Hey guys! Before I buy the cabling for this grounding solution, I just wanted to make sure that it fits the symptoms of my car...I read the whole thread, and most people seem to have a slightly different starting problem.

If it (my 96GLE) has been sitting more than a few hours, it takes more than 5 times to start. The starter engages and the engine cranks, but it never turns over, even if I let it crank for 30 seconds. I usually just try for 5 seconds. The 3rd or 4th time it starts to start, sputters, and then dies again. Finally it will start, and if I shut the car off and wait less than about an hour, it starts fine. If I wait over a few hours, it gets progressively worse.

I just replaced fuel pump and fuel regulator (mechanic thought there was a faulty check valve allowing the fuel to flow back out of the lines...), replaced plugs, battery a couple months ago, starter 25K miles ago...and still has trouble starting. Someone in another thread said it could be the ignition switch...but I'm hoping it is the grounding wires =)

 

Hey guys, I am really appreciated all the contributors for this thread. Lately I have some starter problem too. Anyway, tonight I am getting a new starter, but I have another question.

In the last couple years, my '97 SE (auto) has this weird starting problem. Sometimes it won't start when it is in P. I have to shift it to N before it starts normally. This happens more frequently when the car is warm (e.g. many times it won't start after I fillup at a gas station).

Can it related to this grounding issue?

 

It couldn't hurt just to run a wire from the starter to the neg cable and hope for the best.

 

This solved my hard starting prob also (didn't have it before, only started happening right after I took off the intake manifold to change the rear injectors)

Already have the BlehmCo grounding kit, but I bought some more wire and ring terminals at Home Depot for this. The 8 gauge wire was 65 cents/ft and I told the guy I wanted 10 ft so that I could ground my car (they cut out how many feet you need). Since the roll of wire they had was almost done with, the guy working there gave me the rest of the roll for the price of 10ft (basically got ~20ft of wire they had left for $6.50 lol)

They didn't have 8 gauge ring terminals so I just took the 10 gauge ones ($7 for a 50-pk) since the 6 gauge terminals were too expensive ($3 for a 3-pk). Ended up folding the outer part of the wire so that the inner part would fit in the terminals (there are lots of mini copper wires inside so you can easily bend or break the outer layer). I just bent them and used electrical tape to cover it & the yellow connectors up (black wire + yellow connector = ugly)

Couldn't do the tranny bolt so I just did the starter to battery and then the alternator to battery (already have an alternator to engine ground wire connected from previous kit). Also cleaned & regrounded the stock grounds

Long 5-10 sec hard starts are gone and now it starts up fine like before. Since I have plenty of wire and terminals left, I'll add a couple of more grounds later on

 

Good to hear! You don't have to worry about the tranny bolt, grounding the starter is enough.

 

Hard starts are back Started happening after the car sat for a few days

Will try regrounding everything since that worked last time lol

 

Hi guys, I would really appreciate any advice on how to get my car started. I have a 97 GLE Auto. The car was running fine but was having some hesitation when trying to start it. I drove it today to the store than when I came out it would not start at all. I had to have it towed back and now it is sitting in my driveway.

There is a "Errrrrr, Errrrr" type noise coming from the unit pictured below, I'm not sure what it is... do I need to go ahead and replace that? I read about the grounding wire to the starter and to the tranny, I already bought some 8 guage wire and will try it tommorrow but could it be something more like a bad starter? I tried to use a screw driver and connect the wire and the starter together while turning the car on and it still did not start which is making me think it is not the starter causing the problem. Please guy I hate having to go to the mechanic and spend money I can't afford all because of this. The car runs great I just need to figure out how to get it to start. Thanks.



Edit: Battery works fine and I checked all the fuses....

 

Does it really makes a difference with the grounding wire gauge thickness

 

Just about, but theres more I should have added. It still wasn't perfect, but pretty close. So I dissasemmbled the black connector where the small ground wirre on the tranny is, and it looked HORRIBLE inside, so I made it look like brand new and then put it back togethor, and sanded the tab on the tranny to, then it was completely gone. BUT HERE'S THE KICKER..... If you hear a weird sound coming from your muffler when you romp it, after having this problem, it's because your muffler has turned into a bomb from all the cranking with no spark. It will also foul your plugs. wtf.

