I was driving my max down the rd, getting ready to get on the interstate ramp, I gave her a little gas and saw my rpm needle drop to zero, and the car just died. I pulled over to shoulder of the entrance ramp. I tried checking all engine related fuses(eng control ect) fuel pump, ect. Everything seemed intact. The car wont start back up at all. Im hoping its just the fuel pump or something. For the past few days my gas cap has been coming loose after tightning on several occasions, and the car has been idleing a little higher than normal, and longer than normal, Its taken longer to start once warmed up also. I dont really kno the signs of a dying fuel pump, except that it doesent humm anymore when you turn the key on. Car is sitting on the side of the rd now, til I can find a tow truck, then ill see if I can get a fuel pump from the junkyard and hope that is the problem(fingers crossed) 93 Gxe by the way.

 

Does the Check Engine Light come on when you turn the ignition to ON?

 

Is your max turning over at all?

If it is & you're getting power, then unfortunately it's probably timing belt.

 

Well all of the lights come on and stay on, it turns over and over but never catches, the rpm needle somtimes jumps, but the car doesnt start at all.

 

if it was running fine before your problem happened then I would go with this^^^

 

A quick way to rule out the timing belt is to remove the dist CAP (three small bolts) crank the engine over and see if the rotor bug turns..... if it turns your belt is in tact and you lucked out. If it does not turn your skrewed.....

 

Ok I will try that, but until I do I think it is most likely the belt, I changed out the fuel pump this morning, and towed it bak home, and the pump.
Hums with the key on, but the car does not start, I even swapped out the coil, but got the same results.
The car has 263,000 miles n I've never changed the timing belt. It will b very hard to part with this car, but I'm at the point where I don't wanna put anymore money into it, replacing the engine will easily add up to another used car.

 

Let us know after you test it. Mines went the end of August but had no doubt in my mind that 3rd gen was here to stay.

The job of timing belt takes a few hours but not need for engine replacement.

 

Did your belt go while you were driving?? So You didnt have to replace your engine or cylinder heads? I though that if the belt pops while driving, that the valves hit the pistons and damage the engine??? Thats why I thought that I would need another engine.

 

If that is the case , and I dont need to replace the engine, then Ill go buy a timing belt and tensioner. But Im going to check and see if the belt popped this morning.

 

Well I did the test and it is the belt, so what do I do now? How do I kno if the engine can b saved or should I look for another car?

 

Actually, she cut off on me 3 minutes from my house at a light.

My friend pulled me back to my house. Lucked out w/ no engine damage but no way for me to know until timing belt was changed.

 

Oh ok well I went to this mechanic and he's worked on a few 3rd gens in the past, and he says that out of all the belts he's changed, that none of them had engine damage. In other words, he says, maximas dont bend valves. he quoted me $250 for the timing belt job, and I will supply the parts.

 

Well I found another reasonable mechanic says he can do the job for $125. Just to put the belt on and see if the car starts back up. hopefully it does, and I dont have to replace the engine. Looks like the teeth may have worn, because the belt itself is still intact, I dont wanna get rid of the car just yet as ive got some plans for her later, but the 4th gens are looking pretty good!!

 

broken belt = bent valves. sometimes u get lucky but if you were driving when it broke then its most likely going ot need a head job.

 

The VG in the 3rd gen has interference heads (if timing belt breaks it will bend the valves). The VG in the quest supposedly has non-interference heads. (if timing belt breaks valves are spared). It may start but it will run/ perform horribly. Sorry man but you brought this upon yourself. I don't own a VG, but I know if I were to get one the first thing I would check or change is that timing belt.

 

Yeah I was just getting on the entrance ramp on I-77 and it just shut off, so I pulled over and she wouldnt start back up.

 

So I gotta know, did this mechanic fix this car for $250 or did he do some investigation work and then tell you that "your screwed on this engine, sorry for the bad advice, first time thats ever happned" and collect the $250 and send you on your way with a broken car or soak you for a ton more$$$ ?

 

I think I'd better go check when the last time the timing belt was replaced on mine then. :eek3:

 

yep Quest and Villager VG30E were non interference, but 3rd gen VG30E are interference so if the timing belt snaps, best case is you need to rebuild the engine and worst case is a whole new engine, rarely everything will be okay but i have seen it happen on interference engines

if you dont know when it was last done, best to just change the timing belt, water pump, tensioner, crank angle sensor, thermostat, etc in one swoop and be done with it.

 

Yeah, I think it might've been done a couple years ago, but I wasn't the main one using it back then so I'm not sure. Guess that's gonna be my next project after I get the new fuel rails & injectors in. Doesn't seem too expensive, except for the crank angle sensor.

