ionpcs

My father's 96 maxima (gxe) has been having a bit of a hard start for some time. The starter is working fine, the engine just won't turn over. It used to just take forever to get it to start but now it doesn't want to start at all. The only really recent maintenance was a new air filter, (not really related to this problem at all). I was just wondering what you all would do next? Thanks in advance for any help.

PAREDLINE

First thing you want to do is to make sure the engine isnt seized. Check if you have oil in the engine. Try to turn the crankshaft pulley with a ratchet. It should turn freely.

Does the car crank? If not, the problem is electrical.

When a car cranks but doesnt start the causes are either fuel, ignition, air, or mechanics (like a seizing motor, bearing failure, bent valves, etc)

First thing you want to do on Nissans is check the 'start signal' fuse. It's located in the fuse panel under the dash. Top row right side I think. Check that fuse first.

The dirty way to check for fuel in all cylinders is to let the engine crank with no coils attached. Then quickly take off the spark plugs and smell for fuel in each cylinder.

If you have fuel move on to ignition. Check for any ECU codes. If you have a spark plug test light that would be ideal. If not, you can use a timing light. Hook the plug lead to the tube on the end of the ignition coils. Look to see if all coils are sending a spark.

If one coil is not sending a spark you might have a bad coil.

Air: Make sure the air filter isnt plugged. This wouldnt really make a car not start. Just run rough. You said its new so skip this part.

If everything else fails start pulling off your crankshaft and camshaft sensors and checking these.

If everything checks out and the car still doesnt start you might need to swap your ECU. That's a last resort.

Good luck

99Automagic

Alot of ignition switch problems lately, cause hard/no starts. There are a few threads already concerning this issue. Search the first page of thrads, you should run into a few.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Was the check engine light on as the hard starts got worse? If so pull the codes from the ECU.

Check the crank shaft postion sensors, POS and REF. If the signals from those sensors are not good it will cause hard or no start conditions.

POS is located under the car on the transmission bell housing. It looks at the flywheel.
REF is located just under the main belt pully, you can acces it by turning the steering wheel all the way right and pulling off the right inner fender splash shield.

ionpcs

Thank you all for your help. I wouldn't tend to think that the engine had seized. The car would start up eventually each morning and be fine for the rest of the day for probably a month before this happened. I would guess that it has something to do with spark plugs considering they haven't been replaced in over 70k miles, We will probably start there simply because the car needs them even if they're not the cause of the problem. If they fix it, great. I do appreciate all the advice. Especially PAREDLINE, I appreciate your post a great deal.

-Jonathan

killcrap

iTrader: (3)

So its a Crank, No Start.

1) get a spark tester and ground it to the body, and then connect it to a coil. if it works, then goto #2. If NG, check the following cranksensors and cam sensor. record the ohm specs and compare to oem specs. record ac voltage as engine is being cranked. compare to oem specs. I do believe there is no START SIGNAL fuse.

2) check fuel properly by getting a fuel tester.