crazy97

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Bump

036mtmax

iTrader: (11)

Im trying this tonight, Car is starting just like Tavarish's car before he fixed it. Ill let everyone know how it turns out. Its a fifth gen that we did a clutch job on about a month and a half ago. CPS didn't fix it so im going to try to run some grounds. Car starts like garbage but runs perfect when it starts. Crossing fingers

036mtmax

iTrader: (11)

Just wanted to thank everyone that contributed to this thread because you can add me to the list of people who had this issue and the ground solved it. (5th Gen) I only ran 1 8 gauge wire from the negative terminal to the starter bolt and it fired up like a charm. I was going to take the trans out this Saturday and sand the mating surfaces. Thanks again guys.

Phx_Max

i wanna thank everyone who added to this thread cuz it help me to find the issue with my starting. my max was down for almost 6 months. was very new to nissans. stopped running while driving. brought it home, no spark, did all the above diagnostics thought the timing was off. broke the timing cover because i didnt know about the bolts inside the oil pan. bought a used one from junkyard, re-did the timing (so i thought lol) and nothing came from doing all this. added the ground actually added 2 grounds and still nothing. i was inspecting the CPS on the tranny side and i noticed it had 4 wires and the i remember there only being 3 coming out of the sensor. this is what brought me to inspect it closer. it does infact have 3 wires from one end of the connector but 4 out of the other. 2 are grounds. well one of the grounds looked like it was connected but it really had broken from being in a bent position. which explains why it died on me and then turned back on for a little bit because it hadnt completely broken yet. so i fixed that issue, (keep in mind i "re-did" the timing) cranked it over a lil bit to test for spark. (removed fuel pump relay) had spark!!!!! i was so pissed off at my self. but no more than i was yet to be. re install relay for fuel, car starts right up like nothing but failure. motor makes some loud noises and stops running. drop oil pan and alot of peices of the rod, piston rings a valve and other metalic object fall out.... epic fail!!!!!!!! but its all good i found another motor out of a 99 I30. and will be back up and running soon. so make sure to check the ends of the connectors very closely. probobly the first step i should have done

sickwitit

iTrader: (1)

hey guys just a question, I've been having a ton of battery/alternator issues I'm guessing. Had the battery charged at auto zone and testing perfect, as well as alt. The other day the car went into "limp" mode, and my battery and brake light came on and everything went dim. pulled over and got a jump and got home just fine. This morning when going to start the car, there was a "buzzing", maybe humming, but more of a buzzing sounds right under my steering wheel around the fuses. When turning the key, no dash lights came on, or my radio as well, car was not even cranking, just clicking. Do you guys think this is just a replace the battery/alt and call it a day? Also on my way home from work yesterday my red security light was on the whole way, never been like that before. Any input?

maxima2fst4u

id try looking for a ground and go to the fuse box and see if you have any blown fuses...and take ur alt off and try testing it

unstetois

OMG!!!

I feel like some is Pulling my leg right now. for over a year that i've been having this problem, just to think that something so simple could fix it.
I wanna go do this right now but it's too late and everthing is closed out there. I will def do this tomorrow and update the thread with my results (hopefully positive).

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

Any luck?

cditua

I had the tranny on my 00 repaired and it started up immediately after it was put back

However it refused to start up subsequently, until I added grounds. Add me to the list.

All the way in Nigeria, I love my MAX!!!

Alaskus

I wanted to clarify something so i don't stay confused if anyone has an answer....

I pulled a starter off a car at the yard, but when I did I saw there was a grounding wire connected from the starter itself to the ground beneath the battery.

It was connected to one of these terminals... sorry, i cant remember which. (most likely the one on the left, don't remember noticing the clip)

http://boredmder.com/pics/maxima.org...-terminals.png

Does this even make any sense? Trying to rationalize now i could be mistaken and the ground was connected to the smaller trans bolt, but I really remember taking it off the starter itself. Would connecting it to the starter make a difference or is that just impossible and the reason the car was at the yard in the first place?

