italianbonez718

cleaned the IACV last night. car still gave a extremely hard time starting plus excessive smoke coming out the back (extra carb cleaner?) that was new. the car idles like it has multiple bad coils sometimes lights dimming and engine about to stall but recovers (all are original) while in park. i did not attempt to drive it. once it warms up the car starts very quick. i took a video of what it does starting the other day but do not know how to post it. what it does step by step is:

1. key in ignition, turn to start
2. dash lights go on then off completely, then back on and car starts to sputter and not want to start
3. after approx 10-15 seconds car reluctantly starts and idles steady
4. after 10-15 seconds idling, car will skip in park like it has a bad coil but is in park.

new battery, new starter motor, new camshaft and crankshaft sensors where recently installed.

hope this helps. this weekend i am going to switch all coils just to remove that possibility.

DBear

This is pretty basic, but have you made sure all the grounds are clean and tight, including the one under the battery? Any corrosion up inside the battery cables?

italianbonez718

sorry it took me so long to get back, crazy working hours the last month. i had a chance to check the grounds and the terminals and all are tip top with no corrosion. i ended up bringing it to the dealership yesterday night out of frustration. car gave a very hard time starting as usual with the smoke and chopy idle but then during the 15 minute drive purred like a kitten and the smoke subsided. i mean once this warmed up it ran like it was brand new again.

the dealership first called me back and told me it was a sensor issue. after telling them to check again that they were all replaced already they called back and said they couldnt find any broken wires, got another code after clearing it (first it was camshaft position sensor then it was crankshaft position sensor) and then told me i needed a timing job and that it would be $3200 but could not explain why it wouldnt act up when the engine was warm. so im picking it up tonight to have it sit some more until i can think of another option. this car has 65K on it i have a hard time accepting that the timing is off...

ugufru

+1 on the grounds. Not just your negative battery terminal, but grounding everywhere. Since your CPS and other important sensors are grounded through the engine block, consider that your engine block is grounded by the transmission, and that your starter (grounded directly to the transmission and pulling many amps) is going to get preference over sensors on the other side of the engine with a bad ground. Unclean mounting surfaces between the engine and transmission can starve your ground to these sensors and prevent timing-related sensors from functioning accurately while cranking, confusing the ECU during this critical part of getting the engine going on it's own. You may get random sensor failure codes for sensors you KNOW are good.

My car has had this issue, and every little thing I did to improve my grounding also improved my startup reliability. Even now, it will occasionally fail to get the correct timing on the first crank, but will startup instantly on the 2nd. There are other threads on this board which trace the issue to the ignition switch itself, inconsistently holding a pin high on the ECU during startup (there's a video of the signal on an oscilloscope).

Hard starting Maxima is a common problem, but if you getting air, fuel, and a spark, check your grounds. Anything weird there will affect the reliability of your sensors.

italianbonez718

just got off the phone with them again, they said all grounds were checked and looked good. when its warm should i try to run additional cable along existing grounds and clean the mounting points? or is it better to try a new ignition switch (i had that problem on my other max a few years back)

Violator

I had a Camry previous to my current max and the only problem i ever had is identical to what you are saying. It turned out to be one of my spark plugs replaced by previous owner (wasn't oem btw) just needed to be messed around with a bit and it worked until i totaled the car

italianbonez718

worth a shot, i have a ignition switch on order and ill check the grounds again when i have a second. thanks for the suggestion.

CS_AR

I had a real round with my 99 a couple of years ago. It was nearly impossible to start. Then once it ran it didn't want to idle. I had some misfires. It was a random mix of symptoms. I had the car at the dealer. They reported back that the "engine was bad" and wanted $4,800 to fix. The engine had approximately 75,000 miles so I called it BS. I had to get the car towed to my house so I find and fix the issue.

It turned out to be a perfect storm of issues that all converged in the same time period.

1) Excessive engine flooding. Two injectors had broken pintle caps with leaking o-rings. This has been covered earlier in the thread. Way too much fuel was being dumped into the cylinders with the leaking o-rings. I'm sure I had some smoke from the exhaust due to all the unburned fuel.

2) Cooked/clogged catalytic converters. Yes the injector leak problem had gone on for a while. Once I got the car away from the dealer, I pulled the upper O2 sensors from the exhaust so the engine could breath and started it up. While it ran better and would reliably start, I still had problems with idle and a random misfire. It was at that point, that I realized an excessive fuel problem (from #1) must have roasted the cats.

