I have a 93 maxima with 108,000 miles. My mechanic can not figure out my problem. When starting car it takes about 2-3 min to start -this doesnt always happen though-when the car is warm sometimes it does it sometimes not. But it always does it when its cold. My mechanic has tried::::::We took the cadillac converter off, changed a relay switch-which a nissan mech said would fix it. We put new air flow sensor. and air intake sensor. he also checked the fuel pump no problems. Please help I dont know what to try next.

 

So does the car just crank over and not start, or start then stall all the time, not crank at all, crank sometimes only???

Just need a bit more info to work with.

Brent.

 

"cadillac converter"?

 

I think catalytic converter is what is meant.

 

As you are not aware of how to fix my problem then dont correct my spelling. I think everyone know's what I mean. I am a Lady so therefore I am not supposed to know how to spell all mechanical parts.....Please only respond if you have my problem solved..........

 

1. If you gave some more information as I requested in my first post than maybe we all could solve your problem.
2. If everyone knew what you meant then BeatJunky wouldn't have asked. I wasn't trying to correct your spelling (nor implying anything else), I was responding to BeatJunky's question.
3. Since when did being a lady make any difference? We all have different levels of mechanical aptitude regardless of sex, race etc

Brent.

 

Sorry brent I just spent alot of money on this car and it's not any better. I think i'm going to shoot it now and put it out of it's misery... when i'm trying to start this thing it is turning over for the whole 2-3 min and then always does finally start. But what really pushed me to get it worked on to start with was one day when it did start it skipped and smoked and cut off and would not start-when i finally got it started it ran terrible. this happened right after the nissan dealership changed the relay swith for my starting problem-about 2 days later.
I called them when it was skipping and they said it could be the (catiylac converter) so i had it taken off. did not work. Then made it to my mechanic-thats when he changed the airflow sensor, and oxygen sensor and he checked the fuel filter. My car started good and ran good for about 3 days then my starting problem came back. It is running a bit funny, but the starting prob is what i'm worried about. sorry i forgot my mechanic also changed the distributor cap,rotorand the spark plugs. let meknow what you think..

 

what color is the smoke? black or blue/grey? ifit's black, then you're obviosuly getting fuel. (black smoke is incompletely burned fuel) if it's blue/grey, then it's oil. the color of the smoke can tell usa lot more aboutu what's wrong. I would still guess that it's somewhere in the ignition system, since it did smoke. (I'm going to make an assumption that it was black smoke).
ignigion wires are an easy replacement that doesnt' cost too much. my GF's altima had dead wires within 40k miles, so seeing it on a maxima with 108k isn't surprising. (then again, my GXE had 122k with no problems).
another placeto look are the furl injectors. if you've gota cloggedor bad fuel injector- or even fuel filter- itcan prevent it from starting also.. most likely it will be an injector and not the filter in that case.


I would also suggest you find yourself another mechanic. ANY competent mechanic should know that the Oxygen sensor isn't even used until the car's warmed up, so itwould NOT prevent the car from starting. Airflow sensor should have beentested before he replaced it... not hard to test if you've got a service manual. those two alone probably cost you over $500, and didn't help to solve the problem. (if the car runs sometimes, then it's not the airflow meter, unless it's a bad connection)..


Back to the point, I would focus on the ignition wires or coil, then checkthe fuel injectors. there are procedures in the service manual for checking the fuel injectors, and I'm sure a good mechanic will know how to check plug wires and ignigion coil.

 

Matt, the car only smoked that one day when it was skipping so bad, when i try to start it it doesnt smoke but sometimes I do smell fuel. My OLD mechanic did check the plug wires and they were ok..Let me know what you think..oh yeah when the car did smoke I believe it was blue smoke or white smoke, (maybe). There was soooo much smoke you would have thought there was a fire...

 

It does sound like the ignition system to me also. I agree with Matt with looking at another mechanic, sounds (to me) like he's trying to take advantage of the situation (I could be wrong).

I would start with ignition leads and then have your fuel injectors looked at. When the car is running, what is your fuel mileage like?

Brent