watkins2010

my wifes 1990 Maxima gxe is driving me crazy.. Bout a year ago or so I had it checked out for a terrible miss and my friend told me that it had low compression on the #5 cylinder and I could either get rid of the car, try to get the motor rebuilt or find a new one. The car drives pretty good, its just at idle that it has the big miss and putting. The engine runs pretty smooth other than that. Here lately it seems that when I drive a little hard, or rev it a little hard it starts idling high and once i turn it off, it wont turn back on for a while.. I don't know what to do, new engine is out of the question right now with a baby on the way. I hate to part with the car because they are getting rare around here and it's an awesome little car and pretty quick even with it's tempermental problems.. What other alternatives or there?

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

You should check the compression yourself. Probably just needs an injector.

watkins2010

I would but I'm not much of a mechanic. As for the not starting after running hard situation, i just went to start again and it eventually turned over but like barely i had to give it gas and it started blowing out bluish black smoke which its never done, and idling high.. and the battery cable started smoking while it was running, could be from trying to start it so long maybe? My lincoln did this to me and it was the fuel pump any ideas? thanks for the fuel injector suggestion hectic..

LvR

The reality of it all is that despite your motoring love affair, you have an engine with a known issue that you cannot/will not/refuse to fix, and that while the issue is in fact quite serious and can very easily result in the motor getting totally screwed. Saying you are no mechanic is not going to improve the situation - borrow or buy a cheap compression gauge and do a proper compression test on all cylinders and report back here .................. on the 3rd gens its rare to find a single cylinder with no compression and as has already been suggested the injector (or its seals) on that cylinder is way more likely to be the culprit.................. and your blowing blue smoke may very well be the first serious indications of it already having happened.

If its smoking while "running" (what does that mean - engine idling or you driving?) you have a source of impending fire there and you need to have a sparky take look at the thing before the wife and kid's life is threatened by it

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

what happens when you try to start it warm? does it just crank with no catch?

the rough running is probably a bad injector, the not starting while warm could be the distributor but having to give it gas pretty much rules that out. blue smoke means oil is being burnt, black means its running rich. i would see why its running rough and go from there. if youve driven it for a year with a bad misfire damage has probably been done

if the battery cable is smoking, theres something that as said is going to cause a fire. i wouldnt drive it at all until you fix the problems, otherwise youre going to get a engine bay fire

maximo018

iTrader: (6)

i believe it was while it was idling when it was smoking. Seen it before when one over stresses the battery or starter. (Not good practice) Its is likely from reading your OP that half way through I already suspected an injector issue as a culprit. (Common issue lately to go wrong with our cars) If changing in a new injector doesn't fix the issue in its entirety I bet it will make some type of impact.