Questions and Answers

Nissan Altima DTC 11 And 34 Q. I have a 1995 Nissan Altima GXE with an automatic transmission. The RPMs dropped and the car died while driving, but restarted after a few hours. I checked the trouble codes 11 and 34 which point to the Crank Angle Sensor (CAS) and Knock Sensor (KS).

I replaced the distributor cap, rotor, and plugs. Also I verified the resistance on the wires and they are within the 5K Ohm/foot spec. Then I cleared the trouble codes. The car ran great in the garage and for the next 10 miles and died again.

I checked the trouble codes 11 and 34 again appeared, which point to the Crank Angle Sensor and Knock Sensor. I replaced the entire distributor assembly. Car ran fine again for 10 miles. But this time it would start and immediately die.

I let the car sit over night and was able to drive it home the next day. While I was at it, I replaced the fuel filter, oil filter and air filter since they were due, but unrelated to the trouble I was having.

When the car won't start I do not get spark to the plugs, but I do get spark from the coil. Did I get lucky and get a bad "new" distributor, or is the computer bad?

Thanks for any guidance,
Roger

A. If you have spark at the coil and not at the plugs, then there is a problem between the coil and the spark plugs. The fact that you do have spark at the coil indicates the ignition system is working. If you did not have spark at the coil I would say yes, you got a bad distributor.

The only things between the coil and spark plugs are the ignition wires and distributor cap.

If you replaced the distributor to replace the CAS, that won't do it. The CAS is located towards the back of the engine.