1999 Nissan Primera Hesitation problem

LUKEMCF

MEMBER
1999 NISSAN PRIMERA
120,546 MILES

Intermittently the engine loses power or hesitates when accelerating. When trying to accelerate hesitation can last anywhere betwen 1 second and as high as 15 seconds of not being able to accelerate. This most often happens in the first 3 kms of a drive.

I have been seeing a local garage about this. They have done all basic checks and have said that the knock sensor was showing up when the hesitation occurred, hence they have also replaced the knock sensor. The problem is still present, although their recommendation to use higher octane fuel (95+) has meant I have seen a slight improvement.

I am on the verge on giving up with the car and have listed it for online auction. On the listing a user has made the following comment:
"hey I know the problem with the engine, the cam chain has stretched causing the timing to be out under load. Its a major to remedy unfortunately as the motor has to come out to fit a new timing chain, not uncommon ok and the motor will go for quite sometime as it is but it will get worse"

I am wanting to know if the above comment is legitimate, or if it is likely the user is simply trying to convince me that the car is worth less? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Image (Click to make bigger)

1 Reply

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,937 POSTS

To prove this you can pull the rocker cover off and set the engine at TDC on the crank and see if the cams are out of alignment, I would be more inclined to be checking fuel pressure and flow first, check for any fault codes, not all codes will set a check light, may be a throttle position sensor, this can be checked with a scanner that will give you live data feed so you can see if you are getting correct throttle percentage.