spitfire18213

Hello!

I recently purchased a 1993 Maxima with the 6 cylinder DOHC motor. It has unknown mileage as the odo stopped working just short of 250,000 miles.

The car starts well in the cold/extreme cold. (I live in Wyoming at it was almost -20 yesterday morning the last I started the car.) However, when the car is shifted into reverse unless you feather the gas, it will die. Drive is not as bad as reverse, but still dies out sometimes. If the engine dies, it sounds like it is choking, but eventually will start after about 3 cranks, but takes some effort to get it going. Also when the car is running/driving there is a strong gas smell in the cab. No check engine light is on.

Car has recently been tuned up, as well as a new fuel pump. I know there have been a couple electrical components that have been recently replaced, I just cant remember which ones off the top of my head.

I am going to clean the TB this weekend, and check the Crank position sensor, as symptoms for both match the issues I am having. I am curious if anyone else has some low-cost things/ideas I can try to get it running a little better until it warms up and I can tear into it.

Thanks in advance!

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

The gas smell could be an old fuel hose under the hood starting to leak. The 3rd gens had hoses that would dry up and develop micro cracks when cold. When the engine warmed up the hose, it would expand and seal the cracks. The situation would get worse and eventually the hose leaked all the time. The amount of gas that leaked out was so small that it evaporated before you could see it.

The engine stalling when putting the tranny in gear is less clear to me. It could be the engine temperature sensor is not accurate, reporting a warmer temperature than actual. This would cause a leaner fuel mixture. A cold engine needs a richer fuel mixture and will die when a load is applied. I suppose it could also be some kind of transmission problem, but I don't know very much about the trans.

spitfire18213

Even with it being that cold outside, the car was up to running temp as I had started it about 20 minutes prior. As soon as I shift into reverse the Rpm instantly drops, and dies without the gas being applied.

Thanks for the hose info I will have to check that.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

check all of your vacuum lines physically and by spraying brake cleaner on them and seeing if the idle picks up. sounds like you may have a vacuum leak, stalling in reverse and running like ***** in drive are classic signs. also clean your MAF. unless the fuel leak is really bad, that would cause everything

ac max 92

iTrader: (13)

Clean the IAC aswell. Check fuel lines under the hood like DennisMik said as far as your gas leak goes. Most common spots are the small rubber fuel hoses on either side of the fuel rail.

1990se5speed

Updating fuel hose can get you better mpg

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

Yep, my Max didn't want to get up in the morning, leaky fuel line on the rail. Shoulda replaced those hoses when I had it all apart! Oh well, I'm suspicious of the injector, one was also wet but can't tell if its from the hose (hose is leaking right next to it, can't tell if its just running over toward the injector or its an actual o-ring issue). Any trick to testing for a leak on the injector while I'm doing the hoses? I really don't want to have to reassemble it to remove the leaky hose from the equation just to have to take it back apart if the injector is also leaking!

ac max 92

iTrader: (13)

Levsimus you work at nissan lol. Im sure it's not much at all espescially at your cost for some o rings and if your taking it apart anyway just change the o rings if your not sure and test the resistance on all the injectors while your in there. Im not sure if there is an easy way to test to see if the injector itself is leaking exept by maybe just having someone crank it over for you on a cold morning while you look under the hood to find the source seeing the fuel evaporates fast. going from cold to warm weather also makes the rubbers expand and contract a little. My guess is it's probably just the hose to the rail.

spitfire18213

I read that cleaning the MAF could cause a complete failure is that a know issue with the maximas?

ac max 92

iTrader: (13)

I wouldn't think thats necessarily true iv'e cleaned mine before with no issues. Pick up a can of MAF cleaner that's specifically made for cleaning mass air flow sensors and just don't over do it by dowsing it down and obviously make sure it's disconnected. Im not so sure that's what's the main cause of your issue but could be one of the culprits so it doesn't hurt to clean it or if you know someone with the same car or have access to another MAF try swapping it and see if your issue is still there. Try checking the resistance on your injectors aswell as clean the (IAC) idle air control.

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

Cost (though wait time is, took about a week last time I got o-rings ) ain't the point of it - I'd simply rather not try to pull the injectors out at all if I don't have to. I just replaced all of them with OEM, they're all new and were ohm tested before I put them in about 2,000mi ago, thankfully I've no real doubt as to their health, but that one particular o-ring is suspect, but risking breaking a new injector isn't my bag of chips. The old ones were stuck so bad I broke the caps off two of them and had to use a hammer to bang the others out. Couldn't even twist them out, twas bad

At any rate, complaining aside, I kinda figured the ol "Hey crank this while I watch' routine was going to be the way to go. Either way its going to be a week or two before I can even try to get the car started and down to the shop - snow here has it so cold that she's not liable to start at all until things warm up a bit. Good thing I carpool LOL

ac max 92

iTrader: (13)

Good strong battery and as long as the cylinders aren't flooded soaking the plugs she should fire right up. My 92 starts better than my 01 suzuki lol. If it does flood from cranking i find pulling the plugs and drying them and pulling the fuel pump relay while you crank a couple times a little just to get some fuel out of the cylinders then put the relay back, plugs back and should start up. When i did my friends injectors i actually had to do the same I found putting a rag over the tips and using a large phillips and one pop with the hammer they easily popped right out and without damaging them as i did that with the doner injectors which were ohmed out fine. He wasn't sure how long he wanted to keep the car but the used rail was dirt cheap and the injectors held up quite good after a year and still running smooth. I personally go new with almost all my parts on my max after sinking what i have into it which is almost an arm and a leg lol

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

You and me both. If I was smart I'd have cut and run long ago LOL I've spent WAY too much trying to get this car back in tip top shape,a nd damnit I'm SO CLOSE to having her running perfect, but now this, and additionally a wierd electrical issue while driving. Everything dims then brightens randomly, whether I'm idling or on the freeway. Suspected alternator/voltage regulator but unsure there just yet, was going to load test it but car died while idling after taking forever to get started, leading to the discovery of the leak.

Needless to say I don't think she's going to start, and as it is I don't feel like dealing with it LOL it'll be way easier to push the car out of the shop after pulling the intake when there isn't snow on the ground. Besides, its been in the teens the last couple days - just making all the starting issues worse. Meh, its cold out, I don't feel like mucking with it until the temps pick up next week - not to mention with the snow, things are starting to pick up at the shop finally so no real space for a non-driver taking up space on the lot while I git 'er done. Figured while its apart I'm going to maybe clean up the manifold, have our painter make it fancy (we were doing a Corvette when I did the headgaskets, had him do up my valvecovers with the racing red and some clear that he used on the Corvette. Came out looking AWESOME!) and clean the throttle body/IACV while its out.

ac max 92

iTrader: (13)

I hear ya. The weather here has been terrible too. You'll have to post some pics. of the max sometime. I have a couple of pics. of mine on my garage but i have to put up some more when i get a chance because theyre small and not the best of pics. but they're not bad i suppose.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

never heard that in my life, i know if air filter oil like the K&N stuff hits the MAF it can cause it to fail, but MAF cleaner shouldnt damage anything