ok so I went and got a code scanner and came up with the following codes 215 vent control valve( not sure what that is) ,304 knock sensor,401 intake air sensor,704 evap emis pressure, the 401 and 704 wont effect the start or running not sure what the 215 is and I don't believe the ks will keep it from running I reset/erased all codes and cranked on it and all that came back up was the 401 with the cam sesnor being 40 ohms under spec would that be enough to cause all of these problems?

 

a faulty cam sensor or one thats one its way out will cause a no start that how i got my 4th gen friend couldnt get it to run he already had a new car so 100 bucks and he gave it to me i had a wrecked 98 that i was parting out swapped in cam sensor and it fired up since i have had to replace a few things like ks, ects, maf clutch small things

 

This thread belongs in a sticky

 

I had 1998 maxima, It's very hard to start in the cold morning,
I had gas pedal down to floor and hold the crank, then engine
start...... What wrong ???, any Idea would be appreciated. Thanks

 

fuel pressure regulator or engine coolant tempature sensor would be my first 2 guesses

 

Ok guys, I'm the latest to fall victim to the infamous no spark but cranks problem however my circumstances are a bit different. I've got a 1998 SE that I blew the motor in a couple of weeks ago(sad I know) and picked up another VQ30 from the local junk yard. I swapped all harnesses, sensors, coils, and hoses I could from the blown motor since I knew they were working prior to blowing the engine. I got the motor swapped and went to start the car and It just cranks and cranks. Checked and I'm getting no spark, I've got fuel though. Read this entire thread and have checked the CRNK POS & REF sensors, and also the cam sensor, and replaced the ones that didn't meet the correct specs. I'm pretty much all out of ideas, I was wondering if it could be the grounds I don't know if there's another, but to my knowledge the main one is the one under the intake manifold which I've tried cleaning and still have the same problem. I got no CEL on and no vacuum leaks from what I can tell. Hopefully you guys can help!

 

did u clean the mating surface between the engine and tranny. Gotta sand that bish down and get it clean or you GONNA have hard starting.

It def sounds electrical in nature.

Add some grounds. most notably, add a ground from the negative battery terminal to a bolt on the tranny.

 

I tried grounding to the trans, even saw a post on here to take jumpers and connect the negative to the battery and the other to a bolt on the Trans but dont connect/let the positives touch and still nothing. I checked the coil connectors today and got good grounds/voltage so i guess they just arent being told to fire?

 

Okay i am having a similar issue. No spark, cel throwing a P1320 (primary ignition circuit fault) swapped BOTH ckps' and cps..... Ecm, ALL 6 coils, and still just cranks all day.

Wouldnt a bad ignition switch cause the starter not to crank? Could it be an alarm system issue?

I need OPINIONS!

 

Anybody?

 

The security light should be blinking when armed. Not solid or dark. If it's one of those things, might be security related. I was down to checking the computer ground on my 97 GLE, which is near the battery tray. They say also one of the large fusible links, the ECCS in the engine bay.

 

Get a copy of the FSM and start searching fusible links. Make sure they all good. U got an electrical problem my friend and those are the worst kind.

 

This needs to be a sticky, Just sayin =]

 

Turned out to b the ECU, but still thanks for all the help/info. Even though it wasn't the issue still the knowledge here is invaluable

 

hey guys-
ive got a problem that sounds alot like what youre talking about here..
car will start 8 times out of 10, but those 2 times it tries, but wont. then when you turn the key again it starts fine.
has a new starter, checked the ignition switch- does this sound like its either the fuel pump of cam shaft sensor??
thx

 

I’ve got a similar problem with my 2000 I30, and have been following the thread for a while, and wanted to see if anyone has any ideas.

What happens is when i try to start the car, it cranks and cranks, nothing happens. If i remove the negative terminal from the car and attach a jumper cable to the bolt near the CAM Shaft Senor to the battery, i can get it to start 60 percent of the time. Then i can remove the jumpers and install the negitive on the battery.

So i replaced the negative battery terminal. I grounded it to the body, and grounded it to the engine bolt. The Engine bolt is also grounded to the Tranny Bolt. I also changed the battery to a stronger battery to make sure that wasn’t the issue. I re-sanded the engine, tranny and chassis bolts and surfaces at the ground points. I tried to crank the car no go. I don’t think the CAM or Crankshaft Sensors are bad because I was able to turn on the car using the jumper cables attached to another cars battery. It wasn't easy to start took over 20 mins of trying. Once on we drove this car from Jacksonville Florida to Atlanta GA nonstop without any issues. This is what originally made me think it was a grounding issue, seemed like it grounded off the other car and started.