3) After I fixed the injector problem (#1), and replaced the upper cats with a Warp Speed Y-pipe (#2), I later found a failing EGR valve. The EGR valve would not close properly -- thus causing a very had to find vacuum leak that caused a variety low RPM idle issue.

Before I finally found the problem, I had ruled out grounding issues, and swapped CKPS and CPS sensors with known working sensors from my other "good running" 99 model.

Based on the exhaust smoke that disappears after the engine has warmed up, I would do the following.

Run a fuel pressure test. You'll need to check for high and low pressure points with ignition switch on and off. You'll need to search the site for fuel pressure testing information. Bottom line, if fuel pressure cannot be maintained after the fuel pump has shut off, there are two likely places where fuel is leaking. It could be from a bad fuel pressure regulator (FPR already covered earlier in this thread) or leaking injectors. If the injectors are leaking, the unburned fuel just goes out of the exhaust pipe.

Many members have experienced the leaking injector issue. It just seems to be something that happens with age.

Note: I purchased a fuel pressure testing kit from Harbor Freight some years ago that has has been worth its weight in gold.

I see these kits are on sale at HF for $19.99

italianbonez718

ok guys so i finally had time to work on it again. i bought the fuel pressure kit like you said and everything checked out according to the service manual. After that i changed the ignition switch which seemed to help a little but the car still seems like it doesn't want to start.

heres where it gets interesting now. while changing the ignition switch i saw where a kill switch was connected to the old one. after tracing wires i found the kill switch (which to my knowledge and after talking to the original owner "hasnt worked for a while". i tried to flip it and start it in different positions to see if it would make a difference and it did not. but this thing is wired into everything. i disconnected what i could so it didnt have power anymore and left it in there (i know i know dumb. when it gets warmer im going to take it out completely).

Also i now noticed that the red security light stays on, ALWAYS. even when i lock the door and wait 30 seconds it stays on. even when i start the car and start driving IT STAYS ON. so now im thinking its this kill switch/security system setup that was put on the car from the dealership (which i think is a little weird as well) is fighting the car because its always on.

so my question is now, does anyone know how to take the security system completely out of the loop to see if it starts? i plan to eventually get a alarm again but i am almost 100% convinced it is electrical because the lights dim out 100% at the first crank when you start the car and then come back and this would confirm my thoughts.

JvG

Never read about iacv burning out a chip on the ecu. Where is the source of that information.

unreal2k1

Wow first off that's a lot of issues with a cherry maxima as far as miles on it. I have a 96 GLE with 350k on it now and only in the past 4 months I started to have a hard start issue where it would actually backfire inside the intake manifold. Did a lot of research and even had a good mechanic I know look at it. Changed the CPS both of them with OEM ones not cheap. Started great for 2 days then went back to the same old. Very frustrating so I kept on reading how the grounding on our cars suck from the factory. I did also change the starter but the issue was happening before the old starter went dead. Anyway after a few weeks of researching on here and other sites I bought the Original Ground cable and Positive cables from Nissan and replaced it. Cleaned all the points and added a grounding kit as well. One directly to the mounting bolt on the starter one on the body and one to the engine block. Now my engine and trans have never been pulled so the mating surface I assumed was fine but then again at 20 years old and 350K on it. I can only assume maybe it is not with a few oil leaks. Anyway I did also replace the ignition switch before the grounding and that did not help (forgot about it). I love my Max and don't want to part with it yet so whatever it takes to keep her running as it is the car I love to drive I will keep working on it. By the way most of the sensors and electrical parts I believe you should get Nissan parts. But that might be just me. I hate to constantly have to change a cheap part

unreal2k1

Forgot to mention when I took off the factory Ground cable it was corroded with green stuff inside the jacket and half broken where it bolts to the engine and you would never have know by just looking at it on the car or even pulling on it. when I took it off it completely broke. Grounding makes a huge difference on our cars well most cars for that matter. Sorry forgot to mention the cable in the first post

italianbonez718

thats why i think its something stupid and dont want to give up. once i get it started it runs better than my other 95 which i have done ALOT of work on. literally the only things changed on this car are what i had to do to chase this problem (btw when i changed all the camshaft and crankshaft position sensors it worked better for all of 30 minutes then no diffrence). but i dont think its one of those because its so smooth and quite when it runs. i have had a feeling from day 1 that its something stupid electrical.

