2000 nissan xterra hesitating when engine is warm

YES SOME YOU NEED TO ADJUST WITH A SCAN TOOL OR A VOLT METER REFER TO THE REPAIR MANUAL FOR THE SPECTS MAKE SURE THE LEVER ON THE TPS IS ON THE CORRECT PLACE SO IT CAN WORK CORRECTLY

I have a customer with a 2000 Nissan Xterra 3.3 liter V6 with 180k miles. He stated that while driving on the highway the vehicle is fine. Once he exits the highway and drove on surface streets the engine stumbles, sputters and shuts down when he stops. The fuel pump is located under the right side rear seat. I removed the inspection cover to view the electrical connections. No problem there. I drove the vehicle for approx 20 minutes and it hesitated a little but not enough for me to come to a good conclusion. I needed the engine to heat up some more so I drove to Panda Express for lunch. I got my lunch to go, return to the vehicle and started the engine to eat while the engine idled. After my lunch was over I drove back to my customer's house. On the way God bless me with what I was searching for...the engine started to sputter. To shorten this story I replaced the distributor with a brand new assembly from AutoZone($233.65). Once I removed the factory distributor I spun it by hand and that's when I could feel that bearings were rough & worn.
Problem solved and my customer is happy.

make sure your air filter is clean and get some carb spray or throttle body spray and spray the valves and clean all the gunk off and hope that ur intake passages are not starting to clog up

if you have an O2 sensor faliure you will have a code for it. in fact youe exterra doesnt have O2 sensors. it has A/F sensor or "air/fuel sensor" if it went bad, than you will have a code for that sensor. What is the code number that you have?? need to start there.

Sounds like it might have a random misfire. Is the check engine light on? When was your last tune-up?

jason, im gonna bet the farm that you have a clogged catalytic converter, if you can get the vehicle to your nearest muffler shop most of them will test the converter for free. they simply drill a small hole in the exhaust pipe in front of and behind the converter and compare the pressure to see if its clogged, call ahead to see if they will test it for free, most will, hope this helps

Sounds like you need a valve job

I really think it's the TPS, (throttle positioning sensor) on the throttle body. When this sensor is defective or out of position the vehicle will idle like that and even stall. If you haven't had it scanned, you should do so, that will probably tell you the problem.

I had a problem on my Nissan Xterra 2000. Symptons sound similar. In my case, it ran fine for a while and then suddenly the engine starts to stumble and lose output. At one point it did not even have enough HP to move. Irregular idling too. Thought it was water in my fuel. Bought water remover from the store and added to gas tank. Problem did not go away. Instead, "Service Engine Soon" light came on. Had to have it towed to the dealer as there was no way the engine could keep up with traffic. Dealer replaced the "Crank Position Sensor" today. Parts $33.00, Labor: $300 (about 3 hrs worth of work). Seems to work fine now but I will wait and see. Dealer also stated that Distributor bearing appears to be noisy and will need to be replaced sooner or later. I will wait for it to go before I fix that.

Do you have a check engine light come on when it has problems? If so I would check anything that relies on closed loop operation to run smooth. You most likely have a sensor not reading properly. The check engine light is a big indicator in this problem.