Power loss and low beam headlights?

1997 NISSAN SENTRA
197,000 MILES • 1.6L • 4 CYL • 2WD • MANUAL
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GTLOWE313
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
I was driving last night and all of a sudden, the car started loading up when I would press the gas pedal and was jerking. So, I pulled over and popped the hood. If I manually operate the throttle body, it acts as though it's not getting fuel or air. So, I turned the car off for a few minutes and checked a few things with no obvious issues I restarted the vehicle, and it idled fine and when I press the gas all seems to be normal so I started to pull out but all of a sudden, the low beam lights wouldn't come on. High beams work fine. So, I decided to drive home with high beams. Several times while driving it randomly started loading up again and without stopping, I turned the key off and back on and it started running fine again, this happened 3 more times on my 4-mile drive home.
May 3, 2024 at 10:41 PM
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JACOBANDNICKOLAS
  • ✓Experienced Mechanic
  • 110,240 POSTS
Hi,

This is an interesting one. I'm not sure how the headlights are tied into the engine issue, but chances are, we have a weak ground at some point that is related to both.

What we really need to do is scan the can-bus to see if there are codes related such as a low voltage indication.

CAN stands for controller area network. Basically, the different control modules are tied together via a few wires. This type of scan will retrieve codes regardless of the module storing them.

Here is a link that shows how it's done:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/can-scan-controller-area-network-easy

Let me know if this is something you can do or have done.

Take care,

Joe
May 5, 2024 at 11:17 AM
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