Wow, can't beleive this thread is still going.

 

Yes it did for me. The bigger the better.

 

This thread is still going, and it should. More and more maxes are going to have this problem as the get older and not being able to have your car start makes the car junk. So, hopefully anyone having this problem will still see this thread and keep from junking there car.

BTW, my plugs also fouled up really bad, but the plugs WILL clean up on there own after driving it for a few days.

 

So run a cable from negative terminal of the battery to the starter? I have EXACTLY same problem. Thought it was ignition switch, changed it, wasnt it. Im hoping its the cables!

 

Yes negitive terminal to the starter mounting bolt. I used the left starter bolt with a 3/8 connector.

 

Ok I got a 6 gauge wire, and 2 copper 3/8th connectors

I unscrewed left starter bolt, put the connector on the bolt and screwed it back in nice and tight. Then I unscrewed the battery negative terminal competly and put the copper connector on the screw and screwed it back on.

Starting is MUCH better but still out of 5 times 4 times were perfect start and then NOOOO same thing. starter would turn-pause turn again then pause.

Do I need to ground my tranny and another ground from starter? Cheers!

 

I ran 3, I ran 1 from motor to G, bellhousing to G, bellhousing/starter to G, and I might have even ran a 4th one from bellhousing to motor. G=under battery tray, existing ground, w/longer bolt (I had to 'ream' out the holes on the wallmart lawnmower cables also) Basically I just went silly and grounded the **** out of it.

 

Does more grounding makes a difference?

 

you'd have to ask my car, but I doubt she'll give you a straight answer, she's still pretty high off the laughing gas. No seriously though, I don't know, but it only cost a few more bucks and took a few more minutes.

 

YES!

My starter needed 4 wires running off of it to cure troubles. I had the random starting issues until I added 2 more 8ga wires and ran them straight to the negitive cable.

 

OK Im going to take apart the top again and add more grounds to the starter. Im becoming familiar with the insides of the car. Cheers!

 

so i did the starter ground like in feb and it helped alot with my grounding kit but it still had quite sum trouble starting but i was too lazy to get under the car to do the one to the transmission so delt with it i just finally did the transmission ground sunday morning and it starts up right away im glad i was so lazy to do sumthing that took 2 mins if that again guys thanx for the thread cuz last year i was bout to sell the car before this post came up it has made me love my maxima again and smile everytime it starts up

 

this is my first post on this website, actually, i just signed up today. I had the same exacpt problem everyone else had. Luckily, i didnt change too many parts before i found this post. I put in some extra ground cables today, and problem solved. It doesnt make much sense to me that this would fix the problem with the symptoms i was having, but it did. I would just like to thank everyone for pposting all this, you saved me hundred if not thousands of dollars

 

Good to hear! This is more common than peolple realize. There should be a section in the stickies for starting problems with this thread included.

 

I also had trouble starting my car and it was getting progressively worse. Replaced the starter (at 160K miles a logical idea) and it was better but still not quite right. Then over a few weeks time the car became harder and harder to start and my wife wouldn't even take it anywhere for fear she wouldn't be able to start it (maybe this was a good thing). Connecting a 10 gauge wire from the negative pole of the battery to the 14 mm bolt on the starter completely fixed my problem. Car starts up instantly and reliably. Amazing that less than $10 worth of stuff from NAPA and 45 minutes of time could fix months of frustration!

 

Another one fixed!

 

Mine has been fixed for many months now and I am still grateful for this thread each time she starts over. I don't take it for granted. What's funny is I originally used household AC solid copper wires just because I wanted to see if it solved my problem before I spent money (what?... a whopping $4? - lol) on "good wiring". Well, I still have the solid copper wires in there! lol

 

Ya me too - before investing a whole $10 (I'm apparently a bigger spender than you) in NAPA connectors and wire I actually cut up a piece of broken extension cord I had lying around and hooked up the starter to the negative pole on the battery just to see if it would fix things. I was just really curious and used whatever was lying around. The next day I did it right. By the way in my post a couple of days ago I forgot to mention that I had a clutch job done a few months back and the starter problem got worse after that. Some other people had mentioned that and I just remembered my clutch job. Grounding issues sure are funny sometimes.

