Hammy

Dude you ROCK!, I spent well Over 800 dollars buying MAF Sensor, Cam and crank sensors, fuel pump, everything under the sun and I read your fix on here like at 4am, did it about an hour ago and it freakin works, no hesitation, no nothing. You have reinstated my love for the maxima all over again. Thanks a Million!

mansurxk

iTrader: (14)

listen to the man, ground your starter if you've done major work on the car. i just got my car back from some major stuff and had to use electrical wiring to alleviate the starting issue. going to add more wires tomorrow morning.

NewEngSurf

I ran an 8 gage wire to my starter after having an identical problem with my car after a clutch job. I also ran one to the tranny but my starting is still not 100%, the ground wires did help alot but its still not there. I am also still getting a code for my oxygen sensor bank 2 and this code randomly comes and goes? what do u guys think, im definatly gona try and run another ground wire to the other starter bolt and see if that helps out any more.

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

Mine will have an odd start one out of every 25 starts or so. I think 0 gauge wire is the only true band-aid for this.

NewEngSurf

This seems so wierd that the starter needs such a heavy ground wire. I mean the surface area were the belhousing meets the motor is huge, how could that area have such poor contact and make such a poor connection, it just doesnt make sence. What about positive wire to the starter, could that somewhere along the lines have poor conductivity resulting in a hard start?

way2fast95

iTrader: (1)

My starting issue started over a year ago, after I had my tranny rebuilt. I have done several things to diagnose it, but it is exactly the same thing that is occuring in the YouTube video Crazy97 posted in the first post. I have one 4ga ground currently running from starter mounting bolt to neg. battery terminal, but the issue is still occuring. I will probably try to add another from the starter to the tranny bolt as well.

My question is did anyone have a code thrown at the time you tried this fix? I am getting 0101 (camshaft pos. sensor) and have already replaced the sensor. Still the code will pop up after I crank it for 5-10 seconds continous.

Any help is appreciated. 9 out of 10 starts I have to crank it for 5-10 seconds, then stop, then crank it again for 2-3 seconds and it will start. Also, when it does start I can see a small puff of grey smoke.

I am going crazy here, please help!!!!

unkadave11

Run another ground from the starter to the tranny. I had the same problem as you and the 2 grounds and new starter (fried mine crankin so much) solved my problem.

Perfect starts every time now!

jakesI30

Is this a Manual tranny? If so, could be the safety switch on the clutch pedal? Or not

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

I'm wondering about that too.

Like the other guy said starter to tranny or starter to body under the air filter box.

way2fast95

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the reply guys, I just got done tracing the connection of the Camshaft position sensor and they are good, so I think it may be the wiring harness is not making good connection to the sensor (still has some oil residue from the bad sensor that was allowing oil to flow through the sensor and into the wiring harness). I am going to see about getting a new harness and hopefully that will fix the 0101 issue. I am also going to add another 4 ga ground to from the starter to the tranny tomorrow and will let you guys know what happens.

Thanks again!!!

way2fast95

iTrader: (1)

Ok, so did anyone else accidentally use their socket wrench to short between the starter ground bolt and the positive bolt on the starter? I did and started a fire. Lots of fun! Any way after purchasing a new socket wrench to replace my melted one, I have a few pics and questions,

1. I bolted the second ground to the tranny bolt pictured below, but when I removed the tranny bolt, a small amount of tranny fluid came out. Is this a potential hazard? Having tranny fluid flowing past a ground connection??



2. Is it ok to have one ground wire running from the starter bolt to the battery neg. term. and also another ground wire running from the SAME starter bolt to the tranny connect bolt?

QnzMax

iTrader: (14)

I'm definitely going to try this. Hopefully it will fix my problem. Do you have any pictures of where you put the wires.

way2fast95

iTrader: (1)

Well my bro told me that the grounds should be fine how I have them now, but unfortunetly they don't seem to have helped my starting issue at all. Oh well, I am now going to be replacing my starter next week, then if need be testing the fuel pressure (fuel pump might be bad), then if need be further diagnoses of the 0101 code (camshaft pos. sensor).

liqidvenom

iTrader: (6)

well i read this thread and was able to put it to workon my brothers car ( also a member here) and we finally got it started after 4 days of scratching our heads.

here is the patter that we used, 6 guage wire for everything.
1) from the 14mm bottom engine/tranny bolt to the 12mm tranny bolt near the reverse sensor.
2) from another 12mm bolt near the cps tp the strut tower bolts ( one of the three under the hood)
3) one from starter to ground
4) one from starter to big tranny/engine bolt near the cps to the starter
5) one from the tranny mount bolt that goes into the bell housing to the ground.

car fired up the first time no problem. and i sanded every contact down first

thanks alot to the people who have added info to this thread

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

Q- why only 10G wire? its a ground, path of least resistance, why not use a larger(4-1/0 ish )
edit - also, ground wires idealy should be no more than 2' in length, making this 'ground linking/jumpin' a little ridiculous IMO any other opinions?

