I have a 98 maxima, and have been experiencing a new problem i cant figure out. When i start my car it fires up fine, but will somtimes die unless i give it gas for a few seconds. I took it to a mechanic at the dealership but he said there was nothing wrong, and of course the problem wont happen while hes looking at it.. What do i need to replace to fix this?

 

It is definitly not the battery, or the starter..

 

maf sensor?

 

You ought to have better luck here: http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...a-1995-1999-6/

 

It's not such a crazy problem, it's fairly common. When's the last time you cleaned the TB and IACV?

 

yes iac valve i had that prob especially in the winter when its cold that is annoying , although i had an engine light on with mine, but i went crazy with that one

 

you could have bad spark plugs, have you checked those yet?

 

coilpacks/maf.

 

Sounds like your ECU to me. I have the same problem. I replaced the ECU last year with a used part and that fixed it until this ECU broke. It is not worth fixing again as I can still get the car started.

 

yea snypa is probably right. my first guess was MAF


you SHOULD just go ahead and clean the TB and IACV. it cant hurt anything, and it could also be the source of your problem.

and yea a fouled plug or two could also be the cause.


either way i would start with plugs and a TB/IACV cleaning. they are cheap and easy and take relatively little time to do.

if that doesnt work, then i would start messing with the MAF (the reason i save this for last is because a) its expensive and b) there is a lot of room to mess things up- its pretty sensitive)

 

Dude, sounds like ECU is NOT your problem.

OP: Maf/dirty TB

 

how much would a shop charge for a TB/IACV cleaning?

 

Quick way to check. Unplug your MAF Sensor. (Your car might die. Start it back up and it should still run but should bog really bad @ 3k rpms.). Plug your MAF Sensor back in, if your car starts acting like it's going to die (Like the problems you have been experiencing), or actually does die, then this is most definitely your problem.

The MAF dying problem will be on and off. One day it works fine all day long. A month later bam it dies on you while you're on the highway and you have to cruise to a stop without power steering with your hazard lights on and you're trying to start the car but it won't start so you just have to keep cruising to the side while, luckily, your ignition is still on to give you enough braking power to come to a complete stop! Yes, it happened once.

 

I had similar a while back.. the steps could be with minimal cost
1) MAF cleaner -- there is writeup (cleaner about 5$)
2) Thottle cleaner -- if you take the whole throttle cleaner then you need to buy throttle gasket ($3 at dealer) in addition to the throttle cleared ($5)-thereis writeup
3) IACV -there is writeup(cleaner about 5$) and you NEED gasket ($3 at dealer). there is write up

as you can see with under 25$ + your time you can do this.. before you take it to the dealer

 

all the maintenance been done?

such as, is your fuel filter and air filter good?

if the car starts and runs I would guess more or less everything is ok, but there is a restriction somewhere. TB sticking, fuel not getting there, air not getting there.

MAF is certainly a possibility

 

Do a tune up on it. Oil change, air filter, plugs, wires (if applicable), fuel filter, and run Sea Foam through your engine. It will clean all the carbon build up and deposits off of everything. Once you do that, check your ECU for codes. I would think that with a OBD2 car that anything that is not working properly would show up. If that does not work, try cleaning the IACV, TB and MAFS. Also, a coolant temp sensor is cheap from Advance and will help more than you think (just get the one that goes to the ECU(two prong) not to the gauge (one prong)). That should help out a lot man. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

Wow .... what useless advice.
What would cause your ECU to go bad in the first place? This is not a comon wear part on any car! If you're going to offer advice like this, you'll be better off keeping it to yourself. Or ... suffer the dance you'll get.

To the OP;
I'd try cleaning the TB (gasket is only ~$4 or so at Autozone) and see if that helps. I would suspect new plugs would help a lot too. Can't hurt. Try that and if it persists, then go deaper.

 

I would guess IACV not letting it idle?

 

my money is on the dirty TB. messed with me 2 years ago and after cleaning there's no more hesitation on start up.

 

i just fixed that problem on my 96, it was my iacv, and my maf....i cleaned the iacv and got a new maf, car runs great now, also cleaned my egr, and the car runs stronger than ever

my car still hesitated to start i donno y anyone with any advice about that, someone said it might be the coilpacks

 

well it did happen to me till i **** my car even more soo i think is some thing whit the battery, or the starter or Alternator is something electrcal soo good luck