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2011 Nissan Altima loss of power after 20 to 30 miles of driving
have you checked exhaust back pressure? if the engine cant breathe it cant pull in air. had a p0101 on an s10 a few years back it had the plugged exhaust throwing that code.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Andy.MacFadyen, Monde
Because of the P0101 sensor performance code I wouldfirst look for a sensor or air/exhaust flow issue rather than a wiring/connector issue.
Film type MAF sensors are diificult to restore by cleaning and from my experience on various vehicles have a shorter life than other types of MAF. A good scantool or even using a cheap eBay dongle and an android app such a OBD Car Doctor Pro or Torque Pro show be able to show you either the air flow rate or raw voltage output of the sensor . You can also use a digital volt meter to back probe the sensor (use the volts scale and be very very careful not to short a connection to ground), the voltage on the signal wire at idle is normally around 0.5 to 0.9 volts
" We're trying to plug a hole in the universe, what are you doing ?. "
(Walter Bishop Fringe TV show)
Keep in mind (if memory serves me) the P0101 code is actually a Performance code not necessarily a circuit code. It is comparing throttle angle and other inputs to the MAF and if it sees something it does not like, CEL ON!!!
CLEAN that THROTTLE BODY while you are at it!!!
I'm guessing the car has a few miles on it. I've fixed a couple Nissan's with this code this way. Give it a try.
On some vehicles, not sure if the Altima will let you though, you can unplug the MAF with the key off and try to start it disconnected. Some run fine, others won't run at all. If it starts and idles fine, give it some throttle to make sure it will run OK under light load. If so, take it for a drive and see how it does. If it runs good, probably the MAF.
Just remember to write down all codes BEFORE unplugging the MAF since you will set at least one code doing this.
Was just thinking of a quick check you could do if the PCM has a fall back option for no maf.
One test for plugged exhaust it's to take the car out and under wide open throttle watch the Upstream O2 sensor to see if it goes rich. Wide open throttle should cause the car to go Rich if it goes lean then you you might have a plugged exhaust. Lean would be low voltage signal which would be high.
The mass airflow sensor should read just under four Volts under wide open throttle but if the exhaust is plugged it probably won't go that high so I would check the exhaust first.
There is a TSB for a some Nissan's setting a P0101 to reflash the PCM. They may be cleaning the throttle body just because they needed to be cleaned and then reflashing the PCM to correct the software issue. Or the TSB may have a step in the repair to clean the throttle body as well
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