when you tell me the grounds it makes sense for the problem. i didnt know Nissan sold a grounding kit for our cars? but it still doesnt make sense that the security light is always on. this car has been garaged most of its life until 4 years ago so im still a little hesitant. do you know the grounding paths on the car?

slickblack94

iTrader: (5)

have you checked the MAF ? My 95 would run like crap and then warm would run great.... I finally bought a cheap MAF from ebay, and when i fired that s.o.b up it had that power we all know and want... I roasted the f'k tire and it ran perfect until I sold it.

italianbonez718

yah thats one of the first things i checked, i found a cracked rubber tube that comes off it to the throttle body and replaced and checked for dirt in the throttle body and MAF. both looked clean. then i swapped it out with the MAF from my other max and it made no diffrence. the wierd thing is if it fights me the first time, if i try to start it up within 30 seconds of turning it off it will turn over real quick. after 30 seconds it fights again.

Bone Collector

You're going to feel silly when you run a couple additional 1/0 ground cables and all your problems go away.

italianbonez718

i hope so, i pulled the power from the mystery security box and that seemed to help a lot but its still not 100%. adding ground wire is #1 when it gets warm enough to be outside for more than 15 minutes at a time.

Frank Fontaine

I didn't read the entire thread, but I had to do my starter 3X in a row due to faulty replacement parts. One time I forgot to reconnect the boost sensor near the intake going to the air cleaner...

italianbonez718

im 90% sure everything was reconnected. the only reason im not thinking its the starter anymore is that even after i replaced it (which turns out was previously replaced in 2008) when i start the car the lights dim and go out during the first crank and back on for the remainder so im leaning towards something electrical. it did however get a lot worse after i changed the starter out but now its a lot better so maybe a wire around that area that i touched?

JvG

Have you replaced the cable which connects the engine block to the negative terminal of the battery?

Please connect a battery jumper cable between the negative terminal of the battery and a bolt on the engine. If the car starts more easily with the jumper hooked up than without it, the main ground cable needs to be replaced.

italianbonez718

something just occurred to me (and if it sounds dumb i apologize, im not very familiar with electrical concepts) would the fact that when it doesn't work and i jump it, it starts up ASAP point me to a grounding issue?

JvG

Electicity comes fom the positive terminal, then goes through the electrical stuff, then back to the battery through the negative cable. The main cable is attached to the front of the engine. It can corrode over a long period of time.

Here is an analogy. Lots of traffic on a freeway slows down to a crawl if two lanes are blocked. Traffic cannot get off the freeway very well. So the carrying capacity of the freeway goes down tremendously if two lanes are blocked.

I'm saying that the negative cable might be the blocked freeway.

Testing with a jumper cable from the engine block to the negative terminal of the battery restores traffic flow, so to speak.

So try the jumper cable trick, and report back.

italianbonez718

got it. great analogy thanks! ill get a jumper and try that hopefully tonight and let you know what it does.

italianbonez718

had a chance to do that this weekend. car still has the same problems but the dash lights dimming might be a little less (or it might be in my head). 90% of the time the car will start instantly the second attempt. should i do all the other grounds to be safe?

MaxxdED

I didn't catch if the injectors were changed or not. Have you tried that? Lmk

italianbonez718

one has been changed 2 years back and i checked the others recently to see if they were working with the stethoscope?(the tool with the rod and earphones) to see if they clicked and they all did. unless one could be leaking?

MaxxdED

I would def check the injectors. Try ebay-range from 60-80 bucks. Or rebuild them. Which ever you prefer.

italianbonez718

also, while there is no check engine light, when i connect my reader to it i get a camshaft position sensor code (i forget which one) the sensor is new and the old one i pulled out is new looking as well. would that have anything to do or is it just a result of something mechanical making a hard start condition? (i replaced all camshaft and crankshaft sensors already)

MaxxdED

Read this: https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...335-error.html

italianbonez718

so it could be that my napa sensors are no good then? i still have the original ones ill check resistance before i start buying new sensors. if i get OEM from Rockauto do you think they would be the same as if i got it from the dealership? if i could save a little money here i would like to you know....