 

Ah, you did have the tranny removed then. I was wondering how a Texas car would develop a grounding issue. Makes sense now. Mine went crazy one week after my clutch was replaced.

 

I'm still having the occasional hard start after running 4 gauge wiring from battery to starter and then the starter to bottom of the tranny (2 wires total). I do remember adding these wires helped but it did not cure.

But my main problem is that the starter will not engage (just spins...doesn't turn the engine over). This has been getting progressively worse (though the hard starts are about the same). Would more ground wires help the spinning issue as well? Where else should I add wires (or is the single 4 gauge wire not enough?).

 

I'm guessing that your starter may have something wrong with it for it not to engage. Maybe regreasing it could help-

http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/516

 

Forgot to mention that I tried that. Seemed like it helped a bit. Maybe the grease I put on it is having adverse effects on the process now that it's getting cold. I don't recall the kind of grease though...

I called a local starter place and got a quote of 110 to have it rebuilt. That's about how much I'd pay for one from autozone...

 

it's to bad, I wonder how many stick maxima's out there have this problem..... I'm gonna start keeping my out in the want ad for 5-speeds that have unfixable starting problems......

 

Delayed Start

Something new has happened to me this past week...

When i go to start the car, i turn the key all the way and nothing happens. If i hold it there for about 2-3 seconds, it starts to "start" normally.

I find it strange. The first time I didnt hold it in, i released the key and tried it a second time. It still starts but the delay is bothering me. Doesnt seem normal.


Anyone else experience this?

 

Ignition switch (~$30)

www.nissanpartsonline.net has it for ~$28 shipped or just buy it locally for $30-$35

 

Whats wrong with it though? Im sure its weekend warrior fixable.

 

Buy a new one since its cheap... Or you can try to resolder the wires on it (I just bought a new one like other people on here)

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....gnition+switch

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....gnition+switch
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....gnition+switch
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....gnition+switch
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....gnition+switch
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....gnition+switch

 

hello i am new to this forum, PLEASE HELP, i have that start problem and want to connect the starter to the battery to ground it, i have a 97 max gxe auto tranny

i dont know where my starter is or even what it looks like, it said somewhere here that u must take out the intake , i cant take it out, should i also remove the battery ? and do i HAVE to ground the tranny pan as well or its not nesessary ? PLEASE HELP NEWBIE

 

Why can't you take out the stock intake? undo the 4 clamps around the filter housing (they just pop off) and undo the connector at the throttle body (screw driver I believe). Then disconnect the 3 hoses (2 big one small) connected to the intake. You don't have to remove the battery (much easier to remove the intake).

They all recommend doing the grounding upgrade in atleast 2 pieces. One that goes from the ground on the battery to the 14mm starter bolt closest to the front of the car. Then from there to one of the bolts that holds the tranny case together (12mm I believe).

I think I'm about to get a full grounding kit and mount it up in there as I'm still having issues. If that doesn't work, it's a new starter for me (as my problem also involves the starter not fully engaging and the engine not turning over, just the starter spinning). I'll see if the full ground upgrade kit works but I have a feeling I just need a new starter...

 

Is this process resolve the starting noise. main also having same probelms

 

It fixed my problems. Does your car crank funny or what is it doing exactly. If you mean by starter noise when your car makes noise a few seconds after it starts then no, this is not a fix for that. This fixed my hard starts, sometimes it almost didn't start. This problem is most commen after tranny or clutch work was done to your car.

 

This may be a stupid question, because I haven't surveyed under the hood yet, but why run this extra ground wire back to the negative terminal on the battery? Why not run it from the 14mm bolt to the ground point for the battery negative cable (other end of the cable)? Thanks in adance.