LovemyNiSmO

Okay my car is a 1998 nissan altima. It is an automatic.
Alright this morning I got up and had to go out to pay some bills. Well I got in my car like usual. I started it and let it warm up. I put it in reverse to back out the drive way, then the car did a hiccup and shut off. I started the car and tried it again, same thing. So I put it in drive, and the same thing happened again.
I looked under the hood and checked everything out, and everything looked good.
So I looked up under my car and noticed there is a hole in the weld for my catback exhaust, right were the piping meets the cat converter. I got in the car again and started it. This time it went into reverse and drive. The only problem I noticed is that when I am driving, the rpms kinda jump around a little bit and it does idle a little rough.
Well I looked on the ground and there is water coming out of the crack in the weld on the piping. I have noticed lately that my muffler always looks moist and wet looking inside and around the tip.
My muffler does point up a bit.
This sounds crazy but is it possible that water or moisture is going back up my exhaust piping and causing a little trouble.

Anyone have any trouble similar to this, or have any idea what this sounds like it could be.

Fabrik8

Condensation is produced in your engine and exhaust, it's not coming from outside most likely. Water coming out of the exhaust is perfectly normal. If for some reason you are getting water into the exhaust from outside, from snow, rain, etc., you might have hurt the cat converter. It's not really able to deal with liquid water, only water vapor (vapor condenses into liquid farther down the exhaust as it cools).

Your problem with running rough probably has to do with the hole in your exhaust. I'm not really experienced with Altimas (or anything with an automatic transmission) but engines are all fundamentally the same within the same emissions generations.

Anyway, the hole in your exhaust is probably causing problems with the second oxygen sensor, which is usually after the cat converter. Get the hole fixed, reset the ECU, and see if that fixes the problem. I have no idea whether the shifting problems are caused by the engine problems, or if they are separate.

Fix the things that are obviously wrong, and then see where you stand.

LovemyNiSmO

Alright cool dude. I will get the exhaust fixed and see whats up with it. I have heard that once a sensor is reading funny it makes the whole car ride awful.
Thanks alot you really helped out.

spitzbergen

If it was an O2 Sensor it would trip the CEL. Wouldn't it?

wierdguy75

I had a 96 maxima that did the exact same thing, dude hit me and totaled it before I could fix it. I thought it was the IAC valve, but couldnt be sure.

Fabrik8

It might. It might be something completely unrelated to the exhaust too, like a bad MAF or intake air temp sensor. There are a few things that can fail and not trip a CEL because the failed sensor's signal output is still within a range that the ECU thinks is acceptable. Therefore the engine can run like crap and the ECU won't necessarily care. MAFs are notorious for that problem.