositic trouble codes) from the OBD-II port or taken it to Pep Boys or Autozone (or wherever) to have them read?

Gone are the days of diagnostic "throw parts at it" fixes. OBD isn't the cure-all but it can at least point you in the direction of probable cause.

 

I do have a OBD-II, first was throwing the maf and both tb/ tbp sensor so i started with cleaning them out good and doing the relearn process. Didn’t work so I replaced them and the codes cleared except the maf so I’m just wondering if it’s a bad connector/short somewhere. I was curious to see how his went