daltongc

Hey guys, I've encountered this once before, but that time it happened in my driveway. I was on my way back to work from lunch and stopped at a store. Came out and the car started right up, but I noticed it seemed to be running a little rough. It seemed to jerk and surge a little when I gave it some gas. Then it smoothed out and I continued to my office. I revved it a little twice in the parking lot and shut it off. I tried to start it immediately after this and it just cranks and cranks.

The car was running great prior to this. It's got 3/4 tank of gas, but I'm wondering if the fuel pump could be the culprit? Do these cars have an electric pump, and if so, where is it located? How would I test to make sure it's doing its job? Also, what else should I check. Does the o2 sensor have anything to do with this?

Any ideas are appreciated, thanks

Greeny

iTrader: (43)

the fuel pump is electric and is located in the tank. It is accessible by removing the back seat. It is most likely not the pump though, when my pump went out my car it did not run rough it just lost all power and died.

Try smacking the bottom of the gas tank with hammer or pair of pliers or something...sometimes that will get a dieing pump to go again.

Dj Paul

iTrader: (1)

check spark plugs just to be safe. It probobly is not them but just to be sure. You would have to use a pressure gauge to test the fuel pump but the car would at least start up for a second even if the fuel pump didnt work. so does it crank AND turn over? or does it just crank and make that annoying ehe eheheh eheheh sound? =) good sound effects eh? cuz if it makes that sound but it doesnt turn over then its your battery most likely.

daltongc

guys, as I said, I've encountered this once already. I think I'll name the car Christine because it appears to be possessed. The first time this happened was right after I changed the timing belt. I let it set for 30 minutes and it started back up, after coughing a little. There was a side effect though, the radiator fans were stuck on high speed. Even pulling relays 2 and 3 left the low speed running all the time. I just learned to live with it and took it on a 600 mile trip with no problem.
Today after work, I went to the car and it cranked a few turns and I let off the key. The battery is fully charged and it spins right over. I hit the key the second time and it sputtered to life. I revved it just a little and it smoothed out. I drove home with no problem. Back in the driveway, I thought I'd check the fans because it seemed very quiet. Sure enough, now the fans were completely stopped. I plugged relay 2 and 3 back in for the med/high speeds and the fans still didn't come on. They did pulse a couple of times, and the idle speed went up and down when they did, but in the end, they were completely off. Strange. I am suspecting a short somewhere under that fan relay box? Any thoughts or should I call a priest and have him bring some Holy Water?

Thanks

92SE_Dave

Before wasting time/money.. have you checked your air filter ?? It should have a date on it .. have you replaced it recently ??

I had a very similar problem shortly after I bought my car and replacing the air filter fixed it instantly.

Drivin Maxima

iTrader: (7)

well it could be the coolant temp sensor giving a false reading, and also causeing the fans to either stay on or not go on at all. Also if that isnt it, try looking at the cam sensor, cause i had the studderin problem and hard/no start problem too and thought it was the fuel pump. good luck

daltongc

as for the last two replies, I bought the car in Feb and haven't checked the air filter. I will do that, thanks. As for the coolant temp sensor, I did have to disconnect that lead when I changed the timing belt. I've tested it since then by unplugging and checking that the temp gauge falls to the bottom. Reconnecting the lead will bring the needle back to the normal operating range. What more can you tell me about the cam sensor, as far as where is it located? Where could I get a replacement if I needed one? Doubt that autozone would carry that.

Thanks

Drivin Maxima

iTrader: (7)

well, it depends on your engine. Mine is a VG and unfortunately the cam sensor on a VG is a part of the distributor and you have to buy the distributor as a whole, which is expensive, i found out the hard way. so try and rule out other things first rather than just replacin the cam sensor. if you have the VE then im not too sure of the cam sensor location, however.

michaels'max

I don't know anything about the fans not operating, or if that is even directly related to the car not starting but, I would check the basic things, that are required for the car to start. #1 I would check to see if the car is getting spark. This can be done simply by taking the wire that feeds from the ignition coil to the distributor and holding it close to a metal part of the vehicle, such as the engine block, while having someone else crank the car. If the spark gaps, then your spark is most likely fine, unless of course the problem with the spark is occuring after the ignition coil, such as in the distributor or the spark plugs. If there is no spark, It could range from a # of things such as the power transistor, the ignition coil, or unfortunatly even something like the ecu. It is probably unlikely that it is the ecu though unless something recently happened that would obviously effect it. Such as what happened to me. My heater core sprung a leak and leaked collant into the cab. my ecu on my max is located behind the kick panel on the floor next to the gas pedal, unfortunatly that's where the heater core leaked and it of course shorted out my ecu. Next I guess I would check fuel. I've read on a # of threads that this can be done by taking the line that feeds from the fuel filter and running it to a 20oz bottle or something like it, and then I think your supposed to try and crank the car and if fuel spills into the bottle then you know your fuel pump is okay. Of course the problem could still lye I suppose with a faulty fuel injector, you may want to check that as well. I don't really know much else about what to check other than that. good luck.

Wiking

Hey daltongc, I've encountered this once before, but that time it happened in .org.

Then I suggested to read through: http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/748507/1 -pages... U did not do it as u are asking where is cam pos sensor. Do it now, and find lots of fault possibilities, and ways to correct those. (And manual lin k at bottom of first page...) One has to start eliminating those possible sources one by one.

- pump makes noise when ign is turned on. listen. if not, checkout. feel fuel hoses for stiffness =working pump generates pressure.
- Take distr off. Turn while ign on. Should hear clicks from injectors. If so, ECU gets pwr and is alive.

if not:
- ign switch ? worn
- ECU pwr supply
- almost all suggestions on this and the earlier thread.
- not air filter...
- no holiness in water corrects u car. Cooling water is a necessity, both from same materiel Creator; driver answers is to Him after timeout. Water molecules will not suffer if one water molecule (here in human) laughs at another. But after drivers timeout, He will ask why did u do that.