2008 Nissan Altima accelerator “revs”

While driving around town (less than 45 mph) the accelerator will unexpectedly “rev up” and the driver will shift into Neutral until the RPMs recover. Since we cannot create this symptom “on demand” it is not diagnosed by mechanic. Any others experience this?

When you encounter this problem, are you driving along at a steady speed when the engine revs higher, or do the revs remain high after letting off the accelerator pedal?

It might be worth getting the transmission looked at by the dealer (maybe that’s the mechanic you refer to)?

hi jtsanders, he says that the revs shoot up to 6000 and he feels he has to shift into neutral because the brake alone won’t bring it back down.

Mechanic’s trying but they say “there’s a thousand things it could be”…

Get to a much better mechanic!

The accelerator system on this Nissan is a drive-by-wire system

This means there’s no accelerator cable between the gas pedal and the throttle body.

Instead there’s an accelerator pedal position sensor.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=6993396&cc=1440206&jsn=376&jsn=376

This sensor sends a signal to the computer, and depending on the position of this sensor, the computer operates the electronic throttle body.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=5428281&cc=1440206&jsn=396&jsn=396

That’s the system I’d be looking at.

Tester

Is it in gear/drive and the RPM’s increase?

If no, do the RPM’s bounce up and down?

If yes, does the car start to accelerate as the RPM’s increase?