My car has multiple ODBII engine fault codes

Question

2002 Nissan sentra se-r 2.5l

Hope you can advice me on my car. My codes are: 0447, 1490, 0340, 0031, 0037

My symptoms:
1. Car stalls after driving for 5 minutes than cannot start for another 2 minutes than can drive fine and after 10 more minutes.
2. Battery light is on. sometimes it's blinking, sometimes it's solid. It started recently and my battery died after several days. Now I got a new battery to test but the same problem.
3. After I got a battery light, sometimes pressing a gas pedal doesn't change anything. I mean rpm doesn't go higher than 1500. I didn't drive it too much though. I know it happened at least twice.

Do you have any suggestions on what it might be?

From what I found so far: 1. Replacing crankshaft sensor might help with stalling?
2. Do I also need to replace camshaft?
3. Alternator gone bad(that's why I see battery light, right?)?
4. need to replace oxygen sensors because of 0031 and 0037?

Any help and info is appreciated. And let me know if I can perform and how any of the fixes by myself if those are not too hard.

Thanks.

Answer 1

First thing to address is the alternator. Based on the light on the dash it's suspect. You can have your alternator tested free at most auto parts stores. A properly working Alternator is required for vehicle operation and is a must fix before any other troubleshooting can be done.

All the sensors on the car and the computer need to have the enough voltage to operate correctly, low voltage conditions can set erroneous codes. The majority if not all of your symptoms could be caused by low voltage.

Next to check is all the fuses, under hood and under dash alike. Several unrelated sensors can share the same fuse. A single blow fuse can set multiple codes.

Now to the codes, on a side not it's best to repair the codes from smallest to largest as some of the lower setting codes can effect higher codes.

P0031 HO2S1 (Pre-cat) Heater Control Circuit Low

The heater circuit heats the O2 sensor when the vehicle first starts up so the computer can go into closed loop faster. (closed loop means the computer is making adjustments on actual sensor values instead of a fix parameters)

Shouldn't cause any symptoms after the car as been running for 3 - 4 minutes if it causes any at all.

Possible causes

• Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1 circuit open shorted to ground
• Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1 circuit poor electrical connection
• Faulty Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1 circuit
• Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1 circuit fuse
• Faulty Engine Control Module (ECM)

Read more

P0037 (Post-Cat) HO2S12 Heater Control Circuit Low

Same explanation and causes as p0031 and the sensors share the same fuse on a lot of cars. Water in the sensor is a common reason for blow fuses.

P0340 Camshaft Position Sensor Circuit Bank 1

Camshaft position sensors are usually used by the computer to determine which cylinder is miss firing, although I am not positive on Nissan. If that's the case it won't cause symptoms if there's problem, but will set a code.

Possible Causes

• Camshaft Position Sensor harness is open or shorted
• Camshaft Position Sensor circuit poor electrical connection
• Faulty Camshaft Position Sensor
• Faulty starter motor
• Starting system circuit
• Dead (Weak) battery

Read more:

P0447 Evaporative Emission Control System Vent Control Circuit Open

The Evap systems job is to keep gas vapors from the gasoline in the tank from getting into the atmosphere and usually won't cause any symptoms. It can cause the car to run rich and might cause misfires, the computer can usually compensate enough to prevent that from happening though. If you need a more though explanation for this system it might be best to ask another question about just this code.

Possible Causes

• Purge Control Valve harness is open or shorted
• Purge Control Valve electrical circuit poor connection
• Faulty canister vent control valve

Read more:

side note this code has nothing to do with the Air Conditioning

P1490 Vacuum Cut Valve Bypass Valve

Fix the P0447 code first, then see if this code sets again

possible causes

• Vacuum cut valve bypass valve harness is open or shorted
• Vacuum cut valve bypass valve electrical circuit poor connection
• Faulty Vacuum cut valve bypass valve

Read more:

Answer 2

I give you my opinion late but I think that it will help someone who has the same problem. I am not a specialist but I had the same experience. Car cutting off while I stop or slowdown, more than 13 codes, AC won't work you can't imagine how hard it was for me as a limo driver. The only problem was the computer. I bought a used computer, fixed it, and all my problem stopped right away. It was unbelievable.