Sluggish acceleration??

[ill-legal?]

So my dash was showing 122 degree temps outdoors today here (official number was 118) in Phoenix, one of the hottest days so far this summer. I was driving for about 30 minutes around 1pm, stopped to run an errand for about 30 minutes with the car off and parked in the shade, then got back on the road. I was in city traffic, and over the course of about ten minutes I had three random instances where I was at a stoplight and when it turned green and I started to drive, it felt like I tried to start in 3rd gear or something (my Z is a 6mt). The car just didn't want to rev up and was noticeably sluggish even when I got into the gas pedal more aggresively. After the third time I was starting to freak out a little bit, so I pulled into a parking lot and turned the car off for a few seconds and restarted the vehicle. From there, it was totally back to normal. Had another stop on the way to work, and zero issues. After leaving work, the car behaved normally on the way home.

I've only got about 3800 miles, and I've never experienced anything like this in the Z before. From what I could tell, the oil pressure was on par with what it normally is (17-22psi at idle when warm, 35-36 when cruising at speed, and 50-57 when increasing speed) both when the incident was happening and after, and there didn't seem to be any other issues or symptoms. What should I check to try and troubleshoot this? Anyone else have this happen?

 

[rocksandblues]

If that hot, the engine will pull timing. The ECU may have gone into a limp mode.
My daily is twin turbo with the ecu sitting on top of the engine. Here in VA on the "feels like 115" crazy days it gets sluggish.

 

[Mugzilla]

If that hot, the engine will pull timing. The ECU may have gone into a limp mode.
My daily is twin turbo with the ecu sitting on top of the engine. Here in VA on the "feels like 115" crazy days it gets sluggish.

There is no warning light, or chime that kicks in when it goes in to limp mode?!

Anyone have a Temu OBD2 plug-in to see what the computer is saying real-time when it limps?

 

[alienpoker]

There is no warning light, or chime that kicks in when it goes in to limp mode?!

Anyone have a Temu OBD2 plug-in to see what the computer is saying real-time when it limps?

Nissan V6 engines run hot. I think you just watch the engine oil temp, I think it limps if engine oil is reaching 280F, but it starts pulling timing sooner. Oil breaks down & stops being a good lubricant at those temps… so the ECU is trying to protect the engine.

I’m not aware of any codes or warnings, it just has a rev limit that kicks in. I’m not sure of the exact RPM limiter, as it may depend on other sensors the ECU watches. Maybe someone who has tracked their Z can comment?

I would just cruise when it starts limping, and it will recover. Or buy an oil cooler if you’re really worried or plan to track it. I fitted a kit with a Setrab core to my 370Z years ago as I live in CA and we get similar summer temps. CZP already released a kit for the Z. Others will likely follow suit, you could check with Fast Intentions or Z1.

 

[Bumflik]

Good lord118°. Desert climate wow. I don't drive mine in the 90%humidity + 95° Sun here in my area . Heat kills HP.

 

[thesilverbullet]

sounds like she was heat soaked big time. I would love see those intake manifold temps.

and the low for tonight is 90 - oh my..

 

[Thefunk]

Strange. Last time I was on track my oil peaked at 271F but averaged about 265F but I never one felt any loss in power. Other than fuel slosh it was fine. Also on the sports dash cluster, all temps oil, trans, water, and diff were well over 210F.

 

[thesilverbullet]

same here - i have not had a noticeable drop in performance at highway speeds with 100 F air temps. Although i‘m ready for winter to see how she runs with lower temps.

he was sitting in traffic with higher air temps - i bet his intake temps were crazy high. Also i bet the stock water/air heat exchanger does not work as good at idle.

 

[ill-legal?]

Nissan V6 engines run hot. I think you just watch the engine oil temp, I think it limps if engine oil is reaching 280F, but it starts pulling timing sooner. Oil breaks down & stops being a good lubricant at those temps… so the ECU is trying to protect the engine.

I’m not aware of any codes or warnings, it just has a rev limit that kicks in. I’m not sure of the exact RPM limiter, as it may depend on other sensors the ECU watches. Maybe someone who has tracked their Z can comment?

I would just cruise when it starts limping, and it will recover. Or buy an oil cooler if you’re really worried or plan to track it. I fitted a kit with a Setrab core to my 370Z years ago as I live in CA and we get similar summer temps. CZP already released a kit for the Z. Others will likely follow suit, you could check with Fast Intentions or Z1.

I appreciate the input, I try to keep a pretty close eye on my engine oil temp and oil pressure gauges...for the most part the oil temp seems to hover around 204 on hotter days here under normal driving conditions, I don't think it got much (if any) higher than that yesterday. I'm not really sure if the oil temp was the underlying issue causing the problem. I wasn't driving aggressively and I don't think this car will be likely to see any track time, but I have considered an oil cooler and upgrading the heat exchanger just to be on the safe side.

 

[ill-legal?]

When I did a search regarding this issue, some other suggestions I found included:
-Clogged Fuel Filter
-Dirty Fuel Injectors
-Weak Fuel Pump
-Faulty Spark Plugs
-Ignition Coil Problems
-Dirty or faulty MAF sensor
-Dirty or faulty O2 sensor
-Throttle Position Sensor issues
-Dirty/clogged air filter
-Clogged Catalytic Converter

Now with the car being so (relatively) new, I would tend to think that most of these suggestions wouldn't be particularly likely...but I'm curious if anyone else has experienced similar symptoms or had issues with any of the above parts on their newer Z??

 

[VR30Z6spd]

when your temp for the charged air temp is high, it will pull boost and timing

factory strategy.

getting a tune will help with cooling overall

 

[rocksandblues]

Heat soaked won’t necessarily throw a code. Just pulls so much timing it will feel like a VW Hot V engines do not like sitting in the heat. Needs air moving when it is brutal out. Car is fine.

 

[ill-legal?]

I assume there isn't any way to see the intake temps on our gauge display from the factory, is there?

 

[bpeckham]

I assume there isn't any way to see the intake temps on our gauge display from the factory, is there?

No, but there should be! For each gauge slot, you should be able to pick the data to display from a menu.

 

[Thefunk]

No, but there should be! For each gauge slot, you should be able to pick the data to display from a menu.

It's kind of annoying Nissan chose to place the turbo gauge in the sport dash cluster in addition to the analog gauge. Really wish the cluster was fully customizable.

@ill-legal? You can get an OBD2 reader like OBDLink LX which can read a lot of PIDs and place them on your phone or Android Auto screen.