When I start the car, not just in the cold mornings, but after sitting for many hours, it will crank and go dead right away. I have to give it gas for it to continue to run.

Could this be a bad battery connection?
The alternator is kicking out the right amount of amps, and the battery has a full charge, but a couple months ago I had a little problem with my batter cable being so nasty that it wouldnt keep a charge at all and I cleaned them, now they are just a little loose (I know, I really need to get that fixed) and I am thinking that might be the problem, its just soo damn cold out right now I don't want to sit out there and fix it.

Ehhhhh

Input please Thank you very much.

 

have you tried cleaning your throttle body? thats a likely culprit.

 

I am having the same problem. The gas neds to be pumped a bit in order for it to turn over. I can't even use my remote start.

 

my car starts wierd in the cold too, hesitates alittle then starts..

 

well...back in the day, I would crank the car over and it would immediately die...unless I gave it gas once as soon as it started...after a ton of diagnostic work, it turned out to be the engine coolant temp sensor...very inexpensive part and easy to replace yourself!!! check it with your mutlimeter and chilton's/haynes or FSM....so see if the resistance is out of spec....it didn't even pull a ghost code for me when mine was bad (is your cold start idle a little higher than normal when you get it to keep running)....??

 

I didn't really check the idle yet since the starting issue is bothering the hell out of me. What brand of engine coolant sensor did you purchase? I assume it wouldn't be nissan.

 

the engine coolant temp sensor from nissan is cheap! just get it from the local dealer...once you crank over your car, the rpm's jump up and then die right? unless you blip the gas as soon as your car goes on? then it's the same symptoms as mine had...once you blip your throttle and the car stays on, isn't your cold start rpm higher than usual by about 200rpms (1700 instead of 1500)? also same as mine was...basically, if your car has a faulty coolant temp sensor, it thinks the engine is way too cold or way too hot...so your engine either doesn't want to start or doesn't want to stay running...

 

I have exactly the same problem. You are correct the idle is slightly higher than ususal. I thought it was probably due to the cold weather.
If I don't blip the gas it stalls.
The reason why I ask what brand you purchased was because I wasn't sure if I wanted to purchase oem since they are faulty. I remember when I got the car new in 1997 the start up stall would happen once in a very blue moon. It just got worst and more noticeable over the years.
Anyway, if the oem one works for you it's good for me. I'll pick up one today.
And thanks for the help! I'll post the results once I have it installed.

 

well my throttle body is immaculate, Changed the ECTS. And it still doesnt start up right :\ . When they say throttle body do i have to take the whole thing off the car ? What i did was i cleaned as much as i could before lifting up the butterfly and then i lifted up the butterfly and cleaned inside. Is there anything else i need to do ?

 

Sy 98 SE does the same thing, but only in the winter. In the summer when it was really hot I had it almost quit at a light on a steep incline a few times, but in the winter when its cold I have to give it gas after it turns over in order to keep running every single day. Ill try the engine coolant temp sensor and cleaning my throttle body, but how exactly do I clean it?

-John

 

Try replacing the PCV valve, or clean yours with carb cleaner....Only use Nissan PCV as aftermarket have been know to fail prematurely.

 

the TB is easy to clean....you don't have to take it off the IM...just clean it the best you can with it on the car....stick a screwdriver by the throttle cable to keep the butterfly open and make sure it will stay, you don't want the butterfly snapping closed on your fingers! I had the exact problem smackdownGTR is having...took all of 5min to change out the engine coolant temp sensor (an inexpensive part too) and viola...back to normal...

 

Yea clean your Throttle Body... you have to take off your intake where the filter connects into the intake manifold... get some throttle body cleaner, open the throttle body butterfly and spray it in there... use a rag to get as deep as you can in there to clean it out.

The coolant sensor is a piece of cake to change... All you need is a deep socket 19mm or wrench... it just has a plug... I'd say just clean your TB and see what happens... I've heard a bunch of people on here who have had that problem and resolved it with cleaning their TB

If your going to do either one, you know who to call

 

Jeez, I have a '98 with the same exact problem!! Everytime I experience this issues, it seems as if I can smell 'oil.' Didn't realize its actually a common problem with our cars. Got the TB cleaned out already, and battery tested. So the solution to this would be getting an engine coolant temp sensor?? Does anybody happen to know off hand how much this would cost?

Thanks in advnace

 

if I remember correctly, I think it was $25 at the local stealership...you could prolly get it from jerry rome with the "maxima" discount code relatively cheap...

 

You could always go to autozone or pep boys they have them for about the same price as well... its really easy to change

 

Hey guys, well got a call from my mechanic regarding thsi issue, and he just told me its the idle air control - which is a 195 dollar part??!!

Is this the problem??

Thanks again...

 

well....you can just clean the IACV...which is also very easy to do!!! I have done it many times...once you take it apart, and clean it, it doesn't seem like something that should need to replaced ever, just cleaned...but to be honest, all I did was clean my TB which didn't work, then I replaced my engine coolant temp sensor (get the nissan one...I heard the aftermarket one's go prematurely) and problem gone...doesn't mean that is the solution for all of you...you could always clean it up and return it to the stealership if it turns out to not be that...

do any of you have ghost codes....when my ECTS was bad, it threw a code a month before this incident and then went away on it's own...then came back every 200 miles then never returned until this starting issue...(but it never trigered the CEL)...in the chilton's/haynes/FSM, it tells you how to test the ECTS with a multimeter for the correct resistance to see if it's okay...just follow that...