Nissan Maxima: Intermittent Hard Start, 97 Max

"David Geesaman" <com> wrote in message news:<newsguy.com>... 
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Dave,

Are you saying that you can hear the starter spinning, but the engine
is not turning over? and then all of a sudden you hear the engine
start turning over (i.e. after 5s of starter spinning)... or by "turn
over" do you mean that it takes 5 seconds for the engine to actually
start running/catch...i.e. whir-whir-whir of engine for 5 seconds and
then it fires up.

Nirav
96 Max GLE, 106k

David Geesaman wrote:
 

I'm confused. Do you mean the engine spins (turns over) and doesn't
start or it doesn't turn over? If the later, does it have spark? Does
the fuel pump run when you turn the key to "on" for a couple seconds? If
you have spark and fuel pressure, I'd check the temp sender (the ECU may
think the engine is already warm and not enrichen the mixture).

-jim

"Jim" <com> wrote in message news:net... 
and 
of 
because it 
overuse. 
hate to 

Sorry, turns over means to me that the engine begins to run. My starter
always cranks and seems to have no trouble getting the flywheel in motion.
I do not know how to directly check on the fuel pump - by sound, or by some
type of test? I definitely don't want to tee into the fuel lines to test
the pressure.

I will look into the coolant temp sensor - based on my reading that's
also a pretty common failure item.

Dave

"Nirav J. Modi" <com> wrote in message
news:google.com... 
news:<newsguy.com>... 
of 

No
 

Yes. The starter doesn't seem to have trouble turning the engine, it
would then be the spark or fuel that's delaying the engine start.

Thanks for your time.
 

"David Geesaman" <com> wrote in message news:<newsguy.com>...
 

Dave, unfortunately maxima.org is currently down, but you will find
that many 4th Gen owners are experiencing similar hard starting
symptoms - lots of cranking before the engine eventually catches. No
one has found a common root cause.. but here are some ideas.


1. Loss of fuel pressure
Turn the key to the position just before the start/on where the engine
cranks, and wait for 10 seconds - this may help build up fuel pressure
in the lines. Then start the car and see if it makes any difference.
You might have a leaky injector and might be losing residual fuel
pressure in the lines. You might also have a bad fuel pressure
regulator (but would consider a leaky injector more likely).

2. Bad ECTS
It could infact be your ECTS (coolant temperature sensor). As Jim
already stated, it might be false signalling the ECU that the car is
warm - thus too lean an air/fuel mixture is being setup on cold
starts. Does this problem only happen when the car is cold or hot or
both?

3. You may want to try to clean the throttle body and IACV. These
both tend to suffer from carbon build up and cleaning them can have a
very positive effect on starting/idling/throttle response.

4. I have read about faulty crank-angle sensors causing hard-starting
- but don't have any experience with this first-hand. Maybe Nisstech
can shed some light on the role of crank-angle sensors and whether or
not they can cause hard-starts. I believe the VQ engines have two
crank-angle sensors.

Regards,
Nirav
96 Max GLE, 106k

"Nirav J. Modi" <com> wrote in message
 

Do any of the above throw CEL codes?

Well today the car gave me some more extra-crank starts (about 5 sec of
cranking each time - first time engine was dead cold, second time it was
pretty warm). CEL came on, the codes were 0325 (Knock Sensor) and
0340(Camshaft Angle Sensor). Per the FSM, I checked the wiring for both,
and the camshaft sensor was fine. Didn't take out the Knock to test it.

FSM suggests that the CAS code can be tripped by starter problems - any
ideas where to begin inspecting the starter?

Dave

"David Geesaman" <com> wrote in message
 

Dave,

The ECTS and crank angle sensors should throw codes.. but sometimes
the ECTS is marginal and may not trip the CEL... I can look in my FSM
to see if they suggest a way to test the camshaft angle sensor (the
code you got).. let me know if you need that info.

I don't know much about the CAS - so I can't comment on how the
starter would cause a failure in that part... I'll dig around and see
if I can find any other pertinent info.

Nirav

"Nirav J. Modi" <com> wrote in message
news:google.com... 

Thanks for your time, Nirav.

I don't think the CmAS is at fault - I went through the complete
troubleshooting for it according to the FSM.
I still need to troubleshoot the ECTS, and since that's a common failure
it should be worth checking or replacing altogether (since it's probably not
expensive).

Dave