Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

Last night my beater 95 maxima (not the turbo one) wouldn't start. It's a 5spd manual.

I went to go start it late last night and it had battery power, the dashboard lit up bright as normal, no lights or anything were left on - so it wasn't a dead battery. I turned the key and got nothing, no solenoid clicking, nothing. The dash lights stayed on as if nothing happened when I turned the key. I went out and got under the hood really quickly and unhooked the positive battery terminal and hooked it back up, because I've been having another intermittent starting problem which I'll describe in a minute. I hooked the positive terminal back up and went to try to start it again. This time the dash lights came on, when I turned the key I DID get a single solenoid click THIS time, but still no start. The dash lights stayed on and didn't dim or anything when I turned the key. That's my most recent starting problem.

Now this morning - about 14 hours after I had my starting problem last night - I went out to start troubleshooting and decided to give it a try. Thing started up on the first try without any problem whatsoever. So the problem I'm having is obviously intermittent.

Read on for the continuing issue I've been having over the last 9 months maybe a year.

Over the last 9-12 months I've been having two issues while trying to crank the car (bear in mind my battery has been good through all of this, the battery is very strong and turns over my other maxima without hesitation).

The first problem that started probably 9-12 months ago was that while cranking the car, it would start to crank with the starter engaged and then it would "miss a beat" or "hiccup" as I continued to engage the starter. That's the best way I can describe it. It would be the smooth rhythmic cranking of the starter and then it'd hiccup. Some times it would just continue cranking when I held the key in the start position but sometimes it would hiccup bad enough that I'd want to let off the key and then try again. Anyhow, it never prevented it from starting, it just took a little more cranking to start. It DOES NOT do this every time - I'd say it does it 50% of the time. The rest of the time it started without a hiccup.

THEN about 6 months ago for the first time it completely failed to start on me. I put the key in and the dash lights came on with the key in the ON position, went to crank it, and I got a solenoid click and the dash lights immediately went out and I lost all electrical power in the car. Further attempts to crank it resulted in nothing, no dash lights came on, no solenoid click, nothing. It was as if the car had no battery in it. After a few minutes of cursing the car I went under the hood and decided to try disconnecting the positive terminal and reconnecting it. That worked. As soon as I did that and tried to start it again it started like a champ. It has done this scenario like 2 times in the past 6 months, both times it started up just fine after I disconnected the positive battery terminal and then reconnected it.

So what do you guys think? Do you think the problems are related? What's your instinct - starter? Ignition switch? Something else? Remember the problem I had last night was dash lights ON, NO solenoid click, NO crank when trying to start. Then I disconnected the battery, got dash lights ON, single solenoid click but dash lights stayed on, but didn't start. Then this morning without any further changes or work on the car, it started up perfectly. The previous issues I'd been having were starting "hiccups" during the cranking process, and twice I go a solenoid click and then appeared to lose all power completely - the dash lights went OFF and I had to disconnect the battery to reestablish power - then it started right up after reconnecting the battery.

bear in mind I haven't done any research on this problem because previous starting problems had all been remedied by just disconnecting the battery terminal but I'm about to start researching because last night the battery terminal trick didn't work. It seemed to fix itself overnight.

matty

iTrader: (54)

I would say your problem today is your Ignition Switch. It will show its head very spuratically, and very intermitant. Definetly change that cause its about a $25 part and about 5 minutes worth of time to do it.

-matt

hiren_patel_83

iTrader: (2)

i had the same problem I put a new starter and it works perfect now.

chillin014

iTrader: (67)

I probably dont have any advice but I've been having the same problem. sort-of. after i 5 speed swapped my car stalls at random times or might not start. intermittent problems are obnoxious.
I dont know about your car, but mine has absolutely terrible terminal connections on the cables, i'm going to re-do those and get a new battery and see if it stops.
I put a voltmeter on my battery terminals while it was running and it read 12.XX or something like that if i remember correctly.
but my car wil stall while its running, and i go and take off and put back on the positive terminal and everything works fine....very frusterating to do in traffic.
what kind of battery do you have?

edit- my starter is brand new..changed it with the 3.5 swap when i was having starting problems as well..the old starter was tested and verified to be bad. The ignition switch is about a year old as well.. ignition switch did not give me clicking solenoids, the lights would go out in the dash and nothing from the engine bay..so this might be your problem...maybe you've got 2 problems haha.

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

Ignition switch is definitely a very likely culprit. If it's not making contact in either ACC or IGN, it's as if there's not a key in it - hence the no lights or anything. When my ign switch fuse in the engine bay popped a while back, same thing happened, no lights or anything.

Noladol

How much is a new ignition switch?

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

$30.25 + s/h from Courtesy Nissan.

EDIT: Nissan P/N 48750-1E411

schreiber117

instructions anywhere for installing this?

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

10 screws, 2 bolts, 15 minutes. Pretty damn easy- remove lower dash panel, crash bar, steering column cover, r&r ignition switch, replace all of above. Tools? 10mm wrench, a small and a long phillips screwdriver. From my pricing around town, dealer is cheapest.