I have a 1997 Infiniti I30, and had a similar problem as was posted here. The car would not start and left me stranded at the mall last night. A boost did not help, and following the advice from a similar posting, I went back this morning and lightly tapped on the solenoid. The car then started. Back home I took the starter motor off, and everything completely apart. I noticed a lot of black powder in the motor housing and assumed this was from the brushes. I cleaned off all the old grease from the planetary and repacked the gears with a lithium based grease. I also used the same grease in the solenoid portion where a shaft connecting a linkage to the starter pinion, slides within an opening.

Having done all this I am still not sure what was actually wrong, and why the tapping allowed the car to start. Consequently I am not sure my minor rebuild has solved the problem, or whether I should be ordering a new motor and/or solenoid.

Any advice / thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

bad starter solenoid

 

Try it out for a while.

Keep a stick in your car so you can tap it just in case it fails again.

 

Yup, and the Nissan solenoids are pressed together instead of bolted together, so they're impossible to get apart and clean up the relay contact points that give juice to the starter itself. The good news is that you can buy a solenoid separately from Nissan (not offered as aftermarket though). I got one from Jerry Rome with the 30% discount last month, for something like $45. Better than a rebuilt starter though.Too bad you don't have a 5spd you could do the running push start in 1st gear!