Well after 6 long months of head scratching, my starting issue is resolved!

I posted a thread here about a month ago titled: 97 Max starting issue:2 Mechanics Stumped. (or something like that. if I had search I would post a link or maybe someone here could search and post the link. )

Anyway, to summarize:

My throwout bearing blew out with 165k on it. Originally I thought it was just the clutch, but it turned out the bearing had blown, and also busted its collar off the transmission, which meant a new trans was needed too.

Well after the mechanic installed the trans, he could not start the car, without 60 seconds of cranking. After replacing the ECU, alternator, starter etc, it still would not start.

Making a long story short, (hopefully someone will post the link to the original thread) my second mechanic discovered the problem.

He dropped the tranny again, after hours of computer diagnosis revealed no issues. He checked all the grounds, which were good, and checked the flywheel, which had no damage.

When he installed the flywheel, he noticed some metal debris, behind the flywheel. It appeared to be ball bearings and metal debris from the throwout bearing, amounting in quanity to what you could hold with two hands cupped together.

This crap was apparently ejected through the holes in the flywheel into the small space between the flywheel in the motor. All this metallic crap flying around as the motor cranked, was apparently enough to throw off the crank sensors. It only makes sense, since it seems to me this debris would distort any kind of electrical fields the crank sensors need to do their job.

Hope this helps someone else, and thanks to all that helped with their suggestions from the earlier thread.

I cannot say how thrilled I am to have my Maxima back! It runs great with 167 K on it. I feel like screeching around some exit ramps.....

 

My problem also stumped 2 Nissan dealerships for months and finally someone diagnosed that my flywheel was bent so it was not sending a good signal to the crank sensor. That was my problem, swapped out and put a new flywheel in and starts up like new. I'm glad things worked out for you too..

 

congrats...

 

Gen8888: Thanks again for your reply in the original thread, I did bring the idea of a bent flywheel to the mechanic, as you know it was not that, but the idea you gave was much appreciated.

Hope some of the others who posted in the original thread will see this topic posted here with the resolution.

 

I have troubles believing this, what crank sensors are in the flywheel area? As far as I know, the crankshaft & camshaft sensors are located on the front of the engine outside . Metallic particles floating around would affect nothing in the bell housing. Now if you tell me that the bearing parts were somehow jamming the flywheel, thereby preventing the starter from kicking over the engine fast enough, that I can believe.
Electrical fields from flying debris, sounds a little too "alien" to me

BTW, cranking your starter for 60 seconds repeatedly will guarantee it failing shortly, I suggest you find a third mechanic .

 

I have trouble believing that my car would NOT start correctly after having my trans replaced!

As I mentioned, I was not able to find the original thread which explains the background to the issue. (which may explain your confusion)

Look, I don't know for sure what happened, but it most definitely was not that "parts were jamming the flywheel". I did not say this car would NOT start, it did start after extensive cranking. Were parts jamming the flywheel, I'm quite sure the engine would not run, nor would the car be drive-able, which it was for months with this starting issue.

The cranksensors do need to "sense" when the motor is at Top Dead Center.
I'm no mechanic, but that was not happening, and the fact that this debris was removed, and ONLY THEN, would the car start properly, means to me the debris was certainly causing the starting issue.

HOW it did that is anyone's guess....

 

umm, well you better brush up on the crank sensors then, its located on the bell housing, but directly below teh flywheel. i had the same problem, i posted previously about it, too bad you guys dindt invest int he search function othewrise you wouldve foudn my post a month ago. my sensor was covered in metal debris from the flywheel, and it was sending a false voltage to the sensor, probably told it the flywheel wasnt in the correct psoition to start the car. cleaned it up and it started right up. only wasted 10 hours trying to figure out wtf the problem was.

 

I stand corrected, I "brushed" up by checking my FSM, and there are actually two CKPS'es, one in front and the other that reads off the flywheel for crank position. I'm guessing that the same thing happened to his car as with yours. I was just puzzled by the mechanics interpretation of stuff flying around inducing magnet waves that the sensor picked up.....you get my drift? Anyway, this is good stuff to know, something to keep in mind. Weird that it throw a CEL