Thanks for any input.

renots

iTrader: (5)

Well I wanna say, thanks to everyone in This thread!! I ran 2 ground wires an SUCCESS!! She needs 1 more for flawless starts. I'm just glad I didn't have to drop trans again

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

Tell your friends to stay off of Craigslist.

Jason R

iTrader: (39)

Just fixed my 98 I just bought thanks to this thread!!

ptatohed

iTrader: (12)

:o)

fatjew

I just wrote a very long post, explaining how I had the same problem, changed lots of parts, wasted lots of time, spent lots and lots of time reading threads of similar problems before finding this one and finally fixing the car.

But when I clicked post, the forums thought it would be funny to give me an error screen and make me re-type it. It's a shame too, because it was filled with passion and pain and intrigue. Oh well.

BUMP.

Justaguy

The thread that just keeps on giving....I also wanted to reach out and say thank you!!
I had the same problems with my '97 max..added the ground to the starter and transmission, and presto, car starts up very nicely now...I went with the biggest wire...I removed the air flow to get to the starter.
THANK YOU!

emilianonp

I have the same problem..
Did you find a solution? let me know please
Thank you

ptatohed

iTrader: (12)

Did you not read this thread?

memphisballer

iTrader: (7)

I know this thread is old but still very relevant I don’t know why it’s not stickied but I just resolved an issue I had with my ‘00 Infiniti I 30 automatic which now has 241K on the dash but actually has over 250K due to a cluster swap.I took the car in to a tranny shop to have the RMS and lower gasket swapped out as well as axle seals and rear motor mount.After the repair I noticed the car would sometimes crank crank crank then the starter would catch kind of like some described here as a chainsaw or lawnmower dragging and sometimes it was bad to the point I had to hold the pedal to get it cranked.I bought 2 ground cables from the lawn and garden a 19” and 49” at local Walmart.I attached one to the upper starter bolt and the other to one of bolts holding the two halves of the tranny and ran both to the negative cable connection point near the battery tray.I immediately noticed the quicker starts .So far I’ve cranked it 20 times with no problem. Before I found the issue I had removed and cleaned both crank and cam sensor,replaced crank sensor near bellhousing and replaced FPR with a known good used one.

ptatohed

iTrader: (12)

Awesome to hear this thread is still helping people! That's great!

Lancep50

This thread is still helping! Purchased a 19” 6-gage cable and 24” 4 gage cable from WMT for under $10. Had to drill out one of the lug ends to fit the larger transmission bolt, otherwise plug and play. Saved a bunch of money and head scratching!

if anybody has doubts or wants a quick test, take your jumper cables and connect one end of the negative lead to the transmission (easily assessable from under the car-near a bolt) and the other to the negative post on the battery (do nothing with the positive cable). If it starts easier, go to WMT.

ptatohed

iTrader: (12)

Glad to hear!!!

Maxbumpo

I tried a variation of this last night, put the jumper cable negative on the large bolt head of the starter and the other on the battery negative post, but no change for me. I'll try this method again, go right to the transmission case with the jumper cable from below, and see if that makes a difference.

The bad ground ideas all sound very plausible and my symptoms match up. However I'm also suspicious of my fuel pressure regulator, as the key off/on test result is the pressure jumps to about 41 psi and then the pressure bleeds down very quickly. If I turn key on and immediately leave the driver's seat and get to the gauge as fast as I can, the pressure has already bled down to about 35 psi or less (service manual says it should reach 43 psi and hold that for a few seconds).

I guess I'll try the ground refresh / fix problem first, and then if that doesn't fix it I'm going to replace the fuel pressure regulator. Today is Sunday, so I'll probably do some other testing on the crankshaft positions sensors and the camshaft position sensor.

Maxbumpo

I tried the jumper cable test again, this time I wire-brushed a spot on the trans to attach one end of the jumper cable, put the other end to the negative battery post. Starting was somewhat improved. Went to Wally World and bought a couple of 4 gauge battery cables, pre-made with ends for bolting up, one long and one short. Removed all the factory ground connections (between battery mount and air cleaner box, and one front engine block) and wire brushed all metal to a shiny clean finish using wire brush wheel on my cordless drill. I also wire brushed the new cables ends. One long cable went from battery negative post to engine factory ground point, second short cable went from engine ground point to smaller bolt on the starter. Applied De-Ox-It spray to all connections / ground points during assembly, put it all together and then put a coat of preservative wax over all the ground connections.

