Nissan Repair: Repair question for 95 Nissan Altima, nissan altima gxe, nissan altima

Question
Hello Mr. Sudderth.  I have a stalled 95 Nissan Altima GXE that needs some attention.  I started having some problems about three weeks ago that started out minimal, but have now caused a serious problem for my transportation needs.  In the beginning stages, the car would sort of cut-out while I was trying to accelerate.  I would be in gear driving down the road, and all the sudden I would lose acceleration, and the rpms would drop down to just below idle level.  This problem seemed to occur most while trying to accelerate from a high gear at low rpms, or while trying to accelerate while driving uphill.  It did, however, happen once while in first gear, again at low rpms.  My car has a manual transmission, and as this problem happened I was able to correct it by downshifting to the lower gear, regaining power.  As the problem progressed, the car would completely shut off instead of dropping down to low rpms.  So at this point, I would be coasting down the road with the car turned off completely.  The car would then start back up while I was coasting, and eveything would be ok for a while.  Now, the last time this problem occured, the car would not start back up.  The car will start now, but runs at a low idle rpm, and runs very rough.  If I try to press down on the gas pedal, it basically makes the engine stall.  Let me know what you think, and perhaps I can clarify more on the symptoms if you need.  Thanks, Ben  

Answer
Ben,

The distributor probably has an oil seal leaking and the optical sensor is getting covered with oil and this is causing your problem.  Take the cap, rotor, rotor post and cover off and look inside and you should see if the sensor has oil contamination on it.  If it does replace it with a rebuilt distributor.