Hello, I have been having a lingering problem with my 97 maxima. For the past year now, the car would start up perfectly some days, and other days would just make a clicking sound of the relay and then randomly start fine after a few tries. However, in the past weeks, the problem has gotten worst and become more frequent. Turning the key would just making the clicking sound of the relays. I have:

1. Replaced the battery
2. Replaced the ignition switch
3. Replaced the starter
4. Replaced the 3 relays by the steering wheel
5. Polished the engine ground terminal
6. Added a ground wire to the transmission
7. Replaced a 75A battery ignition fuse that was corroded

After doing all of these, the car still has the same problem. Turn the key... and I get a click. Sometimes, it will randomly fire up like there was never a problem. The only thing that works consistently and starts up the car every single time is when I add a wire that connects to the negative terminal of the battery to the ground terminal of the starter. This will always work and allows the car to startup each time. The issue with this method is that the "jumper" wire heats up incredibly during start up... to the point that a large puff of smoke is given off. The wire usually melts after a few days so I am trying to find a more reliable solution. Could it be a bad ground wire from the battery to the starter? Any other ideas?

 

Im a little confused here cause i didnt know the starter had a negative terminal. The starter grounds out when attached to the transmission. You mentioned that you changed the starter already and cleaned the ground from battery to tranny, but before you installed the starter did you clean both mating surfaces with coarse sandpaper or steel wool? Cause it sounds like your starter is not getting a decent ground. From battery to starter is positive. not negative.


EDIT: never mind I see what you are referring to about Ground.

 

If you've cleaned the trans GND wire surface and the starter still only works with an additional GND wire added to it then it sounds like it's not getting enough voltage. Since you have a new battery I would give the POS wire a check. Remove it from the solenoid switch and give it cleaning.

When you replaced the starter did you clean it's mating surface on the trans? When I added in a GND wire to the starter I degreased and sanded down it's mating surfaces.

If the starter GND wire you added is smoking then you need to replace it with a lower gauge wire. Going straight from the battery to the starter mounting bolt I used 2 AWG wire.

Did you mount the GND wire onto one of the starters mounting bolts because there is no actual GND terminal on the starter?

 

Did you replace the battery GND cable also?

 

You should clean your ground connections. Any wire you see being screwed to a body part of the car is a ground. A quick way to do the cleaning would be to un-screw and re-screwing in all those ground connections.

If that makes things better, you should at some point downlaod the FSM and clean all your grounds more completely with one of those metal tooth brushes.

On my car, even though it didn't really need it, I added a ground kit. The headlights got brighter and the Bose system sounded better.

DW

 

What you need to do is add a frame ground. That is the only quality ground that you need. A ground kit certainly wouldn't hurt but its work for not much benefit

 

Had the same issue added grounds didn't work it turned out to be the starter its self when cranking the.starter would pull so much current the wire would smoke extremely hot so the crank and cam sensors wouldn't see full voltage changed the starter problem solved

 

yeah it could be a faulty starter or faulty P/N switch or a faulty inhibitor relay

 

I checked the starter signal voltage and to my surprise, it is only sending around 10.5 V to the starter. The voltage to the ignition switch is a constant 12.5 V, so there is no problem with the voltage supply to the switch. I tried bypassing the inhibitor relay by running a wire directly from the starter signal wire at the ignition switch to the small black signal wire on the starter. When this wire is not connected to the starter and the key is turned, the starter signal is 12 V. In other words, the starter signal wire from the ignition switch provides the needed 12 V when not connected to the starter. However, once it is connected to the black signal wire on the starter, the voltage drops down to 10.5V. What could be causing this drain? Would a faulty starter drain the starter signal voltage?