My cousin has a 97 Maxima. Recently, it started having cold start issues here in Illinois.

Here are the symptoms. He said the car turns over strong but will not start until almost the point of flooding the engine, then the car fires up. He said as the car is trying to start, it backfires like crazy and when the car finally fires up, water coming shooting out the tailpipe.

He's changed the fuel injectors, spark plugs, O2 sensors, etc. Battery is a year old. There are no codes.

Any ideas on what is causing this?

 

Clean the throttle body.

 

and IACV
change fuel filter

 

I have the cold start issue and researched it for weeks.... can't find a solution..

I think I've done all the things the folks at this site came up with. Clean TB, IVAC, grounding all elec points, Fuel Pressure valve..etc - no cigar.

The one thing that seems to be working ok.. is steping down on the gas pedal and then turing the key. As soon as the engine catches, let go of the gas. It has worked so far when it's cold. Only few times it sounded like it was not working - But then again, it have not been that cold that I think temp would cause the "cold start" issue - so not really evidence of a solution. It's probably in my head as I pray each time.

 

I had the same issue for what is now the second winter. Did the TB and IVAC cleaning last year and just now this year...then the ECM died.

I'm not saying that the TB and IVAC cleaning did it. I'm just saying that you have something else to keep your eye on. My car finally stopped starting, it would only crank.

 

My 95 does the same. Iv'e been meaning to get around to cleaning my IVAC but how often should the TB be cleaned?

 

USe MAF cleaner on the MAF too. The prob with the MAF sensor is that if its dirty, u wont get any codes, but u will get poor driveability, rough idle, starting issues. THe CEL will come on for the MAF if its not sending a signal. But if its dirty, the MAF will still send signals to the ECM, but it will be the wrong signals. THe MAF is very critical on these cars.

I was having starting issues...cleaned the MAF, TB, and checked the resitivity of all the sensors I cd find. All senors checked out fine.

After the cleaning ...car starts like a champ.

If all the sensors check out fine...then the ECM is faulty.

 

has anybody in this thread changed their ECTS?

 

Is the cold start problem similar to sputtering?