Nissan Repair: 1996 nissan altima stalling, fuel pressure gauge, nissan altima

Question
Hello,

When driving my altima the car will sputter and shut off. Once this happens it usually takes about 20 mins before i can restart and drive a short distance. It is very unpredictable has to when it will happen. Example, I drove on the freeway for about five miles and than car died. Another time, I took the car to a fill up gas, after sitting for 12hrs, and as soon as gas was put in car stalled out again. I have had different ASE mechanics look at it but have had different answer. Could be distributor or the knock sensor or fuel pump/filter. Can any of these problems cause this. I do know that i get spark from my distributor. Thank you for your advice.

Answer
Mark,

Get a fuel pressure gauge and connect it to the fuel rail.  If there is no fuel pressure you know it is the pump.  If there is pressure then you need to look at the distributor first.  The optical shutter wheel gets coated with oil and it kills the ignition.  If there is oil on the optics then you will need to replace the distributor with a rebuilt unit.  These are the steps I would take to resolve the problem.