1997 Nissan Pathfinder, Wants to Stall

by Thomas Watson
(California)

1997 Nissan Pathfinder. Last week the rpms seemed to drop to below 1000. I drive the vehicle two time per day, about 14 miles each time. The morning-7 miles then turn around come back 7 miles. Same in the evening only the evenings here are about 90+ degrees lately-plus traffic.

Each evening trip on the way back after the vehicle reaches a certain temp. it feels like it wants to stall when I slow to a stop. Plus there is a strange sweet burn type smell hard to describe(unless you've smelt a real bad whino)plus a slight tug. It gets worse until I make it home. It feels kind of like it's choking. When I put it in park it seems to be running fine.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

The picture is of what I see in the engine compartment that may be the cause.

Steve Says,

Hi, Thomas. Thanks for adding the pic. it gives me more clues as to what might be going on. The first thing that comes to mind that would fit all aspects of your description is coolant leaking into your engine. If you have a faulty intake manifold gasket it could cause all of your symptoms. Coolant smells somewhat sweet when burned and it would probably cause your engine to not idle correctly.

If you have noticed your coolant level going down then that would also be a sign that this is a problem. There are other things that might be causing it like the idle air control valve, mass airflow sensor or even tune up components like spark plugs, but these are not as likely causes as coolant leaking into your engine.

I hope this has helped. Please post the fix when you know what it is.