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

I used 10g at first because that's the biggest I could find. The bigger the wire the better.

mistuhjj

OK. I've done did it now. I tried running a 6 gauge from the starter to the negative terminal. I shortly found out that what I thought was the starter wasn't at all. The red circle in the pic is what I ran the cable to (pic from enforcer's site)



I took off the cable after I smelled something burning. I tried to start it, and it still struggled to start for 5-6 seconds but finally started. 5 seconds later it turned off. It did this 2 or 3 times. The 4th time I tried started it, it wouldnt turn at all and just makes a clicking sound.

Think this is the end of my short-lived car-mechanic career. It wont jumpstart so I have to tow it to my mechanic. Does anyone know what that part is I fried (the red circle)? And can it be replaced? I already know I need a new starter

way2fast95

iTrader: (1)

That is the starter, but that is the positive end (the solenoid, I believe?) You probably shorted between the battery negative and the positive lead that connects to the starter there. I would pull your battery and have them check that as well. You should have run the cable from the battery negative to the green circles (starter mounting bolt). Maybe one of you electrical engineers can jump in here and help him out more.

mistuhjj

ok, thanks, so at least it was just the starter I fried since I was going to replace that anyway. I have a sneaking suspicion though that something else went wrong also as the car started the first few times and stopped after a couple seconds (but this wasnt happening before i fried the starter).

i vaguely remember someone else in this thread of a similar issue and he was recommended to check the air sensor. i dont know what I could have done to the air sensor. its looks ok

mistuhjj

yo. updayt. got a new starter after i fried the last one. 250 parts and labor. ouch. after a week, the problem started happening all over again. told my mechanic to pop a ground cable in. he didnt think it would work. glad the sonofa***** was wrong! thanx guys. i just bought the damn car, woulda sucked if i had to scrap it.

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

Glad nothing bad happened to the electrical system. I'll add you to the list.

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

Just finished replacing my clutch a few days ago and just started to have the same problem hopefully this should solve my problem is doing exactly what i saw on the video that someone posted , tomorrow I'm going to buy some 0 or the thickest wire i can find and see if it works if it does then i let you guys know anyway thanks a lot for the info

Oakley02

maximus, I put in a new tranny about 2yrs ago and just now started to have this issue, so far, I have added a 2ga. wire from the starter bolt to the bolt where the negative battery cable mounts to the block. I am still going to add another from the starter to the tranny bolt (as I am still having issues). Let me know how this works out for you.

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

i still haven't done it yet hopefully will do it this saturday still i consulted a friend of mine who is mechanic but specializes in electrical systems and told me more likely the problem lies in the ground to chassis than the ground to the tranny so basically i will do the a 4ga ground to the starter and another 4 ga to the chassis/body but will do 1 at time to see which one is more effective i let you guys know when i do it

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

I'll bet its the ground to the chassis/body.

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

well today i did a fast test using a 4 ga wire just holding it against one of the bolts of the starter and barely made any difference it improved but 6 out of 12 times failed to start right , when i did the same but this time to different places of the body or the "chassis" 2 out of 15 times failed to start the way it should

but remember i was just holding the wire with my hand against dirty even painted surfaces so basically when i do right i will either clean or removed the paint on the spot where i decide to bolt the wire and still i will do both things just in case it doesn't hurt to have extra ground wires but just enough to make it work the way it should

oVeRdOsE

I'm one of the first how tried you grounding kit. Remember, first the starting was good and days after days it was coming worst.

My setup(still have it, but harder to start than before) : 4 points gound on the tranny 8g to a box going in one 4g on the neg terminal.

My question : Is it possible that the cable's too small?

EDIT : I TRIED THE BIG : 0g, mmmmmm , damn, my problem still here. No ECU code. Fu(k it, she'll die like that !!!!!

My complete grounding kit (in 8 ga) is : 1: both bolt starter to neg. 2:backup Srew to neg. 3. OEM ground to neg. 4. Injectors to neg. 5. Driver Tower shocks to neg. 6. One of the small srew on the tranny to the neg.

Thats enough?

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

ok guys here is the deal

yesterday i put the first 4ga wire from the battery(with brand new terminal and super clean post) to the firewal to one of the bolts holding the cruise control thingy because thas the spot where i got better results on the test i did before ,the thread is clean after starting the car 8 times it failed 3

so i went ahead and put another 4ga wire from the battery to the smallest starter bolt but before i took the bolt cleaned the area where it going to contact the wire with a wirebrush cleaned the spot on the starter body where it makes contact with wire the same way and did the starting thing again 10 more times and it failed 4 times

so it improved a little bit but by no chance is fixed, talking to my friend once more he told me the only way to know is taking the car to the shop and looking at it and checking the starter out of the car of course that won't happen anytime soon he lives in Miami 4 hours away

what he find interesting is that some of us have the problem after replacing clutch or doing some kind of tranny work i i'm also intrigued because i really was careful when i removed the starter and placed on a dry safe place did not move or did something else besides removing tranny replacing clutch and bolting everything back up and after 2 days that started to happen so is kind of odd

i forgot to mention the oem ground plate bolted to the tranny was cleaned using sandpaper and the spot as well and at all times it was bolted when i was adding the other 2 wires

mansurxk

iTrader: (14)

any one have an idea why this recurrs...i've also noticed that once the car is warmed up it starts up easier. it's the first start in the morning that's the worst one. if i get it started, drive to work, turn the car off, itll restart immediately. the cooler the car gets, the longer it takes...until i put in an additional ground wire...maybe i need to retighten the bolts? maybe when the bolt gets hot, it expands and increases the contact surface and reinitializes the ground? i guess i have to tighten teh bolts and find out.

any ideas? definitely a ground problem thoguh.