I have tried adding grounds all over the place using my jumper cables, to the manifold, to the starter wires on the told, and that works sometimes as well to start it. I have noticed I can create a start more often if I don’t ground the engine block to the same bolt as the battery. I did try this and It worked, but 3 or 4 hours later I lost complete power to the car, which didn’t make any sense. One thing i want to add that the engine is this I30 was replaced by a mechanic in Jax, I do think its a grounding issue, just not sure why grounding it doesnt make it start all the time.

The problem isnt consistant, which is the issue, I cant reproduce the start 100 percent of the time, more often i can even start at all, so im not sure whats happening, or what i need to replace. Any Suggestions.

Sry if im Hi-Jacking the thread..

Also wanted to Add that the starter is less than a year old

 

chaos,

Have you changed the Crankshaft sensor (POS) that's located on the bellhousing? Could be bad. There is a test for this sensor in the Factory Service Manual (and the Chilton books too.) The starter needs to turn the engine over FAST, that's why the cars start sometimes. There is a certain number of counts that the this sensor needs to get to the ECU. My sensor was bad, but still started most of the time. In my case, I had replaced the starter brushes, but it still wouldn't start. I ended up changing the starter. Mine is a manual tranny, and push-starting and popping the clutch, it would run great.

Good luck,

Mike

 

Thanks Mike

Ill pull it out over the weekend and check it out

 

Problem solved, at least I think it is.

So i took out all the Sensors this weekend, Both the Crankshaft Sensors, RES and POS, and the CAM Sensor, and cleaned them all. I wanted to make sure that it didn't start with just cleaning them before I bought new ones... but it didnt start.

Just out of curiosity I connected the negative battery terminal to a bold near the CAM sensor with a jumper cable. Without the cars ground attached to the battery, and the car turned over very easy. Thinking that this might be random i turned it off and tried again. It worked. Made me start thinking about grounds again. Then i remembered i saw a video on youtube where the guy said to ground the transmission near the CPS, 17mm bolt.

The way my car is setup is Battery Neg Term to Car Ground Then to Engine Block and it ends on the Transmission Bolt. I removed the Engine to Transmission Bolt Ground, it was this crappy looking cable anyway, and ran a new from from the Transmission Bolt to the Negative Battery Term, 4 Gauge.

Sure enough the car starts without hesitation after doing so. Im thinking about cleaning it up and grounding the transmission to the body somewhere instead of the battery.

 

just replaced ignition lock and keys on 05' maxima..dealer said there was no need to program new lock/keys but now my car will not fully turnover???? the securtity light stays lit in the on position..any ideas before i have it towed to dealer. thank you so very much!

 

For almost a year, my 1996 Maxima gradually took longer and longer to start up. It had a strong crank so knew it was not a battery or starter problem. I took it to my mechanic and he checked fuel pressure and that was ok. He then installed the ignition switch that I had bought from Nissan several months earlier, and it cranked up pretty quickly. Drove it home and next morning, long cranking to start. Finally after taking longer and longer to start over the next few days, it just quit cranking. Several members on this forum had fixed this problem with a new camshaft sensor, so used a multimeter to test the camshaft, and it was below specs (was 775 ohms and should be 1440-1760 on my Hitachi sensor and much higher on a Mitsubishi sensor, as noted in the Haynes manual on p. 6-15). So I bought a new camshaft sensor from Nissan and a novice mechanic that I am installed in it in about 15 minutes. It cranked right up and I have not had any starting problems since 6/09 with 191,000 miles and now it has 225,000 miles.
Unforunately, now I have CEL code 150 and plan to replace both front O2 sensors (Auto Zone has them for $80 each vs. $132 at Nissan). The bank 2 sensor that is causing the code is original factory, and the other front sensor was replaced at 131,000 miles. I guess I got my money's worth on these sensors. By the way, I ignored a strong gas smell outside the cars for months and probably should have replaced the 02 sensors long ago. I just hope I have not killed the cat converter in the process. I do not know if I can justify replacing the pricey cat, plus the timing noise started just recently and man, is that a costly fix!!! Sorry for the long-winded post!

