I have a 1992 Nissan Maxima GXE.

I originally posted the problems I was having with my car about 6 months ago. Finally it is solved so I thought I would share. The problem started when my car wouldn’t start the first time I turned the key over like it had always done. At first it would only do it sometimes, and then it started to happen daily. When I would turn the key to start it would turnover but wouldn’t start. First I replaced the wires, cap, and rotor. Next I replaced my fuel pump. That didn’t help. At some point I noticed that when I turned my key to the #2 position that the “Check Engine” light would not illuminate sometimes, this is when the car would not start. I realized that if I turn the key to the #2 position and wait for 10sec-5min, the “Check Engine” light will come on and then the car will start just fine. So that is what I did for a few months. Next I changed the electrical portion of the ignition from a hunch a mechanic had, but it still didn’t help. Each time I did work on the car, which required me to unhook the battery, the car seemed to be fixed. Then the problem would come back, a couple of days later. The car also infrequently stalled on me while driving (shut-off with no warning) and would restart after sitting with the key in the #2 position for a few minutes. When the car did run, it ran great. The next thing I replaced was the Vehicle speed sensor because the check engine light came on while driving and the code was for a bad VSS. This did not help the main problem though. The mechanic at the garage I go to thought it must be the distributor. Being an optical distributor he told me there was no way to test it to be sure. So I picked one up for $185 at Orielly’s auto, and had the shop put it in. Now the problem has gone away and it has been a few weeks now and all is well. The Maxima is back. Hopefully others can benefit from my pain.

Cheers,
Matthew

 

Congratulations. I know it is always a great feeling to solve an ongoing problem. Thanks for posting the result. Lots of times we hear the problems and don't find out what the solution was.

 

Thats great!





You said optical distributor, The only sensor that is optical is the camshaft positioning sensor (for the engine timming). also called crank angle positioning sensor.