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

as soon as i get my car back i'm going to start checking everything cause it was starting perfect before i changed the clutch and for some reason after that it started to behave different and even when i added to 4ga grounds didn't help that much, everyone i talked about it told me thats more than enough and i agree if it only had a single ground before how come adding to additional wires won't help?

mansurxk

iTrader: (14)

you may have something else that's not working. filings on the CPS possibly? not sure, but im not understanding how it reverts to its original state, it doenst make any sense at all, unless the bolt needs to be retorqued on the starter. anyone else?

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

it didn't revert everything else is working fine but now sometimes it don't want to start right away it takes a few cranks to start before i changed the clutch it started right away

for the rest is fine new clutch new cps now it pulls harder feels smoother than before

mansurxk

iTrader: (14)

problem solved. tranny bolts were loose thanks to an idiot mechanic, i could EASILY tighten them with a rachet. The mating surface mustve not been flush between the engine and transmission. Additionally, i went to autozone and purchased a 19" gauge 4 battery cable and went directly from the 14 mm bolt on the starter to the ground on the battery. Also added 2 10 gauge wires, one to the 14 mm and one on the 17 mm bolt on the starter, added another 10 gauge wire from the firewall to the intake manifold.

Tightening the bolts made the biggest difference and over time they were getting looser and looser, so more and more ground wires were required. that's my theory anyway. starts immediately now. very happy.

this was plaguing me for 5 months, just had no idea that the bolts weren't tightened, i just kept regrounding everything and giving a temporary fix.

add me the the problem solved list!

C MAX

iTrader: (4)

hey chump why didnt you call me lol. most of you realize now this is a common issue. i found this out in the mid 90's nissan knew this all the time. they just want you to pay all these diagnostic fee's knowing the whole time it's a simple ground issue. when i changed my clutch on my 96 the car wouldnt start up for nothing, a senoir nissan mechanic told me i broke the ground just either sand the surface down or apply some grounds which i did and the car started on the first turn.

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

Time to check my bolts as well.

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

well after a few months and tried just about everything i still have the same problem i just wandering if anyone else had luck figuring it out


so far:
new fuel filter
new plugs
new air cleaner
new battery
new pcv valve
new crankshaft position sensors (both)
added ground cables to tranny, to engine, to body
removed starter and was checked ok
tried different ecu
tested coils all good
replaced camshaft sensor
cleaned the TB
no codes just KS
fuel pressure tested ok

97_Roadrunner

iTrader: (2)

Damn! The list is long!
I could add to check the MAF, but also, ground your injectors, it could help.

cman6453

I thought I'd add to the list of "fixes". I had the same symptoms as those expressed on this thread. Just had the clutch replaced and the starting issues started.

This is a 5th gen Max.

First, I replaced the battery and the symptoms continued.

Second, I had the starter checked out at a local Kragen and it passed. Made a loud, nasty noise but it was supposedly normal judging by the fact that the guy testing it was not phased by it.

Third, I tried the grounding suggestions as mentioned on this thread. STILL, the symptoms continued and it seemed to have gotten worse. To the point where it no longer cranks. No dimming light, no dimming anything. Proof the battery was strong and that there were no other electrical issues.

So I completely ruled out the electrical issue but the negative post on the battery has a shiny new clamp.

I removed the starter again and take it to a different Kragen to get it tested. Same loud noise after 1 test. 2 tests later and it was a quieter noise AND it failed. The four other tests passed though but this time the guy did mention the noise was the loudest he's heard. Hmmmmmm.... On his last test, he noticed the gear was still spinning as it retracted. I said that was consistent with the fact that my car was making a noise AFTER it was idling. Sort of as if the starter was still spinning!! I asked what the machine tests for and it's mostly electronic. He said that it has no way of testing the gears on the inside and that could be what the problem is. With the inconsistency of the noise it was producing between sounding normal and not sounding normal AND the one failure, I decide to get the new starter.

I re-install the starter and REMOVE all the grounding I did based on this thread, do a quickie install of the air box and VOILA, starting sounds normal and stronger.

Basically, after ruling out the electrical problem, I knew it had to be a mechanical issue somewhere. Thank goodness, it was just the starter.

bigqueze

I think i have the same problem, my car was hard to start for months untill oneday it wouldnt start at all. i replace the cam and crank sensors but still cant get the car to start. it almost acts like its out of time. im not sure what to do now, any suggestions

ptatohed

iTrader: (12)

Isn't the main point of this thread your suggestion? Add grounding cables.