Nissan Frontier random surge/stall.

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Aug 3, 2024
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Edit: I apologize for the lengthy post, but any advice is appreciated.

My wife's daily is a 2014 Nissan Frontier SV 4.0L that is just shy of 100K miles. That truck has been rock-solid since new...until today. She's been complaining that every now and then she'd feel the engine randomly drag down for a second or two. That was a minor issue years ago which I attributed to the cheap gas she was buying at the time, a can of BG 44K fuel treatment (and top-tier gas) seemed to do the trick.
Since it appears to be doing it again I tried another can, but today on her way home she said the engine surged once or twice then completely stalled at a red light. It started right back up and no warning lights came on. She called me and I told her to leave the A/C off until she got home, which was only a few minutes longer with no problems. I have a pretty decent two-way scanner but there was not a single code to be found, not even any historical or latent codes (that my 2020 Silverado is loaded with).
I told her to leave the A/C off because I had an idea. We used to have a 2011 Altima (don't judge me!), and something similar happened. Turns out the compressor had locked up and as soon as the clutch was energized it would stall the engine. We live in the tropics so the A/C is on most of the time. The A/C works fine and the only thing I noticed was a barely audible low-pitched tone from around the engine whenever the compressor is on. I do have a set of gauges, but will probably need new hoses as the old one's are old and leaky. I'm curious if it's possible to tell if the compressor is on its way out if I monitor the pressures. I would assume the belt would squeal but she claims to have never heard that.
I'm grasping at straws here, but without a code or the ability to duplicate the problem on demand I have no idea where to begin. Not witnessing the problem myself doesn't help matters either. Has anyone ever experienced a similar issue or have any idea what to look for next? As always any help is appreciated.
 
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8k to 10K per year....local or highway?

What's the overall condition of the truck? Could it have PCV leakage? ...or a very gunked up throttle body? ...horribly fouled plugs?
 
Try replacing the crank position sensor. You can access it from the passenger-side wheel well.

Wife drives a 2005 X.

When the valve covers leak and require replacement, take the time to replace cam position sensors, crank sensor and coils at the same time.

Crank position sensor P/N 23731-EA20D

Costs ~$60
 
If an OEM crank sensor is cheap and easy enough to swap, it's worth a try. Like everyone else suggested, best bet would be to run live data and monitor sensor signals, etc, as it's acting up, but I know most of us don't have the ability to do so.

Other than that, this could be as simple as some bad fuel or a fuel pump that's on it's way out. Those two will often not throw a code. Again, you'd have to monitor fuel rail pressure to see a failing fuel pump.

Also kind of dumb, but have you run a load, crank and charging test on the battery?
 
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8k to 10K per year....local or highway?

What's the overall condition of the truck? Could it have PCV leakage? ...or a very gunked up throttle body? ...horribly fouled plugs?
I take extremely good care of all my vehicles. I even do a lot of preemptive maintenance, as a retired aircraft technician it's in my blood.
 
Try replacing the crank position sensor. You can access it from the passenger-side wheel well.

Wife drives a 2005 X.

When the valve covers leak and require replacement, take the time to replace cam position sensors, crank sensor and coils at the same time.

Crank position sensor P/N 23731-EA20D

Costs ~$60
I ordered a Hitachi crank sensor, gonna try that first since it's not too pricey and looks plenty easy to replace. If that doesn't work then I'll probably have to get someone to do a deep dive with a proper analyzer.
The frustrating part is how random the problem is. It will be driving just fine then boom. I've never even experienced it myself as my wife usually drives the truck, which is also why I want to make sure it's fixed right.
 
Basically the same story here.

Wife would return from driving and complain that the truck stalled randomly while parked, or after starting, or while idling somewhere. No codes returned and OBDII logging didnt show anything abnormal. This never happened while I was driving.

Sleuthed on the X and Frontier forums and figured the $60 cost of the sensor was worth the gamble.

That was years ago and no issues since replacement.
 
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