2003 Nissan 350 Z won't accelerate

Question

We own a Nissan 350 Z and this morning it would not start. It would turn over but it wouldn't fire. After pulsing the gas a little bit it would start but then letting off the gas would cause it to die. I held it down long enough to get it to stay started. After that I had no issue starting it and assumed I got some bad gas. However, when I went to pull away I noticed that three lights on the dash were on and the car would not accelerate. It would move at idle speeds only, pressing the gas would not cause it to accelerate.

The lights that are on seem completely unrelated and are thoroughly confusing me. The lights are "Check engine soon", "TCS OFF", and "SLIP". None of those seem related to one another and I'm unsure why a light such as "SLIP" would be on in our parking lot int he middle of summer.

There could still be some bad fuel, but I'm pretty confused about the rest of it.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I believe there is a procedure to deciper OBD faults on the VQ35DE motor without any additional hardware - this allows you to count the # of times the CEL blinks to determine a wide variety of fault codes. I'll try to post it when i find it.

Also, there are inexpensive OBD2 bluetooth dongles that will let you pull faults very easily.

Until you do this, we're all taking shots in the dark.

Answer 2

The Check Engine code could be related to the other two. Pull it and see. It might give additional clues to the cause. Attack this issue first.

The traction control and SLIP sound related to each other. Look into what causes the SLIP light to stay on.

Bad fuel typically should not keep the car from accelerating if it is idling fine. There might be a sensor that is detecting a problem with the fuel or something else and disregarding your accelerator pedal position.