This is very strange...

I too had this problem last winter, and I believe a little bit during winter before that. Last winter it was the worst though, everyday it would happen. It would start then drop and stall, then eventually it didn't even start regularly, it would chug and do nothing.

But this story gets weird. This winter, it has barely happened. I haven't done anything to the car, but sure enough its pretty much gone. Now I have a dilema. I have hit 70k and I wanted to get a tune up, but now that the car is working fairly well, should I? And when I say tune up, I mean everything done.
-e

 

do the scheduled maintenance. things may be working fine now, but if you want to keep it that way, you should perform scheduled maintenance. you'll be pleasantly suprised with the car's performance after replacing plugs, filters, etc.

 

whre is the coolant sensor located?

i may just change mine and see if that does it

Ant

 

I have a starting problem as well....
but it's a bit different.....





I crank it up.. it takes a bit longer than usual but it does crank up and start... RPMs hop up and then return back down slowly and it stalls out..

50% of the time, it does crank up on 1st try... first RPMs hop up, then they drop down to a millimeter from zero, NEARLY stalling out then bounce back up real high... occasionally it does this bounce 2 times.. wtf?

my battery seems to be in good shape, although i have no idea...

spark plugs, fuel filter, pcv valve, and other maintenance items are brand new...


what can cause this?
or is it normal?



btw,
my 98 max doesn't have this problem..

 

i think if you give me your Type2 your car will start fine , again.

 

Dave, your points are probably valid with the Yellow Top, however as with any "trend" there will always be someone outside the curve, like myself :-).

My Yellow Top has successfully started my car on the first crank for two rather cold New York winters, temps down in the 20's - 30's (windchill 15-18).

I have stock grounds and have always run Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil.

 

give you my Type II....

Ant

 

No that is not normal! Have you checked for error codes? If not I would try that. A dirty IAC Valve (Idle Air Control Valve) can cause what you described. It is behind the throttle body and you clean it with the same stuff you clean the throttle body with. I was going to clean mine as part of maintenance but the dealership didn't have an IAC Valve gasket in stock. Now I plan on doing it in the spring.

 

**UPDATE**

as of today i did the following:

1) bought and replaced the Engine Coolant Temp Sensor ($35 at local Nissan) 20min(have lots of shop rags ready)thanks to Joes02max for the ride to Nissan

2) removed and dismantled IAC valve, cleaned out and reassembled

3) cleaned throttle body AGAIN and found almost ZERO dirt build up

4) re-polished my intake manifold, valve cover and misc polished parts to keep them bling'n, hehe!

Car does not dip down in RPMS after initial startup. Seems to stay at higher RPM when started cold, above 1,000 which to me is a good thing. Now im just gonna let the car sit for a few hours and try startin her up. Im keepin my fingers crossed that the IAC cleaning and the new ECTS did the trick.

say a prayer for me guys!

Ant

 

i will try that,

thanks.

It is quite annoying

 

it is now Thursday morning 11:00am.

i just tried to start my car up this morning and guess what happened?? IT STALLED OUT AGAIN!!!!!!

im gonna look into the "high idle plunger" next. Also i plan on goin through every ground connection under my hood with a dremel and some grinding bits. I ve read that it yeilds positive results so well see.


Ant

 

BUMP*

Ant

 

When you have car problems you sure get the ones that will drive you to drink! Good luck!

 

actually i spoke to a Nissan Tech today that i know locally, he was tellin me that the 95-97 max's usually have bad "idle plungers". He said to me change that part and ill be worry free

Ant

 

That's great! Keep us posted.

 

Ever thought of just using another car's standard battery to see if you've got the same starting problems. As long as it's got 450 CCA, the VQ will start. Just an option instead of continuing to buy parts you might not need.


Dave

 

this will be the LAST part i buy to try and solve this problem. Afer that i will just deal with it

like i posted earlier, my Yellow Top measured to be normal, and actually this morning read out 12.8 volts, so.... i guess that totally rules that out. Even Optima said themselves to me, "if it stays at 12.4 or higher your fine"

Ant

 

12.8V means you battery is over-charged and your alternator's diode may be faulty. 12.6V is the max your battery should be.

Dave

 

i meant to type 12.6, lol

Ant

 

if it were the battery it would not stall. tons of people have this problem and can't figure it out. never heard of the plunger thing but if it works let me know. because I've tried everything except that and I am going through the same problem as you.

 

I have hard starts too on my 1999 Maxima, 40K miles.

Replaced ECTS, battery, spark plugs, adjusted idle. Dropped Fuel injector cleaner 2 times in tank. No improvement. No codes on ECU.

Sometimes I also get a popping sound during start. A Nissan tech handed me 2 symptom diagnosis sheets.

Does this make sense? How many hours of work removing and reinstalling the tranny?

FC9002335
Symptom: Long crank before starting.
Description: Vehicle would crank for long time before starting and would occasionally sound as if the timing was too far advanced.
Root Cause: Poor engine ground between tranny and engine.
Service Procedure: Fabricate a 10 gauge wire jumper between 1 of upper bell housing bolts and 1 of lower engine oil pan bolts.
Source: Nissan NA

COMMENT: Apparently my car has this jumper installed already.

FC9002906
Symptom: Engine is hard to start sometimes.
Description: Engine is hard to start and a popping sound, like engine is out of time, can be heard.
Root Cause: Possible electrical noise caused by different electrical ground voltage levels in engine block, oil pan and tranmission castings.
Service Procedure: Check all tranny-to-engine mounting bolts and installed and torqued to specs. If problem remains, remove tranny, clean mounting faces on engine and tranny. Reassemble and torque to specs.
Source: Tim Brunet, Nissan NA

 

any word on that idle plunger thingy? how much is it?

 

Chrome is a very bad conductor of electricity. You will get a 12.6v reading on the battery, however, the amperage is held back by the chrome. So, when you go to start it, all the power that wants to turn the engine is being held back through a mesh of resistance (chrome). The led on your battery is led for a reason. This could be a major factor.

My 2¢

(_8*(l)

 

Your battery is cold in the morning and has less power output as it gets colder. Takes longer to generate the amperage that is needed to turn the engine over. Perfectly normal.

 

thats all i was lookin to hear

thanks,

Ant

 

was the plunger thing attempted?