99 Maxima. Purchased a few months ago to just get me to and from work. Knew about the missing AC compressor, and that it needed general maintenance (oil, tires, etc). I changed the oil, sparkplugs, front brakes and rotors...then about a week later the coolant started boiling over in the reservoir. I flushed the coolant (dirty!) changed the thermostat, a week later found a leak in the water outlet so I changed that out. Then I noticed a sweet smell in the exhaust. Figured it was coolant and that I now had a leaking headgasket (hopefully not a cracked head). In any case I bought one of those pour in head gasket fixes. Figured worst case it would buy me a little time. And it did help, the coolant smell went away and I was not losing as much coolant (still was losing very slight amounts). Was driving around just fine. Stopped at the bank (in for maybe 10 minutes) and came back out, went to start her up and it was barely turning over...sounded like a weak battery that didn't have enough juice to turn the starter over fast enough. Tried a few more times...and it wound down to the point where I could only here the stater click to engage. Simple fix right...battery....nope. Tried to jump start her....nothing more than the same click that engages the starter....took the battery and had it tested...nothing wrong with it. Even still had a full charge. Had her towed home...pulled the starter....tested....nothing wrong with it. According to the guy at Napa, it wouldn't be the alternator (he said if it was I would still be able to jump start her and the battery would have been dead). I checked the wires going to the starter to make sure they were all clean and tightly connected. Everything looks good. I can't figure out what is wrong with her...she won't crank at all now...just a click from the starter and that's it. Any ideas?

 

you could be hydro locked if your head gasket went bad enough to fill a cylinder with water pull all the plugs and try and turn it over

 

Are you sure you're hearing the starter try to engage? Maybe it's your ignition switch. When I've had problems with the ignition switch, I heard a click from somewhere behind the dash or under the hood, but I don't think it was the starter trying to engage.

 

For the mechanically inept, this means your cylinder is full of coolant or fuel, and the piston cannot compress a fluid.

My thought exactly, pull the park plugs and crank it over before spending any money. If it still wont crank try cranking by hand with a breaker bar on the front crankshaft bolt. If it is free then bench test the starter.

 

Pulled the plugs. On second try it turn over very fast...sounded almost like when they do the starter bench test. But then quickly wound down and would just click again after that but wouldn't spin anymore. I haven't tried spinning it manually with the crank bolt yet.

 

disn't read wall of text BUT...If you have a 99, FIRST THING to check is the SECURITY light when you're trying to start the car..is it flashing or on SOLID?

 

Cliffs, OP blew head gasket and used bars leaks. Started cranking slow and now no crank.

 

Your water pump is dead and that's why your coolant boiled over and your head gasket blew. Go grab an engine from a jy and drop it in. Saves time and money.