First of all, I drive a 1991 Nissan Maxima SE (standard shift).

It was raining heavily yesterday afternoon as I was driving through the Stop & Shop parking lot. As I was shifting into 2nd gear the car just stopped running all of a sudden and I couldn't start it back up. The engine would turn, the A/C and power windows, etc continued to work, but it just wouldn't start. So, for trial and error, we tried jumpstarting it. No luck. So we figure it's wet wires and we have the car towed to my mechanic today. Well, he says it's not wet wires and that it's MOST LIKELY the timing belt. The car has 125,000 miles on it, I'm 500 over for an oil change and that's about it. The car's in great condition, I heard no loud noises or anything when the car stalled at Stop & Shop yesterday.

So he's saying the timing belt has to be replaced, I don't think it's been replaced in a while. I remember last summer he was telling me to have the timing belt replaced soon, I never did b/c at the time I wasn't driving the car much. Anyway, is that possible that it's just the timing belt? He said if it's not the timing belt it could be something much more serious that has to do with the pistons or something. But wouldn't I have felt a serious problem before I was at Stop & Shop??? Wouldn't the car have been running or sounding different? Everything was normal, it just all of a sudden stopped.

So he knows his stuff and he says it's the timing belt. What do you all think? I hope to GOD it's just the timing belt, this is my only car and right now I can't afford another one. Don't wanna be walking around and riding a bike for a while

i don't see how the timing belt could affect that. the only thing that the timing belt can really do is break and bend the valves. there's a possibility the timing belt got too loose and skipped a tooth on the cam gear and that might do it but it doesn't seem like that could be it. have you let the car dry off and attempt starting it once it was dry? if not, try that first.

yah man I dunno about the tbelt. Ive never heard about em doing anything but ruining engines. The Vg is a interference engine so if it does go kiss it goodbye. I think you said you have already replaced the belt once which would mean unless you put the engine on a extreme load 24/7 i dont think it would break.
Im not a mechanic but when My Gf 1989 se died on the side if the road it was simply a cracked distributor cap which is real common in these engines. If u wanna know if your tbelt popped take the cap off and have a friend turn it over.( beware of arch) Does the ign rotor still turn? congrats you timing belt is intact!

A quick and simple test to verify the timing belt isn't broken is to remove the distributor cap and have somebody turn the engine over via the key and watch the rotor rotate.

If the belt did break, there's bigger problems to contend with like damaged valves and pistons.

My 90 SE wouldn't start one rainy, wet morning. I just let it sit for another day to dry out. It then started right up quick as ever. I think it's only happened once since I've had this car (bought new). No problems since either.

Tim

It's a V6, aren't 4 cylinder engines only interference?

NO! NO! NO!

Just pull the oil cap and look for cam movement when you try the starter. No movement = broken belt.

Broken belt = bent valves

Bent valves = crapped out engine....

it's just as easy to take the distributor cap off and that way you won't need a flashlight too.

our engines are interference engines.

1. Listen for fuel pump.
2. Listen to hear injectors clicking.
3. Make sure the Tach needle moves when cranking.
4. Put a timing light on it and check the light for weakness.
5. Check for spark.
6. Put a timing light on it and check the timing. (If belt slipped the timing will be way off.

PS My belt slipped 3 or 4 teeth and it still ran. Had poor power.
The steps above are right out of the service manual.

How does the engine sound when you try to start it? It could be your timing belt. If it blew while you were driving, the car will die like a squished roach and it will not start up. As for symptoms, the car can sound fine all the way up until the belt gives. That is why the maintenance schedule tells you to change them every 60 months or so as they may not give any kind of indication that they are going to fail.

It it does happen to be a busted timing belt, you have a 99.8% chance of kissing your engine goodbye since the VG is of an interference design. What that means is your pistons collided with great force into your intake and exhaust valves. Major, major engine work. Depending on the value of the car and the time and effor for a repairs, you may be best getting another car (another Maxima of course).

I hate to see bad things happen to people. Hopefully, it MAY be wet wires or some other "minor" problem. However, in the VG engine, a severely slipped or broken timing belt is nothing "minor."

The same thing happened on my `90 a few years ago. The engine control fuse was blown....so the spark plugs were getting no fire.

It turned out to the the reverse light switch inside the manual transaxle. I disconnected the connector at the tranny and never had that problem again.