Good thing I like this car and plan to keep it for a while yet (only has 180k on it so far).

 

dunno if you'll find a crank angle sensor, i wasnt able to find one when all of my stuff got done but its just something worth replacing, you dont have to

 

Haven't looked at what OEM costs, if even available, but aftermarket seems to be fairly common in parts stores starting at $140. If it went bad it would just screw up the timing or make the engine die, but not physically damage it like a broken timing belt would, right?

 

Well i got the bad news, valves were bent, car still wont start, only two cylinders hav compression. they told me to do the heads and get new valves would b well over $1000. The car isnt worth it, jus put another tranny n last year, with lots of other new parts. Ill probaly just tow it bak home and decide wat ill do with it. Its kinda hard to let this car go, its been one of the most reliable that ive ever owned. I learned alot of mechanical skills since purchasing this car. But putting anothr engine n this car, plus fixing the door pillar,which got bent in during a car accident earlier this year, seems to really not b worth it on this car with 263k miles. I may jus sell it for parts or to the junkyard.

 

Sorry to hear that man, I kinda figured that was the case tho, Im dealing with the same thing with two of my cars, one is a 5-speed that I hate to loose and the other is a GXE with the digital dash, HUD, adjustable suspension and clean as a babies bottom. Both have bent valves, I doing a engine swap on the GXE right now, we will see if I can find another engine for the 5-speed. Well best of luck to you......

PEE-SOUT

 

THanks man, I really dont want to get rid of it, but I have to do somthing. Who knows, I may luck up and find one with a bad tranny and swap mine into it.

 

Come on man, get with the program..

 

Wat u mean by that man?

 

I think what he's getting at is fixin' your Max brother. Your 3G is in good shape, exterior wise. She's worth saving in my eyes, start looking for a machine shop to do the work for you.

 

The exact same thing happens to my 04 maxima when i'm exiting from the hwy except I put it in neutral and start it right back up.I would say check out the charging system seeing that you're trying at a high rpm and the car is getting a constant flow of power and when you get off of the gas you basically stop the constant flow of power.

Try the alternator,then battery,then the ground.With stuff like this it would be impossible to pin point the exact problem.So you have to basically got through the process of elimination.Good luck

 

Yours with the VQ35 is because of the cps. Pretty common and I already replaced mine.

 

thanks for the advice man, but the vg engine on the 3rd gens have a belt, all maximas after 94 have a timing chain. I pretty much narrowed it down to the timing belt breaking. It didnt break all the way, because it was still in tact, But im thinking the teeth wore out. I cant say it was the alternator or ground because the car ran flawlessly. I bought a new battery, three months ago, installed a new negative cable wire, and everything. I cant think of anything else that would make it just shut off except for the timing belt or fuel pump, and I ruled out the fuel pump. I would sometimes take a few turns to start once warmed up so, it had to be the belt. But Ive got the car home now, jus trying to figure out what I wanna do with it. Ive never taken heads off of any car. Ive don fuel injectors on this car and removed the lower intake manifold before and let out all the coolant. Has anyone just swapped the heads off another vg engine after the belt popped? Jus wondering, because Id like to keep her around for a little while longer, rather than just selling her for parts, the mechanic that i had the car with told me that to do the head job would be close to $1000, and then when I called him telling him is was coming to pick it up, he tells me someone wants to buy it for parts.???

 

If you have bent valves and your belt is still in tact, sounds like your belt just got sloppy and skipped a few teeth. If you look in a FSM for the timing belt replacement, it should have a section that walks you through making sure your timing marks are lined up before you take the old belt off. Once you have that done, remove the valve covers and notice the location of the cam lobes. They should be at the 2 and 10 O'clock positions on number one cylinder, indicating that they are both closed, now put compressed air the cylinder. This can be done by breaking up an old spark plug and welding a air fitting to it. If you hear any air coming from either the throttle body or the tail pipe, you not only know you have a bent or broken valve, but, you know which one it is as well. Now that you know how number one looks, watch the cam lobes on the next cylinder in your firing order and check it, and the next, and the next...........
Good luck.

 

Thanks man but the mechanic told me that I only had compression in one cylinder and the other ones had less than 90 lbs. Someone menchened that it would be better to replace the whole engine rather than the heads. So I guess ill be searching for an engine. A few mechanics told me $400 to replace the engine. Is that a good price or too much? I can find an engine for about 250 to 350. Wat all do I need to look for on the donor engine? Do most junkyards guarantee their engines?