Started the car and it was much better starting, but still not "new car" start. Shut off and tried again, again, and the starter died!!! This is a Remy lifetime warranty starter from local FLAPS (first one lasted 8 years, next one lasted 2 years, this 3rd one lasted 1 week). When this one dies, I think I'll go get a factory starter from Infiniti / Nissan. So this was now 8 p.m. on a Sunday night, I had that dead starter out in about 30 minutes, ate some dinner and ran to the FLAPS which is open until 11 p.m. every night and got another warranty replacement starter.

Took me about 20 minutes to install the new starter, and the car started up better but still not perfect. I let it warm up, then went for a drive and really did some hard accelerations (Italian tune-up) to burn off any junk on the spark plugs. After about 3 hard acceleration runs I shut off the car and re-started, and it fired up so much better! Still not "new car" but much much better. This morning she started up great again, so I think I've got this about 80%.

I'm going to order a new fuel pressure regulator from dealer and see if that brings this to a 100% fixed resolution.

Thanks to all who contributed here, what a great thread!

Maxbumpo

Closing this out for my car, I finally did replace the fuel pressure regulator and that totally cured the hard-start condition. The extra ground cables definitely were needed, but the failing FPR was the really problem. Once I replace that, the fuel consumption also improved by 2-3 mpg around town. Haven't had the car out for a long highway trip yet so I can't tell you if that mileage is better but probably is.

mikeg75

I recently replaced the 19-year-old starter on my '95 SE and the new one lasted only 3 weeks; it was a BBB Industries new one, from RockAuto. Today when I started it, it was making a sound I have never heard in my car before. I went inside to put the keys to my wife's car back inside after moving hers, and by the time I got back outside, my old Maxima had died and wouldn't restart. From research on here, it sounds like the starter solenoid/gear didn't disengage and it burned itself out. It didn't make a click or anything, when I tried to restart it. I removed it and sent it back for a replacement under warranty.
I put the old one back in and it gives just a single click when the ignition key is turned, which is what it was doing before I replaced it. I am thinking of adding grounds as Crazy97 and so many others did in this thread and I might even try rebuilding the old one while the RockAuto one is in shipment.
I had a thought as I read through all of these pages. Today was a rainy, cool morning and my clutch pedal doesn't come back up without help until a few minutes into driving it, normally. I'm thinking maybe it was that the clutch didn't pop back up and may have left the switch under it engaged, where the starter thought it still wasn't started. I don't remember what the switch is called. Anyhow, it was very early and I wasn't fully awake, so I probably didn't realize if the pedal was still on the floor. Does that sound like a possible reason why the starter would make a whirring noise and then burn out?
I'm not ready to get rid of my Maxima yet because I only use it for weekend errands and it's been awesome for so long. I've had it since 1999 and it has 215,600 miles. I've replaced so many things over all these years but in the past 8 months, have done the alternator, 4 new tires, control arms and tie rid ends, a battery, and now this starter, so I was hoping to get at least another year out of her.
Does anyone have any thoughts about the immobilizer switch, or whatever the thing under the clutch pedal is called? Could it cause the starter to think it was not started and make it burn itself out? If I add clutch fluid and the pedal works normally again, maybe that will rule out the switch.
Thanks in advance for any replies!

mikeg75

I have the replacement BBB Industries starter installed and it’s working.

I spent a couple hours sanding and brushing grounds / cable ends / screws / washers.

i sanded the mating surface where the starter attaches.

I don’t think it sounds like it should, after all the extra cleaning. There seems to be a slight hesitation.

Guess I’ll try the extra grounds that are the main conclusion in this thread.

mikeg75

To give an update after installing the new starter and thoroughly cleaning every ground, mating surface, and screw, the new starter has been 100% fine for the past 7-8 months.

KP11520

Thanks for following up! It gives those looking for answers what has actually worked for others! And much too rare!

ptatohed

iTrader: (12)

Awesome!