First of all, this is a great site. Loving all the Maxima lovers out there.

I'm having two issues with my starter.
1) Every once in a while when I turn the key nothing happens. I turn the key to the off position. I try to start again and it starts right up. Any thoughts

2) Used to be every once in awhile, but now just about everytime. When I start the car, I hear a rough grinding-like noise coming from the starter, I'm guessing. Any thoughts.

Thanks ya'll

 

Starter Cylinoid perhaps. I had a simliar problem with my Sentra about a month ago. Would turn key and nothing would happen. Try it over and over again and finally it would start. Turns out the plate in the cylinoid that bridges the two contacts was pretty worn out and just wasn't contacting anymore (wouldn't let the starter turn).

Hope this helped

 

I'm surprised your starter has lasted this long. Usually happens when the car is cold, right?

The grease inside is probably all dried up. Two ways to fix this..
1. Take out the old one, take it apart, clean out old grease, add new grease. See www.motorvate.ca for detailed directions.
2. Replace the old starter with a new one. You can get a remanufactured one at Autozone for about $150 or a brand new one from a dealer for about $300(?).

I replaced my old one with one from Autozone two years ago. It's been working perfectly ever since.

 

Clean it and lubricate it. I had the same problem, and I originally thought it was the solenoid. I took the starter apart (which is pretty easy to do, btw), cleaned everything and lubricate it. What I noticed when I disassembled it is that the shaft that the gear slides in and out on (the gear that spins the flywheel) had a lot of buildup on it and was very dry. This gear is pushed out on the shaft by way of the solenoid pulling its plunger in, which pulls on a lever connected to the gear. Since the gear and shaft are sticky, the solenoid cant push it out, and consequently the starter start the car. The obvious diagnosis is that the solenoid is bad, but the REAL problem lies with accumulated dirt and lack of lubrication. No kidding, when the gear stuck on the shaft, I counldn't even actuate the lever with my finger, so there is no way the solenoid could do it either.

My starter has worked fine ever since I cleaned and lubricated it. That's a lot better then blowing $160+ on some rebuilt garbage at autozone.

Greg