My gf's 95 maxima and my friends 98 maxima both do not seem to start on a cold morning. Once they are warm they start up fine. I havent had any of these starting problems with my car (knock on wood) so I am clueless to as what is going on with both of their cars. Both cars have had a complete tuneup and run fine with no check engine light. They both cranky and sometimes it seems like it almost starts but stalls right out a second or two later. Eventually after a while of starting and giving the car gas, they both start up. My gf has had the engine coolant temperature changed as a suggestion and it didnt help. I dont want them to take it to nissan because I know that either the car will startup fine or they wont find anything and charge them 100 bucks. Can anyone help.

Again, the car when cold keeps cranking and if started stalls out within a second or two. Thank you.

 

How cold? You mean like below freezing?

 

Well, 50F and below. In the summer time they started up without a problem.

 

How old is the battery on each car? If origianl on the 95, that could be your culprit.

 

The battery on both of the cars is new.

 

Jigg's,

Had a similar problem starting DW's 97 Max. on cold mornings. Once it did started in the morning the car ran and started fine until the next morning. I too changed the coolant temp. sensor, but the problem remained. I am very happy to report that the problem has been solved. At least for me. My solution was to clean the throttle body!! Thats it!! The Max. starts everytime without an issue. I did not remove the trottle body from the car. I pulled off all of the air intake components and used a carb/throttle body cleaner. Sprayed the inside of the throttle body completely, then wipped with a clean rag. Repeated this step about three or four times. The cleaning of the throttle body will now be part of my yearly maint..

Paul

 

Mine used to do the exact same thing. On cold mornings it would crank over but was tough to get started. Sometimes it would start and stall out. Just like flansp78 said, I cleaned the throttle body and the problem went away! I clean it every year or so now, and it hasn't once not started on me since then.

I usually take off the plastic intake components and try to wipe as much of the TB as possible with a clean rag and some Gumout. Then as the car is running (and always do this when then engine is as cold as possible b/c the computer is running on presets) spray some into the TB. It is helpful to have someone in the driver's seat to press the gas pedal in attempt to maintain relatively constant RPMs - it's not going to run all that great on gumout.

At least it's not as bad as my mom's old '86 Mercury Sable. If you didn't clean the TB out, the butterfly would get stuck open and the car would continue to accelerate uncontrollably. Other than that, it was a great car.

Good luck!

 

Alright guys, I didnt think the TB would have anything to do with starting but I will do it saturday. I hope it works.

 

I'd removed the IACV assembly and clean that up once too.

Another thought is fuel pressure....turn the key to the on position and listen for the fuel pump to stop running. Then try to start it....if that helps there may be an injector that's leaking, or the pressure regulator could be bad.

good luck,
JB