Anyone that knows a decent amount about cars: I have a question I need help with.

[slickkill77]

I apologize ahead of time for the longish post.

I have a 2001 Nissan Maxima with ~119,000 miles on it. The battery is brand new (1-2 months) and the car has been checked for any problems that I know of recently as well. My check engine light has been on for roughly 6 months or so, but whenever I get it checked out there's nothing wrong other than typical wear and tear. I've been told to just ignore it.

About 1 week ago my engine started sounding different. Its hard to describe but when I'm idling, accelerating etc... the engine has a different tune to it. It's not low and powerful anymore. It's kind of hollow sounding and weak. Almost like an electric car.

Last night, I was defrosting my front and back windows (I don't have to defrost the front windows very often b/c I'm in Florida), and all of the sudden my airbag light (Little man/airbag/red) was lighting up for 2-3 minutes and would shut on and off. Then my abs light turned on the same way but not the same amount of time. It was on for shorter bursts. And to top it off my engine started going from cruising rpm's (1,500-2000) to 0 to cruising to 0 . Also all of my lights (dashboard, and headlights) got really weak and low. When I turned off the ac the car was fine and nothing has happened since. I've driven it to about 6 different locations since this happened and I haven't had any of those issues except my engine still sounds weak as hell.

I was told my catalytic convertor may be bad, but that was almost 1 1/2 - 2 years ago, and that was mostly the car dealership trying to hose me. I do have a personal friend that works on my car but he's broken at the moment.

Again I apologize for the length but thank you for any help.

 

[kodave]

[quote name='slickkill77']I apologize ahead of time for the longish post.

I have a 2001 Nissan Maxima with ~119,000 miles on it. The battery is brand new (1-2 months) and the car has been checked for any problems that I know of recently as well. My check engine light has been on for roughly 6 months or so, but whenever I get it checked out there's nothing wrong other than typical wear and tear. I've been told to just ignore it.

About 1 week ago my engine started sounding different. Its hard to describe but when I'm idling, accelerating etc... the engine has a different tune to it. It's not low and powerful anymore. It's kind of hollow sounding and weak. Almost like an electric car.

Last night, I was defrosting my front and back windows (I don't have to defrost the front windows very often b/c I'm in Florida), and all of the sudden my airbag light (Little man/airbag/red) was lighting up for 2-3 minutes and would shut on and off. Then my abs light turned on the same way but not the same amount of time. It was on for shorter bursts. And to top it off my engine started going from cruising rpm's (1,500-2000) to 0 to cruising to 0 . Also all of my lights (dashboard, and headlights) got really weak and low. When I turned off the ac the car was fine and nothing has happened since. I've driven it to about 6 different locations since this happened and I haven't had any of those issues except my engine still sounds weak as hell.

I was told my catalytic convertor may be bad, but that was almost 1 1/2 - 2 years ago, and that was mostly the car dealership trying to hose me. I do have a personal friend that works on my car but he's broken at the moment.

Again I apologize for the length but thank you for any help.[/QUOTE]

Someone is jerking you around telling you nothing about your check engine light. Go to any car store like AutoZone, Kragen, Napa, PepBoys, etc. Ask to borrow their OBDII reader. Plug it in, let it scan, write down the error codes causing the check engine light to go on. Go online, look up that error code in relation to your make and model, and it'll tell you what the car thinks is wrong with itself.

Now, it may be something you can continue to drive around with and ignore the check engine light, or it might be something you need to get fixed immediately. But there is no way to know unless you find out for yourself since your mechanics aren't telling you what is actually going on with your car.

 

[Chronis]

There's a very good chance that if you've managed to survive long with the engine light and whoever's been checking told you to ignore it, it might just be a minor emissions leak. If thats what it is, it's a kinda hard fix to find, since you'd have to trace the whole emissions line to find any faults. But like kodave said, just head to AutoZone to use the code reader to scan it.

As for your story, that is pretty unnerving. Problem with that is if nothing related comes up with the reader, then you don't have much to go on. Dealers won't fix something like that unless they can track the problem. If the code doesn't help, and it's not doing it anymore, they won't do much, if anything.