Nissan Maxima: Rough starting Max. during cold weather

My 97 Maxima is having a hard time turning over during cold mornings.
It also makes a strange noise and the tach goes from ~1500 RPMs to
zero and then jumps back up to normal, around 700 - 1000 RPMS. This
condition only happens when the mornings are cool to cold. After the
car has been running or when the outside temp. rises the Max. starts
and runs without any issues.


Any thoughts??

TIA,
Paul

"paulf" <com> wrote in message 

Offhand, I recall it being on the driver's side of the main plenum,
under a couple of hoses and tapped into the top of the main radiator pipe.
It points downward. Just aft of the sensor a big radiator hose leads to the
engine. I needed to remove a few vacuum hoses above it to change it, but it
didn't take long. Just do it on a cold engine since you're opening into a
coolant passage, but there is no need to drain it the system.
I think I took a photo of it, I will post it on maxima.org and point you
there if I can find the pic.

Dave