 

My car started doing this when I bought it Sept 10. I ran a ground from the starter to the spot on the block where the main ground is. Problem when away for a long time. About a month ago I replaced my alternator and the problem started up again. I checked all the sensors that are common problems, redid the ground from tranny bolt to the negative terminal, nothing would fix it. Finally I moved the ground from the tranny bolt to the starter and the problem is now gone. Hope this helped someone

 

I have a 95 nissan maxima and it will only run when push started. I have new starter on engine will turn over with key but wont start. It runs on all cylinders when running but when i try to key start it the number one coil pack(bottom left) doesn't get spark. What do i do to fix problem?

 

Sorry for hi-jacking like others but don't want to start another tread.

My 97 SE had a Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected (P0300) due to a o-ring leak on #5 cylinder and was replaced. I decided to replace vavle cover, o-rings, intake manifold gaskets, battery, starter, coils, spark plugs, cam sensor, crank sensor, knock sensor, intake filter and now the car will not start. It gets spark, air, and fuel but doesn't want to turn over. I've also tried cleaning IACV and still nothing. I'm getting frustrated and thinking about taking it to the dealer since it's the family car.

Any helpful info would be appreciated?

 

Thinking eithe the Cam or Crank sensor is the issue. May not be getting fuel and spark at the correct times. The only way it wont start is you are getting fuel, air and spark is if the timing is off

 

Had virtually the same issue. Finally replaced the crank sensor (though it tested fine) at the engine/transmission junction and have had no problem.

 

Yup sounds electrical in nature.

Clean grounds on Intake manifold. Add a ground wire from the negative battery terminal to a bolt tranny housing.

Did u replace with all new or Junkyard parts? HAve u tried reinstallin old parts.

 

+1.

 

New parts from Dealer (believe me I fell like killing myself). I'm gonna add more ground wires this Sunday and hopelly it works.

 

ok then which crank sensor did u replace. The tranny side crank sensor is usually the hard start culprit.

 

thats what did it for me

 

next to pulley. I'm gonna add more ground wiring this weekend.

 

Update on this and still not start. I added more ground wires and still just a hard start. This is probably a major electrical issue.

 

U added the pulley side CKPS?? That was the wrong one. Replace the CKPS on the tranny side/ rear of engine. Its inserted in the lower part of the engine towards the flywheel.

Do a SEARCH man, I think the thread is by WXM and there is a pic of what ground u need to add.

 

DER, did that one also man. Why you so uptight brotha!

 

ok i have a 97 5 speed and now i have a similar but different problem. the car will crank all day literally the battery just wont die but it wot start. i checked to see if i have spark and i do. my maf is not new but it is working and a tried a spare that i had. i replaced both ckps and cmps no luck. i did noticed when i take out the plugs to see how they look which by the way were just replace 3 weeks ago and still clean, is that i didn't smell any gas they were dry. so i thought it could be the fuel pump but i am trying to avoid that. there is pressure after the fuel filter seeing as my friend disconnected the line while it was still pressurized(dumb ***) then i went and changed the pressure regulator. still no start. after all was done i bought my self a can of starter fluid and sprayed it into the throttle body and she fired right up after it warms up and i try to start it it takes a long time but eventually starts after giving gas. i don't want to keep using the starter fluid as it will make problems in the future. please someone shine some light

there are three codes for egr,evap,and bank 1 sensor 2 o2 sensor which i had changed but never went away. all the fuses are good i hooked up a ground on the tranny bolt next to the ckps by the tranny. no start. fuel pump does energize as i can hear it before i crank it.keep in mind when she turns on it runs great. as i even took it to 136 last night to put a camaro in check. i did also let it run down hill and pop the clutch and started right up. his is so confusing.

 

i just tested the injectors and they test good checked the temp sensor as well. coil packs. i even jusmped the injectors to get some fuel in the cylinders and it fired up but i ended up flooding it but it just burned away. no prob. tested the tps and it withing specs. i have the throttle body off to clean and paint it and waiting for it to cool off to start testing again.

 

i did notice the car started quicker but i have to wait till it fully cools to see if it starts up normal. ill keep updating

 

ok so after i cleaned the throttle body i put everything together and cranked it. after 2-3 sec she started. i let it warm up and test drove it everyting normal. i shut it off and restarted it, started up the same. so now there is no difference between temp. i think what had happen was that the vaccum line to the pressure regulator is sourced at the throttle body so over time it became so dirty it clogged up. after cleaning it the vacuum can now open and let fuel in. ill keep this updating just in case some one else has the saqme problem and see if it still starts later tonight.

 

Adding a ground wire from the chassis ground below the battery to the lower tranny bolt near the rear cps worked for me after no start for months with no resolution. Clearly, the ground between the tranny and engine was no good.